By Susan B. Shor TechNewsWorld Part of the ECT News Network
11/19/04 10:55 AM PT
To kick off the availability of the new domain names, Microsoft will conduct a charity auction of what it believes will be the most sought after UK addresses. They include JamesBond@hotmail.co.uk, BridgetJones@hotmail.co.uk, and many based on "Star Wars" characters such as Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.
Increase Customer Sales with VerticalResponse Email Marketing! Quickly and easily send email newsletters, coupons & sales announcements to your customers – no technical expertise needed. Sign up for your Free Trial today and send 100 emails on us!
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), which has been rolling out expanded storage for its Hotmail customers, announced today that it would also add European and Japanese domain names.
The move has two purposes, Peter Christy, co-founder and principal analyst of NetsEdge in Los Altos, Calif., told TechNewsWorld.
"E-mail is the killer app. It always has been and always will be," Christy said. "They're all trying to be the touch point."
In order to compete with Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) Gmail, which launched in beta in April and provides 1 GB of storage, Microsoft had to upgrade. Adding European and Japanese domain names creates a new demand and a broad new range of potential e-mail addresses. This drives views to the site, which in turn puts ads in front of the e-mail users.
Storage Wars
Microsoft has already begun increasing free storage for existing email accounts to 250 MB. Now, new customers in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Britain will receive that level of storage 30 days after opening their accounts.
"We created a storage waiting period to ensure that new accounts are used by qualified customers and are not being generated by spammers or malicious users," Microsoft vice-president Brian Arbogast said in a statement on Microsoft's Web site.
Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) announced Monday that it, too, would increase free storage for its email customers, from 100 MB to 250 MB.
Fraud Control
In addition, by controlling any domain name associated with Hotmail, Microsoft cuts down on the potential for fraud.
"Microsoft has realized that you need to be aggressive about defensively acquiring domain names," Christy said. "What a fraudster will do is buy hotmail.co.uk, and use it to commit fraud. But they can't if Microsoft owns it. Microsoft wants anyone making a reasonable mistake [in typing a domain name] to end up getting to a Microsoft product."
To kick off the availability of the new names, Microsoft will conduct a charity auction of what it believes will be the most sought after UK addresses. They include JamesBond@hotmail.co.uk, BridgetJones@hotmail.co.uk, and many based on "Star Wars" characters such as Jedi, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.
The auction, with partner eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY), will benefit the UK National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).
Wireless Carriers Ink International Roaming Deal November 11, 2004
There is some concern that roaming fees, which are being waived
until the end of the year, will later be reimposed. Ken Dulaney of Gartner does not think this is likely, however, because the agreement resulted in part from user unrest over roaming fees.
Offshore Labor Markets Impact IT Outsourcing September 28, 2004
To cope with rising demand for IT workers, India has promised to spend US$1 billion to triple the number of computer science graduates from Indian institutions from 100,000 per year now to 300,000 per year by 2005. In other words, after 2005, India will produce almost as many IT professionals each year as are employed nationwide there now.
Laws, Bounties, International Cooperation Fighting Spam September 23, 2004
Under the new law, either the state attorney general, an e-mail service provider or the recipient of spam may bring an action for damages of US$1,000 per e-mail, up to $1 million per incident -- although that can be reduced by the courts. The law also prohibits bringing multiple actions through use of other e-mail-advertisement-damages provisions for the same violation.
Cendant To Acquire Ramada International September 15, 2004
Steven A. Rudnitsky, Cendant Hotel Group chairman and chief executive officer, said the transaction would "unite the Ramada brand as a worldwide entity under a single company and further demonstrate Cendant Hotel Group's commitment to the brand," which he said is about to undergo a major upgrading and repositioning throughout the United States and Canada.
Salesnet President Jonathan Tang Ready to Take On Salesforce.com February 07, 2006
"We think it's Salesnet's time now. We've been around since the beginning, we've been lying low, but you're going to start to see more of us. We've done it through organic growth and happy customers. We continue to focus on customers."
Comcast Follows Time Warner in Offering 'Family' Programming Tier December 23, 2005
"The demand for this type of tier is coming from the FCC and Christian conservatives. It has nothing to do with legitimate consumer demand," Todd Chanko, senior analyst at Jupiter Media, told the E-Commerce Times.
High-Risk Flaw Found in Symantec's Software December 22, 2005
"Part of the significance of this vulnerability announcement is that your machine can be exploited without you needing to do anything at all. You don't even have to open an e-mail or attachment, and this happens with the default configuration of the product," said Forrester Research senior analyst Michael Gavin.
Headline Feeds
users.
Talkback: 
