Many Internet services displays advertisement on their websites and use it as the main revenue generating source. The revenue that is generated is then used to cover the hosting costs, pay authors and engineers, and maybe even the site operator. Many sites would not simply be there without advertisement, or at least not in the form they are currently.
Microsoft, just like Google and other Internet companies, displays advertisement on several of its properties. When it comes to the email services Hotmail and Outlook, advertisement is displayed to free users of the service. Microsoft, unlike Google, does not scan emails to better target ads on its sites, but advertisement is still displayed nevertheless.
If you do not like that at all and prefer a cleaner interface without ads on Hotmail or Outlook.com, then you can subscribe to an ad-free Outlook and Hotmail for $19.99 a year.
What you get for that?
- No graphical ads in Outlook or Hotmail
- No account exipration
The term graphical ad is confusing, as it may mean that textual ads can still be displayed on both sites. It is not really clear if that is just a bad choice of words but I'd assume that Microsoft would not charge its users $19.99 for an ad-free environment when it turns out that the environment is not ad-free after all.
Outlook or Hotmail accounts expire after 270 days of inactivity. A subscription prevents this from happening so that accounts will never expire as long as the subscription is active.
The main question is this: would you pay $19.99 for an ad-free experience on Outlook or Hotmail? Or on other sites and services like Gmail? Or are ads something that you do not mind, considering that you get the service for free as a consequence? Or do you use other means to get rid of advertisement, ad blockers for instance? (via Caschy)
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I use Gmail since the beginning. Never been distracted with the ads as they are text only. If it was not text-only, like in Hotmail you are really distracted.
But maybe when Google offered this, I could think about it. But need a credit card which I don't. (not that common in The Netherlands as it is in America etc).
I don't see any advertisements as I use ad-block.
I use AdBlock Plus for Firefox to block ads on various sites, including Outlook.com. I dislike ads and never click on them so I don't want them to clutter my browser window, but I would never pay to get this kind of service when I have a free alternative.
$19.99 per year ahahaahahahah
really ridiculous
i access one of my Hotmail accounts with windows 8's mail app and so far have not got any ads.
There are some other benefits to paying the $19.99 per year. 10 gb of email storage as opposed to 5 gb for the free service, you can send up to 20 mb email attachments. It's worth it to me.
Interesting, do you have a page where all benefits are listed?
I dont think that most of people are even getting emails over 5mb in attachment; for ~90% of users premium version is completely useless. Ads? Theres adblock + filters sets.
Yeah... I'm from the old days of hotmail with 200MB storage, and I never came near that either. Heck, I think when I first had hotmail before Microsoft bought it, I had 20MB storage, and that was fine then. I don't even need 1GB storage.
But if I could pay for for seven years ad free right now, I probably would... if I could guarantee that they wouldn't change my email anymore.
@Alan:
True, but are also default in Gmail, and space is still growing, currently 10.1GB. 25 MB even.
I don't mind seeing ads if they are small text ads. Once any of them get bigger than than that they get blocked. As far as paying a yearly fee. Not for me. I know this is basically paying $20 a year for ad removal, and even if you get more storage. It just sound bad/cheap. Now if they say $20 for more storage, and a bonus is no ads, then that sounds better. Still won't do it.
In Chrome, I see this on the right side of my outlook.com email page - "Content is not available. Please check back later." I use adblock, BTW. The msg does not appear when I'm using Firefox.
Aside from using an ad-blocker, I also access both Gmail and Hotmail through an email client via POP3. I still prefer to download and archive my messages locally.
Just install Ad Block Plus addon, you won't see any ads.
I'd rather put up with the ads than have to pay for the site
No *graphical* ads. You'll still get spammed half to death by Microsoft's business customers who bought your address, though.
Just looked at 1&1 Web Hosting prices and you could get your own personal domain name/mail box for less.
£2.99 - UK Domain name per year
£8.28 - Mail Account per year
£11.27 - Total ($17.24)
I use this only for Windows 8 and as a junk email. Gmail is my main email and I love it. I will NOT go with anyone else because their services are laid our very nicely and organized. MS releases a new e-mail system and does nothing with their calendar. So no, I will not switch. Sorry MS.
Ad-blockers are my choice. Almost any ads are way too intrusive for me.
My Hotmail (ahem) account is pristine. I use Adblock and I have my filters set to "Exclusive". Nothing shows up in my inbox unless I want it to. I have never run into any limitations with the free account, so I see no benefit to upgrading.
FWIW, Yahoo offers a similar deal. I have a few friends that pay for the premium version of Yahoo. They like it.
The MS plan to increase income drove me & others to FireFox. A simple addon not only removes the ads, it shifts the columns over to use the space efficiently.