Can the New Hotmail Take Over Gmail?

Hotmail defined the web mail paradigm when it came out and indeed my very first email account was with hotmail.

But, Google took over this space with unmatched features, storage space and just the ease of using email for power users as well as regular users.

Now, Hotmail is taking another shot at regaining it’s dominant position with a slew of features. Let’s take a quick look at what’s new

• Microsoft SmartScreen – anti-spam technology
• Individual preference auto-learning
• False –positive reduction
• Junk mail descriptors
• Spammer infrastructure detection
• Time traveling filters
• Hotmail highlights
• One-click filters
• Quick views
• Inbox search auto-complete
• Conversation view
• Sweep – tool to get rid of junk mail
• Instant messages and text messages in Inbox
• Upto 10GB of photos per message
• Active Views
• Single contact list
• Exchange ActiveSync
• Rich mobile browse: mail, contacts and calendar
• Mobile calendar
• Easier to view, share and edit Office Docs in the cloyud
• SkyDrive integration
• Full session SSL
• Trusted senders

Go here for full details on these features.

Looking at all these new features and looking back, I am wondering why was anyone using Hotmail still without any of these features that were already available in Gmail!

Anyways, if you have a hotmail account, it definitely is a time to revisit Hotmail and take a look around.

As for the question, can the new Hotmail take on Gmail? You be the judge.