The beauty of Hotmail, apart from the zero subscription price (it's completely paid for by advertising), is that you can access it from any Web terminal, leaving you free of location, job, offices - even an ISP. In other words, you don't have to be a flash bastard with a laptop plugged into a mobile phone - you don't even need to own a computer. You can just sidle into the library, cybercaff, or onto somebody else's Web terminal, making it perfect for students, mobile professionals, anyone sharing an email account, cheapskates, perverts and criminals.
To get yourself as many password-protected Hotmail accounts as you like, simply go to www.hotmail.com, and click the sign-up button. You'll have to give some demographics about yourself - name, address, age, job, income, number of kids, interests, etc. - use your imagination here as you see fit. Your profile is then logged for targeted advertising, and you get an easyto-remember address (joebloggs@hotmail.com - though we've checked: joebloggs is already taken!).
There is a long list of clauses of The Hotmail Terms of Service Agreement (to which you have to meekly blunk the I ACCEPT clickbar). Should you be found to be indulging in such Hotmail crimes as spamming, chain letters, junkmail or any use of unauthorised distribution lists; transmitting any unlawful, harassing, libellous, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, obscene or otherwise objectionable material; or transmitting material that encourages conduct that could constitute a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national or international law - Hotmail will terminate your account. If you receive any such email, you're encouraged to bounce it on, with whining comments, to abuse@hotmail.com.
Hotmail is at pains to remind you that it's not an anonymous service. With each email, the registered First Name and Last Name are sent, as is the Internet Protocol address from which the login session originated. With such header information, the source of a message can be narrowed down dramatically. All logins, including IP numbers, dates and times are recorded.
However, if you keep your nose clean within broad parameters, you can happily enjoy Hotmail's many benefits. It's got all the functions you'd expect nowadays: In-box, Compose, Address Book (accessible by nickname), Folders and a variety of other options. The utterly neurotic can customise their button styles and page backgrounds - home decoration, Hotmail calls it.
Because it is a Web-based system, you can jump to links on the Web from inside an email message. You can also attach multiple Web-page and graphics files (up to a total of one megabyte) to your email. Other dopey add-ons include WebCourier, which sends "rich, graphical email messages" directly to your in-box from a number of garbagey Web-based freesheets and news services from CNet's News.com (tech news) to Microsoft's Slate (an online magazine of news, politics and culture).
Hotmail's virtually exponential growth has led to a constant elaboration of new features, some ludicrously trumpeted (their new welcome page), and which you quickly learn to ignore. Others include virus scanners, an online spellchecker, a member directory, and a free classifieds service. With over 150,000 listings - advertising jobs, computers, roommates, real estate, pets, aircraft, etc. - it also has a heavy personal section. There you can specify a predilection for, say, a short-term relationship with a tall hyperliterate black man from Alabama who smokes, drinks and likes outdoor wargames. Thanks to their "cool notify" feature, they'll send it to your Hotlist as soon as a suitable gent signs on.
While it's a robust, userfriendly service, it's also a heavily trafficked site. So to avoid infuriating delays in the simplest of operations, you should always click the "no frames" display option each time you sign on (or set it as your default). Otherwise it takes forever, leaving you doing whatever a caged ape does behind a keyboard.
Above all, for the casual user, Hotmail's advertising banners, similar to those on other Web sites, are certainly unobtrusive to its main functions. Cross my heart, I haven't clicked one yet.
Mic Moroney is at: micmoroney@hotmail.com