This Week's Computing Question. Anyone Willing To Help?

[William33 110]

Ok. I have been using free Hotmail since 1999. Up until recently, it has served me well.

Not sure when this happened, but in the last few weeks, hotmail now has ad banners on my outgoing messages. #######?

I know others started it, but why did Hotmail decide to chase more money? Don't they have enough already?

More importantly, is there a fix for that? Are there security concerns to this advertisement?

Thanks for any advice offered.

[Dan J 277]

As far as I know, hotmail and the MSN unit its part of has been loosing money since it started. But its kept alive by Microsoft since they cant afford not to.

Ad banners have been dying, at least in browsers, its so easy to get software to block them. There are no security concerns with the advertisement in the email, but they will probably anonymously track views of the message. Which is more of a privacy concern, but they probably already know who you send messages to. I doubt they will reveal just how much they do track.

My suggestion would be to switch to something else like gmail. But it may not be easy to do especially if you have had and use the address for a while.

[William33 110]

As far as I know, hotmail and the MSN unit its part of has been loosing money since it started. But its kept alive by Microsoft since they cant afford not to.

Ad banners have been dying, at least in browsers, its so easy to get software to block them. There are no security concerns with the advertisement in the email, but they will probably anonymously track views of the message. Which is more of a privacy concern, but they probably already know who you send messages to. I doubt they will reveal just how much they do track.

My suggestion would be to switch to something else like gmail. But it may not be easy to do especially if you have had and use the address for a while.

Good points that are appreciated. I am not really concerned about the tracking piece so much, more about the actual ad banner (at the bottom) of my outgoing e-mail, that did not appear before. Any way to get rid of that?

[Robor007 0]

You could try Yahoo mail. I've had an account for years and it's been very reliable. The free accounts attach a message at the bottom with a link for their services but no banners. The paid accounts (very cheap) don't have this link/message and Yahoo does a very good job of spam filtering. You can also setup 50 custom filters to route mail based on certain criteria. Their new 'Outlook-like' interface is pretty slick as well. The paid account also gets POP mail access included. I believe GMail still has free POP access as well if you'd like to check that out.

[William33 110]

Is there any way to deflect the banner ad, at the bottom of my Hotmail e-mail?

I can post the "google" answer that suggests a positive solution.

However, I would prefer the "tried and true" method though. Anyone?

[Dan J 277]

Well you cant prevent hotmail from adding the banners, as they go through thier servers and can manipulate it any way they want. Assuming they abide to thier own ToS.

On the other end though, Most clients will not by default download images. Though they may however, if your on the recipient's safelist/whitelist.