Microsoft Launches Hide & Seek Game for Hotmail Users

Microsoft has launched a unique name game for Hotmail account holders. The news declared on 3/2/2011 states that Hotmail users can make alias email addresses to protect their main email account from notorious commercial websites.

It can be explained very simply. Take for example you create an alias email address named jackthesinger@hotmail.com, in order to protect your main email address johntanner@hotmail.com.

Then you visit a shopping site to take a virtual tour. And for that, you are asked to sign up for free. You might be in two-minds to share your main email account. It is because signing up with them means regular emails from them, saturating your inbox.

This is where your alias email account comes into play. You can sign up with your alias email address, jackthesinger@hotmail.com, in the website. You will retain all the emails that are sent to your alias account. They will be stored in a private folder in your main account, johntanner@hotmail.com. That is if you wish to retain.

Dharmesh Mehta, Director, Windows and Windows Live Division Microsoft Redmond, comments in a blog, "There are a bunch of websites that will email you price quotes, sales alerts, etc. During your car search, these messages are helpful, but once you're done, they become clutter that can be difficult to stop. By using an alias on these websites instead of your main email address, you can avoid this. And when you're done, just turn the alias off, ensuring future unwanted messages that are sent to that alias don't land in your inbox."

In Google mail, users are given the facility to add a plus sign to their account. For example, if your original email id is kurtlawson@gmail.com, you can fake it as kurtlawson+admin@gmail.com, and receive all emails sent to the alias in the original. Those mails will be either star marked or stored in the trash folder. But Mehta has discarded the concept as backdated and easily detectable.

With implementing novel concepts like POP, ‘sandboxing’, ‘active views’, Microsoft has indeed come of age; and, is looking good for many years.