Funky E-mail Addresses are Finally Available

I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time – precisely probably around a year or so.  But then again, haven’t we all?  You might’ve seen people using this hardly found e-mail address, but you have never found out how to sign up for an account!  What the heck is Live.com, you are wondering.  And why can’t you get an e-mail address there, whereas other people can?

Correction – now you can.  Simply visit http://get.live.com, and sign up for a hotmail account.  You will be able to select @live.com from the dropdown menu if it’s available in your region – and if not?  Tough luck.  For all you Canadian readers out there, you will be getting an @live.ca e-mail address, which I appreciate as I find unique.

But why do people already have an @live.com e-mail address?  I, being one of them, got mine from a Javascript “workaround” (for a lack of better term, and “hack” is such an ugly word) that was available for a few days till Microsoft closed it up.  Thank Goodness that Microsoft was kind enough to let all of us “workarounders” keep our @live.com e-mails around though, much respect in that sense.

As for the actual e-mail service – does it offer anything different from GMail?  Well, basically, it’s Windows Live Hotmail, which is a lot flashier but also a lot slower than GMail (speaking from firsthand experience).  So unless you want to reserve an @live.com or @live.ca e-mail address, I don’t see much of a rush so far.  GMail’s just pushed the envelope too much.

Final verdict?  Get it – there’s no harm reserving your name.  Who knows – perhaps in the future, Windows Live Hotmail might surpass GMail in user satisfaction and speed!  And besides, @live.com is just such a cool ending.