When Google first fired up its Gmail web based e-mail service, offering a whopping 2GB of storage per mailbox, I pretty much jumped ship and abandoned Hotmail, which had become almost useless with its meager storage and proliferation of junk mail.  Hotmail eventually caught up – my Windows Live Hotmail account now provides 2GB, and it appears that the junk mail filter has been drastically improved – and soon, it’s going to surpass Google’s free offering, which is currently around 2.8GB.  

Microsoft is upping the Hotmail limit to 5GB, and along with that, it’s going to get some performance improvements, along with a new streamlined phishing report function.  As well, you’ll be able to save some time when you log in:  instead of having to go through the intro page with news headlines and other content, you’ll get the option of going directly to your inbox.  

Hotmail is still far behind Yahoo and AOL with their unlimited free storage, but these changes should be good news for users who don’t need massive amounts of space.  

Read more at The Globe And Mail.