Greetings. I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to you because I request to be included in the chat. Many came after me, but only a few before. We could say that I had the first free service from 1996 onwards. Most of the others finished long before I did.

I heard that beginning with a mutual interest is a good way to engage someone, but I do not want to start writing about my competitors straight away. Let's just say that a mutual contact gave me your details.

I would ask to be introduced by Jack and his former colleague at Apple, Sabeer. Jack imagined me as an anonymous service in 1995. Sabeer was always so confident in my (economic) capabilities. Both their backgrounds were in hardware engineering. All they had was an idea, the idea of me.

They liked my independence from ISPs like America Online (AOL). It might not say much now, but back in the day, I was simply unique.

Sabeer and Jack are very smart, just like Bill. But not superhumanly so. They are ordinary guys. They are! They are human. They asked for the message, and I just delivered it. Not very atypical, just a standard transmission. I am! I am their dispatcher.

For a brief time, RocketMail was my biggest competitor. I am not going to talk about them. That is what we call "unprofessional".

Nina thought I was hot. Or at least whatever a young teenage girl's definition of "hot" is. Her ID was MISS_nina_STAR. A star is a big ball of gas. Not all stars are hot. The bluish stars are the hottest ones. Integration with Microsoft's instant messaging and social networking programs came to be, and if that does not sound alluring I don’t know what will. Stars do not get hot because of nuclear fusion.

I was news, a runner, a carrier, a courier. The postman if you'd like for 5 weekends this month. This only happens every 404 years. Forward this to 15 friends for good luck. It is best not to stop the chain. Onwards with the mail.

Did you read this spooky story? It is about a ghost with blood, bloody mary, and no eyes but it stares. It carries ninja throwing stars (or something similar). I ran a message to many people. If you send it to at least 25 others in your address book it won't come to visit you. Nina got this. She didn’t believe in chain letters. Well, foolish Nina. Now she’s not with us anymore. OK, that's not true. Her inbox is just full. But it is better not to stop the chain. 0 people –they will pass tonight! 1-15 people –might be acceptable 15-25 – we are secure 25 and over -we will have good fortune!

|^^^^^^^^^^^^^| "
| SEXY TRUCK | '|""""";.||.___.
|_...__..._________===__|___|...,] |
"(@ )'(@ )""""""*/(@ )(@ )*****(@ )
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ONCE YOU'VE BEEN HIT, YOU HAVE TO HIT 8 OTHER PEOPLE! IF YOU GET HIT AGAIN YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE REALLY SEXY! IF YOU BREAK THE CHAIN, YOU'LL BE CURSED WITH UN*SEXYNESS FOR 10 YEARS SO PASS IT! HIT WHOEVER YOU THINK IS SEXY!

My use value was not only professional. Although I do I wonder why we did not sign up with something more professional. MISS_nina_STAR only received spam towards the end. So many users deleted their initial IDs. It is not like they stopped using my service, but their handles did not age well. I have no clue why they switched it to their "real" name. Where is the anonymity in that? Why would you be known like that?

Microsoft relaunched me under their name. I joined the MSN (Microsoft Service Network) group of services. I was Hot, and then I was Live. That is until they phased out on me in October 2011 while I seeped into Outlook. But please, do not confuse my name in its burning seductiveness. Instead, Its origin lies in the combination of The HyperText Markup Language and the suffix -mail. Please do not let me know if you want to know more.

In 1999, hackers revealed a security flaw in Hotmail that permitted anybody to log in to any Hotmail account using the password 'eh'. Eh. *shrugs* Eh? Meh. Excuse me? They showed the world how bad the security of Microsoft really was. And I was part of this company that nearly has a monopoly on [all] the computer software! That is bad, don’t you think? Eh?

I (claim to be) am better than Google at privacy. My biggest competitors nowadays...... As a free personal service from Microsoft, I promise not to scan your email for the purpose of serving you ads.

I hope you will consider me for this role. Thank you for your consideration and time. I hope to hear from you soon. I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Kind regards. All the best. Hugs and Kisses. I once was the world's most recognizable email service, but the reality is that I’m dead. I’m discontinued. I actually no longer exist. I’m simply on the Outlook.