> Which email service is owned by Microsoft?And the answer: Hotmail. Photo credit: Roger Tooth via The Guardian[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/07/email-ray-tomlinson-history#:~:text=The%20very%20first%20version%20of,logging%20in%20from%20remote%20terminals.].In 1997, Microsoft acquired the web-based email service Hotmail for more than$400 million. At the time, email was often associated with internet serviceproviders. But web-based email services like Hotmail, Yahoo, and AOL made itpossible to login to email from any computer, not just the one at home.Although email is now embedded into the normalcy of everyday life, it was once arevelation to the way we communicate. The very first person to send an email wasRay Tomlinson in 1971 – however, the idea of using a computer to send anotherperson a message was nothing new. Instead, history remembers Ray Tomlinson as the inventor of email for theconventions that he introduced in that very first email. For example, to sendthe email at the time, you needed that person's name and the name of theircomputer. These two pieces of information were separated by the "@" symbol, aconvention which has become common practice today. Tomlinson was also working on something revolutionary at this time: Arpanet.This quickly-developing system was essentially a precursor to the Internet as weknow it today, and within its system was the first widespread introduction ofemail. The first email standard was finalized within Arpanet in 1977, includingcommon things such as the "to" and "from" fields and the ability to forwardemails to others who were not initially a recipient.The domain of email has since expanded tenfold. Learn more about the growth ofindividual email platforms over the past few decades below.