I have a Hotmail account which I use almost entirely for signing up for random crap online: message boards, giveaways, shady services….it is my spam repository for the most part. I don’t check it as regulary as I do my GMail account because usually, I am just mass deleting spam. I also use Firefox (2.0.0.4 at the moment). Recent reports say Firefox has a 25% market share which is pretty significant…I have been very frustrated lately just to open and read emails in Hotmail because everything has been painfully slow. It doesn’t matter what my connection speed is when I check it, the interface is always painfully slow to respond to the simplest requests.

I decided to test Hotmail in IE7 … works like a charm. WTF? Is this a Firefox issue or a hotmail issue. Given the fact that many other sites with similar AJAX-like functionality work great in Firefox, I’m going to guess it is a Hotmail issue. I have a couple options (unless someone has a tip on how to speed up Hotmail in Firefox):

• Stop using hotmail (I have too many accounts tied to this address to give it up and am too paranoid that someone from my past won’t have my new email)
• Use Hotmail in IE (never!)
• Revert to “Classic” Hotmail (very tempting and may happen…but why must I revert to an old version simply because Microsoft doesn’t optimize their software for multiple browsers?)
• Deal with and hope they fix the issue (not holding my breath)

This got me thinking, how long have I had my hotmail email address (which was also the first email address I ever had). http://account.live.com tells me I signed up October 14, 1996 (apparently Hotmail went live July 4, 1996). Anyone else remember when Microsoft didn’t own “HoTMaiL”?