It was the late 90s, social media platforms like Facebook didn't yet exist, texting was in its infancy, email was very popular, instant messaging was up for...

The bottom of the article links to the history (individual features) of other IM programs from that era as well like ICQ and Yahoo Messenger.

  • parpol@programming.devEnglish
    1·
    5 days ago

    Yeah, but those Hotmail accounts were lightweight and simple. They weren’t connected to a Microsoft metaverse of spyware like they are now. I had 3 of these Hotmail accounts but at some point I got locked out of all of them for not providing Microsoft with my phone number. That’s how I personally stopped using MSN.