Indian Hotmail users invited to express themselves

Microsoft unveiled over 250 custom domain names on Thursday that will allow Indian users of Windows Live Hotmail to choose personalized e-mail addresses that reflect the name of their favorite town in India, their favorite sport, movie and sports celebrities, and even their personality.

Users can go to www.coolhotmail.com, choose from the custom domains listed, and sign up for the new e-mail address through Windows Live. A user can, for example, have an e-mail address such as mahesh@coolaquarius.in or mahesh@chennairocks.in or mahesh@leavemealone.in. The e-mail address is also a Windows Live ID, which can also be used to access instant messaging and other services on the MSN and Windows Live network, Microsoft said.

The service has been launched first in India, with plans to introduce it in other markets as well, according to Samir Saraiya, product head for Windows Live Services at Microsoft India.

India was an obvious market to test the service, because it is adding 1 million new Internet users each month, and many of these would like to have e-mail addresses, Saraiya said.

The service is targeted mainly at youth, particularly those out of school and college who are trying to get their first e-mail address, Saraiya added.

Users will be able to create multiple e-mail addresses for different purposes, and then link them together so that all messages come into one mailbox. When they reply to a message in the inbox they can choose which e-mail address they would like to use, Saraiya said.

Microsoft has been testing out this concept for some time in India. In May it announced a custom domain for e-mail addresses, Lokhandwalarocks.com, named after Lokhandwala Complex, an upmarket locality in Mumbai. “We got a large number of registrations on that site,” Saraiya said.

The company plans to add more domains, perhaps based on suggestions from users of the www.coolhotmail.com site. “For us it is a form of customer research,” Saraiya said.