While using Hotmail earlier this morning I was wondering what Hotmail would have become had Sabeer Bhatia not sold the company to Microsoft. For example, would Hotmail have offered some of the features that Google and Yahoo Mail now vaunt many years earlier?
Either way, from the success of Hotmail to the failure of Arzoo, Sabeer is trying to return to the technology arena with a new product called InstaColl – an application that offers INSTAnt COLLaboration. I’m yet to try the product and being a user of both Webex and Groove1, I am not sure how Sabeer will be able to differentiate the product and yet still be able to market and attract clients. For now however, the product is available for free and perhaps this incentive will be the jump start InstaColl needs to enter the marketplace.
1Groove was recently acquired by Microsoft and the founder, Ray Ozzie, is now a Chief Technical Officer with Microsoft.