Hotmail Blocks Gmail Emails (and Invites)
Found on Slashdot on Sunday, 20 June 2004
Emails and invitations sent to Hotmail from Gmail accounts do not bounce, but nor do they arrive in the recipient's Inbox - they vanish mysteriously into the aether. Joel Johnson writes in his Gizmodo weblog that invitations he sent to a Hotmail address bounced (this even received coverage from ZDNet). Search Engine Roundtable writes that several ISPs are blocking Gmail. It's already well-documented that Yahoo moves Gmail invites into the Bulk Mail folder. I've personally confirmed the Hotmail and Yahoo blocking.
Great... are we reaching a point now where email providers try to fight against competitors by blocking them? Email is supposed to be delivered to every account; the last thing I want to see is that Yahoo can only send to Yahoo, and Hotmail only to Hotmail. This will end up with non-compatible systems like in the IM sector.