With Microsoft aggressively opening their new Live email accounts to colleges, the war is on. It was only several months ago that google announced that they were opening Gmail to colleges. The service they both offer is both slightly different but the interesting part id the push to get market share.
Giving email accounts to college students is a good way to get them to keep it forever. Google didn’t seem like they were actively going after colleges to join their program but Microsoft announced their service with 72 colleges read to join.
While this seems like a good thing it also seems rather redundant. Most colleges offer an email address even if it is only for the 4 years you attend the college. High Schools on the other hand do not offer email as a rule and could benefit from services Microsoft and Google could offer. Being able to create school mailing lists and perhaps even class groups would be invaluable.