Microsoft said today that its free email service Hotmail has more than 30 million active accounts, a number that puts it well ahead of its competition.

A user signed up as admin@hotmail.com and caused chaos.

Hotmail has held discussions with Microsoft about using its free email technology on the giant's Web sites, sources familiar with the talks confirmed today.

Microsoft has imposed a limit of 100 e-mails per day for all Hotmail accounts.

MSN Hotmail, the popular Web-based e-mail service run by Microsoft, says it has fixed a glitch that was sending out floods of e-mail messages from Hotmail users' accounts Thursday.