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Technology Lifestyle Windows Live Hotmail launches at last
Technology Lifestyle Windows Live Hotmail launches at last | Windows Live Hotmail launches at last |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Monday, 07 May 2007 | |
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After a beta-test period that encompassed 20 million testers, Windows Live Hotmail launches globally in 36 languages, with current customers able to “update their existing account to Windows Live Hotmail by logging into their account as normal and clicking on the green “Join Windows Live Hotmail” button. According to MSN, new customers will be able to visit http://www.hotmail.com to sign up for a new Windows Live Hotmail account. Kate Beddoe, the head of services at the Australian version of MSN, known as ‘ninemsn’ due to a partnership with Australian free-to-air television company ‘Channel Nine’ said that customers have given positive feedback of the new Windows Live Hotmail over the beta-test period. In a statement that will likely be quite similar to other MSN properties around the world, likely only different through the use of localized statistics and information, Beddoe said that: “It is an exciting time for the 5.6 million Australian Hotmail customers who will update over the coming months. Customers will have a choice between a familiar look and feel or an enhanced version which is more similar to Outlook. People will be able to access their email accounts wherever and whenever they want, via the web, on a mobile phone or with an email client”. Given that the Web 2.0 interface is now the preferred way for the web’s users to access and contribute to information online, it’s almost surprising that it has taken this long for Hotmail to finally go Web 2.0 all the way, bringing their web-mail interface much more into line with what Yahoo Mail’s new email service looks like, and much more to what people are used to with both Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook Express. As with Yahoo Mail, Windows Live Hotmail will, at least for the time being, offer users a choice of two interfaces. One will be much like the standard Hotmail interface offered for the past several years, while the second interface will much more closely resemble Outlook. A choice of color schemes will also be available. As is happening with Yahoo Mail and is available on Gmail, integration with a messaging service is now built-in as standard, although as you would expect, the messaging service in this case is Microsoft’s own Windows Live Messenger. Microsoft is offering 2Gb of storage space to Hotmail users, which officially makes Hotmail the least generous of the three main web-mail services. Naturally, it’s a far cry from the original 2mb of space offered for many years, but against Gmail’s 2.8Gb of storage space, and Yahoo Mail’s promise of ‘unlimited’ storage, 2Gb is looking ‘small’. Microsoft says that they “will continue to grow storage to meet customer needs” although this seems obvious, especially if Yahoo’s ploy of ‘unlimited’ storage contributes to Yahoo Mail’s user base, which is currently the world’s largest, eclipsing that of Gmail and Windows Live Hotmail. Microsoft also touts the Web 2.0 capabilities of Windows Live Hotmail, even if they do not specifically use the term ‘Web 2.0’ in the press release we received. They say that the advanced functionality ‘works more like Outlook’, and say that “with right-click and drag-and-drop capabilities, preview pane customization and auto-complete addressing – all designed for optimal productivity – Windows Live Hotmail looks and feels more like the Outlook software millions use at work and home everyday”. Microsoft are also touting a ‘safety bar’, with a white bar for email from someone you know, a yellow bar for unknown senders and a red bar for potentially ‘fraudulent email’. Microsoft are also touting ‘improved spam protection’, with a one click ‘mark as unsafe’ link, although recent online reports have indicated something seriously wrong with Hotmail’s junk mail protections, causing some people to be summarily blocked from sending email to Hotmail subscribers. Reports online suggest enormous difficulty in getting Microsoft to ‘fix’ the problem of legitimate emails going through, with some companies actively advising users to get a different email account, reporting no problems in sending email to Yahoo Mail or Gmail users. Whether Microsoft’s anti-spam/junk mail protections have improved in this regard is currently unknown, although given Microsoft’s late entry into the Web 2.0 world of email, Gmail’s continuing popularity and Yahoo Mail’s ‘unlimited’ mail storage, one can only hope that they will step up to the plate in ensuring that Windows Live Hotmail isn’t just a ‘great way’ for users to receive email, but is a reliable platform that users can use to receive email from legitimate senders. {moscomment}
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