Microsoft Launches New Hotmail
Starting Monday, Microsoft will roll out its new Windows Live Hotmail interface to all Hotmail users. (Read the news story here.) Available worldwide in 36 different languages, the new Hotmail offers a much better desktop-app-like feel. Also, Microsoft will soon follow with nice-sounding extras such as an 'Outlook Connector' capable of synchronizing the new Hotmail with Outlook.
Redmond has taken their time finishing this new version. I wrote about their initial efforts back in 2005 when the new webmail design was code-named Kahuna (and I wasn't too impressed), and the company has been beta-testing ever since. This final release is much more feature-rich, and while it could be better, it's a major step up from the old version.
(Click for a full-size image)
When you switch to the new version by clicking on what Microsoft says will be a green 'Join Windows Live Hotmail' button, you'll be prompted to choose whether you want the new message preview pane on the bottom or right side of the browser window, or whether to not show it at all. Click another button and you'll have the new interface. It's quick and painless.
You can quickly change your layout choice later, or switch back to a 'classic' view that closely resembles the old Hotmail. So feel free to experiment.
The new interface also works with Firefox, though there are some major limitations that I'll mention.
One obvious move towards a more desktop-like feel is a scroll-bar in the message list that allows for scrolling back through older messages without having to do a page refresh. You can also use more old-style arrows to go back and forth through your messages.
If you use IE, you can resize the areas used for the folder list, message list and preview pane. If you use Firefox, though, you're stuck with a squished message list that doesn't display enough information.
When you open a new folder or compose a new message, the display changes just as quickly as it would for a desktop program. But the new folder view or e-mail composition will take over the display, so you can't compose an e-mail and check other messages at the same time, or cut-and-paste from other messages.
To move messages between folders, you can smoothly drag-and-drop them, or use a pull-down menu. There's also a new right-click menu (pictured below), but that menu notably lacks any option to assign a follow-up flag to an e-mail.
To search messages, you can use a well-placed search box up top, but it's only able to search among senders. You can use a drop-down above the message list (titled Sort by Date) to search for subjects as well as senders, but you can't yet search within the message body. The same drop-down box allows for sorting the message list by subject, sender and size as well as date.
These functional improvements are nice, but Microsoft added two nifty extras. The first adds a control bar to messages with sound file attachments that can play the file directly within Hotmail. I experimented with an .mp3 file and it worked flawlessly.
The second extra provides an explorer-like interface for selecting photos to attach to e-mails you send. With it, you can rename or even make minor edits to a photo before attaching it.
Both extras only work in IE, unfortunately. The Firefox interface also lacks the spell-checker you get when you compose e-mails in IE.
While you're enjoying the new Hotmail, keep an eye out for two goodies Microsoft is promising to deliver in a few weeks. The first, dubbed 'Outlook Connector,' will synchronize contacts and e-mails between the new Hotmail and Outlook.
The second is a "free consumer e-mail client that will be the successor to Outlook Express and Windows Mail on Windows Vista," according to Microsoft's press release. We'll take a look at both when they come out and fill you in on the sordid details.
Personally, I like Hotmail's new look, but I still like Yahoo's better. The difference is nowhere near as great as it was when Yahoo long ago launched its slick new interface, though. And I have to give Microsoft some credit for declaring a new Webmail release to be final and ready to launch, even as the beta tags on Yahoo Mail and Gmail are starting to seem permanent.
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I don't know where to start. I'm no great fan of MS, but ...
hotmail is positively clean compared to the ad cluttered interface of Yahoo mail, which is crowded, blinking and busy. Hotmail has calendar access right where you'd want it. Hotmail has themes which you can change on the fly for another look. Hotmail looks polished and quite legible, compared to Yahoo's overly pinched font handling. Try it, you'll see what I'm talking about. The photo aspect is light years above Yahoo's handling of pics.
Nothing that you have here described or shown would move a Gmail user to convert to the new version of Hotmail. I find it odd that you have chosen to restrict the web-based email clients to which you compare Hotmail to a single one - Yahoo. Why ?...
Henri
Well, let's start with things like "preview." Kind of nice. Plus the ability to create folders. I know, tags. Tags are supposed to be "better." Nice try. It's far more intutiive to drag items into project folders plus you can set up rules to really work for you. How hard is it? Harder than adding a smiley, easier than doing any "real work."
Oh yeah. I used gmail. I was one of the early invited users. Whoopee. I'd use yahoo, outlook, outlook express and hotmail over gmail.
I like the looks of the new Hotmail, but I hate not being able to cut and paste. I use that function a lot. I also don't see how I can send messages in plain text. I need that function too.
So, after 15 years as a Hotmail customer, I'm going to switch to Yahoo.
ymemaster
It's a nice new interface however having some extras not available for Firefox is really annoying and alot of people won't be happy about that also not being able to cut and paste is extremely annoying