Report: Microsoft to Launch Faster Hotmail Monday
Hotmail is said to be getting a makeover this coming Monday to help the once crazy-popular email service to help Microsoft compete with Google's Gmail.
Microsoft might have taken on Google Docs yesterday but Redmond isn't going to stop there. VentureBeat reports that next week, Microsoft will launch a new version of Hotmail in an effort to better compete with Gmail.
Though Hotmail is still very much alive and kicking, it seems as though the email service has been put on the back burner by Microsoft. Next week, the company is turning up the heat with a refresh it hopes will jumpstart the service. Among the changes we can expect to see is a faster, more minimalist design, which these days is a no-brainer when it comes to revamps. However, VentureBeat goes on to say Microsoft is really 'swinging the bat straight at Gmail's forehead,' and will be adding threading and tagging.
More tentatively, VB predicts Microsoft will go hell for leather on the mobile side of things, highlighting the possibility for a mobile application that blows Gmail Mobile out of the water. Lastly, there's the inevitable and irritating social network integration. Microsoft is already doing this with Windows Live so if you're still using a Hotmail address for junk mail (guilty as charged), then you'll know what I'm talking about. If you're completely free of Hotmail, Windows Live links your social networks together so that when you sign in, you see all of your contacts updates right inside Hotmail.
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Ugh. Let's hope like hell they don't force threading without an option to disable it like Gmail. That's the one thing that I just can't get over about Google's UI.
I hope they don't screw it up. I wasn't overly happy with the last changes, but hell, it's free, so I can't complain. I have noticed that it's been a tad slow, but again, for how much I pay for it, not overly worried.
That made me laugh because my hotmail account is really my junk box. It was my first mail account 15 years ago and never could block spam, so I gave up and use it for registrations and for people sending forwarded messages.
Don't Screw up Microsoft, I'm used to the interface, I just want speed and the ability to shut off social networking stuff.
Maybe my online habits and lack of mass registrations to many different sites, but I have had my hotmail account since 2000 and when I checked my email this morning I had 4 new emails. Three from family and one from (weekly ads)Dominos because I'm a college student and the guys at dominos probably know me as well as my friends do.
Ever time I've been spammed by two or three new spam sources, I click the 'mark as spam' or 'mark as phishing'- and I'll have to mark these spam emails constantly for about 4-7 days, then they will never show up again. Granted I still use my old yahoo account for questionable website registrations...Guess I'm just one of the lucky ones, then.
I wonder where Yahoo is going to stand. With Google's Gmail rolling out a great email service plus Docs and Apps and merging everything together, and now Microsoft pushing Hotmail into the same platform with Office 2010 Web Apps. Yahoo seems to be going the way of AOL and its a damn shame.
Maybe my online habits and lack of mass registrations to many different sites, but I have had my hotmail account since 2000 and when I checked my email this morning I had 4 new emails. Three from family and one from (weekly ads)Dominos because I'm a college student and the guys at dominos probably know me as well as my friends do.Ever time I've been spammed by two or three new spam sources, I click the 'mark as spam' or 'mark as phishing'- and I'll have to mark these spam emails constantly for about 4-7 days, then they will never show up again. Granted I still use my old yahoo account for questionable website registrations...Guess I'm just one of the lucky ones, then.
Got another lucky one here. I got spam maybe for 2 months after getting my hotmail ages and ages ago, have maybe had 5 at most since then, always hit junk and now mark as phishing.
Also, this is sort of interesting to me, because as much as people say Gmail is quick and whatnot, on my computers it doesn't load or send nearly as fast as hotmail. Can they really make it quicker? I'll be impressed.
I've got Yahoo! for personal, Hotmail for work, GMail for junk, and a University account for school. The only one that gets any spam is GMail, and it gets a ton of it (then again, I did purposefully make it my junk account).
Then I have the Windows Live Mail desktop client (2008 version as it is more colorful and actually has icons) to tie the work and school accounts together. The only one I manually check is the Yahoo! account.
I've used hotmail as my base forever,
My gmail is a backup, and youtube account
My yahoo is a flickr place
And i like to tie my accounts together in hotmail.
Please dump the excessive use of Javascript! I want to open multiple emails in separate tabs, and since the last major overhaul this has been impossible. As for minimalism, isn't the plain white look already pretty minimalist?
When u couldn't even make hotmail run properly in IE no matter what crap u update it will attract no one.
My mum uses hotmail and using IE she will have 90% chance of unable to access her mail properly and have to resort to use chrome to access hotmail.
What n irony it is.
" Among the changes we can expect to see is a faster, more minimalist design, which these days is a no-brainer when it comes to revamps. "
Too little too late - I'm all gmail now! I use my hotmail account to register on sites and to receive spam only.
Gmail was great, but the interface is sooooo slow these days! Not to mention the revelation that all our emails are being stored even after deleting them.
Always had a Hotmail account and seem to be using it more and more these days, every time I read more about what Google is doing with my information.
I think Microsoft should come out with Bing Mail. Something like BingMail.com would be a good choice and move Hotmail to that platform slowly. I think they need rebranding of their hotmail or Live servics. I love Microsoft. Just today i realized how much I hate the Gmail inteface. I am preety sure the city of LA, who moved to Gmail must have very low productivity rates ever since they moved. And if I wre you I would not put my money on Genentech who moved to gmail, it is so unproductive. Outlook(or any other desktop client) is so much better for business....i wonder how anyonce can live w/o it.
What? I've been using the same hotmail account for over a decade and have never had a problem with spam. The only mass emails i get are newsletters that i subscribed to. Also, I retrieve mail from my hotmail, gmail, and my work email domain acct in thunderbird, so it's all the same to me, really dont care what overhauls they come up with, as long as POP and IMAP is still an option. The only time i ever see the webmail pages is on the rare occasions when i access my email from another persons pc.