Microsoft Takes Cues from Gmail with New Hotmail
So the rumors were true.
Microsoft this week showed off a little preview of the new version of Hotmail. Following in Google's footsteps, Microsoft is adding threading, an embedded instant messenger as well as a cleaner interface.
While the new Hotmail seems to be heavily influenced by its biggest competitor, not all the features are copy-cat improvements swiped from Gmail. GigaOm reports that new features include the ability to add videos from Hulu, Justin.tv and YouTube, and a new Bing sidebar that allows you to add maps, pictures and information like movie times to an email. You can pull up all emails from one person just by clicking on their name and there's a handy-dandy 'sweep' tool that allows you to delete all messages from one sender and block all future messages. The revised Hotmail will also provide a better experience when accessed from mobile platforms as well as the ability for basic editing of Word, Excel or PowerPoint documents.
Microsoft is also adding photo-sharing capabilities, but these are not what you'd expect. The limit for photos in a single message is a massive 10GB. This is because doesn't actually transfer the photos, it just hosts them on the cloud. If you have Silverlight installed, you can view the photos online in an animated slideshow. If not, you can either view them online (though not as part of a fancy slideshow) or download them directly.
Read more about the new Hotmail on GigaOm.
*Image via GigaOm
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I think it's a little too late, I got turned off from Hotmail a long time ago, but who knows this might just get me to change my opinion.
Do they support IMAP now?
I hope with the new improvements copied from GMail, they'll let you POP it to an email client. Even if it's only restricted to Outlook, it is a MS product that you have paid for.
hotmail support pop3, it just that they don't support IMAP
They need to move away from Silverlight and go to HTML5, or their interface is slow....
My hotmail email address is my junk email address.
Nice changes! I've been an ardent user of hotmail for 7 years now, and haven't found the incentive to switch over to anything else.
Hotmail is a waste in this day and age with MSN and texts. If it could send photos better than it might have a use but sending photoes in bulk by email is almost impossible. If hotmail increase the size of allowed attachments to actually allow more than one photo at a time I might consider using email again. ATM im not happy with hotmail or gmail, only reason I still have either is for MSN, signing up to things online and backing up contacts and the calander on my phone. The last thing I don't need since outlook can handle it as does blackberry manager but it gave me a use for my gmail and a third option. contacts take the most basic of data rather than all i have saved which is a shame but thats better than Hotmail which fails to sync at all so its a non starter there. Both offerings fall short in a lot of areas in my eyes.
What both hotmail and gmail need:-
1. Larger attachments to take multi photos
2. Sync contacts and calander properly with phones
3.A simpler interface. While hotmail is pretty simple it still seems cluttered
4. Some sort of desktop app. MSN is ok but the amount of crashes and version clashes and virus's is a joke. Not to mention when you get mail you need to open the browser and sign in anyway.
Hotmail is a waste in this day and age with MSN and texts. If it could send photos better than it might have a use but sending photoes in bulk by email is almost impossible. If hotmail increase the size of allowed attachments to actually allow more than one photo at a time I might consider using email again. ATM im not happy with hotmail or gmail, only reason I still have either is for MSN, signing up to things online and backing up contacts and the calander on my phone. The last thing I don't need since outlook can handle it as does blackberry manager but it gave me a use for my gmail and a third option. contacts take the most basic of data rather than all i have saved which is a shame but thats better than Hotmail which fails to sync at all so its a non starter there. Both offerings fall short in a lot of areas in my eyes. What both hotmail and gmail need:-1. Larger attachments to take multi photos2. Sync contacts and calander properly with phones3.A simpler interface. While hotmail is pretty simple it still seems cluttered4. Some sort of desktop app. MSN is ok but the amount of crashes and version clashes and virus's is a joke. Not to mention when you get mail you need to open the browser and sign in anyway.
You clearly have never used either of their services and did not read the message above at all.
I might give this a shot. the reason why i use gmail is to chat.
As long as it works I could care less about those other useless features. If it sends and receives mail, I'm happy.
They need to move away from Silverlight and go to HTML5, or their interface is slow....
If you ever used bing for directions it's hardly slow in getting and displaying pictures...
Do we get to keep the classic interface?
I hope they will allow saving of passwords and I hope they use radio buttons instead of me having to type @hotmail.com all the time.
GMail is WAY better than Hotmail.
As said above, too late.
yeah they support imap for 20$ a year (what a rip job)!
I need free imap. That's why I switched to gmail long time ago. Another reason I hate hotmail now days is that they have those super annoying advertising banners on the right side.
I run my hotmail through a client, so I won't get any of these enhancements. I don't know that I'll miss them though.
So... are all of these going to be at least optional if I ant to turn something off? Like threading.
I guess they are going with the, "If it works, go with it" plan.
My hotmail email address is my junk email address.
Same.
They need to move away from Silverlight and go to HTML5, or their interface is slow....
I agree with your statement but I disagree with your reason. Silverlight is impressive in terms of speed when put up against flash and java, granted not as fast as HTML5 but it certainly isn't slow. The problem with Silverlight is that it is only supported on windows with either firefox or IE as of last I heard (so chrome/linux is out of the question.)
I agree with your statement but I disagree with your reason. Silverlight is impressive in terms of speed when put up against flash and java, granted not as fast as HTML5 but it certainly isn't slow. The problem with Silverlight is that it is only supported on windows with either firefox or IE as of last I heard (so chrome/linux is out of the question.)
So thats still most people then
Photo editing and video editing on cloud computing is basically like the projected screen in back to the future 2 where marty gets fired via cloud computing at its best................. MACCCCCFRRRYYYYYYY
I dislike the technologies that MS created themselves, such as Silverlight, that are only adopted by MS itself.
I don't like Gmail with tags and flags and labels and whatnot, I want FOLDERS where I can put my messages and a message should be in only ONE folder and nowhere else.
Hmm. I use Yahoo! Mail Classic. I have paid for the Plus! features. But quite frankly I agree: If it sends and receives e-mail that's enough for me.
I'm guessing some PC magazine will do a comparison article soon. I'll have to check it out.
I don't like Gmail with tags and flags and labels and whatnot, I want FOLDERS where I can put my messages and a message should be in only ONE folder and nowhere else.
I am the opposite, i don't like that old school physical mentality, its digital content, why restrict yourself. I use like 2 labels at work, everything else i use search operators; overall i can find email far far faster than those that use a client with folders.
I just use Gmail with Thunderbird. Been with gmail since the days of 3 invites per person, and have never had any reason to use hotmail or yahoo for non junk mail ever since.
I haven't used gmail or hotmail for at least five years. Never had a real reason to go back to them.
Question of the day: Does the new hotmail remove the heavy use of JavaScript that cripples the functionality of the current version? If not, then their improvements are for naught.