RSSWindows Live Hotmail Set for May US Release
By Ed Oswald | Published April 16, 2007, 6:21 PM
Microsoft is preparing to launch Windows Live Hotmail in the United States by next month, although customers in India and Belgium will begin seeing the updates later this week, the company is expected to announce Tuesday. Other Windows Live product updates are also likely.
Various sources tell BetaNews that the upgrades won't come automatically, but rather in a gradual process over the next several weeks. Testers in France are currently receiving e-mails saying they will receive the update in several days, with a similar e-mail circulating to UK users.
Other smaller markets are likely to receive the updated interface before the US market as the logistics of migrating those accounts are a lot simpler, one source said.
Details of the US launch are scarce, as Microsoft is keeping much tighter wraps on announcements; however, it is said that the company is targeting the first or second week of May to roll out the product here.
Windows Live Hotmail will offer several enhancements over the current user interface and is built upon Microsoft's AJAX platform. It includes right click menus, a paneled interface, and updated search bar. The UI is very similar to that of Outlook, the company's desktop e-mail application.
The product has already been rolled out in Holland, where users were given the option to switch to '@live.nl' addresses. In the states, the company has been offering live.com e-mails since June, although without the new interface.
Windows Live Hotmail's expansion would likely also be accompanied by upgrades to both Spaces and Gallery, although details of the changes were not available as of press time.
It is rumored that another major Windows-Live announcement was planned for Tuesday, but it appears as if that had been pushed back for unknown reasons.
"Holland" is not a country, it's The Netherlands! That's why users can switch to live.nl instead of a "live.ho" address.
(although that would probably be a really popular address...)
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|*snicker* I use Hotmail as my spam-catcher and registration address only. I never use it for real correspondence. I didn't know it wasn't already released. But then, I usually ignore the "beta" monicker since all software these days is "beta" regardless of the official name. I suppose they'll rename it to something brief like "Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail .NET 2007 Ultimate Premium Extras Edition".
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|Hotmail?
Who uses Hotmail?
I don't think I have had a Hotmail account since like 1994.
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|So what are they releasing? The name change?
Microsoft is just getting worse and worse.
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|They're going to release it next month??? I hope by release they mean they're going to start rebranding across the MSN network and not release a the "final" product to market.
Maybe they've been working on something in the background that they haven't released to the beta users, but there's no way they should be releasing what they've got now to the general public!
The calendar hasn't even been touched, neither has the notebook, every build results in major parts of the navigation moving around the interface, different fonts and interface quirks.
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"It is rumored that another major Windows-Live announcement was planned for Tuesday, but it appears as if that had been pushed back for unknown reasons."
--> how do you know it's been pushed back? it's only Tuesday here at +10 GMT, you guys are only just getting into Tuesday now
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It's all very interesting, but at the same time, it could turn out to be bitterly disappointing if what they've built now is what we'll be stuck with as "Hotmail" for the next few years!
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|MS release quality (TM).
You detailed it for me.
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|I agree with you that this is no where near ready for release, but it's not surprising considering the quality of the work coming out of the whole group of "Live" developers. None of these services looks like anything more than a bad "me, too" effort.
I heard Microsoft described on Marketplace as a "lumbering dinosaur." Outside the XBox group, I'd have to say that description fits.
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|Sadly, you're right, they are very much a "Me too" in this market. I had held out some hope that their calendar would redeem the rest of their service.
Their problem is, Google roles out their betas and updates in a much fitter state and FAR more frequently.
I have so much info in my Google calendar now that it would take me a week to move it out, and that includes all the ICS remote calendars I subscribe to.
I don't like the idea of the internet being so dominated by Google, but unless the old MSN group regain some of their old flair, they're going to remain an also ran.
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