RSSWindows Live Mail Now 'Live Hotmail'
By Nate Mook | Published February 8, 2007, 4:09 PM
In an attempt to allay confusion over its new AJAX-enabled webmail system, Microsoft said Thursday that Windows Live Mail was being renamed to Windows Live Hotmail. The decision follows a recent switch to keep the classic Hotmail interface for existing users.
Microsoft says that during beta testing, which began last March, it learned that users were "extremely loyal to the Hotmail brand" and "a bit confused by name change." Therefore, it hopes the Windows Live Hotmail name will reiterate that the new service retains what users liked about the old system.
"As we prepare to launch the final version of our new web mail service, we recognize the importance of ensuring that our 260+ million existing customers come over to the new service smoothly and without confusion," Windows Live Hotmail senior product manager Richard Sim wrote. "We hope you like the approach we're taking and see this as a positive change."
Initial responses weren't that positive, however, noting the constant name-changing and rebranding going on under the Windows Live moniker.
"I understand the notion of loyalty; however, this is a new system and a new service. So why confuse users by merging two names of dissimilar systems. Starting new needs to be seen not as a detriment but as a way to start fresh and lure new customers into the system," replied a user named Dave K.
Other users asked how the name change would affect Windows Live Mail Desktop, the Windows-based application that integrates with the webmail service while offering support for third party POP and IMAP e-mail accounts. "So will we have 'Windows Live Hotmail Desktop Mail for Windows' soon?" quipped a user named Gregor.
Microsoft recently rolled out Milestone 9 of Windows Live Hotmail, but has yet to announce when the system will replace Hotmail. With pressure coming from both Google, Yahoo and AOL, Microsoft is wary about making any major changes to Hotmail that could push users away from the service, even if those changes are simply upgrading functionality.
()()()()()()()()
Score: 0
|That is one stupid-ass name. Should've just kept it "Live Mail." There can't be that many stupid people in the world. Just use "Live Mail" instead of "Live Hotmail." WTF were they thinking??? Did they just hire someone from AOL to manage this project???
Score: 0
|Relax. It's just words. It won't kill ya.
Score: 0
|I know. But, it's a stupid name. Do you work for Microsoft?
Score: 0
|Windows Live Hotmail ??...Guacalaaaaaaaa !! Windows Live Mail was good no?
Hotmail is synonymus of the oldest and low featured web-based Mail I've ever used. Guacala
Score: 0
|Want some oh-so-accurate insight into MS Marketing?
http://cityofrain.com/?p=566
Crackheads.
Score: 0
|You realize that Microsoft employees created that, right?
Score: 0
|Actually, it was this guy.
http://www.arctic.org/~patrick/
Thanks for playing.
Score: 0
|Next week it will be renamed to ...
Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail Ultimate Premium Extras Edition 2007
Score: 0
|will it be digitally signed by bill gates?
Score: 0
|Hey, how come their email service sounds like junk mail porn spam? Even more so now anyways. itanshi@live.com doesn't sound so bad, can I at least have the option? ^^
Score: 0
|I'm having a thought. Leave off the MSN and forget the Windows Live bull. Just call it Hotmail and be done with it. Stop trying to come up with these half baked lame names. They sound horrible and are too long.
Score: 0
|If MS is going to automatically migrate users to even the Classic interface and kill the current Hotmail as it is as of today, then it's bye bye time.
Score: 0
|I was hoping that they would drop the hotmail name altogether and go with just Windowslive.com or something like that. Oh well.
Score: 0
|"...a bit confused by name change"
That's a nice way of saying that their naming schemes are completely retarded.
What arrogance laying the problem at the feet of their customers. "THEY'RE confused". No - the MS marketing people are the ones who are confused, and obviously don't know how to do their job.
I wonder... do they even have marketing people working at MS, or are they geeky programmers?
There was a time when MS could best be described as a company that was very good at marketing which just happened to sell software, albeit somewhat buggy. Now I think the greatest bugs are in its marketing, especially its obtuse naming conventions.
Score: 0
|Not that I hate the name, but really, what was wrong with MSN? It was simple, and people know and trust it. It's too late to go back now I guess, but they arn't just renaming everything, they are remaking it all. EVERYONE I know still calls WLM MSN, because it is far more flowing, and in the end, it still is MSN, and many of them think Windows Live (Hot)Mail is some sort of scam or virus, for the average consumer, they just don't understand why any of this is happening, and frankly, neither do I anymore.
Just my 2 cents :)
Score: 0
|Check out the new MSN page- lets you switch between wide and narrow format
http://www.msn.com/defaultb.aspx
use the page options on the top right to switch to the wide layout
Score: 0
|It should be called "Hotmail Live" if they HAVE to make it "live"
Putting the Microsoft in front of it is simply a deterrent.
I really do like that they are going to let people stick with teh "classic" interface instead.
I still check my old accounts from OE 6 - I had them before Microsoft bought up Hotmail and so far, MS has let me keep using the feature, thankfully.
If I lost the ability to do Hotmail from inside of OE 6, I'd give up on Hotmail and move full-time to Gmail, I think (Pop 3)
Score: 0
|Will it still keep the hotmail.com addy?
Score: 0
|>Will it still keep the hotmail.com addy?
If they were to change from "hotmail"
billions of spammers would have to update
their address books so, yes, they'll keep
the hotmail addy.
also:
MSN dialup at one time was changing their
server programs (or something) and told
me to add "email." to the domain.
That was years ago-last century-and last
time I looked?-(this century;)-I still get
stuff that's to each addy.
Score: 0
|still don't work properly in FireFox
notably can't change the width of the left side panel
Score: 0
|Use the IE tab extension, works great.
Score: 0
|weird ... it works fine for me minus the left panel resize ... not sure why'd you want to.
Score: 0
|