RSSMicrosoft Testing New Hotmail Interface
By David Worthington | Published July 11, 2005, 12:26 PM
Microsoft's MSN business unit is trying to hook customers onto "Kahuna." Kahuna is codename for an upcoming version of Hotmail that will sport a new style of interface, automatic inbox refreshing and a preview pane that will enable Hotmail users to read and respond to e-mail without ever leaving their inbox.
Microsoft has reason to be testing such additions: Many of these features are already out of testing and in production among its competitors.
According to sources familiar with the upgrade, Kahuna is a limited beta that is not heavy on features as of yet. Its interface is known internally as "Wave 11" and is designed to be lightweight and "clean" for better performance. Further integration with MSN Spaces and Messenger is said to be forthcoming.
Very little emphasis will be cycled toward the calendar component of Hotmail in the initial phase.
Recognizing that it is behind in several key areas, Microsoft has engineered the next wave of Hotmail, allegedly referred to as the "competitive wave," in a methodical push to meet or exceed the competition.
In comparison to Hotmail, America Online recently unveiled an update to AOL Mail on the Web and introduced AIM Mail. Both services are derived from technology AOL acquired from Mailblocks in 2004.
In the competitive world of portal Web sites, providers often go tit for tat in an ongoing game of one-upmanship, but many of the features available from rivals are conspicuously absent in today's Hotmail.
Some of these advanced features include: natural drag and drop capabilities between folders; automatic inbox refreshing and real-time audible new mail notifications.
"Assuming Microsoft is working on Hotmail changes, they are necessary and a long time in coming," said Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Wilcox. "Hotmail is ancient, if counting by computing or dog years, with the service approaching its tenth anniversary next year. Some younger competing services offer more features -- some expected, like a preview pane -- that spotlight Hotmail's age."
Microsoft would not comment directly on Kahuna, but a spokesperson explained that, "The MSN Hotmail team is constantly exploring and internally testing new features as part of our ongoing investments in the service. Some initiatives will appear in future products and services, while others won't make it past the whiteboard."
"In any potential update, Microsoft's problem would be making changes without disturbing its legacy technologies or large user base. I wouldn't be surprised if any possible update proceeds modestly for the benefit of customers. Large ships steer slowly," Wilcox added.
Hotmail has an estimated 200 million users worldwide.
Always Yahoo And Hotmail After Gmail With one step
Gmail is The best mail server on the net
Gmail offers what hotmail and yahoo can't offer
and gmail not only use large storage for users but offers new email technology
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|Amen to that. Not only would Wave 11 have to beat Gmail storage and interface-wise, but it would have to cut out allot of the crap like untargeted adverts in order to be anything more than my junk email address
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|In order to see it in a broader vision you must first realize that is discriminating users based on the part of the world they are from. Free Hotmail users in Latin America only have 2Mb, and in order to get 2Gb you have to pay. So many of us have migrated to GMail and/or Y!Mail and the only reason to keep this mailbox open is to let any of the passport's services that rely on this account to keep working, thus performing a vendor lock-in.
My 2 cents.
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|how do we view the preview of the new msn/hotmail?
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|The interface is actually pretty gorgeous right now and quite capable, and MS has done a LOT to steer away spam over the last year or two and has a lot of versatility in that area. No, they need to look at things such as the long-missing (was it ever present?) POP3 -- real POP3 -- like Gmail has. And space. Personally, 250MB is way more than enough for me, but 2GB seems to be a competitive standard these days.
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|Gmail lets you add custom folders and file away your messages just fine. I have accounts on all of them, and they all lack something the others have. Someday they'll figure it out. Most of the kids I am around don't use email anymore anyway, many consider it "old fart stuff" and prefer chat/IM now. They also are heavy into the blogs and "spaces" sites more than anything. Of the 500 or so teens I know around here, 90% have spaces or blogs and use IM more than email or anything else.
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|Hotmail and Spam so is Gmail so is Yahoo so are all bombed by spam and depends fully on your surfing and signing up habbits on the Internet. I use Gmail to catch my spam coming in from other accounts. In that case I thank the big brothers for having good spam filters. Esp. Gmail is about 99.9% right in telling if a mail is spam or not. What I don't like in Gmail the mail tagging thing, just a little mistake and your mail is gone. Still would prefer old fashioned folders.
Hotmail is slow in performance, it always was and one of the reasons for me not to touch it anymore since a long time.
Tough I wonder if MSN does get it right now, their app is very out dated. So is actually their MSN Groups. I wonder if the last one gets a overhaul soon.
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|In Gmail, even if you've labbled incorrecty an email, it will ALWAYS appear in "All Mail". So you can always correct the label. It is never "gone" (even items in the Trash stay there for a few days, allowing you to retrieve them even from there).
Hope this helps!
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|Hotmail is quite ok compared to other MS products...cos MS acqired it ;) (though long ago).
Good to hear, they are upgrading their UI. I think they are planning for something like "Outlook Web Access" (I really like the way they have made "Outlook Web Access" esp. the 2003 version). Cos all the features mentioned above are available in it.
Just hope they give atleast 1GB of space.
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|They definitely need the interface update, but then again, I don't care much since I only use my Hotmail account for spam purposes and for Messenger/Passport purposes.
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|why dont they do something more important like up the inbox capacity to be competitve, get a good spam filter, stop putting damned ads in people's inboxes... the list could go on and on. I think i still have a SPAM catcher... i mean hotmail account.. i will check out this interface when it rules around, and then adblock the hell out of all the trash they throw at me!
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|Many people like me could care less what Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo, Google or whoever else's interface looks like and what features it has.
I've got about a half dozen active email accounts, including several with my domain. The only effecient way to check more than 2 or 3 accounts is with a mail client - Outlook, Eudora, Thunderbird, whatever. Open one program and check 6 accounts instead of logging in that many times.
Its nice to know I have GBs of space on my gmail account, but when you use those programs you can save however much or little you want on your hard drive - making the capacity almost useless as long as any attachments are below their size limit for that.
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|That's all find and good but I want my stuff to be accessable from anywhere all the time. I don't want all my stuff on only one or two computers..
That's the beauty of web based email. :)
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|Gee....... 'bout time.
Hotmail is a piece of junk right now that gets way too much spam.
My Yahoo! mail is the best yet (even when compared to Gmail).
Hotmail - Hahahahaha what a joke.
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|For once you and I agree on something.
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|:)
Yeah. Sorry for any crap you and I have had in the past. It's all good. I really don't care what name you use. :)
Cheers mate,
Pipe :)
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|aww internet love :)
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|I promised myself that I wouldn't cry *choke*
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|How about capacity? 2Gb? 5Gb?
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