Anyone notice a complete slow down of MSN/Windows Live so-called-Hotmail ? Particularly in the last two days or so ?

Anyone require multiple stop / refresh page to get *any kind* of page loading within a reasonalble time span -like within 5 minutes, for instance ? Lol-NOT
Anyone getting an HTTP 403 Forbidden page error message when trying to access settings ? Settings auch as "Change opening page from 'Today" and go directly to Inbox".

It has been a total and unmitigated nuisance as far as I'm concerned.

And "mysteriously", Hotmail - and only Hotmail - is the sole Internet 'page/service' with which I'm having problems.

Great 5 gig of space for all the spam on hotmail.

Yea I knew when they grandfathered my Hotmail so it worked in outlook express for free for a 3rd time that it was a desperation move. Now I got a whopping 5gb of Spam to sift through every few months... great.... Just what the world needs... More spam storage.. Sheesh... I think I may actually pay to have my old 20mb storage instead so the spammers get mailbox full more often...

LOL agreed.

I am using Hotmail again--as a spam magnet. That said, Windows Live Mail is in fact a pretty nice application, something quite rare and unexpected from Micro$oft.

Your interface sucks, MS. Bring back POP access and I'll start using my account again.

The updated Hotmail will reach users gradually over the coming weeks, Microsoft says.

Microsoft also says: "COOOME BAAAACK! Please!?"

What the heck is "contacts de-duplication"?

And "increased mail retention"? So what, you're 20% less likely to delete my mail for no reason? Honestly, what do they mean by that?

What the heck is "contacts de-duplication"?

Will not create duplicate contacts in your address book.

And "increased mail retention"? So what, you're 20% less likely to delete my mail for no reason? Honestly, what do they mean by that?

Many mail providers will configure their server to keep (retain) your email for a given number of days. Then emails older that that will be purged from the server.

Thought this was easy to understand. Maybe not.

Many mail providers will configure their server to keep (retain) your email for a given number of days. Then emails older that that will be purged from the server.

Thought this was easy to understand. Maybe not.

This was true years ago. With the advent of 2+GB of storage, this has not been the case. Many people have since forgotten completely (or never even been introduced to) such a beast.

This is still true today. I work for an ISP that offers up to 5GB of storage, yet we still purge old emails. So yes it may be true in some cases but not all, and it does still happen.

Hotmail still sucks. Gmail permits 20 mb attachments. You can use pop, forward mail to non google mail accounts, etc. No contest.

...and GMail works fully with browsers other than IE.

Surfing hotmail with Opera and getting crap interface *pfft* worthless!

dizzang! and I love MS and hotmail! heehee
use what you will, don't use what you hate, yada yada, etc etc. Love yourself ;)

good news...

what about file upload limit? If increased maybe i can use all that storage in a better way :P

Hear, hear.

Microsoft's email interface is horrible. Don't know what "live" is. I guess it just notifies you that you can log into the aforementioned horrible program to check your email. If anyone from Microsoft reads this, you kids need to update that thing. You can increase the storage to 10 terrabytes for all I care, it won't matter. Take a look at Google mail and go on from there. Less really is more in that case.
btw if you think google is slow compared to hotmail, you're obviously not using gmail. I've used both so I know what I'm talking about

That is funny. Google mails UI is slow and very hard to use compaired to Windows Live Hotmail.

Which is fine. Because if the interface confuses you (which is odd, considering how simple it is), you can always use your favorite POP email client.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Hotmail.

Well you can use windows live desktop, which runs pretty nice on vista, runs kind of funky on XP (well my machine that is)

Google's interface is simple but it is slow and redundant on certain tasks.

Live is nice and last I used it it ran pretty nice been a while though, will have to check it out later.

But yeah your right I believe hotmail can only be used on ms software, no third party.

Never having used it, I cannot really comment on it's usability.

;)

But with Gmail, I am free to use any client I wish. (And I've become attached to the "conversation" style sorting).

Also, with GMail, I don't have to check all my accounts in different places. They're all POPed into Gmail, and I get all the nifty Gmail features on those mailboxes now too!

Ahhh... just the opposite for me....

Ditto.

Exactly....

That "conversation" style hooked me. The other features are nice, but this was the "killer feature".

Damn straight. I hated it at first. I suppose I could get by without it now, but I cannot even imagine having to go back to the old way.

*shudders*

It's good to see Microsoft finally catching up.
There's nothing innovative, but maybe this increase in services which at least in the storage department does better gmail, so now I'm hoping gmail responds :)

As for Hotmail anti-spam features, they have improved from previous but I'll wait and see about what they have done. Gmail is awesome for it's anti-spam which is why I liked it so much.

Finally! Recently, both Google and Microsoft have slowed down adding new features to their e-mail clients (aside from Hotmail's push to AJAX), and it's nice to know there is some healthy competition and innovation happening in the web e-mail arena.

the only difference I have noticed is that I have to login twice now ... first to live mail and then to hotmail.