Hotmail gets an all new look

The new Hotmail, Windows Live Hotmail, offers a much better desktop-app-like feel. The new service, according to Microsoft, promises a safer, more powerful, and productive e-mail experience.

Microsoft has rolled out its new Windows Live Hotmail interface to all Hotmail users. Available in 36 languages, this is the most significant upgrade to MSN Hotmail since its debut in 1996.

Microsoft said the new service is a vast improvement over its predecessor, with inputs/feedback from over 20 million beta testers.

The new Hotmail, Windows Live Hotmail, offers a much better desktop-app-like feel. The new service, according to Microsoft, promises a safer, more powerful, and productive e-mail experience, with flexible access via the Web, on a mobile phone, or with an e-mail client.

Steve Berkowitz, Senior Vice President of Microsoft's Online Services Group, said, "We're thrilled to deliver Windows Live Hotmail to the more than 280 million active MSN Hotmail accounts around the world. Windows Live Hotmail represents an extremely compelling end-to-end e-mail experience that makes it easy for customers to get best-of-breed e-mail access across PCs, mobile devices, and the Web."

Windows Live Hotmail gives consumers the flexibility to access accounts where ever and when ever they want. Using 'Outlook Connector,' scheduled to be available worldwide later this month in 11 languages, consumers can view and manage their accounts from Outlook for free, with full contact, e-mail, and e-mail folder synchronization.

While using Windows Live Hotmail for mobile, customers can access e-mails on the go on Web-enabled mobile phones.

In the coming weeks, Microsoft will introduce an additional e-mail client option for Windows Live Hotmail with the release of Windows Live Mail beta, a free consumer e-mail client available via download.

Windows Live Hotmail also has certain productivity tools, including drag-and-drop capabilities, preview pane customization, and auto-complete addressing. Besides, the Windows Live Messenger is built into Windows Live Hotmail so that customers can see from their inbox if their Messenger contacts are online, and start a conversation directly.

Presently, Windows Live Hotmail offers 2GB storage, with plans to increase the storage capacity in future. Windows Live Hotmail also sports a safety bar that appears at the top of each e-mail message. The safety bar gives a visual cue for e-mail status, where White indicates a known sender, Yellow indicates an unknown sender, and Red indicates a potential fraudulent.

Additionally, with a click on the "mark as unsafe" link, customers can automatically delete junk e-mails, block them for future, and report the sender to Microsoft's spam filters to help protect others.

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