Microsoft has finished upgrading over 350 million users to the latest and greatest release of Hotmail. Hotmail has become part of the Windows Live Experience, a combination of Hotmail, MSN Messenger, SkyDrive and Essentials. Unable to resist, I took a look for myself to see what exactly it means.
The key features Microsoft is pushing include one-click filtering of emails, Active Views, and “Sweep.” I’ll be honest; I am a different sort of power email user, so many of these features are a mystery to me. But other key features include vastly improved integration with Microsoft Outlook. Ben Vincent, Senior Program Manager for Windows Live Experience says that they’re hoping to have an announcement regarding Exchange Active Sync availability for users in the coming weeks.
Rather than flail about sending emails randomly to see if I could discover features, I took myself to the new Hotmail Portal for Windows Live Solution Center for some explanations.
Active Views is a sort of expanded preview. When emails come in containing links to websites like YouTube, Flickr, UPS Tracking, or virtually anything, you have the option to preview the content behind that link. You can also elect to receive “interactive updates” from websites you have accounts with. A set of “quick views” on the left side of the browser automatically filters these emails into Photos, Office docs, and Shipping updates. Active View defaults to on, and protects end users’ privacy by using the Hotmail service as a sort of proxy, so the website only knows that Hotmail requested the link.
Finding information on Sweep was a bit harder, and I had to go to a completely different site that was a bit hard to find. Sweep is part of the many new anti-spam and Inbox management innovations in Hotmail. Sweep provides users with an easy way to automatically move groups of similar emails, like newsletters, into a folder of your choosing. Think of it as a very easy Outlook Filter.
Sweep is combined with a long list of anti-spam improvements including SmartScreen, individual preferences, tagging junk mails, detection of spammer infrastructure, one-click filters, and “Time traveling filters” that will retroactively delete identified spam from a user’s inbox when it has already been delivered.
These are far from the only improvements, though. The UI has been improved dramatically, and is very easy to master. Emails from friends, social networks, shipments and the like can be highlighted using the new Hotmail highlights feature. Hotmail can now integrate with your Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace contact lists to provide a single contact list. Anywhere access will allow you to open Office attachments in your browser from any PC or Mac. Mobile access for Windows Mobile phones is also claimed to be greatly improved, with applications for Nokia and Blackberry coming and an improved interface for mobile web users as well.
And last but not least, Microsoft has ramped up their push with Windows Live SkyDrive, which offers users 25GB of free cloud storage for any files they like. Hotmail users can now upload files to SkyDrive, and send links to access them securely to their recipients, eliminating the need to attach files and send them multiple times. SkyDrive also features the same Anywhere access that will allow any recipient to not only view, but edit documents.
Hotmail has seen many updates and upgrades over the years, including features like retrieving email from other accounts, mobile alerts and keyboard shortcuts. This latest round of upgrades is a huge leap forward for Hotmail, and makes it a very significant competitor against other free mail services from Yahoo and Google. Features like Anywhere access and inbox management improvements are also likely to give Microsoft’s Hotmail a significant boost among business and professional users. The “new” new Hotmail is available worldwide today, and is still free.
Articles RSS