Microsoft Not Dropping Hotmail Name

EveryNickIsTaken writes "CNET News.com is reporting that despite planning for months to ditch the name 'Hotmail' for 'Windows Live Mail,' Microsoft will keep the Hotmail name, renaming the service 'Windows Live Hotmail.' Along with the slight name change, MS will be modifying the interface to look more like Outlook's GUI."

Comments

Windows Live Hotmail

[Anonymous Coward]

to couteract "Windows Dead Hotmail"?

Re:Windows Live Hotmail

[kfg]

Would you believe Windows Undead Tepidmail?

KFG

Office GUI

[Fyre2012]

MS will be modifying the interface to look more like Outlook's GUI

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Live Mail beta

[ThinkFr33ly]

I've been using their Windows Live Mail Beta for several months, and while it's still not as good as Yahoo's mail beta, it's MUCH better than regular hotmail... which sucks.

That said, I find myself using Windows Live Mail Desktop more and more. The early betas were pretty bad, but now it's a fairly good, simple e-mail client. Good stuff for those who don't need Outlook.

I'm actually pretty surprised that the Yahoo mail beta doesn't get more press. It is, by FAR, the best web-based e-mail I've ever seen. Check out this review for screenshots.

Re:Live Mail beta

[bendodge]

I'd have to disagree. GMail is by far the best client, IMHO. It has very advanced AJAX, context-sensitive ads, good mouseover stuff, keyboard shortcuts, excellent mail and chat log search, conversation sorting (were it kinda cascades the original message and replies back and forth like playing cards, which you can click to expand), and all kinds of handy stuff.

It has 0 image ads, and it has a tiny RSS bar at the top, which often has slashdot stuff. It also has the GTalk thing in a sidebar if you want it, and you can "pop-out" chats, drafts (which are autosaved every few seconds) and almost anything else.

It just works marvelously, and is very simply and clean looking, compared to Yahoo! Mail.

Re:Live Mail beta

[dosius]

I hardly use my gmail, I just feed it into my regular local mailbox with fetchmail.

Still, nice to have if I need it (as when I was stuck on dialup for a week).

-uso.

Re:Live Mail beta

[cmacb]

"I'm actually pretty surprised that the Yahoo mail beta doesn't get more press. It is, by FAR, the best web-based e-mail I've ever seen. Check out this review [weblogsinc.com] for screenshots."

I prefer Gmail and I've tried them all, having signed up for both the Live beta and Yahoo's mail beta when became "available" umteen years ago, and at that time I was also new to Gmail and would have easily made the switch to something else. Both Yahoo and MSN take up too much screen real-estate with ads or other unnecessary graphics, but more importantly both are SLOW to VERY SLOW at times which is exacerbated by the fact that while you are waiting for them to start they put up a damned Flash animation to entertain and annoy you. That would be bad enough, but simple things like deleting messages, flagging them as spam etc can take tens of seconds or longer. With Yahoo and Hotmail to choose from I'd simply go back to a POP mail reader (of course I couldn't do that with these services without paying extra!)

With Gmail, I get the word "Loading..." on the screen for no more than a couple seconds and then I'm in. Once in, opening and closing, deleting, flagging, operations are almost instantaneous, and certainly hard to distinguish (in speed) from a local pop mail client (which themselves can get sluggish as your mail store builds up). Plus, if I ever DO want to go back to a POP mail reader I can be fairly comfortable that Google isn't going to make me pay for it. Google's pattern has been that as they get more popular they give MORE stuff away, Yahoo was always the opposite, as they established their large user base they decided to start charging for things that used to be free. I've enjoyed watching them screw themselves over. While I'm no big fan of Microsoft either, it seems to me they are doing a better job of matching Google service for service.

Both MSN and Yahoo have a problem that Google is free from however and that is trying to provide new services while at the same time maintaining the old. Yahoo particularly with mail, groups, Geocities, Yahoo360, Flickr, presents the user with a maze of twisty-options-all-alike, except for where they aren't. It has all the organization of my unfinished basement, and with the exception of a few things that I have organizational ties too (like Yahoo groups) I can't wait to get out of their interface.

My biggest problem with MSN is of course they really want you to be a faithful Windows (and sometimes IE7) user which I am not. So their is a tendency for things to not work at first on Firefox, or work at all for Linux or OS X. It is this tendency to tie everything to the Windows OS which makes me resistant to use any of their services even if they are otherwise acceptable. Yahoo and (especially) Google at least have no predisposition to make alternate OSs and alternate browsers second class citizens.

Re:Live Mail beta

[ElleyKitten]

GMail is by far the best client, IMHO. It has very advanced AJAX, context-sensitive ads

I think it's funny that people list the ads as a feature of GMail. Though, the ads are rather amusing in themselves. Whenever my friend Jesse emails me, I get an ad about Jesse Duplantis who will raise the dead. I also get ads about invisible men's underwear and taco holders. I guess that's better than the stupid flash ads like hit the fly for an ipod, but it seems wierd to claim that ads are a feature.

woo hoo 200 megabytes of mail space

[Anonymous Coward]

Gmail's available for everyone now, has more space and better spam protection. Why would anyone except for legacy users still be using Hotmail?

Re:woo hoo 200 megabytes of mail space

[killjoe]

Because it's LIVE!.

We should be glad they skipped the ActiveMailX and Mail.NET branding and went straight to LIVE!!!.

Re:woo hoo 200 megabytes of mail space

[illuminatedwax]

Actually, this legacy user stopped going to the page itself because I could see my Inbox from my MSN Messenger account and I never got anything but spam - and after 15 days they promptly deleted all my messages. 10 years of archived emails, LOST. FOREVER.

Of course I didn't go back, because I was seriously getting about 4 times as much spam in my inbox as the "spam box" - and believe me, I did thousands of messages worth of "training" Hotmail. I just don't think they care about filtering spam. Now I use gmail, and I get about 1 spam a day sneaking in (usually with no actual advertising content), which is a 99% success rate, with only 2 false positives in the entire history of my email account.

I don't see why anyone would use Hotmail over Gmail, period.

Hotmails Interface is teh suck

[Frogbert]

I haven't used my Hotmail account in a long while, but the final straw of their ad-laden interface was the stupid "Today" tab. It was the first thing that showed up when you logged in. Why the hell would I be going to Hotmail unless it was to check my email? My Inbox is the first thing I should see, not the crappy "Today" tab that as far as I can tell is just there to get an extra ad impression.

Now I have gmail and it is all business, I log in and see my emails. No extra clicking and I don't even notice the ads.

Re:Hotmails Interface is teh suck

[njchick]

Best ads are subliminal. If an ad annoys you enough that you start looking for ad blockers, it's a bad ad. If you don't remember seeing an ad, it's a good ad.

Hotmail hotmail hotmail, how you trouble me!

[AbRASiON]

I might take this opportunity to plug a blog I'm currently working on, trying to get Microsoft to manage their passport.net / hotmail / xbox live syncing / linking a little better.
(no, there's no ads on there)
I wouldn't say it's well written, nor would I say it's a major issue but it is an annoyance.
http://msnemailchange.blogspot.com/

To quickly summarise, Microsoft has a policy where if you have a passport.net account to log in to some of their services, you can't change your login / backend email if you opted to chose a hotmail account, quite the frustrating if you simply don't want to use hotmail anymore.

On top of that, those of us who own an Xbox 1 or Xbox 360 and use live can get frustrated that the live "gamertag" is permanently bound to a passport.net id which we may no longer want to use (be it avoiding people on MSN, sick of hotmail's email interface or simply want to use another email address)

To my knowledge several other Microsoft web "products" use these live id's / passports but how well they integrate with passport.net / liveid I don't know - I believe there's a myspace kind of clone and also Zune owners need a passport - however, don't quote me on that.
I wouldn't be surprised if there's more integration with Vista too, perhaps the messenger package installed as default, however that one is also speculation.

So just to finalize my comment, yes I realize it's my own fault using MS's products and well yeah it's not a real major issue but it's annoying and could be handled a lot better, if anyone has any information on this, specifically names within MS / Xbox divisions for me to question, I'd appreciate it.

and yes, I'm new to starting one of these ranty style pages so it's a mess, sorry all.

- Scott

related: Live ID/Hotmail for Office 2007

[80 85 83 83 89 33]

requiring a Windows Live ID for Office 2007 sucks

it is a pain for me trying to install the new Office on all my customers' computers, since i now have to explain that in order to Activate it, they have to get a Live ID, which nearly requires a birth certificate and retinal scan....

i mean, they already payed for a unique key, as was done in the "old days"...

Re:related: Live ID/Hotmail for Office 2007

[Shados]

Wait, what? Is it only present in the crappy versions or something? I installed and activated MS Office 2007 Ultimate a few days ago, and while I -do- have a windows live account, I never had to provide it. It was literally like Office 2003. They asked to activate, I clicked "OK" or something, and that was it.

Re:related: Live ID/Hotmail for Office 2007

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Reading the Office 2007 Activation FAQ, I find no mention of windows "live" or passport.

And your Original Post said:

it is a pain for me trying to install the new Office on all my customers' computers,

I find it very hard to believe that you've installed a retail version of Office 2007 on multiple "customers" (mom?). If you had you'd know the retail version does not require a windows live account.

Offtopic. I bet you've never seen or had your nickname.

Re:related: Live ID/Hotmail for Office 2007

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

No, they don't but they do require a valid product key

Are you sure? According to the article I linked to:

Unlike the retail versions of Office 2007, copies installed using volume license keys -- the typical way large organizations purchase Microsoft's software -- will simply skip product activation, the process where keys must be entered and judged legitimate.

Perhaps you're thinking of the beta or vista or the download version? Or is that article out of date?

What ever happened to software updates

[Ace905]

" By adopting the name 'Windows Live Hotmail,' we believe we're bringing together the best of both worlds--new and old "

What ever happened to just updating software. Is microsoft claiming that windows live hotmail whatever is going to be so 'new and improved' it's actually a different software product? Here's an idea, don't change the name - don't confuse people - just update the damned thing.

As an end-user, there is absolutely no difference in functionality between Windows version 1 and Windows XP. XP windows didn't *do more*, it just *had more*. It still shows you neat little pictures, and you click on them, and software runs and then crashes and then so does your computer.

Windows live hotmail extra 2-in-the-pink-1-in-the-stink beta alpha theta radiation flux capacitor is no different. It's a messenger client. If it's so different, why the hell do hotmail users want to use it?

Microsoft's days really are numbered.

---
two in the pink

What?

[Donniedarkness]

What's the deal with all the "Windows Live" stuff? "Windows Live Hotmail"? Microsoft really needs to hire someone new to write these names...

Now, if you'll all excuse me, someone just "squirted" me an email.

yeah, it's kind of freudian

[User 956]

"Hotmail" always struck me as sounding related to porn. Anyone else get this reaction ?

If that's the case, you better steer clear of PenisMail.

Re:yeah, it's kind of freudian

[neuro.slug]

Hotmail was one of the first web-based email services available. Before Microsoft bought it, the spelling was HoTMaiL (HTML + 'o' and 'ai').

-- n

Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail

[amplusquem]

It just... flows... Kudos to the naming department.

Probably a good idea

[edwardpickman]

Changing the name to SpamMail probably would have been a bad idea.

meet the new .net, same as the old .net

[hxnwix]

Once upon a time, Microsoft went slap happy with the Back-Office moniker. They hurridly affixed it to many a disparate product for reasons unknown.

Days past, PR staff churned and version numbers changed in format, length and value.

Eventually, Microsoft realized that back-office sounds like back-orifice. So, they went slap super happy with the .net moniker. They hurridly affixed it over stale back-office stickers and even on products that had been lucky enough to avoid the officially orificially excrementitious sounding branding the last time around.

Days past, PR staff churned and version numbers changed in format, length and value.

The most brilliant of the Microsoft Marketeers realized that .net doesn't mean anything. Bill himself saw this to be true and hurridly, desperately affixed 'live' to many a disparate product. The rest he called 'vista'.

Days past, PR staff churned and version numbers changed in format, length and value...

For Immediate Release

[StikyPad]

I would like to take this opportunity to announce that I will not be changing my name either, but I may be changing my appearance to resemble people with popular names.

Re:Speaking of hotmail...

[russ1337]

I'm certain that Hotmails lack of 'forwarding' and export of contacts has prevented about half of their members switching to Gmail/other.

What you can do is this: Send an e-mail to everyone in your parents e-mail list from their Hotmail account telling them you're switching to Gmail & CC the Gmail account. Then, from the Gmail account 'reply to all' saying "this is my new account, please delete any others you have for me, I will only be using this from now on". All your contacts will automatically be added to Gmail contacts with the outgoing mail.

You'll need to check their hotmail once every couple of weeks to catch the stray's, but will mostly get there. Oh, and put a shortcut on the desktop to the gmail account, cos parents are really good at typing in the URL for hotmail as habit long after they've switched. Has worked for me a couple of times.

Microsoft

[mfh]

Despite all of their attempts, Microsoft can not make better products, only better brands. Hotmail has powerful brand awareness that would be foolish to disregard. However, the problem now lies, is that in an attempt to revitalize the service's brand, they have attached their own equivalent of the word NEW to the service: Windows Live Hotmail. Usually a company does that when they have lost market share, which Hotmail must have now that Google's Gmail is open. Microsoft is in a pretty dull period right now, and it can't get better for them, only worse. They need to come up with something that truly maximizes human potential, instead of merely changing the stickers all the time.

Re:ironic

[Real_Reddox]

Hehe, a friend of mine once typed "hotmales" instead of hotmail. He didn't like the result

Re:What an ironic travesty this is

[mikael]

It's like the entire design philosophy behind Hotmail has made a 180 degree turn since the Microsoft acquisition.

Windows NT was originally sold on the basis that it would offer all applications developers and users the opportunity to develop and use applications that all have the same standard user interface everywhere, and thus UNIX was legacy.

Windows XP was sold on on the basis that all applications developers could customise the look of their applications with "skins".

Re:But google-mail doesn't have folders :-(

[Miseph]

Really? I think they're great. You can use them just like folders, except that you can put any number of labels on a given email; it's like putting the same thing in every folder you might want to look for it. same with contact groups.

Not flamebaiting here, just putting it out there.

WebDav that's why

[Timbotronic]

I'm on the beta for Windows Live Mail desktop and it's actually quite good. Decent search, rss, automatic syncing of contacts with the online version and none of the full Outlook bloat. As someone else said, you get 2GB of storage now so that's not a big deal.

But the big feature for me with Hotmail has always been the ability to download mail to a local mail client via WebDav. I've been contracting for 5 years and most companies block POP3 and SMTP connections. GMail doesn't do WebDav and I don't care what anyone says, a local client is *always* superior to a web interface.

So until Google do WebDav syncing I'll stick with Hotmail.

Branding run amok

[Overly Critical Guy]

This was obviously brought to you by the same people who gave us seven versions of Vista with names that are made up of at least four words. Ballmer (a marketing guy) and his marketing demons wanted to tie into their new Windows Live brand, but they didn't want to lose the brand value of Hotmail, so they just grafted them together with no thought given to aesthetic or marketability. Windows Live Hotmail? It looks and sounds stupid.

"Hey, guys, I'm using Windows Live Hotmail in Windows Internet Explorer on Windows Vista Home Premium Edition! REVEL IN THE BRANDING!"

Re:ironic

[hyeh]

Welcome to HoTMaiL!

You are now a user of the world's only *WEB-BASED*
*FREE* email system, called HoTMaiL.

We hope you enjoy using HoTMaiL.

Here are some helpful HoTMaiL addresses:

Information: info@hotmail.com
Comments: comments@hotmail.com
Technical Support: support@hotmail.com
Ad Sales: sales@hotmail.com
Bug Reports: bugs@hotmail.com

Tip: Did you know... if you're HoTMaiLing to another HoTMaiL
user, you need not type the recipient's entire address.
For example, instead of "ana@hotmail.com", you could simply
send to "ana".

Enjoy HoTMaiL,
The HoTMaiL Staff

Re:ironic

[peepleperson]

A friend of mine used it for advantage, erm, sort of. His email address is (censored, obviously!) Kevin*******IsA@hotmail.com