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Users Being Migrated To New Version of Hotmail

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the windows-live-inspires-confidence dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has started work on migrating Hotmail users to a new version after testing the new system on select customers for almost two years. Microsoft stated in the article that more than 20 million users provided feedback to the new-look Hotmail. 'For now, Microsoft will give Hotmail users the option to continue using the old version if they don't want to switch to the upgraded version. However, at some point, everyone will be unilaterally migrated over to Windows Live Hotmail ... New users will be automatically signed up for Windows Live Hotmail but, like any user of the new service, they will get to choose from two user interfaces: a "classic" layout that closely resembles the old Hotmail; or the new interface, which was designed to look like Microsoft's Outlook e-mail and calendaring desktop application.'"

1 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. Hotmail Vs. Gmail by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Okay, I don't have a hotmail account, although I do have a Gmail one. So how do the two stack up? From reading comments here and looking at public sources I see:

    • Gmail - disk space of 2.6G versus 2G
    • Hotmail - attachment size, Hotmail claims to allow 10M attachments as the maximum, whereas Gmail claims 10M for the attachment and message combined. (Can anyone confirm the marketing is true?)
    • Gmail - Free POP support
    • Tie - I know Gmail has no ads and someone is claiming Hotmail has removed them now too for the free accounts. Can anyone confirm this?
    • Gmail - Spam, last I heard Gmail was winning the spam battle without the high false positive rate that has been plaguing Hotmail.
    • ? - interface. Any interface designers with a clue taken a look at both of these?
    • Gmail - prestige. We interviewed a person with a Gmail address the other day and someone commented that she probably has a clue in technology. At an old job someone made the opposite comment with regard to an applicant with a Hotmail address.
    • Gmail - cross platform support. Gmail works the same way with Safari and Opera, while Hotmail degrades to the old interface in them.
    • Gmail - language support. Gmail claims to support 41 unique languages (not variants) versus Hotmail's 31.
    • ? address book import/export - Gmail supports CSV import and export. Hotmail is unknown?

    Does anyone have any other comparative features or info or corrections for the above list?