Live Hotmail redesign and updates

Last week (22 September 2008) Brian Hall, the general manager of the Windows Live team informed the public that an updated Windows Live Hotmail would be released sometime in the week. Hall stated,

“The main focus of the update is speedier performance on slower machines, some of which could see the Web-based mail service run up to 70 percent faster.”

The update has now begun to roll out onto users screens, the process is gradual so the update may not yet be available to everyone.

Gmail is infamous for its constantly expanding storage, currently providing over 7GB of email space. Microsoft has combated this with an arguably superior system. When you sign up for a Hotmail account you will receive a base 5GB of storage, however you will receive 0.5GB extra each month when you reach the limit. So although Gmail may offer roughly 7-9GB in 12 months, you could technically have 11GB of space with Hotmail in 12 months. For the average user this will be of no use, but for those who use attachments regularly this could be of value.

The update also exhibits a cleaner minimalist design to improve access time. As well as this, integration has begun with Live Messenger, although not at the standard of Google Talk, this feature will most likely be expanded upon to reach a similar level of sophistication.