New Hotmail Now Available to Everyone
Microsoft says it has now completed the rollout of the new Hotmail, so all of its users (in over 220 countries) should now have access to the new version.
Besides a spiffed up interface and improved performance, the new Hotmail sports some new features:
- The ability to open, edit and share Word, Excel and Powerpoint files from within Hotmail
- Video from YouTube can be viewed in your inbox
- A “sweep” menu that helps to clear unwanted email from your inbox
- Send up to 10GB of photos in an email without having to worry about attachment limits (files are sent via SkyDrive)
The rollout of the new version did take quite a while (it started back in May), but Hotmail has around 350 million users, and it sounds like Microsoft was careful to take user feedback into account and tweak the product during the rollout — the automatic sign-in to Windows Messenger has been removed, for example.
Let us know what you think of the changes to Hotmail in the comments.
Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Email: The Reports of My Death are Greatly Exaggerated
I find the new Hotmail interface very nice and easy to use.
Of course, I’m an experienced user, so I don’t mind any changes as long as they’re for the better.
However, this also demonstrates the biggest weakness of web-based applications: You have no control !
For less web-savvy users (like my mom) any change is bad, as it forces re-learning…the old Hotmail was perfectly fine for simple use, and this update has probably brought quite a lot of confusion on many users.
Maybe the user-interface change should be “optional” if the change is big ? Maybe as simple as choosing between “Easy” and “Advanced” for usability ? Or “old” and “new” to let people gradually learn it ?
All I know is that I’ll be doing some “family support” over the next days/weeks because of this….
yes, that’s a good point. Some web apps do allow you to revert back to an old interface when they redesign, but in this case there were some underlying changes that probably couldn’t be easily accommodated by the old interface. In those situations, the only way to go is to force everyone to upgrade — which is probably why the option of keeping an old interface is uncommon.
I do not like the current location new memo, reply, forward buttons. They are too far away from the messages. I think it makes more sense to flip the 2 action menus, but that is just my opinion. Users will adapt over time but the initial shock of the change will take some time to adjust to.
That screenshot makes me run away, screaming in horror. It’s a UI nightmare.
Seriously, that’s not a parody of web mail UI? ‘Spiffed-up user interface’? Maybe as long as you have a 20″+ monitor and don’t try to scroll while your mouse pointer is in the wrong spot.
I hope you guys got plenty of juice back for this mention…
I’m quite fond of the changes.
Though, it took me a while to figure out where the ‘delete’ button was moved to. I felt kind of silly afterwards.
I couldn’t find the delete button either, Jay — and if we found it hard I’m sure there are many users who haven’t found it at all!
This is the first upgrade I really don’t like. Totally agree about screenshot being a nightmare.
I opened a new account on it a couple months ago, and I have to say it’s very clean. The screen shot above is not the typical view, just showing full throttle power (like ANY other email isn’t a UI mess when you’ve got it opened at full blast with embedded links, docs, chats, folders etc).
I found the “new” yahoo pushed me over the edge and have been clinging to the classic view.
If you are writing a review based on a screenshot above, you need to do more homework. The shot is misleading, and the opposite of my experience.