LiveSide - Interview Blog : Hotmail

Windows Live 2009: Omar Shahine part 2 – People in Windows Live

Kip Kniskern — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 06:46:00 GMT

While Omar Shahine has been kind enough to talk to us (twice) about POP3 support in Hotmail, it’s not really what he works on. Omar has been busy down in Mountain View, California, working on Hotmail, and the People features in Windows Live Wave 3. In the second part of our chat with him, he gives us a quick overview of the new features in Wave 3 dealing with people. Omar explains that contacts updates are now automatically “dynamic” (before Wave 3 it required an opt in), so that when you update information in your profile the people you give permission to access that info will be kept up to date.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

In the next few weeks we should be seeing some new stuff in Hotmail: POP3 access of course; web messenger, and even a few surprises. Keep an eye out, and of course keep checking back with us here at LiveSide!

Hotmail POP3 access on the way: Omar Shahine explains

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 04:12:00 GMT

We spent the day today (Jan 13) on campus, talking to some of the people who have helped to bring you Wave 3. In quite a coincidence, one of them was Omar Shahine, who we spoke to last fall when POP3 access was announced. We’ll bring you more from Omar coming up, but we wanted to get this bit out on POP3 now while the news is fresh. Funnily enough, Omar doesn’t actually work on POP, although he has been working on Hotmail, and more recently on some of the social networking aspects of Windows Live, specifically People and Profiles. We just happened to catch him, twice, right when there were POP announcements.

Last night we reported that users in the Netherlands were accessing their Hotmail via POP3 (as Omar explains in the video, POP is a kind of lowest common denominator for email retrieval. It isn’t nearly as rich an experience as DeltaSync, which is what Windows Live Mail and Outlook use, but it does allow just about any email client – including most notably the iPhone – to access Hotmail), and we’ve since seen reports of access in the UK and in Australia. If you’re waiting for POP access, perhaps for your iPhone, you shouldn’t have to wait long. And if you are able to access POP for the first time in your region, let us know in the comments.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

(Our friend Arnout Hemel posted on Hotmail access in the Netherlands on the LiveLog blog today – it’s in Dutch but you can play with Windows Live Translator)

In the next few days, we’ll be posting the rest of our chat with Omar and our other interviews, just as soon as we can get the videos processed and posted. Thanks to everyone for a fun day!

POP3 on Hotmail Explained: we talk to Omar Shahine

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:14:00 GMT

POP3, a protocol for getting email from a server to a client, has been around a long time, but it hasn't been generally available for Hotmail users. With the advent of so many different devices (think iPhone), however, a POP3 story is in the process of being added so that users of Hotmail will be able to access their mail through POP3.

Omar Shahine, a Lead Program Manager for Hotmail, announced this somewhat esoteric advance recently on the Windows Live Hotmail blog, and when I was in Mountain View for Searchification, I was able to take a few minutes and talk to Omar about POP3.

With the help of Waggener Edstrom, we found the noisiest room in all of Mountain View (I think we were actually inside the air conditioning system) - just kidding, Jim!, and talked to Omar about Hotmail and POP.

Chapter 1 - Omar introduces himself
Chapter 2 - Why doesn't Hotmail offer POP currently, and why is it needed?
Chapter 3 - Why DeltaSync is desirable
Chapter 4 - Hotmail has always had a POP interface
Chapter 5 - We want to give POP to everybody
Chapter 6 - POP isn't a fantastic user experience
Chapter 7 - iPhone
Chapter 8 - IMAP
Chapter 9 - MSN Premium

(if you don't have Silverlight, you can get the .mp3 here):

LiveSide with Omar Shahine POP.mp3

Windows Live Hotmail rolls out: our interview with Omar Shahine and Ellie Powers-Boyle

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 12:54:00 GMT

Windows Live Hotmail, a completely rebuilt web based mail client set to replace MSN Hotmail, started its rollout to selected markets this week. This morning, I talked on the phone with two members of the Windows Live Hotmail team from their offices in Mountain View, California. Omar Shahine and Ellie Powers-Boyle have been working on "Kahuna" since 2004, and we talked about the code base, the beta, performance, and more.

Omar and Ellie introduce themselves	00:00
Hotmail signup has a new code base, too	01:45
Initial reports on the first stages of the rollout	03:08
What the user will see and what they won't see but will notice	04:19
Balancing performance and features	08:55
A new code base positions WL Hotmail to compete	12:50
Ellie talks about a unique beta	16:49
Windows Live Calendar and @live.com accounts: I had to ask	23:27

Download and listen to the 10mb .mp3