Windows Live Hotmail – an early look at some more improvements to come

re: Windows Live Hotmail – an early look at some more improvements to come

damaster — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:49:41 GMT

@kbhasi: We're all still in Phase 2, slowly progressing towards Phase 3 (as the Windows Live Internet Services slowly get switched on)

re: Windows Live Hotmail – an early look at some more improvements to come

kbhasi — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:52:24 GMT

Can you add dates to the timeline? I think I'm still in Phrase 2.

re: Windows Live Hotmail – an early look at some more improvements to come

damaster — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:25:20 GMT

@cJr: I think currently only Hotmail, Calendar, Spaces, and SkyDrive has the banner ad up the top. Hotmail will be having its ads on the side like shown in the post, hopefully Calendar too, and words has it that Spaces will be totally ads-free. Services like SkyDrive, Groups, Events, Profile...etc will probably be seeing ads as a square banner on the right column, similar to how the current home.services.spaces.live.com has it's ads on the right column (I assume the top banner will be gone).

re: Windows Live Hotmail – an early look at some more improvements to come

edkopp4 — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:09:58 GMT

I'm right there with MellonCollie. I know that the average Hotmail user would never use it or see any use for it, but SSL for the entire session would be awesome. Gmail has had this for a long time, and while it does make the experience a bit slower, the added security is worth it, especially if you're forced to use an unsecured connection like public wifi. This is one feature that could add a lot of credibility to Hotmail for power users while adding one more bullet point to its resume.

Also, I know that Hotmail has been using a banner ad since the beginning of time, but couldn't they use a banner-sized group of text ads instead. They'd certainly look better.

Lastly, I really hope you're right about resizing the banner size. There's absolutely no excuse why someone using an 800x600 screen should have a huge portion of their screen taken up by an ad even though the programmer could resize it quite easily. I know Microsoft wants their ad revenue, but you have to make concessions to the user experience at times. Besides, you'd still be showing the ad. It just wouldn't make your webmail unusable.

re: Windows Live Hotmail – an early look at some more improvements to come

BV2312 — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:47:58 GMT

Does this include push mail?

re: Windows Live Hotmail – an early look at some more improvements to come

MellonCollie — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:38:46 GMT

Any news on whether they're planning on implementing ssl encryption for an entire email session, rather than just the sign-in?

re: Windows Live Hotmail – an early look at some more improvements to come

cJr — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:26:33 GMT

Yes, good ppint orionll! :P

Unless they are all invited into the testing and private betas? I wouldn't blame them, after all, they are here to give us the news :)

I cannot wait for this. Do you know if all the new Wave 3 services are going to have the ad at the side? It makes much more sense!

re: Windows Live Hotmail – an early look at some more improvements to come

orionll — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:19:38 GMT

Why do all of you get Wave 3 :P?

Either way, I can't wait until I get it :)!