Hot or Live, It's No Longer Beta

Microsoft launched Windows Live Hotmail overnight. I'm still no fan of the name. I don't think Microsoft made the right branding choice here, but that's a topic well covered in an older post.

Before critiquing Microsoft's Webmail approach, I'll praise the great progress. The new Hotmail is modern in a way the old version is antique. The antique look will remain for those folks wanting it, but at least Microsoft has moved the user interface forward for everyone else.

The big news isn't what's here today, but what's coming in the future. Microsoft will release two major Live Mail—I'm rebelliously using old, new name—in the coming weeks. The first add-on, or "Connector," would allow fetching of Live Mail in Outlook 2003 or 2007. The second is a new, beta Live Mail desktop client, which will have some interesting effect on Windows Vista.

Before discussing the Outlook Connector or Windows Live Mail client, it would be useful to review Hotmail's protocol evolution. MSN Hotmail used the WebDAV protocol for server-based e-mail, which made sense in the late 1990s. But standards POP3 and, to a much lesser degree, IMAP, came to dominate instead. The other protocols allow, from the end user's perspective, more fluidity of services, which may not always be desirable by the e-mail provider. I can fetch GMail in Outlook, because of POP3 support. But Hotmail—or Live Hotmail—is largely bound to Microsoft technologies.

When Microsoft launched Live Mail in beta, executives boasted about building a new, 21st-century e-mail service. Fine, but where are the new millennium e-mail protocols? In too many ways, Live Hotmail is so dead protocol approach.

On Thursday, I spoke with Paul Major, Microsoft's director of Windows Live Hotmail. He said that, at this time, Microsoft had no announcement coming about e-mail interoperability (he didn't use that word). I suggested that Microsoft take an approach similar to Yahoo: Charge for POP3 e-mail. For people who want their Webmail on the desktop, Yahoo charges $25 a year.

WebDAV continues to be a barrier to interoperability, but Live's implementation does offer some end user benefits. Microsoft's evolution of WebDAV is the DeltaSync protocol, which will be more fully supported under the new Hotmail service. Using the new Outlook Connector, end users will have near full, two-way synchronization between Outlook and Live Hotmail. Inbox, e-mail folders and contacts can be synched between the desktop and the Webmail account.

Brooke Richardson, product manager for Windows Live Hotmail, said that DeltaSync is "good for big e-mail" files because there's "no full synch every time." Only changed items are synchronized.

Two major benefits to synchronization: Microsoft would encourage some switching to Live Hotmail. The approach resonates with Microsoft's "software plus services" concept.

But in too typical Microsoft fashion, the approach is singular. DeltaSync is a proprietary Microsoft protocol for which I could find no published information. It would seem that Microsoft's idea of 21st-century e-mail is evolution of proprietary technologies, which butts against the more standards approach to consumer e-mail.

Windows Live Mail
The other upcoming release is a new, beta Live Hotmail desktop client, dubbed simply Windows Live Mail. The software will mark a fundamental directional shift—and, yes, a good one.

Major described Windows Live Mail as "the one e-mail client we will be innovating on going forward," meaning consumer e-mail and not referring to Outlook. That means Vista, too. Windows Mail's successor will essentially be the new Live Hotmail client, which makes lots of sense.

There was some blog chatter earlier today about Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Live Mail client as creating confusion around Vista's Windows Mail client. I see the opposite: The new client will do away with confusion. Right now, Microsoft has too many e-mail clients: Live Mail Desktop, Outlook, Outlook Express and Windows Mail (part of Vista).

The real confusion came more from Microsoft releasing an Outlook Express replacement in Windows Vista, while separately developing a mail client for Hotmail. Too many mail clients would be too much trouble for end users and and for Microsoft. The new approach, of folding Windows Mail into the new Live client development—and before there is massive Vista development—makes a whole lot of sense.

Microsoft would do right by its customers by replacing Windows Mail for Windows Live Mail in Vista sometime in the near future.

The Windows Live Mail naming convention makes sense, even if the branding doesn't exactly synch with Windows Live Hotmail. The client lies somewhere between Windows Mail and Windows Live Hotmail, and so the client's nomenclature is fitting.

Windows Live Mail also directionally foreshadows continued integration between Windows Vista and Live services. Windows Live Mail also will tap into more services in the cloud. A new feature will let end users send photo mail that includes a thumbnail in the message and store a higher-resolution on a Microsoft server. The recipient would be pull down the higher-quality photo after receiving the e-mail.

In baffling move, at this time, the new Windows Live Mail won't provide importing from other e-mail clients. Microsoft should want to make it as easy as possible to switch people over. Built-in e-mail import would greatly facilitate migration from other software or services.

Changes are coming, and they're further indications Microsoft is expanding Live's reach and integration across products. But Microsoft still isn't marching to the beat of Internet time. Hop to it.

Note: This story was updated with new information, from a follow-up Microsoft interview. We requested clarification about Windows Live Mail and were informed that the information we were given on Live Hotmail synchronization was outdated.

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• Who Shot Windows Live?, Microsoft Watch, March 8, 2007
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• What Is Microsoft's Services Platform?, Microsoft Watch, March 1, 2007
• Ray Ozzie Speaks Out, Microsoft Watch, Feb. 27, 2007
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