Introduction

I got invited to test Windows Live Mail a few weeks. ago. The “Live” series is an initiative by Microsoft to bring the next generation of enhancements to its online set of tools. Here is a review of what’s available so far.

Clicking on any image in this review will open a new window with the full sized image. Some images have not been edited to reduce their dimensions or blank content in order to show the amount of white and blank space Microsoft has put into the new interface.

Beta Test

I tested Windows Live Mail Beta in both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox browsers. This review is a very brief, nontechnical review that gives an idea of what the majority of the users will see when they use the product right now. To keep technical details to a minimum, I’m going to mention one thing: every page is a frameset, just the way Microsoft loves it.

Main interface

In Internet Explorer, almost every page loaded within 3-4 seconds. However, some pages did seem to be loading slower than the current traditional Hotmail interface. The main “Today” page seen in Windows Live Mail is a bit cleaner than the current “Today” screen that you see in Hotmail, which is cluttered with advertisements. At this moment, the front page sports three advertisements; on on the top of the page, one in the left hand panel, and one in the right hand panel. At this time, for obvious reasons, all the ads point to different Windows Live Mail pages, such as using Windows Live Mail on cell phones.

Emails are displayed mainly in a 3 column/pan preview; the left most column shows the names of the folders, the middle column shows the sender and the subject of the emails, and the right column shows the message itself. Options to delete a message, reply to a message or other standard functions available for common email handling are available above each of these columns. Emails loaded at different speeds, sometimes faster than Hotmail, and sometimes slower.

Moving & replying to emails

Moving a message to a folder was easy; you simply click and drag any email listed in the middle column and drop it onto any folder. That is probably the coolest feature Microsoft is sporting in this new beta right now; everything else is something that you’ve already seen in other email services.

Replying to emails was almost as easy as Hotmail; you click on “Reply” and you start typing your response. The rich-text editing option is enabled by default at this moment, and cannot be turned off. Also, there are many options that aren’t enabled and can’t be enabled. For example, you can only view 14 emails on one page at this time; the option to increase or decrease that number has not been enabled.

Calendar & Contacts

The Calendar looks a lot similar to the previous calendar, with tasks, notes and alarms working the same way as before.

The address book, or “Contacts” as Microsoft wishes to call it, is a little bit different, and a lot cleaner than before. As you can see from the snapshot below, each contact can be clicked on and their details seen from the same page. It’s much easier now to maintain a decent looking and cleaner address book, compared to before.

Searching through emails

Searching for mail was something that was frustrating; like Hotmail, Windows Live Mail still thinks the 90’s was cool in terms of searching emails and thus limits your search results to the terms found only in the subject and email addresses. This is probably the least powerful search engine, for emails, when compared to Google Gmail and Yahoo Mail. Search results, if any are found, are shown in the same way normal emails are shown: in the 3-columns preview.

Compatibility with other browsers

Windows Live Mail works fully, with whatever feature set it currently has, in Internet Explorer only. For Mozilla Firefox or other browser users, a message is shown telling them that not all features for your browser have been built yet. Microsoft insists on its help pages that you download and use the latest version of Internet Explorer, which isn’t surprising.

Related features

There’s a feedback page where you can offer your opinion or submit a bug you’ve noticed. You can also see a list of submitted questions on that page. At this moment, however, the page is showing only 4 submitted questions so far which have been answered by Microsoft; it seems that only the questions that Microsoft tends to address are displayed on that page. Thus your question may or may not end up on the list of things that need to be fixed.

It’s not clear yet as to how Microsoft will change the current pricing of the upgrades available for Hotmail users. At the moment, $19.95 yearly gets you a 2GB inbox. The Windows Live Mail Beta gives that much mail space for free, so expect a change or two coming your way if you are a subscriber to any of their upgrade plans. You’ll still see advertisements in Windows Live Mail, so paying extra fees may be an incentive for many to reduce the strain on their eyes.

One thing I’ve noticed lately is the addition of a counter on the main “Live Ideas” page that tells the users how many invitations they have left. I don’t have any invitations yet that I can give away, so I’m assuming this feature is still being developed.

Conclusion

You can always opt out of the beta and go back to the traditional Hotmail interface, if you wish. I’m using the traditional interface for my main hotmail account, while testing the Live Mail interface for my secondary hotmail account. At the moment, the changes coming into the Hotmail interface seem to be in response to the growing competition. Also, because of the background scripting, slower machines and different browsers may load the pages slowly, even though Internet Explorer and Firefox rendered some pages really fast.

With faster pages, more options to customize the user interface, and compatibility with different browsers, Windows Live Mail may help Microsoft stand up to the stiff competition for a while until something completely innovative comes along the way, either from Microsoft or from others.