Ask the Hotmail team anything [and we'll reply via video]

[Gornot]

Can we expect any possible improvements to closing our Windows Live accounts along with Hotmail accounts?

Over the years I have gathered a few accounts that are so full of spam that they're just not usable to me anymore, and the current "270 days" thing definitely isn't an easy solution as Google's click-confirm-delete option.

[DevilsNotDead]

Can we expect any possible improvements to closing our Windows Live accounts along with Hotmail accounts?

Over the years I have gathered a few accounts that are so full of spam that they're just not usable to me anymore, and the current "270 days" thing definitely isn't an easy solution as Google's click-confirm-delete option.

thats one reason why i dont use Hotmail. usability is crap in Hotmail. Gmail has been improving a lot... use that and never turn back to hotmail.

[Athlonite]

And to all those moaning and groaning about spam in your InBox need to set up you filtering to exclusive mode now all that spam will go to the spambox instead

[Xerax]

Y U no metrofy the hotmail web UI?

[articuno1au]

Can you guys tell us anything about the performance orientated work you are doing?

I'm a bit of an MS fan boy (being an ex employee and everything >.>) and I love Hotmail with my WP7, however the performance with Outlook + Hotmail connector and other external sources is pretty moderate at best..

Can you tell us anything about plans for Outlook and hotmail integration? Also, any cool tidbits you can share that you think are cool/awesome?

Awesome idea/work you guys are doing here. It's a good thing for MS and it's users to have things like this happening :)

[sirjay]

First thing, major aesthetic inconvenience:

When logged into Hotmail with a browser window is set at 840px width (common width with a 22inch monitor with two windows side by side) the logout button is cut off from view (all you can see is the availability 'dot) and there is no horizontal scroll. so to log out you have to resize the window (annoying).

next:

Please do not incorporate Facebook 'in any way' into Hotmail, I know Microsoft is heavily invested in Facebook. but I can not be alone in thinking that Facebook is a parasitic leach, that to make its expected profits is going to suck the free internet dry.

and:

I can't wait to see the metro interface for Hotmail................ any day now.. :)

also:

I registered for my main Hotmail account after the '.live.com' domain became available so I could get myname@live.com, do you have plans to add any new domains?

Now the good points:

I use Hotmail to get emails from half a dozen other email provider accounts because Hotmail, I believe, has one of the best spam filters. setting this up is awesomely easy and I am very grateful.

[00000000000000000000000000]

And to all those moaning and groaning about spam in your InBox need to set up you filtering to exclusive mode now all that spam will go to the spambox instead

The feature is so good that it needs to be manually activated due to it's exclusive spam filtering powers!

[Sanjay]

1. Why does Hotmail not support HTML emails via Microsoft Exchange? Why in the world does Hotmail use an obsolete 'active sync' for Hotmail syncing via Microsoft Exchange? The fact that Hotmail does not support HTML emails via Exchange, pretty much makes Hotmail useless on a mobile device. I and many others, specially webOS users, have already switched over or are in the process of switching over to gMail/Yahoo for this reason. It is actually beyond any logic for Microsoft to treat it's own Hotmail in such a step-childish manner.

2. I had a PAID Hotmail account for over TEN years, but I cancelled the account, when I could not send attachments of a certain size with my PAID Hotmail account, whereas I could with my FREE gMail. Can you please explain this.

3. When I cancelled my PAID Hotmail account, I found it strange that Hotmail did not even bother to ask why I was closing the account.

Bottom line is, that it almost seems like someone within Microsoft wants to kill Hotmail.

[Mazhar]

I am a big fan of Hotmail. I have been using Hotmail since 2001. I have a question:

Do you copy from your competitors?

[RevisionZero]

I have been curious for awhile about a few things.

-Why does the Hotmail UI, even after your most recent large update, stagger so far behind in terms of UI? Should Hotmail be on the forefront as far as implementing UI paradigm's in use?

-How are you combating against Gmail now that their web client is amazingly robust and integrated seamlessly with G+, as far as having consistent contact data, phone numbers, address etc? Is there a Facebook integration planned, or maybe I am missing currently?

-What kind of UX / UI research goes into Hotmail? There is a fairly different direction being taken by GMail, I am curious why Hotmail is being conservative in many regards and also why besides many current users, Hotmail has not made more dramatic UX / UI improvements, obviously Windows 8 isnt holding back as far as going completely haywire when it comes to shifting standard UX paradigms.

Thanks for doing this by the way!

[psreloaded]

I personally love the current UI. My only gripe would be the flash ads on the side. text ads would have been better.

Another question I have is that will there be any native outlook support for hotmail like exchange accounts as we got for mobile devices or do we have to use the connector.

[winaxter]

Hi Galileo and Nic. As someone who switched from Hotmail to Gmail, what convincing argument could you use to get me to switch back to Hotmail? Allow me to explain why I switched to Gmail:

-No IMAP support which is a deal breaker right out of the gate. It's 2012 and there's no excuse not to support when Gmail supports it right out of the box.

-Terrible UI. I'm not an interface designer so I can't suggest on how to make it better but Gmail's UI is much more simpler and easier to use.

-Gmail's spam filter is so much better. I've never gotten a single spam e-mail in my Gmail inbox whereas I get spam in my hotmail inbox. Spam that shouldn't be slipping through the filter.

-The name "Hotmail" is seen as unprofessional. I would never put a Hotmail address on a resume or on professional work.

Rebranding can go a long way at improving the reputation since the name "hotmail" has a stigma against it. Why not rebrand it as @office.com and replace the UI with Exchange 2010's Outlook Web Access UI? It would give it a big professional boost, maybe regarded even more professional than Gmail since Office is so widely used.

Had to quote this cause i think its so important and don't want it to get missed, particularly the last point. Hotmail definitely has a negative stigma around its name, and i 100% agree that it is seen as unprofessional. Kevin's suggestion of rebranding to @office.com is extremely good imo, as it's even more well recognized and office software is used by even more people than hotmail (so minimal backlash with huge potential gain). windows live still sounds unprofessional.

Also want to add:

• reduction in size of ads, make them unobtrusive like in gmail
  
• a quick reply box that doesn't need to reload the page (gmail)
  
• be able to change registered country. I've moved to australia and still get redirected to NZ WP marketplace. (more of a live issue)
  
• If i visit hotmail.com i want to view my emails... so make the first page after logon my inbox... not the damn live page!. Its a recurrent theme in hotmail, more button to do the same thing gmail does.
  

Was a long time-time hotmail user until i switched to gmail a few years ago, mainly because of the unprofessional branding around hotmail emails, with IMAP support + bad UI being secondary reasons.

[bobbba]

Please, please, please can we have better Mac/iOS support:

imap

Mac hotmail connector for Mac MS Office

Native Mac Hotmail client

I use a mix of Mac and Windows so the above would kill off the big incentive for choosing hotmail alternatives.

[Mockingbird]

Why can't we have @bing.com email addresses?

The @hotmail.com seems to have a stigma associated with it. (and @live.com doesn't make much sense anymore)

Besides, this will also help you to promote Bing.

Windows Live Search > Bing Search

Windows Live Hotmail > Bing Mail ???

[Grinch]

I have three questions but not sure if they will get answered. Truthfully are the only ones I can think of.

1. With the launch of the "Mail" app with Windows 8 Consumer Preview, how far will Microsoft/The Hotmail Team be tying the two together? I'm curious of the kind of integration we will see between the two. Right now the Mail app doesn't make use of notifications which is no fun. :(

2. Will we ever see a time where there isn't @live, @msn, @hotmail and just one @(name) for Microsoft's email service? Hope these make sense! :)

3. Will we ever see a similar feature to Gmail's calling service integrated into Hotmail or something similar in the future? It'd make a great thing to use with Windows 8. << The question I really want an answer to.

[-Alex-]

How much would you pay to buy GMail from Google? :p

[Mockingbird]

How much would you pay to buy GMail from Google? :p

0 USD

[Mockingbird]

What do you consider some of the defining features of Hotmail that set you apart from your competitors such as Gmail?

* Integration with SkyDrive, Office Web Apps.

* 10GB attachment limit

* Active view of YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, and USPS

[cybermage]

First, let me tell you that I'm quite happy with my Hotmail account. But there are a couple of things...

- I'd like to see a more "grown-up" theme, i.e. a quiet, subdued color scheme

- I'm all for two-step verification -- I'm a teacher, and while I'm regularly congratulated by my students for my "save password", I'd feel so much more secure with this :-)

- I use an Android phone, installed the Hotmail app (by Microsoft/Seven), but syncing between the phone and Hotmail Calendar does not work. This is a real shame, because I had to go back to Google Calendar because of this issue.

- Customized fonts for _plaintext_ e-mails (I don't like Tahoma, or whatever it is) would be nice

- I'd love to be able to change the reply headers

- Discardable e-mail addresses (like, for example, Yahoo)

[LandGator]

Why, when I try to recover one of my accounts, do I get an email from Windows Live ID Customer Support which, when I click on the link, tells me THIS LINK IS EXPIRED ? Why, why I was recovering another of my accounts, did Windows Live ID Customer Support send me a message telling me to go to a link which has me start all over, putting me in a permanent loop? Why, unlike Yahoo, is there no telephone support to recover an email account? Windows Live ID Customer Support doesn't support your customers, and IMHO is the real reason why people flee your service.

[throwawar679]

I am a big fan of Hotmail. I have been using Hotmail since 2001. I have a question:

Do you copy from your competitors?

what kind of question is that? of course they do, and i bet you gmail will start copying hotmail on several aspects soon, because hotmail is starting to get features gmail doesn't have.

it's not BAD that they copy, at least they're improving and "keeping up". what's important is they innovate as well, and with the new instant action buttons and flagged messages always being on top (or not, there's an option to disable the feature), hotmail is innovating in some ways

[BumbleBritches57]

**** Hotmail, it's pretty simple actually.

[throwawar679]

**** Hotmail, it's pretty simple actually.

naw, it's actually pretty good now.

[BumbleBritches57]

* Integration with SkyDrive, Office Web Apps.

* 10GB attachment limit

* Active view of YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, and USPS

Lol, Office webapps, bro, Office is dead, Google Docs is all most anyone needs, and it's online, and FREE. face it, Microsoft is obsolete.

naw, it's actually pretty good now.

Yeah, I have a hotmail, only one, and all my other accounts are newer and GMail, gmail's better, and whats with that bull**** messenger popping up all the time? can Microsoft focus on one area and getting that **** well (Hopefully their OS, because most everyone is stuck with that stupid buggy bull**** of an OS, and yes I have Windows 7.) Why do they put 3 people in a room, and tell them to compete with the now obsolete AIM? it's just distracting and obnoxious.

Please, please, please can we have better Mac/iOS support:

imap

Mac hotmail connector for Mac MS Office

Native Mac Hotmail client

I use a mix of Mac and Windows so the above would kill off the big incentive for choosing hotmail alternatives.

iOS 5 FINALLY supports Hotmail, I suspect Apple made them agree to allowing iOS sync when they commissioned Microsoft to use Azure for iCloud.

[still1]

what kind of question is that? of course they do, and i bet you gmail will start copying hotmail on several aspects soon, because hotmail is starting to get features gmail doesn't have.

it's not BAD that they copy, at least they're improving and "keeping up". what's important is they innovate as well, and with the new instant action buttons and flagged messages always being on top (or not, there's an option to disable the feature), hotmail is innovating in some ways

like?? give me 2 example that hotmail has which gmail doesnt.

Dont say flagging message is a hotmail only thing.. gmail had it for years and its called starring..