Searching in Windows Live Mail

webDotWiz should have mentioned ages ago – well, a week or two ago – that Find in Mail (the search function) now looks through everything, not just the To: and Subject: lines.

Windows Live Mail has 1 million testers

Under the post, YOU are building Windows Live Mail… all 1 million of you!, , the WL Mail team announced they now have one million users testing WL Mail around the globe – and taking notice of our feedback! To quote the team:

 

I can honestly say that YOU are shaping the way that we are building Windows Live Mail.  It is because of YOU that we have built:

• A wizard to help you customize your inbox 
• A horizontal reading pane
• New color schemes
• A way to use check boxes (for your ‘Classic Hotmail’ users)
• One click to empty your junk mail and deleted items
• Contacts picker (Click the “To:” link and select email addresses from your address book)

We built each of these features because YOU asked for them.  Keep the feedback coming!… either through the “Feedback Link” on the Beta Today Page, the surveys we send out, or in worst case, the Opt Out surveys.

Windows Live Mail update Thursday or Friday

Expect an update to Windows Live Mail on Thu (US time so Fri our Aussie time. Haven’t got WL Mail yet? Head over to ideas.live.com and sign up). Courtesy of LiveSide.net here’s a list of new features:

 

· Hotmail classic theme with new improvements and features for browsers other than Internet Explorer 6 or later
· Pick your own colour scheme
· Offline mail and more with Windows Live Mail Desktop client
· New user wizard
· Configurable reading pane, plus toolbar control to change it
· Outlook-like shortcuts
· Contact picker when composing a new message
· Find in contacts via word wheel
· Spaces contact card integration
· Custom filters/rules for incoming mail
· Check for new messages, empty all junk mail, and empty all deleted items buttons
· New OOBE [out of box experience] for first time users to discover new features and change options
· And overall performance improvements.

 

Your mail is here, Windows Live Mail’s Space, spells out in more detail all the new features. Note this little snippet: The next generation of desktop mail is coming!

Windows Live Mail support space

There’s now a support site with answers to frequently asked questions about Windows Live Mail. Many are now using Live Mail so visit http://spaces.msn.com/mail-support/ for hints and tips.

Talking about Sneak Preview: Spell Check As You Type

This new feature will certainly be a time-saver for all of us.

If you want to sign up to try out the new Windows Live Mail, go to

     http://www3.imagine-msn.com/minisites/mail/Default.aspx?locale=en-au

It takes a while before you hear back and get into the trial but it’s worth it in the end.

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Sneak Preview: Spell Check As You Type

  Posted by Imran Qureshi

 

Today I’d like to give you a sneak preview of one the most exciting features we have coming in our next beta refresh of Windows Live Mail(codename:Kahuna): Spell Check As You Type. 

(It was shown in the Windows Live demo on November 1st but you may not have seen it there.)

 

This feature was driven by customers who told us they didn’t like how hard it was to check spelling on the web and wished they could have something closer to desktop applications like Microsoft Word without having to install any software.  Well, we did it!

 

With this feature, you can just start typing in Compose UI and we’ll check spelling in the background and put red squiggles under words that are misspelled.  You can then right-click them and choose from our suggestions, tell us to ignore that word or add the word into the dictionary. 
 

I know what you’re saying.  Big deal, Microsoft Outlook already does that.  Well, we’re the first webmail service I know that does this on the web without installing any software! 

 

In the video below you’ll see the feature in action and meet some of the people who made it happen.

 

Watch the Video of Spell Check As You Type

 

If you are on the Kahuna (Windows Live Mail) beta, you should see this feature very soon in the next beta refresh.  If you are not on the beta, you must go here to add yourself to the waiting list.  (Posting a comment here will NOT get you on the beta).

 

If you have any questions about this feature or other WLM features, you can send me mail at imranxqureshi@hotmail.com (replace "x" with a "."(period) before sending – this is to avoid spammers getting a hold of this address via web crawling).  please do not send me email about getting on the beta – use the web site above.

 

–Imran Qureshi

Windows Live Program Manager

 

 

Overview of the Features of the Hotmail “Kahuna” – Sign up for beta

 Dare is a program manager at Microsoft who is working on the new Hotmail, among other things.

There’s a link at the bottom of this post if you want to join those who are trialling the new Hotmail. You may have to wait a while before getting to use it as the team deploy the trial version around the world.

webDotWiz has requested to join so you’ll sson see a few posts when he gets to use the new trial Hotmail.

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Overview of the Features of the Hotmail "Kahuna" Beta

More info keeps spilling out about the beta of the Hotmail "Kahuna" release. If you go to http://join.msn.com/mailbeta/features, you’ll get an overview of the new features in the next version of Hotmail including screenshots. The list includes

• Reading Pane
• The Info Bar
• Anti-Phishing features
• The wonderful world of right clicking
• Drag and drop
• Address AutoComplete
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Rich text editing
• Storage that grows with you
• Save sent mail

As the saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words. It’s a lot easier to appreciate the work that’s gone into the next version of Hotmail when you actually see it. Even better is using it, so don’t forget to sign up for the beta by going to http://www1.imagine-msn.com/minisites/hotmail/Default.aspx.

Some Hotmail numbers

How would you like to be creating a system to cater for the following amount of users and traffic (and then allowing for future expansion):

 

• ~200 million active users
• 3.3 billion inbound emails a day
• 1.5 billion blocked at the router
• 1.0 billion deleted as spam (never hits the user’s mailbox)
• 0.5 billion sent to the junk folder
• Over 100 million messages sent a day
• 80 – 100 million logins per day
• 5000 peak logins per second

 

 

Pasted from <http://www.redyawning.com/users/hyperionab/Hotmail+at+PDC+2005/blog.aspx?blogid=1507>

Talking about http://mail.start.com

The new Hotmail (codenamed Kahuna) is coming along nicely.

As well as the quote below, take some time to watch the Channel 9 video in the Omar Shahine and team – New Hotmail "Kahuna" thread.

Quote

http://mail.start.com ?

From Omar Shahine’s post mail.start.com we learn

Well, we launched Kahuna Milestone 3 (M3) yesterday with a new URL (http://mail.start.com). We are building Kahuna iteratively, and plan on releasing much goodness on a frequent basis. This is very different from the way that Hotmail and MSN has typically released software, but we feel it’s the best way to achieve success.

As I mentioned recently I’ve been using the Hotmail beta for a while now and it’s a phenomenal improvement over the current version. Below is a screenshot of the beta in action.

If you’d like invites to the beta, you should keep an eye on the Hotmail team’s space. You can also find more screenshots of the Hotmail beta on their space as well.