Microsoft Not Dropping Hotmail Name

EveryNickIsTaken writes "CNET News.com is reporting that despite planning for months to ditch the name 'Hotmail' for 'Windows Live Mail,' Microsoft will keep the Hotmail name, renaming the service 'Windows Live Hotmail.' Along with the slight name change, MS will be modifying the interface to look more like Outlook's GUI."

Re:ironic

[Anonymous Coward]

"Hotmail" always struck me as sounding related to porn. Anyone else get this reaction ?

woo hoo 200 megabytes of mail space

[Anonymous Coward]

Gmail's available for everyone now, has more space and better spam protection. Why would anyone except for legacy users still be using Hotmail?

Hotmails Interface is teh suck

[Frogbert]

I haven't used my Hotmail account in a long while, but the final straw of their ad-laden interface was the stupid "Today" tab. It was the first thing that showed up when you logged in. Why the hell would I be going to Hotmail unless it was to check my email? My Inbox is the first thing I should see, not the crappy "Today" tab that as far as I can tell is just there to get an extra ad impression.

Now I have gmail and it is all business, I log in and see my emails. No extra clicking and I don't even notice the ads.

Re:related: Live ID/Hotmail for Office 2007

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Reading the Office 2007 Activation FAQ [microsoft.com], I find no mention of windows "live" or passport.

And your Original Post said:

it is a pain for me trying to install the new Office on all my customers' computers,

I find it very hard to believe that you've installed a retail version of Office 2007 on multiple "customers" (mom?). If you had you'd know the retail version does not require a windows live account.

Offtopic. I bet you've never seen or had your nickname.

Re:woo hoo 200 megabytes of mail space

[illuminatedwax]

Actually, this legacy user stopped going to the page itself because I could see my Inbox from my MSN Messenger account and I never got anything but spam - and after 15 days they promptly deleted all my messages. 10 years of archived emails, LOST. FOREVER.

Of course I didn't go back, because I was seriously getting about 4 times as much spam in my inbox as the "spam box" - and believe me, I did thousands of messages worth of "training" Hotmail. I just don't think they care about filtering spam. Now I use gmail, and I get about 1 spam a day sneaking in (usually with no actual advertising content), which is a 99% success rate, with only 2 false positives in the entire history of my email account.

I don't see why anyone would use Hotmail over Gmail, period.

Re:But google-mail doesn't have folders :-(

[Miseph]

Really? I think they're great. You can use them just like folders, except that you can put any number of labels on a given email; it's like putting the same thing in every folder you might want to look for it. same with contact groups.

Not flamebaiting here, just putting it out there.

Re:Live Mail beta

[dosius]

I hardly use my gmail, I just feed it into my regular local mailbox with fetchmail.

Still, nice to have if I need it (as when I was stuck on dialup for a week).

-uso.

Branding run amok

[Overly Critical Guy]

This was obviously brought to you by the same people who gave us seven versions of Vista with names that are made up of at least four words. Ballmer (a marketing guy) and his marketing demons wanted to tie into their new Windows Live brand, but they didn't want to lose the brand value of Hotmail, so they just grafted them together with no thought given to aesthetic or marketability. Windows Live Hotmail? It looks and sounds stupid.

"Hey, guys, I'm using Windows Live Hotmail in Windows Internet Explorer on Windows Vista Home Premium Edition! REVEL IN THE BRANDING!"