Microsoft tries to catch the wave of Web 2.0: the company has announced the worldwide availability of Windows Live Hotmail, the successor to MSN Hotmail. The revamped Hotmail now features Ajax navigation, drag and drop message filing and tighter integration with Outlook. The update brings Hotmail up to speed with its competitors like GMail and Yahoo mail which have offered Ajax-style auto-refreshing and better message sorting options for ages.Other nice additional features include auto-complete addressing, preview pane customization and an integrated Windows Live Messenger for initiating chat conversations.

If the new Hotmail is not your cup of tea, there is still the option to use the old look of MSN Hotmail. There’s also an option to customize the color theme. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a way to avoid losing roughly on third of your vertical screen real estate to the massive banner ads on the page. Hotmail users can now take advantage of 2 GB of storage space, but outside access is still limited to Outlook or Outlook Express. Microsoft says that in the coming months they will offer a new free email client, dubbed Windows Live Mail, which is intended to be a successor to Outlook Express and Windows Mail, that integrates with the new Hotmail. Windows Live Mail will initially be released as a beta, with the final version arriving at some as yet unknown time in the future. The new Hotmail features will certainly be welcome for existing users, but with all of these features and more already available via GMail, it’s hard to see why anyone would feel compelled to start using Hotmail now - I’ll also stick with GMail for now…

Source: Wired, Zdnet