Microsoft's new Outlook - first impressions

- Vinayak Hegde

Hotmail ain't hot anymore. At least that is what the boffins at the Microsoft labs seem to think. My first impressions of what Microsoft sees as the future of email - the newly-rolled-out Outlook.

Two questions that immediately come to mind -

a) What was wrong with the brand 'hotmail'?

b) Isn't Outlook that desktop program?

Microsoft and Hotmail have an intensely love-hate relationship. The customers seem to like Hotmail just fine, but with the advent of Gmail (and the subsequent mass migration to that mail service) Microsoft seems to be convinced that part of the problem is the fact that their mail is called 'Hotmail'.

Presumably they feel it doesn't sound corporate-y enough.

(This is not their first attempt to kill 'hotmail'. Does anyone remember the 'Live.in')