re-heated mail

I don't think I know anyone who uses Hotmail. Except for myself, that is. And it's a well kept secret so don't go telling everyone this. I think the only mail I get there is tons of spam and a trivia newsletter I'd signed up for ten years ago.

So I was in a habit of dismissively signing in every week diligently to catch up on the trivia and clear up my inbox. Until I noticed they had a brand new flashy (or is it ajaxy?) UI.

Surprisingly the UI was fast - faster than Hotmail had every been. It was neat and very intuitive. The one thing I didn't like was the huge Windows Live banner right on top taking up precious real estate. But ofcourse, Microsoft is driven more by marketing than product development.

And I found it much better than the new Yahoo Mail. And faster. Some one should take the Yahoo Mail API and teach those guys a lesson.

Perhaps Microsoft will finally find its feet on the web in an old fiefdom - user interfaces. They'll need to make their software smarter and faster though.