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October 10, 2005

Hotmail expanding Kahuna Beta

Michael Arrington

68 comments »

Microsoft’s new ajax Hotmail client, called Kahuna, is massively expanding its beta group today, to approximatley 200,000 users. Until today the beta was extremely difficult to get into, frustrating some hotmail users.

We’ve been beta testing Kahuna for a few weeks. It is a big improvement on the old Hotmail interface, using ajax to provide a much more Outlook-like email experience. Features include a three-pane view and drag and drop functionality to folders, etc.

We previously wrote about Kahuna on August 16, 2005 and August 24, 2005.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Monday, October 10th, 2005 at 9:42 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. _Del.Real.

    October 10th, 2005 at 11:45 am

    This is gonna be great, with Hotmail and new Yahoo! the other 90% of users will know (get used to) new technologies.

  2. pako

    October 10th, 2005 at 10:31 pm

    please one invitation

    pako_tobias@hotmail.com

  3. Michael Arrington

    October 10th, 2005 at 10:46 pm

    Sorry Pako, I don’t give out invites. I just write about this stuff. :-)

  4. simon.he

    November 27th, 2005 at 5:21 am

    I think that it’s convince for the end users to exchange information with MSN in his software system by Kahuna .

  5. simon.he

    November 27th, 2005 at 5:22 am

    But I want to replace the skin on the performance of the Kahuna,

  6. german leon

    November 29th, 2005 at 9:36 am

    i want to test the nwe hotmail beta,thanks for an invitation.

  7. one of dem smarter people

    December 21st, 2005 at 5:52 pm

    he isnt giving out invites the more you ask the more he is going to say no

  8. Guy

    January 17th, 2006 at 9:57 pm

    Sure he will, you just have to keep requesting. Don’t give in, there’s plenty for everyone!

  9. Saira

    January 18th, 2006 at 10:45 pm

    please anybody Invite me for Windows Live Mail Beta
    I’ll be very thankful to him/her
    My HOtmail email is

    deena_492@hotmail.com

    ok bye…take care…i hope someone will send it to me.

  10. rhona

    January 29th, 2006 at 11:18 am

    i tried hotmail beta and it drove me crazy. i turned back to old hotmail.
    buut it did look better.

  11. Holly

    February 23rd, 2006 at 9:26 am

    I have been using the beta hotmail for a couple of weeks now and I hate it. The screen size for reading emails has shrunk down to peanut size due to the advertising space on the right hand of the page. If anyone knows how to turn off this waste of space please let me know. It is irritating to have to use the bottom scroll bar to read my mail.

  12. daisy

    March 1st, 2006 at 6:49 pm

    it´s ok
    i need

  13. ed

    March 10th, 2006 at 6:47 pm

    help!!, how do I turn my hotmail back to the old one,I don’t like the new one I can’t read my mail, & don’t like it at all it’s to small. don’t like it help please. Ed

  14. Stephen

    March 15th, 2006 at 9:35 am

    As above…..it’s terrible….can someone please tell me (and those above) how to switch back!!!!!!!

  15. Kevin

    March 17th, 2006 at 7:40 pm

    Please can I have an invitation to try Hotmail BETA. My email is sayft@hotmail.com

    Thanks..

  16. Mike

    March 27th, 2006 at 6:49 am

    Why are you asking for invites. Go the the microsoft homepage. If you search enough, you can sign up for an invite.

  17. rikhav

    March 29th, 2006 at 12:54 pm

    if anyone have the Hotmail beta invitation plz. plz. plz. do send me mrikhav@hotmail.com.

    thanx in advance

  18. Ms In Love

    April 5th, 2006 at 6:45 pm

    hey i was woundering could you give me an invite to msn beta :Kahuna

  19. Martinus

    April 6th, 2006 at 1:59 am

    Hi, I’ve got the beta version. The layout is nicer, but no real tangible improvements have been made. The main point now is that I don’t have access anymore to my beta-hotmail-account. I would prefer to have the old-version back so that I can enjoy something that is working again…

  20. Peter

    April 8th, 2006 at 1:30 am

    Well guys, I’ve actually just learned about the Hotmail Beta, and all I can say is that our friends at Microsoft appearently DID wake up when Google launched their GMail beta. From what I’ve seen from snapshots this kahuna-thing looks like an ads-version of outlook express, which we all have WITHOUT the ads, and their other big *new* stuff??

    -2GB –> GMail had it from the start
    -address auto-complete? –> as above

    what they still don’t have:
    Google’s kick-ass email-search tools.

    Soooo my final verdict:
    Get a GMail account. You’ll never want to use Hotmail again.

    kind regards,
    Peter
    NED

  21. Christine

    April 9th, 2006 at 4:22 am

    Ergh. Does anyone feel kind enough to tell me how to get the old hotmail back?
    I’m pretty sure I read it somewhere, but I forgot.

  22. Tawny

    April 9th, 2006 at 11:23 am

    I hate this Beta crap! I want to switch back!

  23. nelson

    April 11th, 2006 at 11:44 am

    i want to test the nwe hotmail beta

  24. Keith

    April 15th, 2006 at 9:20 pm

    Instructions to opt out:

    http://spaces.msn.com/mail-support/blog/cns!A41CEE528F101345!232.entry

  25. lorie

    April 24th, 2006 at 4:52 pm

    I do not like the beta window hotmail I would like go back to the hotmail

  26. lorie

    April 24th, 2006 at 4:53 pm

    I do not like the beta window hotmail I would like go back to the hotmail what more can I say

  27. cheyenne

    April 30th, 2006 at 11:28 pm

    beta version in interface of my mail

  28. fraser

    May 9th, 2006 at 3:56 pm

    i tried the Beta but didnt like it. Too slow loading up, and other issues. When i went back to ‘regular’ hotmail all my contacts are gone!
    NOT HAPPY! So i send them a message to report this issue & all they do is send me links to FAQ’s. Useless customer support. I hate hotmail.

  29. Sylvia

    May 9th, 2006 at 8:46 pm

    Your new windows live beta hotmail will not work for me. How do I to back to the old hotmail. I hate this.

  30. Mark

    May 9th, 2006 at 9:31 pm

    I agree, if Bill Gates wants to be paranoid about gmail, or Yahoo’s , he should be. They are far superior. I am sorry I thought that in 2006 they could improve an otherwise wonderfully simple and semi streamline design.

    I will be using gmail from here on out.

  31. winny

    May 10th, 2006 at 7:00 am

    How can i get back to old hotmail.
    i can’t get my account by beta hotmail

  32. Pireyan

    May 10th, 2006 at 11:26 pm

    I’ve tried this beta version. It’s terrible slow and even I dont know how to go back to my old version of Hotmail account. If anybody knows about it please let me know.

    There are some good features in this beta version. But due to the slow loading time, I cannot accept the new beta.

  33. www.morewinz.com

    May 10th, 2006 at 11:29 pm

    There are many good features. But due to this slow loading, we couldnt accept the beta version.

    The old version of hotmail is far better than any others.

    Please let me know how to get back to my old hotmail account features.

    http://www.morewinz.com

  34. natasha

    May 12th, 2006 at 6:18 pm

    this new bata is a whole waste of my time. i just want to go back to my old hotmail pleaseeeee tell me how to get it back

  35. Katie

    May 16th, 2006 at 4:17 am

    I have lost all of my contacts. I didnt like beta mail, went back to the old hotmail and they were all gone. I know they are there somewhere because when i send an email it then tells me that the email address is already a contact… I also cant add new ones, it comes up with an error… I have emailed mircosoft customer support they say they are working on it & its a known issue… does anyone know if this will be fixed…..?????? Please help

  36. Rob

    May 25th, 2006 at 4:32 am

    Used Msn Mail beta then returned to Hotmail all contacs were gone
    just advising of this bug ….!!!!!If you dont like MSN BETA copy all your contacs before returning to Hotmail!!!!

  37. Rob

    May 25th, 2006 at 4:39 am

    IAM PISSED OFFFFFF SO F^&*)($@#$) MAD!! I had contacs from at least 10 years back…. C what happens when you get these stupid emails to change !!!!!
    Now what is Msn going to do to fix this before millions of people loose all there contacs…I think it was done on perpose to many people emailing for free!

  38. Yelena

    May 27th, 2006 at 12:52 am

    Thanks, CulturedStar, the only link which hepled was http://mobile.msn.com/hm/folder.aspx - thanks a million, only there i could find all my contacts, too bad i can’t switch off to the old version! Can’t find “options” and can’t follow the instructions to escape from that awful Beta.
    Yelena from Russia

  39. justin

    May 31st, 2006 at 6:21 am

    hey i signed up for the beta and i cant chack my mail either what happened

  40. jon

    June 1st, 2006 at 3:56 am

    Hotmail beta is rubbish…. for a plthrum of reasons, mainly it does not work.I can’t even sende mail… a fairly important function for any emailing service. How do I go back to the old hotmail…. you know the one that actually worked…. etiher that or i’m going to google.

  41. Shyamkumar

    June 10th, 2006 at 9:27 pm

    Please invite me for using beta
    shyamkrg@hotmail.com

  42. maha

    July 12th, 2006 at 10:34 pm

    how could i go back to the old hotmail

    thank you

  43. Rajeev

    July 22nd, 2006 at 8:41 pm

    Dear Friends,
    I have seen your comments and most agree to the point that they want to go back to old version hotmail. This is rediculous, because the new version much better, much faster and easy to handle. the only problem is that it uses activex and if your browser disables activex, then you cannot work on it. So before criticizing bluntly, do your homework first. Make sure that the new version runs on your computer. Also I don’t understand how you can compare this with outlook express, we could say it is similar to Microsoft Outlook, surely not outlook express.
    Rajeev

  44. Alice

    July 28th, 2006 at 6:39 pm

    Hotmail and Yahoo are the best…

    Also, if you use the premium paid service and you get your mail using pop3, don’t forget to back it up in Outlook Express or Ms Outlook every once in a while.

    I used to do it manually by saving the .dbx files, until I found Outlook Express Backup Genie that does it automatically at regular times.

    I choused it over other because it can work with both MS Outlook and Outlook Express

    Alicia

  45. Karl

    August 19th, 2006 at 8:43 am

    Hallo i want to test te new Windows Live Mail Beta!
    Please send me a invitation to my Hotmail mail adresse:
    rolando666_13@hotmail.com
    thanks

  46. thana

    August 21st, 2006 at 9:12 pm

    How do I get back the old version of hotmail. i do not know how to use the

    new Windows Live Mail Beta and not interested to learn!!!! help please

  47. Sharon Harkay

    September 3rd, 2006 at 8:09 am

    HELP!!!!! I can’t stand the new version of Hotmail and I’m missing out on my messages. How do I return to the old version???

  48. irfan shah

    October 1st, 2006 at 12:46 am

    how i can convert from old hotmail to new beta version.

  49. kado

    October 7th, 2006 at 3:39 pm

    i would like to try the beta version

  50. aditya

    October 23rd, 2006 at 2:32 am

    i want to go back to the old hotmail as i cannot adjust to this one can you get me back i know this one is very good but i still want to return please tell me the way to return to the old hotmail
    my username is tat is my id = aditya_bairagra29@hotmail.com
    please tell me the way or you just shift me back to the old hotmail pleseeeeeeeeeee i beg of you to do this

  51. cindy steffey

    November 5th, 2006 at 7:14 pm

    pleas switch me back to regular hotmail

  52. Peace :D

    November 6th, 2006 at 4:32 pm

    how do u switch back to the old msn?
    i hate this new one.

  53. gene a west

    November 16th, 2006 at 3:40 am

    take bata out and out it where the sun don’t shine

  54. Katie

    November 16th, 2006 at 3:20 pm

    I WANT TO GET OUT OF BETA!! please help me if you can! post a website or something that can get rid of beta!

  55. bob

    November 18th, 2006 at 3:35 am

    i love beta but how do u get it

  56. Nat

    November 22nd, 2006 at 7:54 pm

    So all these posts, but no one is explaining how to go back, from beta to the old hotmail. If you know, please post instructions. Is it even possible?

  57. barry

    November 27th, 2006 at 10:17 pm

    i want my old hotmail back

  58. fordo

    November 28th, 2006 at 7:40 am

    Would someone kindly invite me to the Beta test.
    fordianews@hotmail.com

  59. hatem

    December 6th, 2006 at 10:52 pm

    i want my old hotmail back the bata is not well with me

  60. rooda

    December 20th, 2006 at 12:02 am

    i want my old hotmail back the bata is not well with me .

  61. Abdullah

    December 24th, 2006 at 2:22 am

    i want to Go back In The Old Version

  62. Hassan

    January 6th, 2007 at 9:30 am

    If anybody know how to go back to old version of hotmail. I dont like beta.

  63. oly

    January 6th, 2007 at 9:04 pm

    the gamil-beta is not good at all, the full screen made the fonts much smaller and hard to read.

    anybody knows how to switch back to the non-beta version of gmail?

    thanks a lot,

  64. Reva Petri

    February 5th, 2007 at 5:16 pm

    I can’t get any of my e-mail from hot mail.com to come in I have 2 e-mails marchwinds 2@hotmail.com and marchwinds1@hotmail.com HELP HELP

  65. KC

    February 17th, 2007 at 11:11 pm

    I would love to try the new beta if someone will invite me? Thanks in advance!

    caseymayes@hotmail.com

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