We’ll say it right off the bat: what the hell took Microsoft so long? Years after Yahoo and Google integrated web IM features into their free webmail services (Yahoo Messenger in Yahoo Mail and Gtalk in Gmail, respectively), Redmond is finally enabling users to log into their Hotmail accounts and converse with their contacts over instant messaging directly without the need to log on to Windows Live Messenger separately, or to even have the program installed altogether.
The new feature will be gradually rolled out, starting from today enabling subsets of users in Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and USA to send instant messages from the Windows Live Hotmail and People pages. The feature earlier rolled out to some users users in France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and the UK.
I’ve said this before: easily dismissed by geeks and savvy web users, Hotmail has a gigantic mainstream userbase who are not likely going to switch to an alternative webmail service en masse provided Microsoft keeps up with the times and lets Hotmail evolve the way its users are increasingly demanding it to.
But make no mistake about it: Microsoft is ridicously late with adding this functionality to Hotmail.
Your thoughts?
Gmail ftw, never ever used Hotmail, gave up on Yahoo
Some news from MS online after long time.
Also long since IM evolved, i feel selective visible during invisible mode is need of the hour.
I gave up hotmail almost5-6 years back and never looked at it. It really sucks. But I think hotmail is only popular in UK.
http://www.smartbloggerz.com
Definitely indicates you don’t know what you are talking about. You shouldn’t be giving your opinion on the subject. It’s like always driving a ford and saying bmw sucks.
Agree with Nick. Just because you dont use Hotmail doesnt mean noone else does? It still is the second most popular email service. Btw, check out hotmail now. It’s getting better.
It’s called blocking.
Blocking is not exactly same as selective visible. When a person is blocked chats are not transmitted, but in invisible mode they are.
hotmail always sucked…and will always suck…
I don’t believe any human actively uses hotmail as their primary email ID….everyone almost have atleast 1 gmail or 1 yahoo id as their primary….
http://www.livbit.com
Didn’t mommy tell you to think before you speak? Don’t be saying idiotic things that make you look like a fool. You take fanboism to a whole new level… Your opinion don’t count as reality!
Of all the reasons take into account…I couldn’t answer just one question: “why now??? ”
hotmail sucks ass in every possible respect.
this will not save it.
I rather like it for setting-up demo accounts and testing… I have nothing negative to say about their service nor gmail.
Jon
http://WoodMarvels.com – Create Unique Memories
very good,support MSN,
I think hotmail is shizen – you can even have the option to “select all emails” in order to delete. I mean – you have to delete 50 at a time.
Given that – if MS tightly integrates its live services with Windows 7 – which I imagine it will – including hotmail and other services – “main stream, non geek” types will be perfectively content using these services.
They will come easy to setup, few clicks and they are done. No need to download GTalk etc etc.
Sure, this may seem the most trivial comment in the world – but people who dont really give a sh$t about tech, dont really care about all the extra crap offered. They want something that works -and most people registered hotmail accounts as there first web based email.
They are not likely to change fast I wouldn’t think.
Hotmail was pretty good until Microsoft bought it (years ago).
GMail and even Yahoo are light years ahead now.
Sure they were behind adding it to hotmail, but they did have a web-based client out there for the longest time. Seems like they completely forgot about it and just decided that it may be a good idea
And while I’m a gmail user, converting anyone NOT computer savvy (read: anyone not reading this blog) to gmail from their old hotmail ways is near impossible.
At the very least, at least they’re getting a bit more out of their relationship with Microsoft.
i think the fact that hardly anyone uses email-based IM is the reason why ms waited so long on this feature. plus, hotmail had many other more serious :ahem: short comings to fix before this. im happy they punted this spmehwat useless feature till they fixed other things
I’d love to see some numbers backing up your statement, but I seriously doubt ‘hardly anyone’ uses IM in webmail. I see it as a natural extension and use it all the time myself.
I always thought the same thing. Why would anyone need to use email based IM?
I’ve used Google Chat before on my Blackberry, but never in my browser. I always thought it was useless because nobody was ever checking their email the same time I was.
Why not use MSN, AOL, Yahoo, or any of the other widely used IM’ers?
Funny, I’ve never used IM from a mobile phone because I thought that was useless
Oh C’mon Robin… IM on your mobile doesn’t limit you to 160 characters like a text message! And its free!
Everyone knows that!
Plus with so many people having smart phones these days, I use it more than texting because its free, limitless, mobile to mobile communication.
can you name 5 people that use email-based IM. i can only think of 2, counting you.
I would love to see IM in email usage stats as well. I’m just curious because it is an oft touted feature but I don’t know anyone who uses it on a daily basis. How popular is gtalk in general? On the other hand, I know lots of people who use IM on their mobiles.
Microsoft is losing money. Macs are better laptops, Google has better apps. I was always contemplating how microsoft would catch up.
As much as I am a hard core apple guy, I really think that this is the best way Microsoft can get itself back into the game. Start with small important things and apply them to the massive user base. Regaining the PC trust needs to start with small things like IM and e-mail.
Good move PC. Of course that’s just my opinion I could be wrong.
Microsoft losing money? Can I have some of what you’re smoking?
Facts:
1. Apple is losing market share according to the latest data from Gartner and shipped fewer units last quarter (yoy) according to both Gartner and IDC. Check this out for a summary: http://www.appl...es_decline.html
[From an Apple biased blog too]
2. Google makes little if no money from its apps. Take a look at any of its annual reports or disclosures to regulators.
So how does MS have to catch up?
[By the way, I'm typing this on a MB Pro, so don't accuse me of bias]
i use hotmail ( I dont think i will use the chat) and Gmail. thumbs up Gmail.
I’m amazed that Microsoft manages to succeed at anything. I know that they’re huge but much like a lumbering giant, they always seem to be behind other innovation companies (Google, Apple … even Yahoo) and they never seem to get in front.
Yeah, cos the concept of a ‘dock’ didn’t appear in Windows first and Microsoft did bring touch interfaces into production first either. As for all google and all their apps, which company pioneered AJAX? Oh… that’s right.
I don’t use MS products that often, but I hate the haters. If MS is so shit, why do so many people CHOOSE to use their products?
When you have 95% market share and most products only work with your software, few people actually *choose* Microsoft. They were convicted of being a monopolist for a reason. They unlawfully restricted *choice*.
Software is not like a phone company you know. If you want you could use another OS or email system or software. MS never put a gun in your head. The fact that MS has a good reputation(never mind what the anti-MS say) has to do with them having a “monopoly”. Much like how many people eat McDonalds. You might not like the reality of things but there will always be a so call “monopoly” in a area. Google in Search, Apple in MP3, Microsoft in Search, etc.
That’s complete rubbish. Go out & buy an apple with iwork or a nix box with open office. And for any obscure app, there’ll be an online equivalent or you can just use this remarkable new tech, that you’ve clearly never heard of, called virtualization. Get real man, everyone has a choice. It just so happens that the vast majority choose ms.
This is biggest improvment i ve ever seen
I don’t think you’re being that fair in this article. What about MSN Web Messenger. I was using that years ago. Perhaps they dropped support of it at some point, and it was admittedly never integrated into Hotmail, but I bet that predated either of their competitor’s efforts.
Having said that, I don’t use IM or Hotmail anymore, so this is pretty much irrelevant in the Facebook age…
Waaay too late!
now I am going to switch from GMail, that was what I was waiting for
LOL?
Agree that Microsoft is late. But how come Techcrunch did not use a simialr title or tone when Google launched its ‘Similar Images’ search yesterday? Microsoft’s Live search has had this feature for ages, just as gmail has had chat, and you can’t pretend to be unaware. Are you guys on Google’s payroll?
See, you make a valid point by pointing out that Google Similar Images search is not the first such feature, and then you screw it all up by making some stupid random allegation to us being on Google’s payroll. Shame.
“See”, actually, I didn’t see the bit where he screwed it up. He still made a valid a point. And, he took the time to read your post, so you could at least show some courtesy instead of being arrogant and patronising. “Shame”
Are you on anon’s payroll?
Robin, The last part of my comment was meant to be preposterous, but at the same time reflective of the impression Techcrunch is creating through clearly biased reporting. I think you need to spend more time on introspection rather than blaming your users as being stupid and random. In the software world many are prone to blame users by using terms like ’stupid user error’. In reality, it is always the software developer that is proven stupid when users abandon their product for more intuitive alternatives (witness the migration from Windows to OS-X). Your response to my post is as disappointing than your post itself.
Well the last part of your comment was stupid and random, period. If you really want to read that I said you were, that’s your business, and if you’re against ‘clearly biased reporting’ then don’t read it.
Robin,
TechCrunch is obviously more biased towards Apple and Google. That is clear in the subject and tone of the stories on TechCrunch.
One of the best quotes that I heard this week was from a Talk Radio personality who claimed that he is not being paid to report the news. Rather, he is being paid to give his opinion on the news.
I equate TechCrunch with Talk Radio. You guys can claim to report the news, but in reality, all you are doing is giving your opinion on the news. The news itself is static – it happened – now what comes are your opinions which are clearly biased towards certain companies and against other companies like Microsoft.
The problem with you is that, unlike talk radio, you truly believe that you are reporting the news and that what you think is the common thought about the news. That just makes you arrogant and wrong!
Your (the entire TechCrunch team) bias against Microsoft is clear in every story that you publish. Makes no difference if it is a good step forwards, you will still find the negativity there.
Since we are on the subject, how come Microsoft and Yahoo are the only two IM platforms that can communicate with each other? Where is GTalk? Oh yeah, the same bias against Microsoft is clouding Google’s decisions and not allowing users of GTalk to communicate directly with Yahoo Messenger and Microsoft live users.
That would have been a great opinion piece to see on this blog.
What are you talking about?
I’m typing this on a PC, I use Microsoft Office all the time, but Google is my primary search engine and I use Gmail for communication. Skype is my favorite IM app and I stay away from both Blogger and Live Spaces for my personal blog. I have an iPhone, and I browse the web with Chrome.
What’s the value of trying to pinpoint my ‘biases’ – which yes, I have, not unlike every human being on this planet – based on my own software usage?
Robin,
since I can’t reply to you, I’ll reply to myself
(You guys should really do something about that)…
There is nothing wrong with it. You are entitled to your opinion just like I am. The problem is that people come to TC to get read quality stories and those stories are more often skewed towards a certain company, certain technology, or certain personality. Case in point, TC had multiple stories about Microsoft today and all of them had a negative undertone even though they were stories about new features and advancements in their products (Hotmail adding web based IM – It was still bad since GTalk and Yahoo have had it for a while, Google Like Images – for such a technology centric blog you had to be reminded that Microsoft released this four months ago and even then made references to the fact that Microsoft copies technologies from other companies, and the Social Network Connection – well that was just straight up reporting without any type of emotional undertones that appear in stories about Google or Apple).
I work with all technologies and have learned a long time ago that a good technologist needs to explore all technologies and not just the ones that he/she has a bias towards.
I personally am biased towards using Apple products personally (I am writing this on a MBP and have an iPhone, iPod, and AppleTV), but having worked with other technologies, I know that they are strong in some aspects and very weak in others.
I understand that Microsoft bashing is the trend right now, but it is just getting frustrating to read stories that are very biased. I don’t think that I have read a single story on TC in the last three months that actually praised Microsoft for doing anything. Don’t forget that this is the company that brought mainstream touchscreen phones first, owns the technology that Apple licensed for its own iPhone synchronization, created the most widely used office applications, provides the best enterprise class email solution, runs one of the world’s largest web based email service, produces first rate software development toolkits (X-Code has a long way to go to become Visual Studio in terms of usability and power), and generally produces good software.
I’d suggest that TC should add some authors that can balance some of the biases that are very visible on this blog.
Just my two cents…
@ Jim Z
You deserve a gold metal in complete Gold! Spoken like a very intellectual and logical man.
It’s because the tech community is, by-in-large, biased against MS. I’d like to see how many positive posts there have been about MS products. Very, very few I’d be willing to bet.
I’m not saying MS is perfect by any means, I just find it weird because it’s not as if companies like google and apple are more virtuous. I guess people just like to have someone (or some company) to snipe about.
I can’t speak for the entire tech community here, but most tech bloggers I know (including the TC crew) has shown no bias against MS as far as I can tell. When there’s something positive to say, we’ll say it (and get bashed for it), and when there’s something negative to report we’ll call it out just the same (and get bashed for it).
Get bashed, but dont care all that. Only make money – whats wrong?
You are definitely pro Google, no doubt about it. Personally, I think too many people are pro Google. Personally, I don’t like Google Apps, and I could care less about IM in a web email tool, regardless of whether if is Microsoft, Google, or Yahoo.
I’m not pro or anti-Google at all.
and ’some news’, by your definition we should stop reporting because we get bashed either way. Which won’t happen any time soon.
Hotmail haven’t implemented it until now because it “has a gigantic mainstream userbase who are not likely going to switch to an alternative webmail service en masse”.
People don’t like to change email addresses, especially the longer they’ve had it. It would take something very very bad (and lack of web based IM most definitely isn’t it) before people leave hotmail.
I’ve used Hotmail since I was 15. I’m web savvy and you can call me a geek, and I find Hotmail perfect for me.
I suppose that it was MSN Messenger which really cemented me into Hotmail though, because thats what all my friends use so there was no point in changing.
The reason why it took Microsoft so long is because everything is developed on the Microsoft platform. I think they wanted to do it with Hotmail but it just takes twice as long to put things into production.
Hotmail is inexcusably crap.
What I find unbelievable is that the junk email filter BLOCKS perfectly legitimate email – but it delivers all kinds of blatant spam direct to my Inbox.
MS has always learned from First Movers what their (MS’s) startegy would be. Its no surprise here, this is one company that knows how to be the second mover, and it has rarely been at a disadvantage by starting the game later.
I notice there’s no mention of Australia in this article. Has Microsoft forgotten we exist or do Australian’s just not IM?
the internet is finally fixed
I haven’t logged into hotmail once since they enabled POP access a few months ago. Now gmail handles all my accounts, and handles it very well I might add.
does hotmail still exist? i haven’t one of those for a long time
can someone please explain to me why gmail is so superior to hotmail?
you haven’t even used gmail, right?
Exactly! I see no way why MS is loosing money… Is is because they laid off 5000 employees? C’mon in a recession that’s working ahead of the curve to manage wasteful spending. I am sure they didn’t need to cutt off they employees if they wanted but it is a business not a charity.
I really don’t understand why all these bias against Microsoft. I personally use a wide range of products and technologies. I see that techcrunch fails many times over in reporting features that have been implemented eons ago by other companies. I’m not saying TC doess it all the time but the smell of bias is all around the main lobby. If Google or Apple implement it they make it sound like is something innovative and new when in fact is far from it.
I personally prefer my Os to be windows, my search engine google, email Yahoo/Hotmail and my portable to be Lenovo. No need to be rooting for one company because if we do we all lose. I can say that I do lean towards many MS technologies but that does not mean I dismiss the rest. Competition is healthy and promotes innovations, we should be rooting for it. I have tried Gmail but I honestly don’t see how is it much better than hotmail. For image search I prefer livesearch because it is much better but I always have google for my general search.
Microsoft might be slow to implement new technologies but believe it or not it is the main company keeping companies like Google on their toes. Microsoft is a very competitive company and we all should be glad it is. Oh and being first does not mean you have a better product or thought of the idea first. Remember netscape? Perhaps Microsoft had an advantage over netscape as far as distribution but this is what competition is all about. Netscape was selling their browser when IE was better and free. Right now I use ie8 and google chrome and I see the benefit of using both. Now this integration of I’m in email would take a while to get people to use it. I personally don’t use it.. Besides the integration of these features weren’t that long ago as this article seem to make you believe. I suggest people keep an open mind about new technologies without being so hateful and bias. I hate the hipocrisy of trashing a “monopoly” while rooting for another “monopoly”, sometimes it makes me want to puke.
Spoken like a true fanboy! I mean really have you used hotmail lately? How is gmail and yahoo mail light years ahead? Please tell me because I see no better features to gmail or ymail. Get off your fanboy wagon and step foot on earth.
I challenge you to tell me when I ever claimed Gmail and Yahoo Mail are lightyears ahead.
Robin that comment wasn’t for you, i think it posted in the wrong location. There was a commenter that made that statement.
Those pesky commenters
happily using hotmail.
Even though I use Hotmail sometimes I don’t really see my self using this new feature, I guess I’ll give it a try when it comes out here in Mexico.. if it comes out
Microsoft is an old dinosaur that moves as if snails were leading its horse carriage
Useless.. Live is way under Gmail.. they’re only trying to follow the boat.. but it’s too far away! DIE Hotmail!!!
agreed
Lou: You’re going back to Hotmail?
I swear they have had that feature for a while. I disabled it because it was annoying someone IM-ing me while I was checking mail.
i’m a caveman, and i tie my messages to a pigeon-> instant messaging can be cumbersome, this hotmail sounds like a good idea.
@Nicholas no
Sounds like Microsoft is way behind
very good,support MSN,
BTW I love your blog!
It is showing that you don’t know what you are talking about. You shouldn’t be giving your opinion on the subject.
Don’t critize MS! We can take down your computer whenever we feel like it!
WebIM was integrated into Hotmail back in 2004, but it was only enabled for the Japanese market.
Between 2005 and 2007 or so Hotmail was pretty much re-written from scratch (the front end) and as such we didn’t get to doing this work till a lot of other things were in place first.
Enabling a feature like this when you have hundreds of millions of mail users and hundreds of millions of messenger users is not as simple as flipping a switch some where.
msm
Hotmail did suck till 2006 when they redid it. Then it became much better but still not as snappy as gmail.