Infinite Path

The market in free email services is particularly fierce and now Microsoft is revamping its Hotmail brand in an attempt to gain a competitive edge over main rivals Yahoo! and Google.

Improving security is a primary aim of the company due to the increase in the number of phishing attacks and the amount of spam that is being generated. Microsoft’s system is designed to spot these more easily and the company is hoping that this will be a key selling point.

A further improvement will see the possibility for documents sent via Hotmail to be viewed and edited via web versions of Microsoft Office. Hotmail may be the world’s biggest email provider with 360 million members worldwide but the American market is proving to be particularly competitive. Yahoo! is the strongest brand in the field in the States, with Google’s Gmail catching up quickly.

Some of the changes to Hotmail are designed to help users deal with the high volume of mail that comes through their inboxes, particularly now that email has become an integral part in the rise of social networking. Accordingly, the revamp will improve the ability to access web links, pictures, and videos that are contained within email messages and this can be done in the Hotmail browser itself rather than through external sites. This feature will be known as ‘Hotmail active views’.

It will also be easier to send pictures via Hotmail through Microsoft’s new SkyDrive system. This overcomes the issue of attachment limits as a SkyDrive folder will be created whenever photos are sent or received. The full-sized images will appear in this folder, whilst the email itself will only contain thumbnails, which are smaller in size and easier to send.

To aid functionality, Microsoft are introducing an ability to sort e-mails by conversation rather than individual messages, copying a feature that is already part of the Gmail platform. Furthermore, one-click filters will allow people to see all emails from a particular source and emails from particular people can automatically be sent to specific folders.

Most of these features will be available after an update in the summer but the tighter links with the new Microsoft Office will not appear until the autumn. The new version of Office was launched last week and is a direct response to Google, Microsoft’s main rivals. The free online component, called Office Web Apps, mimics Google’s free online tools, so you will now be able to access Microsoft Office through your Hotmail account without the need to download any additional software.

Gmail already has this funcionality with its own software, so this is clearly seen as a way of halting the rise of Gmail, particularly in the US. Google has done a good job of integrating Gmail and Docs but the service cannot convert Office documents and most documents that are exchanged via email are Microsoft formatted.

However, there is a fear that users could take to Google Docs, particularly as consumers are less likely these days to purchase Office. This is why it is essential for Microsoft to incorporate Office into its free offerings in order to maintain its dominance in the office productivity market.