As a follow up to the previous post, I am giving an account of my experience with Windows Live Mail Beta and other Windows Live services. I tested out the service on IE 6 (64-bit edition) with 128 bit encrytion capability enabled on the browser. Live Mail is part of a set of 14 new services that has been labelled Windows Live. At first glance, the Windows Live page looks colorful and inviting. It seems to offer an integration between MSN's online services and Microsoft Software which runs on the user's computer. MSN has offered synchronization between Hotmail and Outlook/ Outlook Express for a while now. Windows Live seems to continue the trend. Windows Vista might have some features working together with Windows Live as well. I've signed up for the other Windows Live services, which are currently all in Beta and hence offered by invitation only. I will review and post my experiences of those as well once I get to use the services.

List of Windows Live Services

01. Search

02. Live.com

03. Toolbar

04. Expo

05. Messenger

06. Mail

07. OnCare

08. Local

09. Safety Center

10. Favorites

11. Mobile Search

12. Mobile Mail

13. Custom Domains

14. Office

One thing that Microsoft has provided is a fluid and dynamic interface like that of several AJAX powered services. I am not sure whether Windows Live itself is AJAX powered, but its certaintly boasts a familiar feeling to the Windows Desktop, including drag and drop ability and sliding scales. Yahoo and Google have also used AJAX on their services recently to provide a better look and feel.

1) Windows Live Search

The best product of the lot of services right now. Might compete very well with Google and Yahoo search if the results are also good. Allows a person to search feeds and local information as well. Clicking the 'search within site' option turns it into a instant text box to type in queries.

The macros option takes you to the Microsoft Gadgets site where you can download Macros, which are small extensions installed in your search engine to specialize your search.

Once installed, a gadget lets you search within the web for information within the specific category. Its also possible to specify an URL: option to search within a site. I can't quite say how exactly the results of this would differ from a normal search with the category among the keywords. But, clearly this is a more user friendly approach, which is what Microsoft is probably aiming for here.

2) Windows Live.com

This is similar to the My MSN, Yahoo and Google start pages. On a single page, it displays your email, weather, latest news and other information.

3) Windows Toolbar

Didn't install. Probably because I was on Windows XP 64 bit edition.

4) Windows Live Expo

This seems to be a social networking cum online selling service. Its probably Microsoft's answer to Friendster, Ebay and Craig's List all at once. Not a bad interface. As usual Microsoft provided good visuals, but the underlying service is still buggy. For one thing, even after I set my name and image, it didn't display in the top corner. I had to give a US address, which means that this service is still restricted to US local areas.

5) Windows Live Messenger

Requires a separate invite, so I've signed up to try the service. Will review it once I get to use it.

6) Windows Live Mail

The Live Mail interface looks simple and presentable :

Windows Live Mail interface is easy to use. The first mistake (not a bug though) I noticed was an email inviting me to sign up for Windows Live Mail service sitting in my inbox. To allow the user to test drive the Live Mail service, it seems all the mails from the user's hotmail inbox are mass transported over to the Live Mail inbox. What's more, I was still able to click on the invitation email and go through the sign up process for Windows Live Mail once again. At least I should have been taken to a page that said my Live Mail invitation was already used up or expired. Next, there was no welcome email in my inbox. Its customary to send a "Welcome To Our Service" email at least to let the user know that his account has been enabled and everything is going well. Also, its good marketing practice and encourages the user to check out the other services. Live Mail offers a generous 2 GB storage space as compared to the 250 MB offered by Hotmail. I'd say its about time they did since both Yahoo and Gmail have also raised the inbox size.

Live Mail offers integration with a contact manager and calender, much like Yahoo's. The calender feature failed to load, despite several attempts, so I can't comment on it, except that Microsoft should not put up links to services that effectively don't exist. The interface very much resembles Outlook, probably to make it more familiar to Outlook users.

7) Windows Live One Care

Windows Live One care did not accept my sign up offer for the above reason. It seems that Microsoft discriminates among users of its own products as well.

8) Windows Live Local

A competition to Google Earth and Yahoo Maps. Has high quality photo imagery of several US cities, probably collected from Microsoft's Terra Server. Service seems okay, but clearly not all areas are fully mapped yet. As with Google Maps, it requires a high speed connection to have a decent experience.

9) Windows Live Safety Center

For some reason, I was unable to install the service and got the above error. Maybe its again due the fact that I am running Windows XP 64-bit edition.

10) Windows Live Favorites

A pretty good feature. Allows the user to bookmark any site using the Windows Live Toolbar, which couldn't be installed. Allows free tagging like most social bookmarking services today, but does not allow sharing of bookmarking or searching other user's bookmarks yet.

11) Windows Mobile Search

This service is by invitation only, so I've only signed up for now.

12) Windows Mobile Mail

The service still hasn't been released, but its clear that it works with Live Mail to allow the user to access email from the phone.

13) Windows Custom Domains

Seems to be another neat service, allowing the user to link their domain specified email to their Windows Live Mail. However, this requires the user to own a primary level domain like a .com or .net (.tk is also allowed it seems). I don't own a domain name so I'll have to pass on this one.

14) Windows Office Live

I couldn't try the Office Live Beta either since it required me to use MS Office and provide the CD key. I use Open Office, so reviewing this service seems unlikely.

Conclusion

While my criticism on Microsoft and MSN Live Ideas seems harsh considering that the service is still in beta, bear in mind that so are Gmail, Yahoo's 360 and myWeb 2.0. To today's typical customer, the beta tag means little and they will expect a stable service anyway. Once Microsoft decides to release a product to the public, its up to them to ensure that it at least works properly, regardless of its development status. The beta tag should not be used as an excuse for sloppy work. Microsoft's goals are clear. They are attemtpting to create a single service that will become the internet surfer's utimate portal solution. With Windows Live, Microsoft is trying to gain ground in several markets such as Email, Weather, News, Search, Shopping, Maps, Social Networking etc. But releasing the services in such a buggy state, without proper browser support seems like a desperate move by Microsoft to avoid losing market share in all the above areas. Unfortunately, along with creating hype about their new products, they have raised expectations and failed to deliver in the beta stage. People will try out the services once they hit stable, but meanwhile Google and Yahoo would have already gathered users with their own, more reliable services. Windows Live certainly shows promise, but it still has a long way to go before becoming a dependable service.