Does anyone really dig the new MSN?

September 11, 2000 3:17 PM

Does anyone really dig the new MSN? I am not a member of the Church of Microsoft but I do really like what they have done with the new MSN. I'm not talking about just the web site but the overall experience with the MSN Preview 2.0. I think they may be in a position to really give AOL a run for the money.
posted by Brilliantcrank (13 comments total)

It is really pretty. And it does tie in all the MS technologies... Hotmail is still the best web mail around and I'd take Media Player over that annoying, spying Real crap any day --I just wish Winamp did as much as WMP.

I still don't think it can take people away from AOL, though... one word: chat rooms :-)...

posted by costas at 4:15 PM on September 11, 2000

Yeah, I downloaded it, and you know, this comes as close to an idealized movie internet interface I've ever seen. When you send mail, flying rotating mail graphic! When you get mail, flying, unfolding mail graphic! ZOOM ZOOM!

and the web loading bar is neat looking too.
posted by benbrown at 4:43 PM on September 11, 2000

I played with the first preview a while back. Over a third of a user's screen is the interface, so that can't be good.
posted by mathowie at 5:11 PM on September 11, 2000

But ya gotta dig those nonthreatening visuals. It's like they took the old interface and put it on Prozac. Sinister as hell -- but in a sweet, cornflower blue sorta way.
posted by highindustrial at 6:24 PM on September 11, 2000

Hotmail? The best? Are you nuts? What kind of web-based email service needs to drop 6-8 cookies from multiple domains? Looks like Microsoft is trying to use cookies to cross-correlate their Hotmail users with their Passport users. I think Joel Spolsky wrote about this not too long back.
posted by camworld at 8:09 PM on September 11, 2000

Sure the interface takes up some space but I like it a lot better than AOL. It sure does make using Hotmail better.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 8:09 PM on September 11, 2000

Looks sweet. I'd like to see if this kind of interface could be used for "affinity browsers"
posted by owillis at 8:43 PM on September 11, 2000

Cam, I don't think they're too interested in cross-correlating Hotmail users with Passport users: All Hotmail users are Passport users. Passport is just the authentication system used by Hotmail. (And the new MSN Explorer, and MSN Messenger, and the Game Voice thingy they just put out, etc. etc. )

Although I must admit, I really like the new look for Hotmail in MSN Explorer. If you haven't seen it, or only saw preview 1, its' worth a looksee.

posted by anildash at 9:02 PM on September 11, 2000

Seems to me the Hotmail MSN interface may be the start of the microsoft.net stuff ... it's really quick and really well done and I'll bet there's some XML going on behind the scenes.. I'd be interested in sniffing the traffic to see what's actually happening.
posted by benbrown at 11:43 PM on September 11, 2000

Cam, that Joel peice.
Kind of worrying, the one-interface idea is nice and all, but I can't bring myself to trust them to leave it at that. The peice gives quite a good explaination on how Passport works and gives a pessimistic view on how it could be used in future.
posted by Markb at 4:12 AM on September 12, 2000

Hotmail is shit by design, even without the cookie issues. The only way to access it without a browser (or a hacked up Linux command line program) is through Outlook Express. There's no forwarding. It's a spam target. I could go on.

(And, see, I'm with the UNIX mindset. Small tools to do distinct jobs, rather than vast accumulating interfaces.)
posted by holgate at 5:10 AM on September 12, 2000

Hotmail is shit by design, even without the cookie issues. The only way to access it without a browser (or a hacked up Linux command line program) is through Outlook Express. There's no forwarding. It's a spam target. I could go on.

How is that different from other web email services?
posted by daveadams at 7:17 AM on September 12, 2000

Well, I don't get spammed at my fuckyou.co.uk webmail account ;)

But seriously: Yahoo Mail does filtering, forwarding, and allows POP querying, as does Excite Mail; Hushmail allows 128-bit encryption; Another.com allows you to have a bunch of "funny" domains under one alias. IMP allows you to use an IMAP client. Etc etc.

Having spent much of the winter designing a webmail service, believe me, I know too much about this particular world of applications. Hotmail is deliberately under-spec'd in order to lock people into the web interface, OE, or the MSN browser.
posted by holgate at 9:29 AM on September 12, 2000