Microsoft bumps Hotmail storage

 

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By Simon Aughton

Posted on 15 Aug 2007 at 11:20

Microsoft has begun introducing a raft of new Hotmail features and increased capacity. Users of the free Windows Live Hotmail, to give the webmail service its full name, will see their storage limit increase to 5GB. Paid-up users will get 10GB.

Storage aside, the most significant change that users will notice is in performance. Microsoft says that it has spent more time in this release identifying what parts of the product are slowest and fixing those. At the same time it has been monitoring the service to ensure that email delivery remains reliable. Both performance and quality of service will continue to be the focus of future updates, according to Ellie Powers-Boyle, Hotmail program manager.

Changes to be phased in over the next few months include an increase in the period of time that messages are left in junk and deleted items folders. More screen space will be available for composing messages, with a reduction in the size of the displayed header. And paid users will now be able to automatically forward messages to any other email account. As Powers-Boyle explains, this "is great idea if you have a few different addresses and want to consolidate your mail".

Microsoft is also implementing a "contacts de-duplication" tool that automatically detects contacts who appear more than once and notifies you if you try to add a contact who is already on your list.

Spam and phishing defences have been improved. Users can now report phishing emails with a single click. In the junk folder, a "not junk" button is provided to tell Hotmail's filter that it has inadvertently junked a legitimate message. Powers-Boyle notes that every reported email helps to make Hotmail's spam filter smarter.

But, she says, "fighting spam takes constant vigilance. Spammers always find a new trick whenever we thwart their old tricks."

If a message has been wrongly tagged as spam - or even if you're just curious - images and links that Hotmail automatically blocks can now be displayed with a single click. However Microsoft warns that this option should be used with care.

"It's still not a good idea to show content, especially images, in messages from spammers. Just loading the images in a spam lets them know that you're reading their emails."

Other new features include the ability to accept meeting requests and add them to your calendar (this was previously available in MSN Hotmail); automatic "out of office" replies and an option to turn off the Today page and go straight to your email.