Compared to other Web-based e-mail services like Gmail and Yahoo! Mail, Microsoft's Hotmail is like the wounded horse that's begging to be taken 'round back and shot. Using Hotmail could be considered a form of torture under the Geneva Conventions. It's slow; it's ugly; it boasts only the most basic of features and the spam filter is a farce.
But, things are looking up. Hotmail has been re-thought, re-tooled, re-launched and even re-branded. It's now called Windows Live Hotmail.
The new interface is much cleaner and easier on the eyes. Users can customize their new Hotmail experience with several themes to choose from. Though the themes amount to little more than changing the color of the header and borders, this is a level of customization not available from Gmail without downloading browser add-ons. The new Hotmail also whips Gmail's butt on pure speed. The Gmail interface is fast and smooth, but Hotmail is faster, opening most emails in under two seconds -- even those loaded with graphics.
New features have been added that also make using Hotmail more intuitive, such as the preview pane (which can be moved to the right or bottom, resized or turned off completely) and the "add contact" button next to a sender's e-mail address. But, it's the use of simple keyboard input that really makes the new Hotmail a more pleasant experience. Just like in Outlook, you can select multiple e-mails with the shift key, move them to a folder or sentence them to death using the delete key.
The makeover goes beyond simple appearances, too. Hotmail now comes with two gigabytes of storage. That's less than Gmail's nearly three gigabytes or Yahoo!'s unlimited storage, but it should be more than adequate for the average user. The spam filter has been greatly improved (though is still not as good as Gmail's) and by checking e-mails against blacklists and preventing potentially dangerous content from loading, Hotmail now boasts better protection against phishing scams.
That said, it's not perfect. Your inbox still does not automatically refresh like Gmail's inbox does, and we've noticed some bugs where the inbox doesn't repopulate properly after deleting emails, or fails to render properly at all.
Hotmail's contacts manager and calendar received updates, but the changes are primarily cosmetic. The calendar lacks user-definable categories, a one-click quick add feature and the ability to subscribe to calendars other than those shared by other Hotmail users (this means no easy-to-use holiday calendars).
Verdict: Windows Live Hotmail is an undeniably huge improvement over its predecessor and will certainly be appreciated by Hotmail's millions of users. However, it's not enough to get us to switch from Gmail or Yahoo! Mail.
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You can't beat free online e-mail. You want a different e-mail address for every day of the week? You got it. Need separate accounts for those sites you just know are going to spam you like there's no tomorrow? No problem. 
