Hello, everyone! My name is Ben Poon and I’m the Beta Program Manager for Windows Live Mail. I’ve waited a long time to introduce myself to all of you because I wanted to have something great to share on my first post here. This is what’s up with Windows Live Mail:

1. First let me say that we’ve had a blast with the relatively exclusive club of beta users we’ve taken in up to this point and we’ve absolutely thrived on the feedback you guys have provided. Now, in addition to acting on your feedback on how to make Windows Live Mail rock solid with features, we need to make sure that the service can scale while being fast, simple, and safe! There are over 230,000,000 Hotmail customers today, and we’d like to have even more on Windows Live Mail.

So what’s that mean for you? We’re giving you a great reason to sign up for Windows Live Mail and to tell your friends and family to do the same: You could win an African Safari trip for four, among hundreds of other weekly prizes!

Hotmail users who sign up for the Windows Live Mail African Safari Sweepstakes are eligible to win hundreds of prizes each week and a grand prize trip for four to a Luxury Safari in Africa! Look for ads and emails inviting you to sign up for the sweepstakes and upgrade to the Windows Live Mail beta at the same time. If you don’t want to wait, just click on the link above to get in on the excitement.

We've heard from you that you want to get into the beta without having to put your name on a wait list, so the great thing about signing up for Windows Live Mail through the sweepstakes is that you can do a direct sign up! This means that most folks will be moved from Hotmail into the beta with the click of a mouse! If we can’t move the account immediately, we will work hard to get it on the beta as soon as possible. Sign up soon in case there is so much demand that we need to limit the amount of direct signups.

2. Everyone on Windows Live Mail can now search every part of every mail they’ve ever received and ever will receive. Ever. The backend team has been working like mad to make all of our existing mail searchable by indexing them. They’ve also built in support to index all incoming mail on the fly as it is received. This is an awesome, yet core feature that the team has been working to get to you since last December!

3. You have more than 3,000,000 neighbors! In an effort to get as much feedback as possible, we’re inviting more and more users onto the beta daily. Click that feedback link! Post a comment on the blog! That’s all you gotta do to get your voice heard and to shape Windows Live Mail for hundreds of millions of users who will be coming after you. Talk about power! And to those of you who have provided feedback already: THANKS!

We’re working around the clock to build the best mail service on earth. We’ve heard your feedback and are focusing on making the beta more reliable, faster, and safer. That’s what’s up. Holla back, playas!

Ben Poon

Windows Live Mail Beta Program Manager