“Wave 4:” In few weeks, Microsoft is releasing new versions of Windows Live services. After a long internal test phase with thousands of Microsoft employees, the first release is at hand. Next, end users will get involved. Your feedback will make Windows Live Wave 4 complete.
Chris Jones, Corporate Vice President of the Windows Live team, is talking about what we can expect in the fourth wave of Windows Live. In the official Windows Live US-Blog, Jones reveals plans and background information about the new generation of Messenger, Hotmail and the Windows Live Essentials.
Messenger
When developing the new Messenger, the key question was: How do people use IM services today and in the future? While Messenger services were the only large “social networks” some time ago, more and more people express themselves via web 2.0 sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc. Communication on the Web has become directer, more multimedial and on top of all, more vivid.
However, this trend has a bad part. You are probably connected with hundreds of “friends,” but you communicate only with a small subset of them — that is, with your “real” friends. That’s what the new Messenger is about, Chris Jones explains. The Wave 4 Messenger is more open and linked with the popular social networks than ever before. To stay in contact with all friends, in the new version it is not necessary anymore to open all network sites. The most important news and requests from these networks are collected in Messenger. And if you want to, you only see messages by your best friends. Thus, it gets easier for you to stay in touch with the most important friends set without sinking in the flood of social information.
Hotmail
Similar to Instant Messaging, the medium e-mail has changed as well. Nowadays, the focus is not only on the mere sending of text messages. We’re sending Word or Excel files in the office, receive messages from our social networks, or share photos and surfing tips with friends and family. Saving time is thus the most important task to make Hotmail better. It should be as simple as possible for each user to make use of his mailbox in the most efficient way. From setting up social networks with ease, via filtering unimportant messages automatically, up to viewing friends only: In the future, everything will get easier and faster.
Windows Live Essentials
When concepting the new Windows Live Essentials, the easy usage of social networks was the main aim of the Windows Live team, too. Optimizing the Essentials services to the new usage habits of PCs and Web-aware mobile phones. Detailed: If you take a photo or video with your cell phone, the Wave 4 Windows Live Essentials tools provide you the shortest way possible to edit and organize the captures as well as uploading them with one mouse click to the network or into your own Web harddisk Skydrive. Regardless whether self-cut movie or enhanced photo — all participating tools are connected perfectly with each other and with the Web.
What does the Windows Live Wave 4 stand for?
Chris Jones’ answer: The new generation of Messenger, Hotmail and Essentials has been developed to be used on any device, whether on PC, mobile phone or via the browser. It should be easy and fast. At the same time, protecting your privacy and the application security is top priority.