Preview: MSN's New Hotmail: Kahuna!

With over 200 million subscribers, and I'm sure none of those are just spam accounts, MSN's Hotmail is already one of the largest mail platforms in the world. It seems this just isn't enough for the boys with the butterflies, because the emergence of Gmail, Google's other successful venture, has awoken the sleeping giant. Ok, I'm sure Gate's and Co. had this in the works for a while but play along with me here. Gmail puts pressure on Hotmail, Hotmail comes back with something bigger and better to prove they are still the top dog.

Well, here it is. Code named Kahuna, MSN has rolled out it's beta preview of what everyone suspects to be the new Hotmail and let me tell you it's swell. At first glance it looks like your typical Outlook/Outlook Express mail client, which alone is impressive but it packs a punch too. Emulating how your mail client typically works Kahuna has your standard layout including the Today Page, which is similar to the Outlook intro page but currently is just used to pass on information to the beta testers.

I won't go into every detail of the layout because most of us have seen that style but some of the nice things I noticed were: the vertical layout as opposed to the horizontal outlook layout

easy to create folder, drag and drop functionality, and the magnifier glass icon, which is typical of MSN Search indicates a handy mail search function.



Kahuna is also more then a mail client, it also has packaged with it a contacts manager such as the one found in Outlook, and my favorite, an integrated calendar complete with those nifty reminders that help us remember our appointments and meetings. There is also a 'sharing' feature on the calendar which leads me to believe there will be some sort of integration with other online calendars and schedules on the web. Imagine being able to link into your favorite teams sports schedule or your daughters powder puff football schedule automatically, so you'll never miss a game or forget to pick her up again!

The layout is nice, the functionality is immaculate (for a beta), its fast, its easy and comes with 2gb of storage for free. And while I like Gmail's simple interface, I am really impressed with Hotmail's Beta and will seriously consider switching my email provider because the functionality is that much better.

Even the Google tidal wave can't knock off the Big Kahuna just yet!