14 DAY TRIAL // The evolution of Microsoft's email service continues well after the introduction of Windows Live Hotmail Wave 3. In this regard, the Redmond company is in the process of introducing new capabilities to Hotmail, making the service play nice with third-party email accounts. According to Arnout Hemel, product manager, Windows Live (via LiveSide), users will be able to add a total of four email accounts from non-Microsoft providers. The obvious advantage lies in the fact that Windows Live Hotmail can now centralize email from various sources, allowing users to check all their content via a single email account. This is of course not a new feature, as many email services have been sporting it ahead of Microsoft, still, it was missing from Windows Live Hotmail.
Users should know that, as with any other feature or update, Microsoft is gradually rolling out the new functionality around the world. In this context, while some users will already be able to add extra email accounts to Windows Live Hotmail, some will not see the feature already. The option to integrate third-party email accounts into Windows Live Hotmail should appear at the bottom of the left pane.
The promise from Microsoft is that adding new email accounts will work seamlessly. All that end users will need to do is enter the desired email address along with the associated password and Microsoft will do its magic. The Redmond company indicated that it had made sure that all large email providers as well as Internet Service Providers supported this new feature. Hemel indicated that users should not come across any issues related to POP3 or SMTP servers and gateways.
However, in case something manages to go wrong, Hotmail will offer users the possibility of tweaking advanced options and help it deal with any issues. Windows Live Hotmail will also permit a certain degree of customization, including color codes to mark emails from other accounts, and the destination folder where the content will be placed, either the Inbox, or an extra folder.