The Hotmail Wave 4 refresh, which Microsoft execs said was finished in early August, is turning into a lot more of a rolling rollout.Right after delivering new Wave four functions like Sweep and ActiveViews to all 350 million Hotmail consumers worldwide, the Hotmail team began trickling out extra fixes and updates. In late August, Microsoft turned on Exchange ActiveSync support for Hotmail on iPhones, iPads as well as other mobile products. And on September 23, the Hotmail staff announced it absolutely was rolling out a lot more new features, like package deal monitoring via ActiveViews, nested folder support, Facebook chat from within Hotmail and far more.In a September 23 post to the “Within Windows Live” blog, Group Program Manager Dick Craddock explained far more about the pace and strategy behind the Hotmail rollout:“Following this (early August Wave four) release, you may have noticed a string of smaller updates. Some were planned,
Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise, like push email, calendar, and contacts by means of Exchange ActiveSync, but others were the results of feedback we received and acted on during the rollout. We put quite a bit of time and effort into careful planning, but we also recognize that with any release, we can improve, so we do our best to listen closely and respond actively to feedback. Some of the feedback we’ve addressed with updates in the last few weeks include the way you can view message source (right-click in the Inbox is back,
Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate!),
Office Enterprise 2007, an easier reply action in threaded conversations,
Windows 7, and a lot more visible signout for the integrated Messenger on the web.“In addition to these adjustments,
Cheap Office 2010, we’re beginning today to roll out new functions and highlight new partners that will continue to address the customer needs we focused on this summer.”LiveSide.net noted yesterday that the Hotmail Calendar Service got an update to include support for weather updates. There was no mention of that in the new Windows Live blog posting today.LiveSide also noted that some of the other Windows Live services — the Web-only ones, not the software and service ones known as “Windows Live Essentials” — have been refreshed, also. Windows Live Gadgets got a refresh, and a LinkedIn integration option was added to to end users; Windows Live accounts.The final version of Windows Live Essentials 2011 still has yet to be released towards the Web, though that is expected to happen any time now that “Fall” has begun officially. That rollout should be more final, I;d think. I doubt there will be constant refreshes and updates to the Essentials 2011 offerings, in the way that;s happening with the Web-only Windows Live services.