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Three weeks ago, Microsoft updated its Live Messenger, giving it some nifty features. This week it previewed the new Hotmail. Microsoft officials say that it’s going to be gradually launched over the next two to three months, and it will be based upon which server in the world your account resides.

The new Hotmail is basically a catchup game. It has features that Gmail and Yahoo have had for years, and some of the new clever features such as drag and drop images and videos from a search engine within the Hotmail window may not make you go back to Hotmail.

A seemingly impressive feature is that you can upload up to 10 gigabytes of online images in a single email. Assuming you want to do that ( I don’t given the speeds we have in India), Microsoft has cleverly used SkyDrive ( its ‘ cloud’ service) so that you don’t really have to clog your hard disk.

Hotmail’s within- mail search is much weaker that Gmail. Microsoft says its new categorisation will help people save time by classifying mail beforehand.

But let’s say we search using Gmail, the difference in time is really a matter of two or three seconds. Gmail still wins.

Gmail Labs lets you integrate any new feature into the mailbox in a matter of seconds. Hotmail has no Labs feature, but it has an integrated Live Messenger into its main screen, to which our response is – duh! Four years too late, guys! The biggest disappointment though is the design. It looks clunky even though it may not be. And here’s an idea, Hotmail: text ads.

The only redeeming feature about the new Hotmail is the Active View for photographs, which allows you to view photos in full screen mode without having to download them. Will I go back to Hotmail after three years of dormancy? Don’t think so.