Over the past few weeks, we’ve introduced quite a few improvements to Windows Live. I thought it would be nice to list all those improvements in a single blog post for everyone to read.

New web activities: 20 new third-party feed partners were added to Windows Live including Facebook, Digg, and SmugMug. MySpace will also be added in the coming months, so that MySpace customers can share activities and updates from MySpace to people in their Windows Live network.

By adding new feed partners to Windows Live, it’s easier for you to connect your activities various blogging sites, social networks and photo sharing sites and share them with your friends in your Windows Live network. This update will make it easier for the 500 Million users who are active on Windows live today to connect their activities on these partner sites and share them with their friends on Windows Live.

For instance, when you add the Facebook web activity – any photo, video, note or status update you make on Facebook will now appear on Windows Live via your What’s New feed. When you add Digg, any article you “digg” or submit to Digg, will now appear on Windows Live via your What’s New feed. Since Windows Live is global, it’s interesting to note that fourteen of the 20 new feed partners are headquartered in countries outside of the United States. According to Comscore, Hyves is the top social network in the Netherlands, and Metroflog is a top social network in Argentina.

There are quite a few partner web activities you can add today! Check them out by going to your Windows Live Profile and choosing “Web activities” in the lower left-hand corner of your profile

Add new contacts to Windows Live: MySpace, hi5, and Tagged join Facebook and LinkedIn as contact partners on Windows Live. Now you can exchange contacts between Windows Live and these five social networks and vice versa.

Messenger has come to Hotmail: Now you can IM through the web via Windows Live Hotmail. You can sign-in to Windows Live Messenger directly from within Hotmail and exchange IMs with your Messenger contacts.

If you are ever on a PC that doesn’t have Windows Live Messenger installed, just go to your Hotmail inbox and sign in to Messenger there to chat with your contacts. Once you sign-in, you can browse your contacts via your People page. If you are signed in to Messenger while checking your Hotmail and a contact sends you an IM, a toast will pop up in the lower right-hand corner of the page just as it does on a PC. For more details on Web IM in Windows Live Hotmail – see this blog post from Antonia on the Windows Live Team Blog.

Arrange your Photos in Windows Live SkyDrive: I blogged about this last week. Windows Live SkyDrive now allows you to arrange your photos in any order you want (thanks to Silverlight).

In one of your Photos folders on SkyDrive just click “Sort” and choose “Arrange photos”.

Photos of you: A new entry point has been added to Windows Live Profile pages called “Photos of you”. Essentially, this new link will take you to a page of photos tagged with a specific person (or yourself). It’s a great way to see all the photos your friends appear in or photos you appear in.

SkyDrive takes your Favorites: All your Favorites from favorites.live.com are now automatically moved to SkyDrive where you can use Windows Live Toolbar to sync your Favorites with Internet Explorer on your PCs.

And the Windows Live Sync website has now been integrated with the new Windows Live UI we launched with this last fall.

The new Windows Live Sync website makes a huge difference in managing your personal and shared folders and managing the PCs you are syncing them with.

Enjoy the improvements to Windows Live!

13 Microsoft Products have been nominated in CNET’s 2009 Webware 100 including several from Windows Live (Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live SkyDrive, Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Sync and Live Mesh) and Internet Explorer 8.

My colleague Antonia over on the Windows Live Team Blog has all the details including links on where to cast your vote. Voting voting ends on April 30, 2009 (12pm Pacific Time) so vote now!

Back in October during PDC2008, I highlighted the Windows + Windows Live relationship. Specifically, I called out how Windows + Windows Live will complete the Windows PC experience with Windows Live Essentials. Now that people can experience the relationship first-hand with Windows Live Essentials today – I thought I’d re-approach and discuss the topic in a little more detail.

Today, users are increasingly expecting that their PC (and their OS) allow them to do things on their desktop that have an online component such as e-mail. This is where Windows Live Essentials comes in. For example, when you’re at home on your laptop you can use Windows Live Mail, but when you’re on the go you can access that same mail from any computer with an Internet connection by going to Windows Live Hotmail. Windows Live Essentials combines what you do on the PC with what you do on the Web. That’s the benefit of software + services.

Many of the Windows Live programs within Windows Live Essentials serve as a “bridge” to the Windows Live services:

• With Windows Live Messenger, you can not only chat with your friends via IM, but also follow What’s New with them on Windows Live, which means you can stay on top of updates they make like new photos or blog entries.
• With Windows Live Writer, you can publish new blog posts to Windows Live Spaces.
• With Windows Live Photo Gallery, you can upload your photos to Windows Live Photos and share them with the people you choose.
• With Windows Live Mail, you can sync your Windows Live Hotmail e-mail and calendar to your PC.

Windows Live Essentials extends beyond Windows Live as well. Windows Live Writer is capable of publishing blog posts to most major blogging services, not just Windows Live Spaces. As a matter a fact - I use Windows Live Writer to publish all my blog posts here on this blog, which is powered by Telligents’ Community Server. Windows Live Mail supports POP3 and IMAP allowing for multiple e-mail accounts from a variety of e-mail providers including Gmail. And Windows Live Photo Gallery supports custom plug-ins for uploading photos to a variety of photo sharing websites (check out this awesome plug-in for uploading photos to Facebook).

         

For Windows Live Essentials, we have introduced 3 programs as the successors to programs that were introduced in Windows Vista:

• Windows Live Mail is the successor to Windows Mail
• Windows Live Photo Gallery is the successor to Windows Photo Gallery
• Windows Live Movie Maker is the successor to Windows Movie Maker

We made this change because we learned that many of the end-user experiences need to be updated more frequently. With Windows Live Essentials, we feel we are in a better position to innovate on these programs and enhance your experience as a PC user and at a much quicker rate - as they are outside of the Windows OS.

Windows Live Essentials doesn’t just consist of the above 3 programs, it also includes Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Toolbar, and Windows Live Family Safety adding significant value to PC users through its integrated and powerful features.

Windows Live Essentials today are free, key applications that make it easy to manage multiple e-mail accounts, edit and share photos, chat with IM for PC users and available today for you to download at download.live.com (available for Windows Vista, Windows XP, and the Windows 7 Beta).

In the coming weeks, I plan to dive deeper into many of these integrated and powerful features (many of which I use myself) that I that I hope you will enjoy.

Windows Live for Windows Mobile is now available to download for your Windows Mobile phone. Windows Live for Windows Mobile lets Windows Mobile users sync their email from Windows Live Hotmail as well as their Windows Live Contacts.

To download, just head on over to this URL on your Windows Mobile phone:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/mobile/wl/download-en-us.mspx

Just download the .cab file for the version of Windows Mobile you are running (Standard or Professional). Windows Live for Windows Mobile works on phones running both Windows Mobile and Windows Mobile 6 (and 6.1).

Let me explain how I use Windows Live for Windows Mobile today on my BlackJack II. Because Windows Live for Windows Mobile syncs up my Windows Live Contacts - I encourage many of my contacts to edit their profiles and make sure their email addresses and phone numbers are correct. When their Windows Live Contact is synced to my phone - their name appears under my Contacts on my Windows Mobile phone (Windows Mobile has a centralized "contact directory"). Information my Windows Live Contacts fill out in their profiles appear on my phone. Users can have multiple phone numbers entered into their profiles for a variety of locations such as Mobile, Home, or Work. When I choose to call a Windows Live Contact - I choose any of the numbers they provided to me that is in their profile. Of course I can also edit their contact information either in Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mail or via the web in Windows Live Hotmail.

Speaking of Windows Live Hotmail - Windows Live for Windows Mobile also lets my sync my email to my Windows Mobile phone as well. With Push-Email - you can get your email from Windows Live Hotmail account as it comes in.  The sync features for email in Windows Live for Windows Mobile let me view the same unread/read email messages on my Windows Mobile phone, desktop PC with Windows Live Mail, or via the web with Windows Live Hotmail. If I read an unread message on my phone, it not only becomes unread on my phone but also becomes unread in Windows Live Mail and on the web in Windows Live Hotmail.

Windows Live for Windows Mobile however does not come with a Windows Live Messenger client for your Windows Mobile phone.  We've chosen to do this to support carrier's plans for IM services for their phones. If there is no IM client on your phone, you can try our browser based version of Windows Live Messenger to chat with friends or ask your carrier about IM options for your phone.

For me - Windows Live for Windows Mobile has become a huge asset for me in staying connected with Windows Live and is essential for my Windows Mobile device.

For more information on Windows Live for Windows Mobile - check out the Windows Live for Windows Mobile Team's new blog!

Today, the Microsoft Office Outlook Team has made the new version of the Microsoft Outlook Connector Beta available for download. That means no more “beta”.

Download: Microsoft Office Outlook Connector

With all the responses on my post announcing the beta a few months ago, I figured this announcement will be of interest. The final build number is 12.0.4518.1058. If you don’t see that build number in the About window for the Outlook Connector, then you’re not yet running the final version.

The Microsoft Office Outlook Connector lets you sync your Windows Live Hotmail account up with Outlook 2003 and 2007. Remember, in order to sync your Calendar you need to be a paid subscriber of MSN Premium, Office Live Essentials, or Office Live Premium to get that added functionality with this release. If you are not a paid subscriber of these services, you will see an error in syncing your calendar in Outlook but you will be about to sync up you email messages and contacts just fine.

Be sure to visit the Microsoft Office Outlook Team Blog and give them your feedback on the Outlook Connector.

Today, the Microsoft Office Outlook Team has made the new version of the Microsoft Outlook Connector Beta available for download. That means no more “beta”. Download: Microsoft Office Outlook Connector With all the responses on my post announcing the Read More……(read more)