Microsoft’s next generation Hotmail-Kahuna Mail

by Arun Vishnu · Published October 20, 2005 · Updated February 1, 2009

Microsoft and MSN have big plans for Hotmail.The company has been working for the past several months on a next generation Web mail solution that codenamed Kahuna and currently goes by the nondescript name “Mail Beta” . It will likely replace Hotmail when it’s released in the first half of 2006.Kahuna is the next Hotmail, Microsoft’s next generation Hotmail. Some of the important features of Kahuna are:–>In the inbox there are three vertical panes, as in Outlook 2003, for mailboxes, current mailbox view, and the reading pane.–>You can drag and drop items in the UI. You can also right-click a message in the message list to see options for replying, forwarding, marking as read or unread, deleting, printing, and viewing source. –> In addition to the Info Bar, Kahuna Mail also blocks pictures and links in email from unknown senders by default. You can enable the display of this content with a single mouse click. –>The New Mail display uses the highly-rated rich text editor that Microsoft debuted in MSN Spaces.–>Kahuna does offer a 2 GB inbox. –>Mail also provides for a number of standard keyboard shortcuts.–>The inline search feature provides speedy access to particular emails. Single-click contact addition when sending an email to a non-contact, and even the auto-completion of contact names when writing a new email.