Windows Live Mail Desktop, the confusingly-named Microsoft app that will let you access e-mail from multiple sources including Hotmail, Gmail, and AOL, is getting contextual (targeted) advertising, according to ClickZ. The program, which is still in closed beta, utilizes integration with Microsoft's Active Search to display ads based on the content of your e-mail messages, much like similar ad model in Gmail that caused (and continues to cause) some controversey. Unlike in Gmail, Active Search actually displays search results from Windows Live Search relevant to the message you're reading, the top two of which are sponsored links. Privacy implications aside (I give Google the benefit of the doubt--I'm willing to do the same for Microsoft on a trial basis), having targeted search results next to my e-mails sounds useless to me, but maybe some users will disagree. You can turn off Active Search and the ads are replaced by standard non-targeted display ads, but I'm not sure which would be less obnoxious. For more about the feature, head over to the Windows Live Mail Desktop official blog.

Until I read this post on the Unofficial Yahoo Blog, I had totally forgotten about Microsoft's promise way back in October to make Windows Live Messenger (the successor to MSN Messenger, currently in public beta) interoperable with the Yahoo! Messenger network. Somewhat surprisingly, though, they haven't forgotten, and according to Leah (apparently Microsoft developers don't have last names) at the Inside Windows Live Messenger blog, they've got the feature working in test builds and it "can't be much longer" before Windows Live Messenger users will be able to chat with their Y!IM buddies. We're waiting, Leah.

After months of beta-testing, Microsoft has announced the official release of Windows Live OneCare, its Windows security and maintenance suite. OneCare includes anti-virus software, firewall, a backup utility, and spyware protection via Windows Defender, plus disk defragmentation, cleanup, and Windows Update features. OneCare is now available through the Windows Live web site and will cost you $49 per month year to protect up to three PCs.

Yesterday Microsoft rolled out a new version of Windows Live Local that includes quite a few new features. The most major improvements are real-time traffic information for major metropolitan areas via Traffic.com, Windows Life Messenger integration which allows several people to interact with the same map in real time, and "Collections," which let you add "pushpins" to mark locations, e.g. favorite restaurants, and recall them later (assuming you're signed in to a Live.com account) or share them with others. Also on the menu is Bird's Eye Views for much of the U.K. and integration with Outlook Calendar. While Google keeps making incremental improvements to Google Maps, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Ask.com have really taken their challenge and run with it.

At long last Microsoft has opened beta-testing of Windows Live Messenger, formerly known as MSN Messenger 8, to the public. The biggest new features are Sharing Folders, the fruits of Microsoft's acquistion of FolderShare, which aims to simplify sharing photos and files with your contacts, and Windows Live Call, a pre-paid service that lets you call regular phones, a la SkypeOut, via Verizon. Also new is a simplified interface, integrated MSN Video (I'm still not sure who wants this), and a semi-customizable GUI. To get in on the beta you'll have to have a (free) Passport account, natch.

[Via TechCrunch]

To be honest, I'm starting to get confused. It's been known for some time that the next version of Outlook Express, the one that will ship with Windows Vista, is going to be called Windows Mail. Windows Live Mail, on the other hand, is Microsoft's web-based successor to Hotmail. We've got the web and the desktop covered, right? But now here comes Windows Live Mail Desktop. Uh.. wuh? Fortunately the product has its own blog which gives us some hints, in particular this post that has a handy chart comparing Mail and Live Mail Desktop. Here's what (I think) I know: Windows Live Mail Desktop is going to be a free desktop e-mail client that will sort of be the missing link between Windows Mail and Windows Live, offering support for multiple e-mail accounts in separate folders (including webmail from AOL and Gmail, they say), a new contacts interface that has something to do with Live Messenger, RSS and blogging features, emoticons and inline spell-checking, and a UI that matches Windows Live. And it's currently in a very small managed beta.

Okay, so it looks like there's some interesting work going into Windows Live Mail Desktop, but if it's so much better than Windows Mail, why have two different free e-mail products? Why not offer one really great product with one name rather than confusing the hell out of consumers (and bloggers)?

[Via Slashdot]

Microsoft is taking a whack at Craigslist, and to a lesser extent Google Base, with Windows Live Expo, which it describes as "an online marketplace and social networking site." It's in private beta right now, but touts some interesting features like like the ability to restrict your listings to your personal network, integration with MSN Spaces, and "detailed maps and directions for things like garage sales, homes for sale or concerts." You can keep track of the the project on the Live Expo team blog, or try to get on the beta at the Windows Live Expo site.

[Via Paul Stamatiou]