From submissions of over 5,000 Web 2.0 sites and services received in the 2009 Webware 100 competition, the Webware editors narrowed the list down to 300, and then CNET readers cast votes for their favorites.
The votes (nearly 630,000 of them) are in, and Windows Live and Live Search were recognized in these categories:
- Communication: Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Hotmail
- Infrastructure & Storage: Windows Live SkyDrive
- Search & Reference: Live Search
- Location-based services: Live Search Maps
- Editor’s Choice: (These are sites and services that Rafe Needleman and the other Webware editors picked for special mention, even though they may not be well known enough to have won the popular vote.)
Rafe’s Favorite: Windows Live Sync
Best Exit: Farecast
We want to thank all of you who voted for us and who have supported Windows Live through the years. Also thanks to all of you who have provided feedback on this blog and through our feedback site to help improve Windows Live. And finally, we owe a big thank you to the Webware editors for their work and support for us.
– Windows Live team
Comments policy
Unfortunately, we’ve had to temporarily block reader comments due to the volume of recent comments that violate our code of conduct. If you have feedback, now as always, we’re listening. Please use the following links to send us comments or get help.
Send us feedback about Windows Live products
Get help with Windows Live questions
Get help with Hotmail questions
Get help from Microsoft Support
Windows Live team blog archive 
Windows Live is great, however, I\’ve noticed that the email search function seems to have been disabled? I used to be able to find a keyword within a message in my inbox (great service, btw). However, I\’ve tried a load of times over the past couple of months and I get this error message: \’There was a problem with the Windows Live Hotmail service (a temporary network connectivity issue that has nothing to do with your computer). Please try again.\’Am I being a bit dumb or has this function been disabled?
good job! congratulation
Cool.
awesome 😀
congratulations~~~
Keep Going Live Team….. Congrats
Don\’t know if anyone can help or not, I\’m trying to import contacts – csv from outlook – every time I get the same message that the folder is empty try another, so I go back and redo my export – same thing and I have checked the excel folder and all info is there.Does anyone have a tip to overcome this problem?
Help! I want to be able to read across my full screen not have to slide a bar to read a line. How do I get the advertising banner to the tpo or bottom of my screen ? I have poor eyesight and can not read small print.Billmy e-mail is Bill_1860@hotmail.com
Stop Pedophiles in Windows Live. Don´t stop bloguers.Return http://mmadrigal.spaces.live.comhttp://lacomunidad.elpais.com/mmadrigal/2009/4/19/abierto-24-horashttp://solidaridadconmarcelinom.events.live.com/
A strip of advertiement, appearing on the right side of the msgs, blocks the view of a part of the msgs. Kindly get rid of these advertisement strips.K S Nair.
CONGRAT Windows Live! Three cheers for you all!
I think i will find fault with this. Windows Live does NOT support US Military or US Federal employees that are currently stationed overseas. One wonderful example of this is the fact that is a service member or employee has an FPO or APO address it cannot be used. It cant be used for billing, it cant be used all. Even talking to the customer support person i was informed of this glaring fault. Last i checked there were 200,000 or more Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen (and Airwomen) stationed overseas that most likely do NOT have a U S address for billing. Nor do they have a US phone number. I think that this is a gross fault that has been either overlooked or Microsoft just doesn\’t care in the slightest. For this fault alone i would say that Windows Live should NOT have won this award nor any other.
Oh, and in case the Windows Live folks think that im just going to shut up and disappear after speaking my mind they are quite wrong. I think ill go over to TechDirt and Slashdot and post up a few conversation pieces about this. Have a nice day. -Josh
Good job guys, you deserve it!!By the way, I´d like to ask you to consider giving MARCELINO MADRIGAL back, his blog.It is extremely necessary to all spanish bloggers, to all of us…a really remarkable blog! He finds all the answers and solves all the problems.Please, consider that!=)
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We welcome all opinions here on the Windows Live team blog. Even when you are criticizing Windows Live (and we hope it’s always constructive criticism), we are glad to have your feedback, as this helps us improve. However, PLEASE be respectful of other readers and don’t post comment spam. We will delete comments that violate our Code of Conduct (see link at bottom of screen), contain links to other content that is in violation, or are posted multiple times. The most effective way to report offensive content on Windows Live is to click “Report Abuse” at the bottom of the page, and tell the support team about it. Thanks,- Windows Live team
Congratulations, Windows Live TeamKeep up the good work!!
Good job Windows Live team!
To the Future of Change…
I swear, If I have to look at that revolting weight loss ad on my hotmail more time (the one where the womans loose skin is falling off her gut heading to the floor) Im gunna puke then switch my account from hotmail to gmail !!!! I might even barf again from the residual visual.
i love windows live for i have microsoft vista operating system an also have msn. windows live allows me to send and receive messages using msn where i could not do otherwise.
COOL
I HATE THE ADDS, THEY ARE TERRIBLE…
good job but lenthy
Congratulations team!! That was hard hard work.
good
I LIKE BUT I NEED TO ADD A CONTAC AND I DONT HAVED
hey rob you are very mean person
RIGHT ON TWILA
frankly speaking u deserve this award but NOT in SEARCH catagory!!!!!!!!!u need lots of improvement in live search
twila grant
Unfair! The results are rigged for certain.
ADDENDUM: I have just read some of the comments posted and I\’m more than unhappy to see some people using such harsh languages.However, I maintain that the results of the voting is so unfair that Webware deserves being accused of rigging the results in favor of Microsoft. Windows Live Search and Windows Live Skydrive do not deserve even being nominated. (Although, Windows Live Messanger is indeed the crown jewel of its rank.)
Window\’s live doesn\’t deserve to win anything except maybe for the messenger service (although the recently updated version is thrash).
congratulations!
Congratulations!! I love the Live services and use it for Mail and Calendar, and love the MS Live Workspace which has been great for saving class documents to, but I have to say that I am not a big fan of Live Search – Image search is slow and results are not as pertinent compared to what I get in Google – Would love to see more creative freedom in your Live Spaces as well.
As far as the "creative freedom" on Live Spaces … I would love to make my space look more like a website (hmmmm… like the Windows Live Team Blog maybe?) …. And to do this, you would need to make creating more user friendly (google i.e., blogspot blogs are the most user friendly I have ever worked with – point, click , and drag, but if you want to utilize HTML code of your own this is a no brainer as well – Please make Spaces a place I would be proud to use for my blogging!!
Windows Live is just great, everything i need in one place, thank you!
Windows Live and other Microsoft products, Brain but (unfortunately) not Beauty.
Go Microsoft, Go! It\’s a looong way in front of you to catch Google – and too little time. Anyway, thanks for the storage, and the design is nice too.
Congratulations!
Well it\’s good ole summertime. Living by teh Norwich harbor I see a lot of fishermen vying for the big catch. I from the old "school" and I don\’t know if you remember \’Popeye the Sailor Man\’ with his pipe and his can of "spinach" "I\’m Popeye the Sailor Man" "toot, toot!\’ "I am what I am" and Whimpy would come up to the counter at the diner and say " I\’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for the hamburger I bought today" "Thankyou."
LiveSearch &Windows Live is my secondary choice after Google….
Hello. There is an mistake in windows live argentina.Windows live home, spaces and profile appears all in english when always appear in spanish.
My country on live id is Argentina, no U.S. Pd: On hotmail is all in spanish but the problem affect all the other services.
Windows Live: 0 PointsReturn http://mmadrigal.spaces.live.com and delete spaces pedophiles.
i wanna change my email addess how or wat can i do
meny thankes to all grop (at live team)
why i can\’t get my msn chat box??? i can\’t found it………….so i can\’t chat in msn………..
avard davidson congratulations well done
Is the alerts system ever going to work again. I have been waiting for over a month for it to start working butThis is the longest it has ever been down
I was very frustrated with Windows Live Photos. Photo previews were taking anywhere from 1 to 4 seconds to display. Mary Jo Foley and Ed Bott from ZDNet stumbled upon an issue (that has no explanation) that urgently needs to be addressed by Microsoft. It seems that the re-registering of actxprxy.dll via regsvr32 actxprxy.dll from the cmd prompt completely solved this problem for me and everyone else. Not to mention IE8 in general is running very fast now. It doesn’t make any sense to me but the difference is quite real. The Ed Bott\’s article is at, http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=2443 and Mary Jo\’s comment are at Technorati; http://technorati.com/posts/Iw_p3cZ9xxLlHyS_Q%2BQv5ynBPcR1KVwwdsWrEUDDThg%3D
@Bill: Have you got Windows Live Mail for your Desktop? It\’s a simple addition. Then, you can read your emails in there without the ads if they get in the way.
Hey Guys (Windows Live Messenger/Hotmail): You\’re doing great and I really think you\’re on the way to creating something great for the future, something to help each and every one market whatever his or her little heart desires. Take my books, for example, (See them on the link below: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b_7_4?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=wade+hilton&sprefix=wade) you\’re helping me to sell them like hot bread.
I have hotmail and everytime i send an email to someone with aol it comes back undeliverable.????
I received a mail from WINDOWS live Team asking me to confirm my username password and date of birth etc. this was in junk mail.Is this genuine. Should I reply and give these details. It is also mentioned that my account will be closed if I dont reply.your comments plANP
[DEAR WINDOWS LIVE TEAM…I RECEIVED THE BELOW FISHING INFORMATION WHERE THEY SAID THEY WERE NEEDING INFORMATION OR THEY WOULD CLOSE MY HOTMAIL ACCOUNT. A COPY OF WHAT THEY SENT TO ME IS PASTED BELOW. ]Hotmail Account Alert !!!From: Windows Live™ Team (rutherford_jean@hotmail.com) You may not know this sender.Mark as safe|Mark as junk Sent: Sun 5/24/09 11:56 AM To: Windows Live™ Team (rutherford_jean@hotmail.com) Dear Account User This Email is from Hotmail Customer Care and we are sending it to every Hotmail Email User Accounts Owner for safety. we are having congestions due to the anonymous registration of Hotmail accounts so we are shutting down some Hotmail accounts and your account was among those to be deleted. We are sending this email to you so that you can verify and let us know if you still want to use this account. If you are still interested please confirm your account by filling the space below.Your User name, password, date of birth and your country information would be needed to verify your account. Due to the congestion in all Hotmail users and removal of all unused Hotmail Accounts, Hotmail would be shutting down all unused Accounts, You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons. * Username: ……………………….. * Password: ………………………….. * Date of Birth: ………………………. * Country Or Territory: ……………. After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for any inconveniences. Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/her account after two weeks of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently. Sincerely,The Windows Live Hotmail Team
Where do I go to complain about the annoying "teeth and "open mouths" that I have to look at under the advertisement about turning yellow teeth to white. The mouths look nauseating and I can\’t stand it any longer!!!!!
how do i change my password??
i need help with a question any help?
cool congrats guys i have always use MS products and will keep on doing so
I have been recieving emails from "Hotmail live team members" daily for about 3 wks, saying my account would be cancelled if I didn\’t update info; user name, password, birthday, etc; and all from different "members". What and who are these people, and do I need to do anything? I use my hotmail acct. daily, and don\’t want it interrupted. BJM
Can you get windows live email thru dialup?
When I try to add this blog through an RSS feed, the name of the blog comes up as "No name\’s space". I have the same problem on my Spaces blog. Any idea why?
Is there any possibility of you guys implementing a feature that allows user to set the security permission for each blog entry?
The ability to modify blog dates or schedule the publishing of a blog would also be very nice. Sometimes we just want to publish a blog on a certain "important" date, but unfortunately missed by a few second.
why when i send an email it say its unsent….?
I have not been able to log into my account in over 5 hours!! What is going on?? Someone PLEASE get this fixed!!
I can no longer check my hotmail from mu Sprint PCS phone?? Does anyone else have this issue?? Been going on for about a week now?
hi.how r u?people
I have been getting e-mails from my hotmail account asking to verify name and password, DOB and country or my e-mail account will be deleted is this a scam or is this for real?
@Marita p: That is a scam, it is called the fishing scam and it is somebody who is trying to get you to give away your details to them so they can hack into your account. Windows live would never ask you to do something like that as they would already have that type of information stored. I suggest you report the incident.
Great blog and product, however, I am having difficulties with signing into to the Silverlight.live.com site, when I get help from Microsoft they keep shunting me around. The Live ID help site is not very useful. How do I get assitance in dealing with this problem. I can get into one part of the silverlight.live.com site and do uploads but not the video portion.
Windows Live apps and websites are clearly the best for organizing your life. You have everything you need just by going to http://www.hotmail.com. What used to just be e-mail/contact access now you can access all your e-mails from other e-mail providers, all contacts, setup calendar appointments (which can then be reminded to your phone via SMS), store/share photos, files, blog entries. The home.live.com page is a great way to also view any of these things on one page that is customized by you and you can also see your networks updates as well. People need to jump off the facebook bandwagon and see what\’s in store with windows live because it is VERY robust. the windows live apps that can be installed locally on your computer are just an added bonus for ease of use when at home, but everything can be done from any computer with internet access which makes it perfect. Once the calendar is available via mobile devices then it will be even sweeter (i think it\’s using dot net framework or something so windows mobile devices cannot utilize it OR i could just be wrong all together). nice win for products that were well deserving of it!
My Live Messenger keeps signing me out with the message: "You were signed out from here because you signed into a version of Messenger that doesn\’t let you sign in to more than one place. Click here to sign in again"I have signed out of Live on-line and for the life of me I can\’t see anywhere else I am logged in….ARRRGGGHHHH! Very frustrating.
Gee my email vannished
I am going away, I would like to be able to send an automated email to everyone who writes to me, but I can find any way of doing this does anyone know if you can?
SkyDrive rocks!!
@Heather Nelson – Yes, Hotmail has this feature. In Hotmail, click Options, then More options. Under "Manage your account" look for "Send automated vacation replies" and follow the instructions on that page.@No name who asked about the e-mail that claims to be from Hotmail Customer Care. This is a version of a common phishing scam. Windows Live will never ask you for your password or other personal information via e-mail. Never give this information out, even if someone claims to be from Microsoft.- Windows Live team
@Samuel Stokes – It looks like the Silverlight site was having some server issues. You can get more information about Silverlight Streaming services here: http://dev.live.com/silverlight/
Quick fix for scam emails: put their URLs into your blocked senders list. You should never, then, hear from them again!
Facebook is enough.
thats great but when will they add a polling feature. i just renovated my news website and i want a polling feature. http://www.livenewscentre.spaces.live.com
hey microsoft BING is just like live search. i doesnot find anything good after its use! Theres nothing new exept name BING