Images: Hotmail's extreme makeover

Microsoft has spent the past few years revamping its free Web e-mail service, Hotmail. The company is getting set to drop the "beta" from Windows Live Hotmail. Originally, the "full" version--with its Outlook-like look and feel--was to be the default interface. But the "classic" version trumped the "full" after testers complained that the new Hotmail was too different from the old Hotmail.

Microsoft has been adapting the product throughout the testing process. One of the earliest models for the full version of the Hotmail redesign, the M2 version from December 2004, still had the Hotmail name, but added things like a preview pane.