We’re leaving the “Beta tag” blanket at home.  That’s right…thanks to your beta testing and feedback; we’ve now officially launched Windows Live Custom Domains.  Our colleagues over in Messenger kicked off the Windows Live launch season last week.  Along with the launch of OneCare and Live Favorites, we're excited to continue the momentum.  Windows Live is about the Web, the way you want it.  Personalization is a key piece here, and let's face it...your identity online is central to that.  Custom Domains enables people to use all of the Windows Live and MSN services they want with an ID that's as unique to them as they want it to be.

For those who aren’t familiar with Custom Domains, we provide free hosted e-mail for your domain.  Let’s say you own the domain name, “wingtiptoys.com.”   With Custom Domains, you get unlimited, free e-mail accounts at that domain.  You can open accounts for sales@wingtiptoys.com, owner@wingtiptoys.com, etc.  Oh wait, did we mention that it’s free?  This isn’t one of those “free during beta” trial offers.  This is free for life. 

New Feature: Open Membership

We’re jazzed about a new feature we’ve added called Open Membership.  How does this work?  Let’s say you run a website called “soccerfan.com.”  Your users love your site and want an e-mail address @soccerfan.com.  Prior to this launch, each user would have to request an e-mail account from the administrator.  Then, the admin would manually approve and create each account.  We’ve made things much easier all around with this launch.

With the Open Membership featured enabled, we provide URL links so users can automatically sign-up for an e-mail account @soccerfan.com.  Admins no longer have to burden with the manual creation of email accounts, and users get accounts immediately.  Users will love their new email because it’s a brand new MSN Hotmail or Windows Live Mail beta account with a highly personalized @soccerfan.com domain name.  Web site owners will love it because their users help promote the site.  Also, users will re-visit the host site often to check their e-mail.

Featured Customer: Waterloo, Belgium

Our newest customer is the Belgian city of Waterloo.  They’re offering free @waterloo.eu MSN Hotmail accounts to 30,000 Waterloo citizens.  We’re honored to partner with Waterloo to offer this new technology to their citizens.  If you’re an organization or business looking to provide e-mail to your users, come check us out!

Thanks again to our beta testers who have helped develop the service – we’ve learned a lot.  We will have more features to come, so come back and visit often!