There’s good news for parents too. Windows Live Family Safety lets you manage the websites your kids can access, contacts they can communicate with when accessing Messenger, Hotmail and Live Spaces. Like the rest of the suite services, Family Safety too can be accessed via phone, PC or the Internet, letting parents monitor their children’s online activity from literally anywhere.

Also in the beta stage is Windows Live Essentials, which basically offers a revamped version of Messenger, Photo Gallery and Toolbar among other software, much like what Google has to offer.

The most-awaited of Microsoft’s new releases is no doubt Internet Explorer 8. While it promises to provide a smarter web browsing experience, what got our attention was the Accelerators feature, which will make it faster and easier to connect web services you use with any webpage you browse. The Accelerators can be used to search, map, e-mail, translate, or share content from any webpage you’re currently viewing with just one click.

New security features seem promising too. Web Slices, another new feature, allows you to subscribe to portions of your favourite websites.
In the end analysis, old or not, Microsoft promises a more ‘mature’ product, one that might be worth the while.