Ok, this is probably the coolest thing I have actually seen come out of the Windows Live camp so far. Windows Live Custom Domains is live now and its pretty cool. I found about it here. Basically it lets you create Hotmail accounts at your domain name. So you can create you@yoursite.com and create 19 other accounts too. Most exciting of all, its all free. I was a little disappointed because I thought these would also be running Windows Live Mail, but sadly its still Hotmail. For now.

While I am not entirely crazy about Microsoft’s web line-up right now, I have to say I am impressed by their enthusiasm. They are also starting to hit on the type of tools that web users really need. It’s getting web apps closer to being like real apps, where users define how and where they’re used. I hope and expect that Windows Live Mail may even let you send and receive POP3 mail, like Outlook. Maybe Office Live will offer users their own personal Exchange servers they can sync with any time. It’s thinking like this that may give Microsoft a leg up in its fight against Google.

I am looking forward to seeing Live.com grow out of Beta and into a full fledged web services platform. Until then though, I’ll be using Gmail.