Microsoft rolls out Outlook: The free e-mail service

Hotmail.com has been an age-old webmail service that was acquired by Microsoft a year after its launch in 1996. Ever since, there have been lots of modifications to the design, interface and features of Hotmail. The latest is that Microsoft has rebranded it to Outlook.com with some modifications to the features and design once again. The named has been coined after the most widely used e-mail application under Microsoft Office.

Hotmail account holders will get the new interface with an option to change their domain name from hotmail.com to outlook.com. All account holders who have @hotmail.com, @live.com and @msn.com can choose to switch domain names as per individual’s wish. However, the account would be known as outlook.com henceforth.

Here are a few changes and new features of this iconic webmail client of Microsoft:

Integration with Facebook, Twitter/ Editing Office docs

One of the striking features of outlook.com is the integration with Facebook and Twitter. Any updates posted by your Facebook friends as in status, photos comments and links will be enlisted on Microsoft Outlook. Same goes for tweets. You need not log in to social media sites separately to check for updates. Just sync your Outlook account with them and you are done. Outlook also allows you to like and comment, reply and retweet from within its interface.

Another very beneficial feature of outlook.com is its in-built capability to edit office documents. You can now open and make changes to an attached Word, PowerPoint and Excel document from within a mail itself without having to download the attachment. The editing will be done on the web interface and saved then and there.

The design of the new interface is quite eye-catching. It is one of the foremost things that a user will notice after hitting the ‘Upgrade to Outlook’ button. Some reviewers find this to be a much needed design overhaul after years of retaining the same design with minor changes.

Neat User Interface

The new design of outlook.com with a blue bar at top and surroundings is inspired from Windows Phone 8 which makes e-mail experience appear smartphone-like. It has made the interface appear clearer than ever before. Users who find the color dull can opt for more as per their tastes whenever it is required.

By and large the interface sports a neat and tidy look with just the action tab for composing message in place if you have not chosen anything else. Besides, the interface is less cluttered as compared to other webmail services with fewer tabs and buttons. The email appears right at the center at the same time when it displays the Hotmail folders.

After you get accustomed with the new layout and design, you will find that there is not much difference with the tabs and buttons for sending and receiving mails. Reviewers who have tested the preview and found that mails were reaching the mailbox at a slower rate tha
Hotmail. The reason might be that it is a preview and the final version is yet to be released by Microsoft.

In keeping with Windows 8’s feature, you can log in to Windows Live Messenger from the interface to chatting anytime you wish to. Microsoft has also announced the integratio
Skype with outlook.com which would follow shortly. Users can start video chart on Skype from directly within a mail.

There is no doubt that outlook.com is a major facelift to hotmail. You get social media updates as well as edit office documents from one common web interface. It reduces the time required to log in to each web service separately. Windows Phone users will find outlook.com quite familiar with their smartphone’s interface. Microsoft is all geared up to upgrade its product and service which is undoubtedly going to benefit users across the world.