Microsoft is merging things in preparation of Windows 8. Hotmail is being phased out for Outlook.com. The new e-mail web client has Skype integration, is lighter, faster, nicer and cleaner. Taking pictures of The Verge here, because I don't want to show my e-mail: This is the New look Also you have the people hub for it as the new contact list: To upgrade (you can downgrade anytime, if you wonder), click on the gear icon at the top right corner, and select from the drop down menu: "Upgrade to Outlook.com". The switch will be instant. You can also get your new @outlook.com e-mail if you like, at: outlook.com
Yeah, just noticed this myself. Must have just happened because I logged in to Hotmail earlier today (a couple of hours ago) and while the look had been partially Metro-fied it still looked like it usually does. This actually looks pretty nice. Also just managed to snatch two great Outlook.com aliases. Whoop whoop!
Not sure why but using this has made me look forward to win 8 It looks great and is well integrated with facebook and so on. Good find Edit: And as hardly anyone else has it I just got a new ID as my own name for once
Nice, looks really good too. I'll be interested to see the mobile version... I've just looked and it hasn't changed. EDIT: Yes it has, it must have taken a while for the change to propagate through. it is much better. I like the uncluttered look
It looks very gmail like, with a very clean interface. If I wasn't so tied into the Google ecosystem then I might give it a go. But I really cant be bothered with all the hassle of jumping over etc. Im not really a mad for MS products but this does seem to look good. They are really picking up their ideas and giving people what they want.
Has an body noticed if you go to edit your profile it fires you back to the same horrid live / Hotmail site layout! Urghhhh thought that was gone or good.
There is actually ads - but they don't appear all the time and not in the sense you might expect. In a column on the far right, "metro-style" (or whatever it's called today) adverts are represented as square boxes with advertising text in them. Mousing over one of these will show the actual advert image. A bit weird, but overall less distracting and a better implementation of them.
Has anyone figured out how not to sign in to Messenger when checking mail? I keep getting signed out from my regular messaging client.
It's kinda funny what a rebranding can do. There're barely any new features (bar Skype integration and possibly categories) that Hotmail didn't have, but with a new name and a slightly sleeker UI everyone suddenly loves it.
The thing I like most is that I got the opportunity to get myself a great alias or two for my existing account.
Lifehacker has a little comparison article between Outlook.com and Gmail. http://lifehacker.com/5931621/outlook-vs-gmail-a-feature+by+feature-comparison In sum: