NEW YORK – Longtime users of Hotmail, MSN and other Microsoft email services will start noticing a big change: When they sign in to check messages, they’ll be sent to a new service called Outlook.com.
You might be thinking, isn’t Outlook the software Microsoft Corp. makes for people to use email at work? Indeed it is, but Microsoft is now adopting that brand for personal, Web-based email services as well. It’s part of a broad makeover that includes the company’s overhaul of the Windows operating system and the Office software suite.
One important note: People will be able to keep their existing addresses while using Outlook.com. There’s no need to print new business cards replacing Hotmail with a new Outlook.com address. But if you want to change your address, you can get a new one for free. In fact, at least for now, it’s still possible to get new Hotmail and Live addresses by signing up through Hotmail.com or Live. com, rather than Outlook.com.
You’ll see a lot of improvements when you switch, though nothing feels revolutionary if you’ve already been using Gmail.
Outlook.com adopts conversations, which makes it feel like it’s catching up to Gmail, but it still uses folders instead of labels.
The improvements over Gmail are mostly around the edges:
• Outlook integrates with leading social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
Gmail mostly integrates with Google’s own services. With Outlook, you can have the service automatically fill your address book with contact information not just from Google but also from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even China’s Sina service. You can chat with a Facebook friend directly from the Outlook website.
And if you get an email from a Facebook friend, you might see that person’s latest Facebook post to the right, as long as Facebook has that email address registered to the social-networking account. Keep in mind that your posts won’t start showing up next to correspondences with people you’re not friends with, unless you’ve set them on Facebook to be publicly visible.
• Outlook offers many ways to customize and manage the mailbox.
One of the complaints I have about Web-based email is the lack of versatility. I was pleased to see a number of options with Outlook. For instance, I can have contents of emails automatically appear in a reading pane, rather than just as a list with subject lines. This is the part that feels most like Outlook software for work. You’d need to turn this feature on, though. It’s something you might not want if you check messages a lot from public places and don’t want messages to automatically appear. Outlook also lets you create alternate email addresses without signing up for additional accounts – up to five a year, or up to 15 at any one time. So you can create “UseThisForSpam @Outlook.com” for dealings with merchants, whereas Google requires you to set up a new Gmail account to get that second address, which you can then link with your main account.
Outlook matches Gmail in letting you use Outlook.com to manage email from other services, such as Gmail and AOL, though neither works with Yahoo Mail unless you pay $20 a year for a Plus account.
Outlook also has tools for keeping your mailbox clean. You can automatically move or delete messages older than a certain number of days. You can also choose to keep only the latest message from that sender. Be careful, though, as I had inadvertently deleted more than 300 messages in a few seconds that way.
• Outlook creates special filters for viewing certain types of messages.
Click “Shipping updates,” for instance, for quick access to emails with UPS, FedEx and other tracking numbers for products you are expecting from merchants. That’s something Microsoft also had with its older email services, but major rivals have yet to adopt. (Yahoo comes close but sends you to an outside service, Slice, for that.)
Another filter offers quick access to messages with photo attachments or photo links, and yet another gives you messages with documents.
• Outlook links with Microsoft’s online storage service, SkyDrive, to handle large files.
No longer do you have to worry about whether your friend or colleague can receive large attachments. Just let Outlook add the file to SkyDrive and create a link to send by email. You get 7 gigabytes of storage for free.
And speaking of storage, Outlook.com offers unlimited space, matching offerings from Yahoo Inc. and AOL Inc. Gmail has a 10 GB limit on free accounts.
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.