Microsoft Reboots Mail Service, Calls It Outlook; Attacks Clutter, Adds Social

Continuing its rollout of updated and revamped services, Microsoft today is releasing a preview of its upcoming mail client reboot. Outlook, as it will be called going forward, is a fresh take on a dated service (cough: Hotmail) that some people still use.

So what’s new in Outlook? A cleaner design for more content, social network (Facebook, Twitter and soon Skype) integration, and 7GB of free cloud storage are just the tip of the iceberg. Microsoft has stripped out ads from personal email accounts and even figured out a way to manage those dreaded newsletters we all sign up for but can’t figure out how to unsubscribe from. (Yes, there are others who do this but Microsoft isn’t really going after email power users.)

Over the next few months (possibly year(s)), Hotmail users will be prompted to upgrade to the new Outlook. Watch the video for a high-level rundown of the new service. We weren’t given access to the new service ahead of time, so there may be loads of new features other than the ones listed above.

Sign up for the preview at Outlook.com and grab your preferred handle now!