Microsoft has been shaking things up lately, with new operating systems, Skydrive, Office 2013 in the wings, and new tablets coming out. Now they have set their sights on an old standby, Hotmail. The venerable email service is going to be replaced entirely with a new service called Outlook.com.
The old system wasn't "winning" according to Microsoft general manager Brian Hall. They have been surpassed by Google's Gmail for some time now, and a refresh and expansion of the program is now necessary.
A preview of the Outlook site should be up and running now. And anyone can sign up for a new account there, or transfer their existing Hotmail account. You will be able to keep your old Hotmail address and have it show up in Outlook, and for some time you will still be able to use the old interface from Hotmail, but eventually it will be abandoned for the newer look at the Outlook site.
There will be more than just email using Outlook. You'll be able to use the Office Web Apps found in Skydrive, the web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Skype will also be integrated into Outlook in the final release.
The look of the interface is intentionally meant to blend with Metro in Win 8...for better or worse depending on your view of Metro.
The full story can be read at Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows.
