Outlook.com

It appears that at some point Microsoft will be doing away with Hotmail and replacing it with Outlook.com in an attempt to stay competitive with Google’s G-mail. In addition to competition received from G-mail, Microsoft has lost many users due to the emergence of alternative methods of communication such as texting or posting on social media sites.

Microsoft has run Hotmail since 1998 and since its creation, little has been done to change the format of this service.  The designers at Microsoft decided that it was time for a change. Not only will the site look different, it will act different. The service will change from Hotmail.com to Outlook.com and it will be interfaced with the same social media sites that it's competing with.  A large effort to increase security and privacy will go into the development of Outlook.com. One thing that will set them apart from G-mail is their placement of advertisements. As opposed to G-mail, which will look at the content of incoming emails and tailor ads accordingly, Outlook.com claims to never scan the contents of its user’s e-mails.

A nice addition to this new e-mail system is it’s interface with Microsoft’s Skydrive. This is a cloud storage program that enables the user to send out emails with larger files attached. No more blasting out e-mails ten at a time to share the latest vacation pics.

An easy and supposedly seamless transition from Hotmail to Outlook should be achieved if the user opts for the upgrade. There is no date set for this transition to happen but hopefully it will be as smooth as Microsoft claims. the latest word on Outlook.com can be found on Microsofts website.