The veteran free email service Hotmail , created by Microsoft in 1996, has since been renamed Outlook (www.outlook.com). In June, Hotmail was still the world's most used email, with 324 million users , or 36 percent of the global market. But recently it has seen a loss of customers to Google's Gmail, its fastest growing rival, which now has a 21 percent share. For its part, Yahoo Mail is settled at 32 percent.
To ensure leadership, the new Outlook features a new, simpler and smoother look, links to social networks, and new features to handle the massive amount of junk mail that floods email accounts. Users can connect to their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ accounts to see the latest updates from their contacts. It also offers an online chat via Facebook.
On the other hand, Microsoft has taken into account that, today, advertising, offers, discounts and updates from social networks account for 80 percent of the inbox of a typical user. To help combat this glut, the new service automatically detects bulk messages and places them in a separate folder .
The new mail also enables simplified access to Microsoft's Internet products, such as SkyDrive for document storage and Office Web Apps for working away from the PC.
