Hotmail renamed Outlook Highlights Microsoft Cloud computing Strategy

According to foreign media reports, the U.S. local time in Tuesday, Microsoft launched a free, web-based e-mail portal Service Outlook.com, and will phase out Hotmail services. Microsoft hopes to build this new feature into web-based Outlook client software to lure Web users from competing services such as Gmail and Yahoo.

Outlook.com uses the Metro interface to make its interface clearer. In addition, Outlook.com integrates social networking features. Without a standard email inbox, users will be able to see status updates and content for sites such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Microsoft also plans to use Skype to enhance the functionality of outlook.com, providing it with Gmail-like "Google Talk" features.

The world's largest online mail service, with 324 million users, accounts for 360% of global market share, according to the latest data from the US market research institute comscore. But its market share has soared to 31% as Hotmail's rivals, Google's Gmail service, are booming. The market share of Yahoo Mail services remains at around 32%.

As the first online mail service, Hotmail was established in 1996 and has not been updated by Microsoft for the past eight years. Chris Jones, head of project for Windows Live, said: "A lot has happened in the last eight years and we think it's time to change the online mail service."

To restore growth, Microsoft will rename the service to Outlook, which has the same name as the Outlook application in its Office software suite.

The new version of the service's appearance is simple and clear, highlighting the blank area, can not help but remind of Google Gmail's latest interface. When users browse the contents of the mailbox, a column appears on the right side of the screen, which is a few obscure ads. But when users look up information, those ads don't appear.

Users can associate it with the accounts of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google +, see the latest news for their friends, and chat online via Facebook.

In addition, the new Hotmail service allows users to easily invoke Microsoft's various Internet products, such as the SkyDrive of files, Office Web apps, and eventually integrate a Skype-like video chat feature.

It is noteworthy that the Microsoft launched the Outlook Network version to replace Hotmail, coincided with the launch of Windows 8, the industry believes that this is the latest Microsoft's upcoming Windows series system, for the mail system a leap-forward upgrade, through the network of mail systems, It highlights Microsoft's strategy for cloud computing by allowing users to send and receive emails without restrictions from their workplaces and network service providers.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)