It's very difficult to make e-mail sexy or popular today - Heck, PCWorld.com and CNET ran articles years ago about the death of e-mail with many so-called experts foretelling e-mail was dead and buried. E-mail may be a far slower and somewhat older form of communication compared to Twitter, SMS, iOS messages, and other instantaneous ways of sending a message, but it's still a dependable form of communication. In fact, e-mail has now become a formal way of communicating whereas just half a decade before, there were still books around saying we should still give a handwritten letter to lovers, managers, and company heads.
When Microsoft *quietly* reintroduced Hotmail as Outlook.com, "industry experts" saw this as an opportunity to once again attack Microsoft (haters will hate and Microsoft is the punching bag of the media). The truth is, the move is a logical step towards unifying the Windows ecosystem with Windows 8. I didn't really expect anything fancy from using Outlook.com's new web service - and neither should anyone else. It's good old-fashioned e-mail! And it's designed to look good with the Metro Style theme! What else are you looking for (and why are you complaining)?
Having spent some time with the latest release of Windows 8 at my job, I've grown accustomed to Windows 8's somewhat colorful interface and appreciate the design being extended to Microsoft's cloud service. I really don't take advantage of cloud technology all that much, but I do still use e-mail. Living in another country has made me realize that e-mail is still a good way to contact people without having to ridiculously broadcast myself through services like Twitter and Facebook. And if Microsoft is going to make their e-mail service more pleasant and dynamic (the application of HTML5 was a nice touch), then I'm all for it. Every service needs a facelift once in awhile. Outlook.com comes with Bing ads on the right panel? That's all right. Considering it's a free Microsoft service, why not? You don't even need to use Internet Explorer 9, Outlook.com works fine in Google Chrome, too.
The quick access panel in the Outlook.com interface provides a quick access to SkyDrive, Calendar, and People. I never really used the Windows Live Calendar but it's nice to know it's there. And for the unbiased users out there who have actually tried SkyDrive, it works smoothly with Outlook.com (With all due respect to Ubuntu One and other cloud storage services out there, SkyDrive is pretty awesome!). Although I won't be using the People App very often, I've already added my LinkedIn contacts using Outlook.com.
I now access my Hotmail account through Outlook.com and I have no interest in signing up for another e-mail address (three is plenty . . . four if you count my spam-riddled Yahoo e-mail). Fair warning to Windows Live Mail users - I've been recently experiencing delays and message errors when using my Windows Live Mail with Hotmail. As much as I like Windows Live Mail, I recommend everyone to stop using their Hotmail accounts with Live Mail in the meantime until Microsoft is able to completely finish the transition to Outlook.com. Also, it's pretty obvious Windows 8 will have its own e-mail client ready when it gets released this October. If you're a 100% Windows user, you can wait for Windows 8 or sign up for Outlook.com for now.
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