In appearing to finally do something other than offer up the awful Hotmail web based email solution, Microsoft has released Outlook.com, a web based email system they say is a “modern experience for modern browsers and devices.”
If numbers are any indication, they are off to a good start.
Microsoft launched its new Metro-style webmail service Outlook.com two weeks ago, and it looks like users are switching over to the Hotmail replacement at a pretty steady clip. Alongside its complete SkyDrive revamp, the company has announced that over 10 million have signed up for the service. The last number we heard was a rather impressive one million users in 24 hours, and while that pace has dropped off a bit, it’s still impressive growth. Of course, the stats may be thrown off just a bit by eager users claiming vanity email addresses before they’re all snatched up — have you secured yours yet?
I do agree with their sentiment that many of the users are signing up to get the email address they want and aren’t actually using the service. I know this because I am one of those people.
That being said, I have played around with it a little and thus far I am very impressed. Here are the reasons why:
- I wasn’t forced to connect an existing Microsoft account to sign up. Signing up was very easy and fast.
- You only need to get a text message to verify your account and enter a code. After that, you are good to go.
- The interface is very minimal and clean. There are ads, but they sit to the right of the screen and aren’t noticeable.
- You can connect to your Gmail account, Facebook and Twitter.
Here is a snapshot video of the service:
[tentblogger-youtube uDI6Itn7soQ]
And here is a screenshot of the interface:
Have you tried it out yet?
What do you think?
Jay Caruso
I am photographer. I love my wife and kids immensely. I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, my Savior. I was an IT Director and Project Manager for 10 years. Now I am a Senior Logistics Analyst at The Home Depot. I love the sport of baseball and the New York Yankees.
I like the interface better than Gmail, but it will be hard to switch since I’m entrenched in Gmail. I may have to look into connecting the gmail to outlook.com
I’m in the same boat.
I really do like the feel of it and I like how they won’t use my messages to advertise to me … but like you … I’m so hooked in at this point … :-/
That would be the hardest part. I am going to connect my Gmail to it in order to see what it is like.
Agree with Jimmy – beautiful interface, but GMail has become my goto 🙂
I will check it out, though, as the folder organization display is so much better than tags for structuring client interactions. Not for everyone, but in my case, a much tighter way of working. I use Google Chat so often, that having it accessible all the time, has become really handy…and the auto-save drafts have saved my hide more than once. If MS Outlook.com had an auto save draft feature, I would be more interested.
Just imo
Yeah I don’t like the lack of an auto-save. I can’t count the number of times that has saved me.