Aside from the look and feel, future Skype integration, and improved contact management, Outlook.com isn’t a drastic change from what’s already avaiilable in Hotmail. Microsoft still isn't supporting IMAP in Hotmail or Outlook.com, which is disappointing for Mac users who want to avoid using POP3 and use clients such as Sparrow to access Hotmail. The big new additions in Outlook.com appear to be Skype video calling from your Inbox, which isn't present right now but I'm told is "coming soon," and the impressive integration of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn contacts into the Address Book (People). Microsoft doesn't appear to have reduced spam in Outlook.com; I still regularly receive junk mail in my Inbox on the standard setting — with the only other option to switch to send everything to junk except messages from my contacts and safe senders. Gmail on the other hand does a fairly good job of filtering out spam for me, but that could be down to the age of my particular Hotmail account — an original from Hotmail’s pre-Microsoft days.

Outlook.com is only opening in preview today though, so I'd hope to see some additions over the coming months. Microsoft appears to be pitching this at Hotmail users for now, but it's clearly a new system and interface that it doesn’t want to force onto existing users — providing them the option to upgrade. It's a great approach to surface conversation threads, SSL by default, and other Hotmail features that may have been buried — but most importantly it provides a fresh approach to the company's webmail. The software maker believes this fresh look will appeal to customers using Windows 8 or Office 2013 and who know more people on Facebook and Twitter than on Google+ — probably due to the lack of integration with Google+. If you’re a fan of simplicity and less clutter, or you use Outlook regularly, then it’s well worth registering for an @outlook.com email address. Likewise, if you’re an existing Hotmail user and you long for a professional looking, cleaner user interface then this is definitely for you. Gmail fans might need to customize the Instant Actions, categories, archiving, and keyboard shortcut settings, but overall there’s some useful mail features in Outlook.com that will appeal to the majority of webmail users.