What’s new in Outlook.com?

For the user, it is mainly the user interface that has changed dramatically. Outlook has a clean design based on Microsofts commonly used Metro design. The creators claim to make email better by using your connections on social networks to enrich the email experience The design should give its users a more modern experience on modern browsers and devices.

Microsoft states on their Outlook blog that email isn't just about the browser anymore. In fact, email represents 20% of the time we spend on smartphones, and is used extensively on tablets as well as PCs.

what does this mean for email marketers?

Well, technically not much. HTML email still renders exactly the same as it did on Windows Live Hotmail. Hotmail basically put on a new coat. But with the new design, there are some things worth mentioning:

microsoft claims that 30% more messages are visible in your inbox.

So your newsletter stays visible for a longer period of time but it also means that your email has to compete with even more distractions than before. Better get creative on your subject lines!

outlook.com can automatically detect, label and unsubscribe newsletters and promotional offers

This is not entirely new, Hotmail already had Smartscreen to separate interesting email from undesirable messages. But in the new webmail service, a universal unsubscribe button is introduced that can automatically unsubscribe you from the mailinglist. But it does not end there: Microsoft will filter any future promotions and email into the trash.

Currently it’s not clear, how this affects resubscribing to a newsletter, after somebody first unsubscribes from a list using this new feature.

hotmail users can switch accounts from this moment on!

You will see a decrease in Hotmail users and an increase of Outlook users in your lists. In its first few hours, Outlook.com has gained over 1 million users. Current Hotmail users are able to upgrade from their Hotmail accounts to the new Outlook environment.

goodbye hotmail

Hotmail was here since 1996. The first big worldwide webmail provider. 8 years later, in 2004, Google introduced Gmail which grew out to be the biggest webmail service with nearly 500 million users. And now 8 years after Gmail was intoduced, Microsoft redesigns its Hotmail platform to a more modern interpretation of how email should be in 2012. Apparently webmail has a life cycle of 8 years.

Goodbye Hotmail! Welcome Outlook.com