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Microsoft kills Hotmail: What users must do

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Supriya Rai
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In what seems to be a bid to grab the market shares from Google, Microsoft unveiled a revamped, Facebook-friendly version of its online email service on Tuesday.

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The software giant is renaming its Hotmail service Outlook.com, giving it a sharp new look, social network links and new features for handling the tide of junk and mass mail that bothers users.

Even though Hotmail was the world's largest online mail service as of June, according to comScore, Microsoft losing its customers to Google's Gmail lead them to take the step. Gmail currently has 31 per cent of the market, while Yahoo Mail has about 32 per cent.

What the existing Hotmail users need to do

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Outlook.com preview is available to users today, mentions the official blog of Microsoft. Also, users can get an Outlook.com email address starting today.

If you are an existing Hotmail customer and want to upgrade to the Outlook.com preview, you need to click on the 'Upgrade' button in the options menu of Hotmail. All the details of your email account will remain unchanged, and you can experience sending/receiving emails and all the new features of Outlook.com through your existing account.

You can also add an @Outlook.com email address to your account if you want, says the official blog.

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If you don't have an email address and want a create a new one, it can be done by logging on to Outlook.com.

For more information on Outlook.com, click here. New Features

Users can link up with their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ accounts, to see the latest updates from friends and contacts. Online chat is available via Facebook.

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According to Microsoft, the new service automatically detects mass messages and puts them in separate folders. Users can customize the process to sort out the mails in any way they want. This could help users get rid of the junk mail.

Also, the new mail service allows easy use of Microsoft's Internet-based products, such as SkyDrive for storing documents, Office Web Apps for working away from a PC and will eventually have Skype video chat built-in. It is likely that more features will be added before the final version is launched.

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