In all things new, Microsoft has launched an email service called Outlook. Not to be confused with the "Outlook" that retrieves emails to be dealt with on your PC, this email sports a simplified, Metro-inspired interface which adds plenty of useful features to your inbox.

If you thought Hotmail was a pleasant enough email service, Outlook takes it to a whole new level. Its interface is simple and clean, focusing on the email in your inbox. The sidebar and title bars are slim and neat, and the ads within are unobtrusive.

Opening up an email presents a Gmail-ish conversation view, and you can create labels for any type of message. Outlook also lets you search using a number of different filters and operators, and you can navigate the interface using keyboard shortcuts (which you can customize).

Outlook's point of difference is that you can sync your Facebook and Twitter accounts to grab contact info and photos, so everything is constantly up to date and you won't have to input the info yourself.

The inbox also has a cool "Quick Actions" feature which shoes you common actions like 'reply' or 'delete' when you hover over a message--and you can customize these actions too.

Outlook also pays attention to your newsletters and other non-personal email. Newsletters are great because you (most of the time) consciously agree to receive them. They're not spam but they do clutter the inbox. So Outlook did what might be best for you and automatically labels all incoming newsletter-type messages. It also adds an 'unsubscribe' button at the bottom of the newsletter if the newsletter didn't have one itself. If you wanted to unsubscribe, Outlook will do it for you. If you're still subscribed beyond your will, Outlook will just block all future messages from the newsletter sender.

For now, Outlook is in preview, but anyone can sign up to check it out.