Hotmail is going cold, at least as a brand.

Microsoft Corp. is phasing out the email service, a pioneer of electronic mail accessed on the Web, in favor of a new-but-old brand: Outlook.

The company said Tuesday it is converting Hotmail, which competes with Google Inc.'s Gmail and email services from Apple Inc. and Yahoo Inc., into a revamped Web-based email service called Outlook.com, mirroring the name of Microsoft's dominant line of workplace email software.

Microsoft said its goal is to update a product that still has hundreds of millions of users but hasn't changed much in years. It wants to tie Hotmail more closely to other Microsoft services and give people a single hub for contacts on email, Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and other non-Microsoft services.

The makeover comes as mobile devices and social media are changing communications throughout business and family life.

While email has been a mainstay for PC users since the 1990s, texting on smartphones and messaging on websites like Facebook have trumped email for many users.

The new Outlook.com is designed to blend attributes of both new and old communication tools, and adapt them for hardware beyond PCs.

'We designed it to be applicable to tablets in particular,' said Brian Hall, general manager of Windows, the group that oversees Hotmail.

Microsoft said an interim 'preview' periodΰwhose length has not been determinedΰfor Outlook.com began for U.S. users Tuesday. The service, which will continue to be free, will eventually be available world-wide.

Perhaps the most visible change in Outlook.com is a simpler design compared with Hotmail. Among new features, Outlook.com can automaticallyisolate newsletters or other 'junk' email that falls between urgent mail and spam.

Outlook.com also has a unified address book that contains contact information for people on Outlook.com, Gmail, Facebook, LinkedIn and other services.

Outlook.com users can see recent status updates from Facebook, or Twitter posts when they open emails from a contact already in their address book, Microsoft said. In the future, Microsoft intends to add Skype voice and video calling as well, , but no date has been set to begin that feature, Mr. Hall said.

Hotmail launched in 1996 as one of the first free, advertising-supported Web email services. At the beginning of 1998, Microsoft announced it bought Hotmail and has operated it since. In June, Hotmail had about 324 million unique visitors world-wide, according to comScore.

Microsoft's revamp appears to be a shot at Google's Gmail service, which comScore said had roughly 278 million unique visitors in June and already includes some of the features in Outlook.com.

Like Gmail, Outlook.com works together with an online file storage, a service called SkyDrive that Microsoft has been pushing of late as a place to store digital files.

In a swipe at Gmail, Microsoft said it won't show ads on Outlook.com tailored to content of emails, an element of Google's service that Microsoft criticizes as an invasion of users' privacy. A spokeswoman for Google declined to comment.

Microsoft does plan to generaterevenue from text ads on Outlook.com, tied to interests gathered from the subject lines of emails.

The ads will only appear in the inbox, the company said, not once an email is opened. For example, Outlook.com could display ads for ski gear to a user with emails titled 'ski weekend.' Microsoft won't scan email content, said Mr. Hall.

'We're not going to see anything more than what the mailman sees when he delivers your mail to a mailbox,' he said.

During the preview period, Hotmail will continue to function and users will have an option to transfer to Outlook.com with their current user names. If they do so, email sent to the former Hotmail address will automatically arrive at the new Outlook.com email address.

SHIRA OVIDE / STEVEN D. JONES

• pioneer [,paiə´niə]   n.拓荒者 v.开辟；倡导   (初中英语单词)
• communication [kə,mju:ni´keiʃən]   n.通信；通讯联系   (初中英语单词)
• manager [´mænidʒə]   n.经理；管理人；干事   (初中英语单词)
• available [ə´veiləbəl]   a.可用的；有效的   (初中英语单词)
• visible [´vizəbəl]   a.可见的；明显的   (初中英语单词)
• contact [´kɔntækt]   n.接触；联系 v.联络   (初中英语单词)
• beginning [bi´giniŋ]   n.开始，开端；起源   (初中英语单词)
• function [´fʌŋkʃən]   n.机能；职责 vi.活动   (初中英语单词)
• transfer [træns´fə:]   v.&n.迁移；调动；转让   (初中英语单词)
• isolate [´aisəleit]   vt.隔离；孤立   (高中英语单词)
• unique [ju:´ni:k]   a.唯一的 n.独一无二   (高中英语单词)
• roughly [´rʌfli]   ad.粗糙地；毛糙地   (高中英语单词)
• storage [´stɔ:ridʒ]   n.贮存；存储器   (高中英语单词)
• invasion [in´veiʒən]   n.入侵；侵害；侵犯   (高中英语单词)
• revenue [´revinju:]   n.税收；收入   (高中英语单词)
• dominant [´dɔminənt]   a.统治的；占优势的   (英语四级单词)
• hardware [´hɑ:dweə]   n.五金器皿   (英语四级单词)
• eventually [i´ventʃuəli]   ad.最后，终于   (英语四级单词)
• automatically [ɔ:tə´mætikli]   ad.自动地；无意识地   (英语四级单词)
• urgent [´ə:dʒənt]   a.急迫的，紧急的   (英语四级单词)
• status [´steitəs]   n.身份；情形；状况   (英语四级单词)
• privacy [´praivəsi, -pri]   n.隐退；独处；秘密   (英语四级单词)
• generate [´dʒenəreit]   vt.创造；发生；引起   (英语四级单词)
• twitter [´twitə]   vi.(鸟)吱吱叫 n.鸟鸣   (英语六级单词)
• applicable [´æplikəbəl]   a.合适的；适用的   (英语六级单词)
• calling [´kɔ:liŋ]   n.点名；职业；欲望   (英语六级单词)