Microsoft announced today that it has completed the process of shifting Hotmail customers to Outlook.com. In a little more than six weeks the company has transferred some 150 petabytes of email data safely and securely to its new email service. Today they’ve also announced a couple of new features for Outlook.com, these include the improved integration of SkyDrive and SMTP send, which will make it easier for users to send emails from different email addresses.
Outlook.com came out of preview in February and at the time it already had over 60 million active accounts. Now with Hotmail accounts having been brought over, Outlook.com touts 400 million active accounts from all parts of the world. The deeper SkyDrive integration means that users will now be able to insert files and pictures in emails straight from SkyDrive itself. The integration rolls out today and will be made available worldwide in a couple of weeks. SMTP send enables Outlook.com users to send and receive emails from other accounts. Email sent through a different account will go through that account’s SMTP server, the recipient will not know that the email has been sent through Outlook.com. The team assures us that there are more improvements to come in the near future.