Tech Tip Tuesday: Get a better Outlook on email

There are a variety of web based email systems out there to choose from.  Gmail has been on the rise, Yahoo! and AIM are still going strong. And then there is Hotmail.  Hotmail was one of the earliest free web-based email services and still boasts at least 330 million users.  Hotmail (and all of Microsoft's services) has gotten a facelift. If you are already a Hotmail user you can go to http://www.outlook.com and login.  All of your emails and contacts will be there and you can use a new cleaner interface.  There are tutorials, and welcome emails to get you started but one feature to look at is the new email alias.  This allows you to essentially use two different emails that come to the same inbox.  You can choose from .outlook.com; .hotmail.com; or .live.com as your domain. If this doesn't convince you to take a look at Microsoft, then there are some other things to consider.  Gmail has updated their iOS app and made it a genuine app.  This means you can do a few new things including using the App with up to 5 Google accounts. Apple is not to be left out.  iCloud will let you create an .icloud.com alias and receive email at http://www.icloud.com as well as on your iOS devices.  These options let you really expand your capabilities and give you a throw-away email for using with online companies, one for personal or business transactions and yet another for family. So take a look around and see what email can do for you.  When you have looked them over tell us in the comments which you prefer and why.