If you’ve ever used Outlook for e-mail at work — and let’s face it, that’s most of us — then you’re going to love Microsoft’s new replacement for Hotmail.Just the name, ‘Hotmail’ sounds like a relic of the 90s — the same way that saying you have an AOL e-mail address has become a punch line. As one tech reporter recently (and rather crassly) wrote, “telling people you use Hotmail has been the internet equivalent of admitting to necrophilia.” I wouldn’t go that far, but if you’re one of the millions of people who are embarrassed to admit that you still have a Hotmail address, then say hello to the new Outlook.com.Microsoft decided to radically overhaul the most successful e-mail service in the world and tech critics are calling it an “impressive new e-mail service” and “one of the biggest victories in the inbox game since Gmail”. Some of its cool new features might just get you to switch."We thought it was time to push the boundaries of e-mail," said Chris Jones, head of Microsoft's Windows Live division, which includes Hotmail. "We created a new mail service for a modern user experience."Over the next few months, Hotmail users will be invited to test out the new web-based e-mail service, which is named after Microsoft's other popular e-mail brand. Eventually, everyone will be transitioned to Outlook, but Microsoft has given no firm deadline for that to happen.Don’t panic, Hotmail users — you will be able to keep your @hotmail.com or @live.com address. You can rename the address and all of your e-mails from your old account will be automatically forwarded to the new outlook.com.Hotmail, which was launched in 1996, has just over 325 million users around the world. That makes it the internet's largest e-mail service, but its lead is shrinking. Google's Gmail now has 298.2 million users. Yahoo Mail is right behind, with 298 million users, according to tracking firm comScore.So you may be asking — what could this new e-mail service possibly have that Gmail and Yahoo don’t? It turns out, quite a lot. Here are just a few of things that make Outlook.com the cool new e-mail to have:More storage, larger attachmentsE-mail inboxes are kind of like women and their closets — no matter how much storage space you have, you always want more. While Gmail gives you 10GB of space and limits you to attachments of 25MB or less, Outlook.com gives you unlimited storage space and lets you send attachments as large as 100MB. And, if you link up to your SkyDrive account through Outlook.com, you can even bump it up to 300MB attachments.Automatic message sortingThis, to me, is one of the coolest new features. Outlook automatically sorts all your incoming messages into buckets like Documents, Photos and Shipping Updates. It’s a feature called Quick Views and it’s insanely helpful. For example, if you get an e-mail with photos attached, it goes into the Photos bucket. Get a shipping confirmation from Amazon and it goes right into the Shipping Updates bucket. Sure, you can sort it into folders yourself, but this is way easier. You can also add other categories like Travel from a drop-down list or create your own. Then, when you get an e-mail from British Airways, you just check the box next to that e-mail, select the Travel category and it goes in that folder. It will then give you the option to put all from BA in the Travel folder.Better junk mail managementOutlook.com appears to really rock this category. Even better, it automatically detects and labels promotional offers, adverts and newsletters and adds an unsubscribe button to the message. Click it and Microsoft will not only unsubscribe via the retailer, but will automatically filter any future promotions to the trash if that unsubscribe gets ignored.It can also unsubscribe you even if the promotional e-mail itself doesn’t offer that option. When that happens, you’ll see a message from Outlooks that will say, “We’ll ask AnnoyingJunkMailCompany to take you off their mailing list. If they send you anything in the meantime, we’ll put it in Junk.” Now that’s great junk sorting.Cool, streamlined new lookOutlook.com has a simple, streamlined and visually appealing new user interface which lets you put the reading pane the bottom or right (your choice, just like in your Outlook at work) and has rollover options like mark as read/unread, delete, and flag. The new interface mimics the look and layout of the new Windows 8 and subsequently, Windows Phone 8.More social media connectionSome of the biggest changes you’ll see in the new Outlook come in the form of social media connection. Users can connect with Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter contacts to get live social information and photo icons when they’re e-mailing them. Even if you’re not Facebook friends with a particular person you’re e-mailing, Outlook will scan through Facebook’s public directory to at least get that person’s profile picture.Once you sign in with one of your social media networks, you’ll see your contacts’ status updates and other information. And you’ll be able to leave Facebook comments, tweet and so on — right from a sidebar in your e-mail.Outlook users can also IM with Facebook friends right from their inbox. And, Skype’s video chat service, which Microsoft purchased last year for $8.5 billion, will soon be integrated as well.Microsoft made the issue of increasingly cluttered inboxes and the promise of less spam a priority with Outlook. The company says with Outlook “you’re in control of your data and your personal conversations aren’t used for ads.” The service also offers free Office Web apps including Word, Excel and PowerPoint, so users can open and edit attachments right from their inbox.One million people signed up for the new Outlook.com just hours after Microsoft introduced it. If you’d like to sign up, go to www.outlook.com.