In a blog post yesterday, Microsoft announced it would "reinvent" Windows Live Hotmail in a future update. The refresh comes after Redmond studied email usage for a year and it should arrive sometime in the next few weeks, bringing features to discard "graymail," as well as new functions to manage things like documents, photos, videos, shipping and social updates, and more.

"Graymail" is legitimate mail that you may have opted into but no longer want - junk mail, if you will, such as newsletters, promotional messages and so on. The revamped Hotmail allows you to clear your inbox of such mail by deleting it or moving it to folders for future reading. The feature also lets you sweep incoming messages automatically to discard graymail.


The new Hotmail is also integrated with Office Web Apps, allowing you to easily store documents and photos on your Microsoft SkyDrive, as well as edit documents directly in your inbox. You can also watch Hulu or YouTube clips in the inbox, and photos can be viewed in a slideshow (with Silverlight installed). Other new features or changes to existing ones include full-session SSL, multiple email accounts, subfolders and more.