BetaNews has learned that Microsoft Corp. is developing a new consumer-oriented subscription service called Microsoft Office Outlook Live, or MOOL, that is built on top of MSN Platform technologies.
According to several sources close to Microsoft who requested anonymity, MOOL leverages and extends existing MSN back-end platform infrastructure; services that are available in MSN Premium, such as MSN Outlook Connector; as well as MSN Hotmail integration.
Microsoft considers e-mail to be a core business and plans to continue to explore space in what it considers to be a natural move on delivering rich e-mail services.
With an MSN Premium subscription and Outlook Connector, customers can integrate MSN e-mail, calendaring and contacts with Microsoft Outlook—consolidating their e-mail into one place.