Today's best apps and services for search, email, music streaming and to-do management weren't always number one. Some of the apps we loved a long time ago are still out there, updating, adding features and keeping their fans happy even if they don't have what it takes to thrill tech bloggers or stay in the limelight. Here are a few of those old dogs you may remember, and some of the new tricks that make them worth a fresh look.

Microsoft announced its Outlook webmail service this week, and it's a suprisingly robust new webmail client. But can it hold a torch to the current king of webmail, Gmail? To give you a better idea of how they stack up, here's a feature-by-feature comparison of Outlook vs. Gmail.

Microsoft has reimagined and rebranded its existing Hotmail/Windows Live webmail service as Outlook.com, and the result -- a Metro-inspired, stripped-back client that's much more like the Outlook desktop client -- is impressive. We've long thought Hotmail was a solid email service, and certainly the best alternative to Gmail, but Microsoft steps its game up to a whole new level with Outlook.com.

Microsoft has just beefed up its Hotmail security with new features that make it easier to report hacked email accounts.

If you use Hotmail (and it does stack up a lot better than it used to and are running IE9, here's a handy feature: pin Hotmail to the Windows 7 taskbar and you'll get an automatically updated message count.

Hotmail users can use the "[email protected]" email filtering trick — so, you know, it's at Gmail's level from five years ago. But it's got an even more powerful spam-fighting, privacy-protecting option: creating an entirely new address that arrives right in your inbox.

The easiest way to defeat browser-sniffing, privacy-eroding hacks like Firesheep is to use an encrypted connection for sensitive stuff. Hotmail is helping out by activating an "Always use HTTPS" option that covers your entire email session.

While you could always go on an unsubscribe purge every once in a while, dealing with pesky newsletters still isn't a fun process. Free service Unsubscribe.com adds a simple button to your mail client from which you can unsubscribe from any newsletter.

Keyboard shortcut mastery is among the first steps towards becoming a Gmail Master. But Hotmail users have their own powerful keyboard shortcuts — more than 50, in fact, and some familiar Gmail and Yahoo shortcuts can be used in Hotmail too.

Hotmail has updated its security features to help further safeguard your account against phishing attacks and hijacking attempts with mobile phone number verification and trusted computers.

Popular web-based email service Hotmail updates today with support for Exchange syncing, meaning Hotmail can now push email, calendar events and contacts between the web and your phone - if your phone supports Exchange (iOS, Windows, Nokia and Palm devices do).

The new Hotmail interface includes a built-in SMS alert feature that will ping your phone whenever a message matching one of your filters arrives in your inbox. Tech-Recipes walks you through setting up the alert and filter for very specific email.

This may come as a surprise, but the new Microsoft Hotmail is actually pretty good. But how does it stack up to Google's email champion, Gmail? Here's a look at the good and bad of both services.

What can Hotmail offer over a certain emerging webmail standard? A good bit, it turns out. Windows Live Hotmail now offers inbox-cleaning Sweep and filter functions, Exchange support, direct Office Web App tools, in-message slideshows and video, and more.

If you're testing out Office 2010 and still use a Windows Live/Hotmail account, then the release of a new version of Microsoft's Hotmail Connector is potentially welcome news.

More than 10,000 Hotmail passwords were posted online yesterday, but users of other popular webmail services haven't been let off the hook. A similar phishing attack exposed another 20,000 user/password combinations, so consider resetting your own login credentials.