In a Tuesday announcement, Microsoft said that it will release a major feature update for its Hotmail service later this summer. The Modernized Hotmail will bring for the nearly 360 million Hotmail users a host of new features like improved e-mail filtering; enhanced media viewing; and document-editing.

The introduction of the new features will address the goal of allowing Hotmail users to get only the messages that they are interested in; as well as bringing multimedia content right inside their inboxes.

The new Hotmail update will also boast integration with the leading social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace; along with more dedicated online communities like Photobucket and Flickr for pictures, and YouTube and DailyMotion for videos.

Microsoft has already made the new Windows Live Hotmail beta available to select testers and members of the media. In the next few weeks, the beta will become available to the general public as part of a series of releases, which Microsoft is calling “Wave 4” of its Windows Live services and apps.

Microsoft’s decision to release the Hotmail features’ update largely aims at making its Web-mail service more competitive; especially as the statistics by market researcher comScore reveal that though Hotmail is the most widely-used e-mail service globally, it holds the second place in the US, where Yahoo Mail rules the roost. Google’s Gmail, incidentally ranks third.