The latest version of Hotmail has some interesting features and an invitation to confusion.
The latest version of Hotmail has some interesting features and an invitation to confusion.
It’s called Outlook.com and is available as a preview now. Go to Outlook.com and sign in with your Microsoft, Windows Live or Hotmail account.
Microsoft has a lot of glowing information on the changes with all the usual adjectives ‘fresh’ , ‘clean’ ‘intuitive’ etc. Check out the CNET overview or the Microsoft blog.
We’ll look at some features that caught our eye but before that a warning about a coming source of confusion.
Outlook or Outlook.com
We now have three Outlook’s
- Outlook software that we get with Office 2013, Office 2010, Office 2007 and so on.
- Outlook Web Apps – the browser based version of Outlook that’s available to people with Exchange Server mail accounts which includes Small Business Server and Office 365 customers.
- Outlook.com – the new arrival
As long as the names are kept clear and consistent there’ll hopefully be little trouble – hopefully.
Anyone who has worked in tech support for a while knows the trouble that ‘Outlook’ and ‘Outlook Express’ caused. Outlook Express was the free email client available with Windows until it became Windows Live mail. Despite the similar name it was very different to Outlook.
At Office Watch, not a day would go by without someone asking for ‘Outlook’ help only to later disclose they actually had ‘Outlook Express’. The confusion continues to this day, just not as often.
For the most part, Microsoft calls the new webmail service Outlook.com which is good, but it’s not consistent especially on the web site itself.
The Outlook blog is apparently now going to cover both Outlook software and Outlook.com – so no possibility of confusion there
Worse still, Outlook.com pages fall into the trap of talking about ‘Outlook’ when they mean Outlook.com. Even Microsoft can’t get the naming straight.
And the icon on top left is the same one in the Outlook 2013 Preview.
It gets worse on some of the settings pages like the one for POP connections mentioned below where mentions of ‘Outlook’ could be taken to mean the software not the online service.
This may seem like a trivial and silly thing, but many, many hours of hassle and angst has been caused by the confusion with Outlook naming in the past. Microsoft isn’t helping itself or customers by adding to the muddle.
Microsoft felt they had to move away from the Hotmail branding that’s believed to be tarnished even thought, by users, it’s the most popular webmail service in the world. That’s fine and if Microsoft itself would consistently call the online service Outlook.com it would go a long way to reducing customer confusion.
Calling both a service and software ‘Outlook’ is just asking for trouble.
Claim an Outlook.com alias
Another internet land grab is on now! Outlook.com not only lets you have an email account but also email aliases. Aliases are separate email addresses where the incoming messages are delivered to another Inbox.
In this case you can request an alias with @Outlook.com @live.com or @Hotmail.com to be delivered to your Outlook.com Inbox.
Go to the ‘cog’ icon on top right, Mail Settings, Create an email alias to get your preferred addresses before they are snapped up.
Moving away from Hotmail
Microsoft is gradually moving away from the Hotmail name and service. Eventually all the 325 million Hotmail users will have to switch to Outlook.com. Not right away and there’s no deadline for the entire changeover, but that’s the way Microsoft is heading.
If you’re a regular Hotmail user you may as well move across when it suits you instead of when Microsoft shuts down Hotmail in coming years.
Word, Excel and PowerPoint integrated
As you’d expect, Office Web Apps are available from Outlook.com . This means you can open an Office document from an email, view or edit it then email back or onwards without leaving the browser.
That’s good for quick jobs and saves the extra steps for opening on your Office software. Of course, it also means you can view and edit the Office documents from any compatible browser – whether or not Office software is installed.
Skype
Skype video and voice calling is integrated into Outlook.com
Link to Outlook software
One thing glaringly missing from the Outlook.com hoopla was any mention of Outlook software.
We’d hope, but can’t be sure, that the Hotmail connector for Outlook also works for Outlook.com.
We’ve asked Microsoft and will let you, dear reader, know once we get a response.
Mobile Access
Like Hotmail and Gmail, Outlook.com supports Exchange ActiveSync but only for portable devices. If the Hotmail connector still works you’ll be able to sync email, contacts and calendar with the online service.
Delete or really delete?
There’s a nifty little option in the Mail Settings. When an external mail program is linked via POP to an online mail store it has the option to delete messages online.
Outlook.com defaults to keeping messages deleted via POP and moving them to a special folder. This lets you retrieve accidently deleted messages or be clear on what messages have been imported to your mail software.
Time based rules
Outlook.com has at least one feature we’d like to see in Outlook – time based rules. For example ‘delete this message after nn days’ – great for news updates that are irrelevant after a short time.
Nifty idea that hasn’t made its way to the Outlook software group so far. The Outlook 2013 preview doesn’t have it.
