Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes • Hacker News Board

Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#261

Post by rlu » Tue, Jul 31, 2012, 10:30 PM UTC

georgemcbay wrote: post #258

rickmb wrote: post #72

We haven't instantly forgotten how Microsoft handles Skydrive, have we?: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4265086 I think I'll pass on putting my email through their systems. Although I have to admit this looks way better than GMail. I hope this inspires Google to do something about their interface design.

As a big Android/Google fan, I can't say they are exactly innocent when it comes to the sort of thing Microsoft was called out for with Skydrive. When Google+ first came out quite a lot of people lost their "Google lives" (including their gmail accounts they had been using for years) when Google banned them for being under 13 or using a pseudonym.

Also wasn't there some controversy a few months ago (perhaps march? random guess) where someone lost their google life because of some adwords dispute?

I think the issue got resolved because he was lucky enough to be a nerd which a blog that got picked up by HN/Techmeme etc. and then someone from Google personally fixed the problem.

Most users would have been hosed. It also doesn't help that Google has no "real" customer support other than forums. As a user it would be extremely uncomfortable to lose your Google life and have no phone number to call.

At least you can call Microsoft. Whether they can do anything about it is a different story but it at least will escalate easier, or at least I would imagine

Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#262

Post by tlogan » Tue, Jul 31, 2012, 10:31 PM UTC

tlogan wrote: post #209

archangel_one wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I click on my account picture in the top right, then click on "Add account" and log into the other one. Presto, two accounts. Disclaimer: I am about 99% certain this is not some weird internal Google feature (not on the gmail team, don't worry), but it's also been > 1 week since I had to go through this performance so I may have forgotten some detail.

And then when you click on some Google service it always logs you in with a wrong account. Good luck trying to add something to calendar by clicking to a link.

@magicalist

Actually, you explained the problem without noticing it: "It just uses the first account you logged in with." Maybe it should be default account? Because "first account" will always change in round robin fashion because cookies will expire first for the newer account (which is second) and then after you login it will become first.

Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#263

Post by aik » Tue, Jul 31, 2012, 10:35 PM UTC

blhack wrote: post #110

rickmb wrote: post #72

We haven't instantly forgotten how Microsoft handles Skydrive, have we?: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4265086 I think I'll pass on putting my email through their systems. Although I have to admit this looks way better than GMail. I hope this inspires Google to do something about their interface design.

And I'm going to hope and pray that google stops screwing with their interface design. Gmail was perfect.

>> Gmail was perfect.

Comments about perfect technology keep popping up on hn. I would think that claiming any technology is "perfect" is a little self-defeating coming from a tech startup news site? The very core of what we all stand for here is advancing mankind (or making the world a better place) through whatever means we are capable (most often technology). Viewing existing technologies as "perfect" closes the mind to the possibilities of better solutions.

I wonder how many times throughout history someone has claimed some piece of technology is perfect, and the same person 10 years later chuckles at the thought of having actually used the now-antiquated and clearly-inferior technology.

Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#264

Post by RexRollman » Tue, Jul 31, 2012, 10:37 PM UTC

blhack wrote: post #110

rickmb wrote: post #72

We haven't instantly forgotten how Microsoft handles Skydrive, have we?: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4265086 I think I'll pass on putting my email through their systems. Although I have to admit this looks way better than GMail. I hope this inspires Google to do something about their interface design.

And I'm going to hope and pray that google stops screwing with their interface design. Gmail was perfect.

I understand how you feel, as I feel the same way about Gmail (and about Twitter too). If there is one bad thing about using someone else's platform, it's that they can change it whenever they want.

Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#265

Post by magicalist » Tue, Jul 31, 2012, 10:38 PM UTC

georgemcbay wrote: post #258

rickmb wrote: post #72

We haven't instantly forgotten how Microsoft handles Skydrive, have we?: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4265086 I think I'll pass on putting my email through their systems. Although I have to admit this looks way better than GMail. I hope this inspires Google to do something about their interface design.

As a big Android/Google fan, I can't say they are exactly innocent when it comes to the sort of thing Microsoft was called out for with Skydrive. When Google+ first came out quite a lot of people lost their "Google lives" (including their gmail accounts they had been using for years) when Google banned them for being under 13 or using a pseudonym.

The under 13 thing, as has been discussed before, is due to COPPA. Google doesn't offer anything like hotmail's family account (where the child's account is managed by a proven parent's account), so if they find out that you're under 13, they have to close your account and they aren't allowed to warn you that they will do so (or let you go back and change your birthdate).

As for the pseudonym thing, that never occurred. People lost their google+ accounts, but the rest was just forum posts saying things like, "I remember reading about someone..." without providing the actual citation.

Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#266

Post by ryanisinallofus » Tue, Jul 31, 2012, 11:16 PM UTC

This looks so much better than the Metro-ized ribbon disaster of the desktop preview that was released. It's actually looks a bit better that the new Gmail which I like as well.

The problem with M$ products of course, which makes us all very skeptical is how well it actually works.

Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#267

Post by sklivvz1971 » Tue, Jul 31, 2012, 11:19 PM UTC

It's just a rebrand of Live Mail, which is just a rebrand of Hotmail. Which is a service not written by Microsoft, but which they bought.

A complete waste of time apart from the fanboys who can gloat at the Window 8 look... ;-)

Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#268

Post by unicornporn » Tue, Jul 31, 2012, 11:35 PM UTC

robomartin wrote: post #66

I've been using Outlook by choice, well, forever. I won't bother listing all the reasons for this. It's powerful and it works well. And, if you are a programmer, you can go to town writing your own customizations with VBA. I use Yahoo Mail online for most of my personal stuff. Out of all the online email offerings out there I have found it to be the most "polished" (if I can use that term) and outlook-like. I tried G…

OMG, seems Yahoo Mail finally got https (I'm using the free version). Could be time for me to switch from Gmail.

Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#269

Post by codeka » Tue, Jul 31, 2012, 11:44 PM UTC

mandeepj wrote: post #230

rickmb wrote: post #72

We haven't instantly forgotten how Microsoft handles Skydrive, have we?: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4265086 I think I'll pass on putting my email through their systems. Although I have to admit this looks way better than GMail. I hope this inspires Google to do something about their interface design.

This is what Microsoft is saying now - Putting you in control. Email is private and confidential, and most folks we've talked to want to keep it that way. So we keep your personal email personal. We don't scan your email content or attachments and sell this information to advertisers or any other company, and we don't show ads in personal conversations. We let you decide whether to connect your account to social netw…

> We don't scan your email content or attachments and sell this information to advertisers or any other company

They're saying they don't scan your email to sell information to advertisers, that doesn't mean they don't scan it for violations of their T&C's.

Mind you, even this statement is pretty FUD-like since Gmail also doesn't "scan your email [...] and sell this information to advertisers".

Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#270

Post by epynonymous » Tue, Jul 31, 2012, 11:46 PM UTC

i think microsoft is making a slight comeback, this is not groundbreaking, but it seems to tie together several of their products and make them more cohesive. i see somewhat of a strategy emerging here which is more like the microsoft of old.