Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes (blogs.office.com)

I came here to also complain about the CAPTCHA. I almost gave up after the 4th try but I really wanted to see what this was all about. I don't know what they are thinking with that monstrosity.

Well I'm not sure about you, but my hotmail id works with this. Unless, you don't have a hotmail id in the first place... in which case, ignore this comment.

Captchas everywhere are starting to get impossible for humans. MS should have solved this problem better though, they have the talent.

I've tried about a dozen of them; no luck so far in getting it right.

So I go to register at Outlook.com...

1. Enter details with a short, simple email address. Submit the form;

2. Sign up fails. I provided an alternative email address but not a phone number; apparently both are required for password recovery (why?), despite there being no indication both fields are required. Grudgingly give up phone number and try again;

3. Sign up fails. Apparently my phone number isn't valid, and I have to delete the first digit (0 in the UK, to be replaced by +44) for the form to accept it. Try again;

4. Sign up fails. For some reason the form has kept all my other details but has decided to lose the month and year of my DOB. Re-enter those details and try again;

5. Sign up fails. I was presented with the same CAPTCHA for the first three attempts but apparently it's now changed; Enter new CAPTCHA and try again;

5. Sign up fails. Finally, the form tells me the short, simple email address I chose is taken. There was no indication when I entered the address;

6. Give up and forget about it.

I'm pretty sure that it's because the username is already taken and the error message isn't showing up correctly on the page. They had me excited when I thought I could get my first initial and last name (both common names) as an email address.

To give a counterpoint, I not only know maybe a half dozen people who voluntarily use Outlook; I know at least two who voluntarily use Outlook on a Mac.

I think the fact that few developers enjoy using Outlook is causing you to overgeneralize. Most people who don't care about things like whether their email is in mbox format, or who don't want to learn how to use Mutt or notmuch, find Outlook surprisingly easy to use and powerful.

I poked around on outlook.com, and I don't see anything particularly innovative, other than it looks and works nearly exactly like Outlook 2013. But I wouldn't assume its lack of anything novel dooms it to obscurity, either. Outlook, unlike Notes, is a positive brand-name in some circles. I wouldn't be surprised to see this get a relatively large amount of traction right off the bat.

I know a good few people that willingly use Outlook, including ones who use it for their Gmail account. Its actually pretty good at being e-mail PLUS calendar PLUS tasks, and so on. Google still haven't got that yet IMO, by virtue of "Google Calendar" and "Google Mail" being two separate products.

We switched to Google Apps at my company. Out of 120 employees, there are still 37 using Outlook. Some of them use Gmail on the web periodically, but most of those 37 are adamant about not switching (even though the Outlook on Gmail experience is objectively terrible compared to in-browser).

As a counterpoint, at my work you can choose what you use. All Windows users are using Outlook. Half of the Mac folks are using Outlook, then there are a couple Sparrow users and the rest use Mail.

I like outlook because to me usability and readability is better than Gmail.

Outlook, like all of office, is the default choice of pretty much anyone in a non-tech office setting. These programs aren't just "chosen", they are expected.

The same way having a desk is expected.

It'd be nicer if Outlook.com acted as an Exchange client (not just an Exchange ActiveSync server). From the post, it looks like they're recommending people forward their email to a new @live.com email address. Bleh.

The only thing I really miss compared to GMail are vim key-bindings. The default key bindings are weird.

Really, how many people do you know who use any email client by choice? Everyone I know just used webmail or the built-in client on their phone.

It can pull that off without reading your mail, which has been Microsoft's primary marketing complaint re Gmail.

It's a pwn at GMail, by Microsoft. :)

In my old account accessed via outlook.com, I see no ads. In a new account I just created I see ads from Restaurant.com. Not sure what gives.

Perhaps. I have 10K emails in my gmail account and 3 in my outlook.com account. We'll have to see how it goes in the long run. But I'm seriously thinking about making the switch for a while.

Are you archiving emails in gmail? I've found that keeping my inbox clean helps the performance of the site.

I'm sorry have to disagree with this. Just signed up for a fresh, empty outlook account and every time I click on anything there is a noticeable 0.5-1 second lag not including the little slidey animations (I'll admit I AM on a rather ancient computer here at work). But at the same time I have over a gig of e-mail in my Gmail and almost every action is nearly desktop-fast (the speed with which emails come up after doing a search is faster than a file-search on windows)

The comments on their Facebook announcement page[1] are surprisingly positive. I think it's worth remembering that while Hotmail and SkyDrive might not have 'mindshare' in Silicon Valley or even across the US, there's a large population of new and global users who have not yet formed opinions on the matter and, more importantly, are willing to try Hotmail out, especially when it's presented in a fresh and modern way like this.

[1] https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.101510045341137...

looks like they haven't migrated all the boxes to the new outlook.com domain yet

Hotmail is their Email service, Outlook is their email client.

hm... that's interesting because I got an email subjected "Welcome to the Outlook.com preview"

http://i.imgur.com/UNhny.png

are you sure you're using the new outlook.com account and not an old hotmail/live one? if you have a password manager with autologin you might have gotten signed into a wrong account

    From: Hotmail Team <member_services@live.com>
    To: <saurik@outlook.com>
    Subject: Getting started with Hotmail
    Date: Tue 7/31/12 9:51 AM

Outlook's url seems to be on the live.com domain... confusing at best. Let's make a comparison of url's from the "home" view:

New Outlook (wtf): https://bay002.mail.live.com/default.aspx

Gmail (better, could be cleaner): https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox

outlook.com is basically in beta. They haven't even updated the calendars. I suspect that they will continue to iron these inconsistencies as the launch date of Windows 8 approaches.

I sort of disagree. The UI is clean but things aren't where you expect them to be and it makes it confusing. For instance, I didn't know where to put the subject when I was sending my first email -- it's huge but it's weirdly placed and unintuitive. I also couldn't find the Send button at first because it's on the Nav bar -- not where I expected.

I also agree with the post below re: branding. I went to "Help" to see what they had and it took me to a windows.com page saying "This page doesn't exist" followed by "Hotmail Help". Nice.

For me it was kick ass. Really loved the feel of it.

Pretty sweet job considering it's advertising an e-mail app, although I was somewhat disappointed by the absence of unicorns.

Why should they? It is good that they are embracing youtube rather than try to start promoting something of their own.