Outlook.com

Outlook.com

Screenshot of Outlook.com inbox view with messaging window
URL	www.outlook.com
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	Webmail
Registration	Required
Available language(s)	106 languages
Users	60 million (18 February 2013)[1]
Content license	Proprietary
Owner	Microsoft
Created by	Microsoft
Launched	31 July 2012; 7 months ago (2012-07-31)
Current status	Online

Outlook.com is a webmail service from Microsoft, introduced in July 2012^[2] and officially launched in February 2013, as the replacement to Hotmail.^[1][3] Outlook.com features Microsoft's Metro design language, and closely mimics the interface of the Outlook desktop software. During the preview, new @outlook.com email addresses were made available to all users, and existing Hotmail users were able to opt into the Outlook.com interface. On February 18, 2013, Microsoft announced that Outlook.com was leaving preview, having signed up 60 million users in 6 months, and that existing Hotmail users would be upgraded to Outlook.com by summer.^[1]

Features

Similar to other major webmail services, Outlook.com uses Ajax programming techniques and supports later versions of Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari.^[4] Some of its features include keyboard controls giving the ability to navigate around the page without using the mouse, the ability to search the user's messages including structured query syntax such as "from:ebay", message filters, folder-based organization of messages, auto-completion of contact addresses when composing, contact grouping, importing and exporting of contacts as CSV files, rich text formatting, rich text signatures, spam filtering and virus scanning, support for multiple addresses, and different language versions.

In comparison to other webmail services, Outlook.com offers the following unique features:

Active view

Outlook.com's Active view allows users to interact directly with contents and functionality within their email message. For example, any photo attachments can be previewed directly using Active view. In addition, Outlook.com provides a partner platform which allows contents and functionality from various websites and services such as YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, and United States Postal Service to be viewed directly within the email message. For example, users may view the YouTube video within Outlook.com when a user receives an email which contains a link to the video. Other functionality of Active view include tracking of real time shipping status from United States Postal Service and performing social networking actions on LinkedIn directly from within the email message.

Office Web Apps integration

Outlook.com integrates with Office Web Apps to allow high fidelity viewing and editing of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents that are attached to the email messages. Users can directly open attached Office documents within the web browser, and save them into their SkyDrive. Users can also perform edits to any received Office documents, and directly reply to the sender with the edited version of the document. In addition, users may also send up to 25 GB of Office documents (up to 50 MB each) using Outlook.com by uploading these documents onto SkyDrive, and share these documents with other users for viewing or collaboration.

Conversation threading

Outlook.com provides the ability to automatically group sent and received emails that are from the same conversation into the same conversation thread, allowing users to quickly browse through all the emails within the same conversation thread. This feature can be turned on or off depending on the user's preferences.

Sweep

Outlook.com offers a "virtual broom" which allow users to delete or move large amounts of emails into specified folders based on the sender's information. Once a "sweep" is performed, the user may choose to configure Outlook.com to remember the sweep settings and perform the same move or delete actions for any future emails. Users may also set up custom message rules based on the sender's or recipient's information, the subject of the email, or attachments to the email. There is also an option to delete/move messages that are older than a specified amount of days, or only keep the latest message from a sender.

Quick views and one-click filters

Quick views allow users to filter all emails (in all folders) by document attachments, photo attachments, flagged messages, or shipping updates. One-click filters allow users to filter the inbox (or specific folder) based on whether or not the email message is unread, from the People service list, from group mailing lists or Windows Live Groups, or from a social networking website. Categories appear under Quick views for ease of access.

Aliases

Users can create email aliases for their Microsoft account. Once an alias is set up, users can choose to have all email sent to that address go to a specific folder, or to the inbox. Users can send emails from that alias as if it is a normal email address. Up to 5 aliases can be made every year, up to 15 in total. Aliases are completely different from the user's original addresses, and can be removed/created at any time. Aliases are not actual Microsoft accounts, so users cannot sign in with them.

Categories

Categories allow users to label messages or senders into a particular group, and those categories will appear under "Quick views" in the sidebar. Some categories are created by default, and some mail is put in those categories by default (e.g. photos, office docs and newsletters). Users can select multiple categories for each piece of mail, have categories applied automatically, and create new ones.

Instant actions

Instant actions are buttons that appear when a user hovers the mouse over a message. Examples of instant actions are delete, move, sweep, and flag, and they are customizable in options.

Single-use code

A single-use code is a code that can be used instead of a user's password when signing in to a Microsoft account. Each code can be used only one time, but one can be requested whenever needed. If a user is signing in on a public computer—such as at the library or school—using a single-use code helps keep account information secure. The single-use code is sent to the user when requested during login.

Security

Outlook.com uses DMARC specifications to provide better security for message transmission and Extended Validation Certificate to secure the user's connection with Outlook.com.^[5]

Skype integration

Once the feature is ready to be rolled out, users will be able to make Skype video calls without using the Skype desktop client.^[6]

History

Outlook.com was first introduced on 31 July 2012 when its beta version was made available to the general public. Existing Hotmail customers could freely upgrade to the preview version of Outlook and downgrade back.^[2]

Outlook.com graduated preview stage on 18 February 2013. According to Microsoft, existing Hotmail users will be transitioned to Outlook.com by summer, retaining their @hotmail.com email address, password, messages, folders, contacts, rules, vacation replies, etc. and will have the option of having @outlook.com email address.^[1]

Criticism

Outook.com is criticized for its lack of IMAP support. Microsoft has promised future IMAP capability and better Apple Mac support.^[7]

See also

• Perbandingan -- webmail providers

References

Further reading

External links

• Official website