Microsoft betting big on new Outlook.com
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Microsoft is so confident it has the Internet's best email service that it is about to spend at least $30 million to send its message across the U.S.
The barrage begins Tuesday when Microsoft's twist on email, Outlook.com, escalates an assault on rival services from Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., AOL Inc. and a long list of Internet service providers.
As part of the process, all users of Microsoft's Hotmail and other email services operating under different domains such as MSN.com will be automatically converted to Outlook.com by the summer, if they don't voluntarily switch before then. All the old messages, contacts and settings in the old inboxes will be exported to Outlook.com. Users will also be able to keep their old addresses.
Email remains a key battleground, even at a time when more people are texting each other on phones.
People still regularly check their inboxes, albeit increasingly on their smartphones. The recurring email habit provides Internet companies a way to keep people coming back to websites. It gives people a reason to log in during their visits so it's easier for email providers to track their activities. Frequent visits and personal identification are two of the keys to selling ads, the main way most websites make money.
That's why Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have been retooling their email services in recent months.
After keeping Outlook.com in a "preview" phase since July 31, Microsoft Corp. is ready to accept all comers.
To welcome new users, Microsoft is financing what it believes to be the biggest marketing blitz in the history of email. Outlook.com will be featured in ads running on primetime TV, radio stations, websites, billboards and buses. Microsoft expects to spend somewhere between $30 million to $90 million on the Outlook campaign, which will run for at least three months.
The Outlook ads will overlap with an anti-Gmail marketing campaign that Microsoft launched earlier this month. The "Scroogled" attacks depict Gmail as a snoopy service that scans the contents of messages to deliver ads related to topics being discussed.
The Gmail ads are meant to be educational while the Outlook campaign is motivational, said Dharmesh Mehta, Outlook.com's senior director.
"We are trying to push people who have gotten lazy and comfortable with an email service that may not be all that great and help show them what email can really do for them," said Mehta.
By Microsoft's own admission, Hotmail had lost the competitive edge that once made it the world's largest email service. The lack of innovation left an opening for Google to exploit when it unveiled Gmail nearly nine years ago.
Gmail is now the industry leader, although estimates on its popularity vary.
Google says Gmail has more than 425 million accountholders, including those that only visit on smartphones and other mobile device. The latest data from research firm comScore, which doesn't include mobile traffic, shows Gmail with 306 million worldwide users through December, up 21 percent from the previous year. Yahoo's email ranked second with 293 million users, a 2 percent decrease from the previous year, followed by Hotmail at 267 million users, a 16 percent decline from the previous year.
Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Wash., is counting on Outlook.com to catapult the company back to the top of the email heap. During the preview period, Outlook attracted 60 million accountholders, including about 20 million that defected from Gmail, according to Microsoft. Comscore listed Outlook with 38 million users through December.
The new features being introduced in Outlook include: the ability to send massive files, including hundreds of photos at a time, in a single email; address books that automatically update new contact information that connections post on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn; and about 60 percent fewer ads than Hotmail.
None of these features are revolutionary. Google already has been giving its users the option to switch to a new version of Gmail that also allows for larger files to be sent in a single email. And address books in Gmail already fetch new contact information posted on Google Plus, although it doesn't yet mine Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Google declined to comment on Outlook.com. The company, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., plans to convert all of its Gmail users to its redesigned format within the next few months.
Yahoo, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif. revamped its email service late last year in an effort to provide a more consistent experience on personal computers and mobile devices.
Outlook.com is the latest in a series of major product leases from Microsoft, which has been struggling to regain the cachet that once made it the world's most valuable technology company.
Now, both Apple Inc. and Google are worth more because they have been growing far faster than Microsoft as their products win more fans. Apple's biggest gains have come from the iPhone and IPad, while Google has been benefiting from its dominance in Internet search and its widely used Android software for mobile devices.
Microsoft has been trying to catch up with a major makeover of its Windows operating system, new smartphone software and a tablet computer called Surface. Like Outlook.com, all those products have been backed by expensive marketing campaigns in recent months.
The barrage begins Tuesday when Microsoft's twist on email, Outlook.com, escalates an assault on rival services from Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., AOL Inc. and a long list of Internet service providers.
As part of the process, all users of Microsoft's Hotmail and other email services operating under different domains such as MSN.com will be automatically converted to Outlook.com by the summer, if they don't voluntarily switch before then. All the old messages, contacts and settings in the old inboxes will be exported to Outlook.com. Users will also be able to keep their old addresses.
Email remains a key battleground, even at a time when more people are texting each other on phones.
People still regularly check their inboxes, albeit increasingly on their smartphones. The recurring email habit provides Internet companies a way to keep people coming back to websites. It gives people a reason to log in during their visits so it's easier for email providers to track their activities. Frequent visits and personal identification are two of the keys to selling ads, the main way most websites make money.
That's why Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have been retooling their email services in recent months.
After keeping Outlook.com in a "preview" phase since July 31, Microsoft Corp. is ready to accept all comers.
To welcome new users, Microsoft is financing what it believes to be the biggest marketing blitz in the history of email. Outlook.com will be featured in ads running on primetime TV, radio stations, websites, billboards and buses. Microsoft expects to spend somewhere between $30 million to $90 million on the Outlook campaign, which will run for at least three months.
The Outlook ads will overlap with an anti-Gmail marketing campaign that Microsoft launched earlier this month. The "Scroogled" attacks depict Gmail as a snoopy service that scans the contents of messages to deliver ads related to topics being discussed.
The Gmail ads are meant to be educational while the Outlook campaign is motivational, said Dharmesh Mehta, Outlook.com's senior director.
"We are trying to push people who have gotten lazy and comfortable with an email service that may not be all that great and help show them what email can really do for them," said Mehta.
By Microsoft's own admission, Hotmail had lost the competitive edge that once made it the world's largest email service. The lack of innovation left an opening for Google to exploit when it unveiled Gmail nearly nine years ago.
Gmail is now the industry leader, although estimates on its popularity vary.
Google says Gmail has more than 425 million accountholders, including those that only visit on smartphones and other mobile device. The latest data from research firm comScore, which doesn't include mobile traffic, shows Gmail with 306 million worldwide users through December, up 21 percent from the previous year. Yahoo's email ranked second with 293 million users, a 2 percent decrease from the previous year, followed by Hotmail at 267 million users, a 16 percent decline from the previous year.
Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Wash., is counting on Outlook.com to catapult the company back to the top of the email heap. During the preview period, Outlook attracted 60 million accountholders, including about 20 million that defected from Gmail, according to Microsoft. Comscore listed Outlook with 38 million users through December.
The new features being introduced in Outlook include: the ability to send massive files, including hundreds of photos at a time, in a single email; address books that automatically update new contact information that connections post on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn; and about 60 percent fewer ads than Hotmail.
None of these features are revolutionary. Google already has been giving its users the option to switch to a new version of Gmail that also allows for larger files to be sent in a single email. And address books in Gmail already fetch new contact information posted on Google Plus, although it doesn't yet mine Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Google declined to comment on Outlook.com. The company, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., plans to convert all of its Gmail users to its redesigned format within the next few months.
Yahoo, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif. revamped its email service late last year in an effort to provide a more consistent experience on personal computers and mobile devices.
Outlook.com is the latest in a series of major product leases from Microsoft, which has been struggling to regain the cachet that once made it the world's most valuable technology company.
Now, both Apple Inc. and Google are worth more because they have been growing far faster than Microsoft as their products win more fans. Apple's biggest gains have come from the iPhone and IPad, while Google has been benefiting from its dominance in Internet search and its widely used Android software for mobile devices.
Microsoft has been trying to catch up with a major makeover of its Windows operating system, new smartphone software and a tablet computer called Surface. Like Outlook.com, all those products have been backed by expensive marketing campaigns in recent months.
I'll be keeping my Thunderbird client. Thank you very much.
I can take one look at that interface and know I will never use that client.
I don't need to see people's faces (indeed I have trouble recognizing people so it does little to remind me who is who). Cluttered and situated in non-familiar ways. Not methods that encourage me to want to try it.Â
Not only that, but the images fail to show you the advertisements. There WILL be ads, that's how they will make money on this. Not to mention selling your information like Google does to advertisers who will spam you.Â
No thanks I will stay with Thunderbird.
@Repoman Do you like Thunderbird? Have been having problems with my e-mail account.Â
@washcomom @RepomanÂ
Yeah i love Thunderbird (What's the word? Thunderbird! What's the price? 30 twice!). The client has little to do with the service.Â
@Repoman Glad to know that you like it so well. Have been discouraged by what MS keeps doing.Â
Outlook Express was the best of the best...I'll never understand why they had to go and fix something that wasn't broken... ...tsk, tsk, tsk Microsoft....I started out with Win 3.1 ... to Win7....Win XP, as far as I'm concerned was and still is the best system Microsoft has presented so far. What a shame they can't recognize that and do updating and fixing snags on XP instead of thrusting new down our throats just to make money. They could still make money by fixing leaks, etc.....
"so it's easier for email providers to track their activities" - that's reassuring then.
I didn't like Outlook before, used Outlook Express as it was simpler. All I want to do is send/receive messages, OE worked OK for what I needed. The new Outlook looks like a mess from the picture in the article...too much junk on the screen. Oh, well...I remember when Microsoft 3.0 had a manual not much larger than a novel. Every time they came out with a "new" version, designed to be "easier to use", the manual doubled in size...will this Outlook do the same, become even more complicated to use?
Several years late to the party, Microsoft, as usual. Â Your tablet will fail, the phones with your OS are failing, and your email will fail as well. Â You have to either be first or be innovative, and in these 3 instances you're not close to either.
I have so many fake email addresses it's hard to keep track of them. All of them are designed to validate accounts on web sites that I don't want to give my real email address to. Several have been hacked but I don't care. I just move on a make another fake address.
I also use a proxy server for most of them to mask my IP address which also gives a false location.
@RalphCramdenÂ
I run my own email server, create an email adress whenever I want and delete it, recreate it, change the password whatever, real nice.Â
@Repoman
I did the same thing for a while. But I can't afford a much of domains so I just use the ones already out there.
@RalphCramdenWhat is fake about multiple e-mail addresses?!? Unless they are used for the same purpose such as commenting on the same news feed! I have multiple e-mails, but I use only swimbad for news in the NW and I don't participate anywhere else for commenting on news. But, I do have an address for my music studies and another for my personal stuff like banking and  business involvement.Â
@swimbad
I guess is was a bad choice of terms. Multiple is correct. But I have used fake ones in the past mostly to check firewalls.
@RalphCramden @swimbad I have a huge list of proxies all over the world that I use when the need arises. There's a plug-in for Firefox that allows one to switch proxies at the click of a button.
Btw, hping is a good tool for checking firewalls. .)
Awesome! I could use more disposable email addresses on a different domain. You know, the kind only used for validating user accounts on a web site.
I thought that was you johnq223 or is it johnq224?