Hotmail Gets Anti-Spam Makeover
Microsoft's free e-mail has a cleaner look and stronger junk mail filter.
Microsoft's free e-mail has a cleaner look and stronger junk mail filter.
Microsoft has quietly rolled out a major Hotmail interface makeover to mirror the Web access features of the new Office 2003 software suite.
Users of the free Web-mail service were greeted late Monday with a streamlined interface resembling Office 2003 and the MSN email client built into the company’s ISP service.
The Hotmail overhaul also includes Microsoft’s new ‘SmartScreen’ anti-spam technology. Developed internally at Microsoft Research, ‘SmartScreen’ identifies the frequency of words and the types of links used by spammers.
During a recent presentation, Microsoft boss Bill Gates said ‘SmartScreen’ was making a dramatic difference in the battle against spam.
“Between what we’re doing with technology and what’s being done on the legal front, it makes the business proposition for spammers no longer attractive,” Gates said at the time. “And we’ve got to keep working until we achieve that. And I believe very strongly, that’s an achievable goal.”
Hotmail’s Junk Mail filter has been tweaked to let users report spam back to Microsoft to let the service automatically filter out that senders at the gateway level.
The new filter means only mail from known senders and addresses within a user’s contact list are displayed on the default mail page. Hotmail users, however, still have the option to view all mail via a drop-down tab.
The email management icons have also been redesigned to display the ‘urgent’ label on emails sent and received. A paperclip icon now signifies attachments and a question mark icon identifies mail from unknown senders.
Hotmail has also been tweaked to allow users to import contact lists from Outlook 2000/XP/2003 and Outlook Express 6 and to let users share vCards with contact information.
More about:
Lucy helps organizations leverage knowledge for in... View Tech Talk
TVSquared is the global leader in cross-platform T... View Tech Talk
Grata is a B2B search engine for discovering small... View Tech Talk
Streaming has become a staple of US media-viewing ... Download Now
Data is the lifeblood of so many companies today. ... Download Now
This report documents the findings of a Fireside c... Download Now
Customers decide fast, influenced by only 2.5 touc... Download Now
Streaming has become a staple of US media-viewing habits. Streaming video, however, still comes with a variety of pesky frustrations that viewers are ...
View resourceData is the lifeblood of so many companies today. You need more of it, all of which at higher quality, and all the meanwhile being compliant with data...
View resourceThis report documents the findings of a Fireside chat held by ClickZ in the first quarter of 2022. It provides expert insight on how companies can ret...
View resourceCustomers decide fast, influenced by only 2.5 touchpoints – globally! Make sure your brand shines in those critical moments. Read More...
View resourceMarketers today need to thoughtfully select visuals that align with their content, boost SEO performance and drive ROI Read More...
View articleHow the sunglasses giant created subconscious brand recall value with music festival-goers through the power of strategic partnerships and experientia...
View articleIn life, as much as on LinkedIn (or Facebook, Twitter, etc.) people and brands who blabber on about themselves become annoying and best avoided, soone...
View articleBuilding trust in your brand is hard enough. Now take a situation where your audience is so cynical of your product offering some of them even call fo...
View articleThere is room for better lead capturing as ABM evolves in a cookieless world Read More...
View articleTop-of-mind action points that will be valuable to challenger brand marketing for the rest of 2021 and 2022 Read More...
View articleOmnichannel marketing presents an opportunity to marketers but requires better use of data Read More...
View articleThe dark horse your business needs to outperform competition and win at search Read More...
View article