The latest test version of Microsoft's MSN Explorer is
setting off sparks over a feature that converts MSN email accounts to
Hotmail, as well as over an accompanying spam-like missive that encourages customers to send an advertisement-laden email to friends and colleagues.
The new iteration of MSN Explorer competes with America Online's
Internet service, offering a basic Internet access tool that integrates
Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser with its Hotmail Web-based email
program, MSN Messenger and Windows Media Player. It was introduced late
last month in a preview, or beta, version.
The product is intended to bring order to Microsoft's numerous online
brands as the company embraces
its ambitious Microsoft.Net Web-based business strategy--a much-hyped
effort to move the company beyond its PC roots and into the Internet-based software age. Early complaints about the test version of MSN Explorer could point to coming bumps as the company strives to convince consumers that what's good for Microsoft is good for them, too.
Complaints have so far focused on MSN Explorer's email features.
If an MSN email account holder installs the latest version of this
software, Preview 2, the program warns the consumer that he or she will
have to switch to Hotmail. If the consumer agrees, it automatically
converts the account. The forced switch only affects email accounts at
MSN.com.
Although the email address stays the same, critics of the forced switch say
Hotmail does not offer the same level of service as MSN email. For example,
the account holder can only have access to email while connected to the Internet, according to Woody
Leonhard, who publishes a newsletter, Woody's Windows
Watch and is outlining the problem in tomorrow's edition.
"For people like me who download email ten times a day and then work on
their email offline, that won't work anymore," Leonhard said. "All of
sudden, you have to be connected online to Hotmail in order to read,
respond or even create new messages...It's a real mess for somebody who
doesn't know what's going on."
A representative for Microsoft acknowledged that MSN Explorer forces the
Hotmail switch.
"If (consumers) do choose to download Preview 2...they will also be
choosing to move to Hotmail and lose POP3 email," or email on a local server, Microsoft said in a
statement. "We will be offering a tool at final (version) to move users
back to their POP3 client if they wish to do so."
A Microsoft representative added, "offline capability is something
that we're working toward for future versions of MSN Explorer."
Other critics took aim at what they describe as a "pseudo-spam" feature of
the software.
MSN Explorer asks new customers if they would like to import their contact
list from Outlook or Outlook Express. If they opt for yes, the program will
give them an option to notify everyone in their contact list that they have
installed MSN Explorer, a default feature in the system. If new members
click "yes," a message is sent.
"It's troubling because the message that's sent has 8 lines of advertising
from MSN--inviting people to switch to MSN Explorer--and 1 line saying you
have a new email address. And we call that the Melissa virus in slow
motion," said Leonhard, who said newsletter author Barry Simon pointed out
the feature last week.
Leonhard said that if you send the email to everyone in your contact list
and they upload the new software, those new customers would be given the
option to send the email to everyone they know in turn. "It's a chain
letter," he said. "That's what Melissa did, except Melissa wasn't polite
enough to ask."
Representatives from Microsoft said the optional mailing notice is not
spam. "It's an opt-in feature," a representative said.
Privacy advocates critical of the notification feature pointed out that it
appears to run against Microsoft's efforts this summer to make it harder to
harness Outlook for spamming purposes. The company issued a security patch
designed, among other things, to prevent hackers from tinkering with email
addresses contained in contact lists and sending unsolicited email to those
people.
"The trouble is, people don't realize all the people they have in their
address books. And this will blast out an email to all of them, including
email lists. So you could end up sending out a lot more email than you
thought," said Richard Smith, chief technology officer at the Privacy
Foundation, a nonprofit based in Denver.
"It looks like spam; and the bottom line is, it's going to push a lot of
wrong buttons for people that are receiving the email," Smith said. "This
is not a great feature."
Since launching, Hotmail has been plagued by security and privacy problems.
Just this summer, the company acknowledged a flaw
in the free email service that inadvertently sent subscribers' email
addresses to online advertisers. This followed an outage that left
people unable to check their email for a week; and when they finally could,
their in-boxes were missing all saved emails.
This is another non-ethical effort by MS to own, control and demand payment for, every bit/byte on the planet that goes From anywhere TO anywhere. MS pushes its software like heroin. Give it to them for free, get them hooked, then give them no option except to pay, and then pay more.
Your article is interesting. However, how do I tell if I have already updated to this version? Your reference to the beta version is preview 2 only. Also, do you know if MSN is considering changing the clunky favorites to be more user friendly? rsj
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Also, do you know if MSN is considering changing the clunky favorites to be more user friendly?
rsj