Microsoft testing subscription Outlook

Microsoft has started private testing of a service that would offer consumers, on a subscription basis, access to the company's Outlook e-mail and calendaring program, along with 2 gigabytes of e-mail storage.

Microsoft Office Outlook Live, as the service is being called, would be a paid service that would let consumers use Outlook to manage Hotmail-based e-mail, calendar and contact information. In the current beta, customers are being given 2GB of mail storage, the ability to send individual messages with up to 20MB of attachments, as well as a downloadable version of Outlook.

Outlook Live, which the company began testing last week, is similar to the Outlook Connector feature Microsoft currently includes as part of its MSN Premium service, which costs $9.95 a month.

A Microsoft representative said Outlook Live would be a separate paid service but declined to comment on what it might cost. The company said it hopes to ship Outlook Live in the first half of next year.

Microsoft first demonstrated a version of the Outlook connector at a meeting with financial analysts in July 2003. The Outlook Connector feature was added when Microsoft debuted the MSN Premium service at the end of last year.

One of the key differences is that the Outlook connector does not include Outlook and is aimed at customers who already use Outlook 2002 or later. Outlook Live subscribers get a subscription version of Outlook 2003 as part of the package.

Microsoft also said it hopes to have additional features by the time it is ready to launch Outlook Live. The company had an animated Flash presentation about the program on its Web site for a time.

Some details about Outlook Live were earlier reported by BetaNews.

Earlier Monday, Microsoft launched a public test version of its desktop search program but did not mention Outlook Live during a conference call with reporters.

Who's stupid enough to trust it?

Given MicroShaft's history of collecting personal data without expressed permission; and a penchant for security lapses -- who's going to be stupid enough to trust this "service"?

Oh wait. The same idiots who buys from spam.

[201293546946733175101343322673]

Hmm...

That "stupid" person you mentioned should be you, I guess.^^

Well, how about the Fortune 500?

Ever heard of the Fortune 500?

Outlook is one of the most widely used corporate messaging systems. I'm guessing that a company as profitable and clued-in with IT managers as MS isn't going to launch a service like this without first making sure that the demand is there.

Go back to your basement and play some more dungeons and dragons, script kiddie.

[Earl Benser]

Outlook may work for some...

.. but it demands effective isolation from unwanted eyes, like on
a protected corporate server (if anything can be really
protected). The idea of trusting Microsoft to hold some person's
or company's critical data is beyond stupid, it's virtually criminal.

After all, Passport is a dead item, a dead Microsoft 'store your
personal data' item. Outlook as a MS subscription item should
follow Passport into the dumpers.