Beyond Binary

It's been quite a while since Paul Allen worked to make Microsoft's products better, but he's doing just that.

While he hasn't rejoined the software maker he left more than 25 years ago, Allen is backing an effort to improve Microsoft Outlook. Allen's Vulcan Ventures announced on Monday the launch of its Xiant subsidiary and a beta of its first product, Xiant Filer. It is available as a free, 60-day trial, and Vulcan plans to eventually sell downloads of the product directly as well as through other Web sites.

(Credit: Xiant)

"It's a return of sorts to Paul's roots," Vulcan Vice President Chris Purcell said in a statement. "Xiant Filer started as a personal project to help Paul keep up with heavy e-mail traffic. It worked so well we all started using it, which led us to take it to market."

Allen has been involved in a number of projects in and out of the tech world since leaving Microsoft. However, he has generally been in areas that steer well clear of Microsoft. Vulcan has also backed Gist, another Outlook ad-on.

With Xiant Filer, Allen is wading into competition with Microsoft and several companies that make their own Outlook add-ons. The product sounds similar in concept to Xobni, another tool for better managing an Outlook in-box. Xobni exited beta earlier this year.

I've always been leery of Microsoft Outlook's autocomplete feature. That's the one that guesses who you want to send the e-mail to by looking at the first few letters you type.

It's right most of the time.

But with e-mail used to send everything from jokes, to family photos to corporate secrets, "most of the time" seems like far too low a bar.

Eli Lilly and its outside lawyers found out this the hard way this week when one of the esquires sent a note intended for a colleague to a New York Times writer with the same last name. (Note: I'm not certain which e-mail program the lawyer was using, and it's supposition, though a seemingly safe bet, that some sort of autocomplete was to blame.)

The result was that confidential negotiations with the government involving as much as $1 billion quickly became nonconfidential. The Times, doing what it does, got a big scoop.

A representative for Pepper Hamilton, the law firm whose barrister sent the note, was not immediately available for comment. But, in good news for the firm, an Eli Lilly representative told Portfolio that the firm is not immediately getting the boot.

Still, that's some pretty big consequences for a feature that saves a few seconds' time. Sure, those seconds add up over time. But I imagine the lawyer in question would give any amount of time to have that e-mail back.

I try to always give my address bar a second look before hitting send, but once or twice have found my note to a colleague going to an outside contact with a similar name. Maybe Microsoft should get rid of the feature.

Then again, in a world where businesses and governments are increasingly secretive, maybe the typo has become the greatest opportunity for openness and democracy. On second thought, leave it in there.

Update: A Microsoft representative said the feature can be turned off. Here's how:

• Under the Tools menu, click Options.

• On the Preferences tab, click E-mail Options, and then click Advanced E-mail Options.

• Select or clear the "Suggest names while completing To, Cc, and Bcc fields" check box.

Another suggestion comes from ClearContext VP Brad Meador, who recommends people tweak Outlook settings to delay sending e-mail for a matter of minutes. That way there's a chance to catch a broad array of mistakes before they go out forever.