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This is a BRILLIANT feature that I hope stimulates somebody on HN to build around Outlook. GMAIL hovers around 5% of email client usage. Outlook still owns so

by aresant 16y ago

This is a BRILLIANT feature that I hope stimulates somebody on HN to build around Outlook. GMAIL hovers around 5% of email client usage. Outlook still owns somewhere between 35 - 43%. MSFT was moving in this direction and had a decent solution out a few years back called Email Prioritizer. Of course, they tossed before it made it out of labs. Xobni is too complex IMO, what's so compelling about Google's system is how simple it is - it just works, it fits right in. Nice job. http://www.officelabs.com/projects/emailprioritizer/Pages/Default.aspx http://www.officelabs.com/projects/emailprioritizer/Pages/De... http://visibleranking.com/2010/05/most-popular-email-clients.php http://visibleranking.com/2010/05/most-popular-email-clients...

barmstrong 16y ago
Yep - their implementation looks great (at least at first glance).
jlouis 16y ago
I think Gmail has much more than 5% of the market. It may be that Outlook is installed on 35-45% of all computers, but nobody currently has numbers for the use of the application. If I can get away with it, I prefer forwarding mails so I don't have to deal with Outlook. And so should all sane companies: Outlook waste their time.
- smackfu 16y ago
  GMail isn't even that popular for webmail. It's just that it's insanely popular among the tech types.
- qeorge 16y ago
  1) The parent's link indicated that this is real usage data, from Campaign Monitor. CM and similar use tracking pixels, and can detect what client is being used to open the email. 2) I use Outlook all the time, as do many people I work with. Gmail is great for webmail, but its not a replacement for Outlook, especially if you rely heavily on contacts, calendar, tasks, or search.
  - weavejester 16y ago
    Gmail is great for webmail, but its not a replacement for Outlook, especially if you rely heavily on contacts, calendar, tasks, or search. Really? I find Google Apps to be better in all four of those categories, especially search. What makes Outlook superior in those categories?
    - mike-cardwell 16y ago
      Outlook searches within attachments. GMail doesn't.
    - ricardo 16y ago
      Outlook's market share isn't directly correlated to its capabilities. Many large organizations force their employees to use Outlook as their corporate standard.
  - levesque 16y ago
    I work from multiple locations often, having my contacts, emails, calendar and tasks available from any location is very important to me. The only feature in which I think gmail is lacking/lagging behind is the tasks one. I've tried using synchronization tools before but they often deal with only one aspect at a time and do so rather poorly (last time I checked, about 1 and a half year ago)
    - mike-cardwell 16y ago
      GMail didn't support delegation or folder sharing last time I checked. Those are important requirements for many organisations. This new feature GMail have announced is trivial and unimportant compared to many other features they could release.
      - mike-cardwell 16y ago
        If you're downvoting because you disagree, at least explain why. The lack of folder sharing and delegation would both be show stoppers if my organisation was considering moving to GMail. This new auto-filtering mechanism wouldn't even make it on to the interesting features list, let alone the desirable or required lists.
ruff 16y ago
Don't know if it still does it but ClearContext use to provide this exact solution for Outlook. It prioritized your Inbox based people and e-mails that you haven't responded to yet. http://www.clearcontext.com/user_guide/contacts.html http://www.clearcontext.com/user_guide/contacts.html The product seems to have chased off into GTD-land, but the sort of the Inbox was really useful.
- devahaz 16y ago
  Hi, I'm the CEO of ClearContext. We have focused the last couple of years on including this type of functionality as part of our project management product, but we plan to release a simple free product for Outlook users focused just on identifying your most important messages. We'll start beta-testing that product this month.
vecter 16y ago
Xobni doesn't claim to solve the mailbox triage problem. That's a really hard problem.
- gduffy 16y ago
  http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=xobni+email+overload http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=xobni+...
  - vecter 16y ago
    That's almost a direct quote from Adam Smith's mouth from a talk he gave at MIT startup bootcamp. I don't have the link to the video at hand, but I distinctly remember him saying, with a pause for emphasis, "Xobni does not solve the email triage problem." I understand you worked at Xobni, so I cede that you probably know more than I do. Either way, that was the message he was trying to send.

by aresant 16y ago

barmstrong 16y ago

Yep - their implementation looks great (at least at first glance).

jlouis 16y ago

I think Gmail has much more than 5% of the market. It may be that Outlook is installed on 35-45% of all computers, but nobody currently has numbers for the use of the application. If I can get away with it, I prefer forwarding mails so I don't have to deal with Outlook. And so should all sane companies: Outlook waste their time.

smackfu 16y ago
GMail isn't even that popular for webmail. It's just that it's insanely popular among the tech types.
qeorge 16y ago
1) The parent's link indicated that this is real usage data, from Campaign Monitor. CM and similar use tracking pixels, and can detect what client is being used to open the email. 2) I use Outlook all the time, as do many people I work with. Gmail is great for webmail, but its not a replacement for Outlook, especially if you rely heavily on contacts, calendar, tasks, or search.
- weavejester 16y ago
  Gmail is great for webmail, but its not a replacement for Outlook, especially if you rely heavily on contacts, calendar, tasks, or search. Really? I find Google Apps to be better in all four of those categories, especially search. What makes Outlook superior in those categories?
  - mike-cardwell 16y ago
    Outlook searches within attachments. GMail doesn't.
  - ricardo 16y ago
    Outlook's market share isn't directly correlated to its capabilities. Many large organizations force their employees to use Outlook as their corporate standard.
- levesque 16y ago
  I work from multiple locations often, having my contacts, emails, calendar and tasks available from any location is very important to me. The only feature in which I think gmail is lacking/lagging behind is the tasks one. I've tried using synchronization tools before but they often deal with only one aspect at a time and do so rather poorly (last time I checked, about 1 and a half year ago)
  - mike-cardwell 16y ago
    GMail didn't support delegation or folder sharing last time I checked. Those are important requirements for many organisations. This new feature GMail have announced is trivial and unimportant compared to many other features they could release.
    - mike-cardwell 16y ago
      If you're downvoting because you disagree, at least explain why. The lack of folder sharing and delegation would both be show stoppers if my organisation was considering moving to GMail. This new auto-filtering mechanism wouldn't even make it on to the interesting features list, let alone the desirable or required lists.

ruff 16y ago

Don't know if it still does it but ClearContext use to provide this exact solution for Outlook. It prioritized your Inbox based people and e-mails that you haven't responded to yet. http://www.clearcontext.com/user_guide/contacts.html http://www.clearcontext.com/user_guide/contacts.html The product seems to have chased off into GTD-land, but the sort of the Inbox was really useful.

devahaz 16y ago
Hi, I'm the CEO of ClearContext. We have focused the last couple of years on including this type of functionality as part of our project management product, but we plan to release a simple free product for Outlook users focused just on identifying your most important messages. We'll start beta-testing that product this month.

vecter 16y ago

Xobni doesn't claim to solve the mailbox triage problem. That's a really hard problem.

gduffy 16y ago
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=xobni+email+overload http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=xobni+...
- vecter 16y ago
  That's almost a direct quote from Adam Smith's mouth from a talk he gave at MIT startup bootcamp. I don't have the link to the video at hand, but I distinctly remember him saying, with a pause for emphasis, "Xobni does not solve the email triage problem." I understand you worked at Xobni, so I cede that you probably know more than I do. Either way, that was the message he was trying to send.