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Microsoft Looks At Integrating Forums and E-mail

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the good-ideas dept.

prostoalex writes "Scott Hanselman shares a document from Microsoft Research internal Web site on Gina Venolia's latest research in user interface design. Since half of the e-mail conversations require reply and then further replies, the model is not too different from current Web forums. Future Outlook versions might integrate the nested interface for e-mail conversations." Gotta say, that'd be pretty nice to have.

11 of 462 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Uhm... by Albanach · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It's interesting that Outlook forces you to use Outlook Express as a usenet client, rather than having the functionality built in. This is fairly typical Microsoft practise when they want to be able to sell you something, yet still say the functionality via open standards is available.

    For example, in Outlook there are frequent problems when using lots of IMAP folders. To share calendars etc, you need to use POP3. Microsoft, however, can sell you exchange server to replace your IMAP folders and allow you to share calendars.

    If Outlook had built in NNTP support, every office would have a local NNTP server doing this. Instead, they'll add a new feature to Outlook that will only be available if you're running it with MS Exchange. Big bucks.

  2. Re:What are the chances.... by SoTuA · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ...that this excellent idea (although I believe it has been bandied about before) will still be shot down by the /. crowd for no reason other than it is from MS?

    No, it will be shot down because it has already been done (in Mozilla and Apple's Mail.app, for example, not to mention usenet).

    I have no problems with MS software. I have problems with MS claiming this is innovation, when it is playing catch-up. (like pop-up supression and tabbed browsing coming in XP SP2)

  3. Re:Why has this taken so long? by Kaa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    it hasn't. we used to call it "usenet".

    Nah, not even close. Usenet is a free-for-all public discussion. Email exchange is an invitation-only private discussion. Big difference.

    --

    Kaa
    Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
  4. Re:Why has this taken so long? by CoolVibe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I dunno, but where I come from, we call that a 'mailing list'.

  5. Re:Why has this taken so long? by hamanu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually it is STILL just usenet.

    You see, you CAN have PRIVATE news servers with PRIVATE newsgroups using exsisting usenet technology. You just have to not specify any news peers, and require login/passwords.

    I did this years ago.

    --
    every _exit() is the same, but every clone() is different.
  6. Once again... by stubear · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ...Slashbots worldwide demonstrate their ignorance and blind devotion to the grand pumbah, errr, penguin and fail to understand what this new interface is all about. Let me first state that this is not simply e-mail threading like that in many other applications, even including Outlook since at least Outlook 97, maybe even sooner but this was the first version I began using as my sole e-mail app (in Outlook: click the 'group by box' and 'field chooser' in the advanced toolbar menu and select the appropriate fields to sort e-mail by. Tres cool.) Go re-read the "Conversation Clues" section of the article for a bit more info. Here's a relevant snippet for those who can't be bothered to RTFA though:

    It doesn't stop here. Venolia has also designed the user interface to give you some metrics about your conversations - you can find out at-a-glance just who you communicate with the most, and whether you are the originator, recipient or a participant. You can also see a complete list of the attachments, URLS, and images that are found in all your messages, in case you don't want to hunt through past e-mails to find that one document or Web site reference that you want.


    Innovation does not necessarily mean invention. Sometimes innovation is merely making something that already exists work better or more accessible. Gina's UI research has definitely developed somethign innovative in the field of e-mail UI design.
  7. Oh, you mean not top-posting? by Nucleon500 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Seriously - this problem was solved long ago in newsgroups (and on Slashdot). Instead of top-posting, quote the relevant material and write below it. Before Outlook Express became the de-facto email/news client, there was no problem. Then OE ruined that custom, and now they want it back. It's a simple change - fix the horrible line-wrapping for replies to text emails, and make the cursor show up on the bottom for replies.

    Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
    > Why is top-posting a bad thing?
    >> Top-posting.
    >>> What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in email?
    --
    Litigious bastards
  8. Re:Why has this taken so long? by thing12 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Actually it is STILL just usenet.

    You see, you CAN have PRIVATE news servers with PRIVATE newsgroups using exsisting usenet technology. You just have to not specify any news peers, and require login/passwords.

    No, really it isn't. This concept is that of a discussion that can evolve from a simple email exchange between a small group, to one that grows and grows as more people are invited in. Unless you can automatically and transparently convert an email thread into a private newsgroup - and then only allow admittance to those who are specifically invited by sending them a message (maybe with some sort of key) - then Usenet doesn't accomodate this at all. Sure, having a "department only" usenet group, or server is a handy thing. But it's ad-hoc discussions between a very small subset of people that you're ignoring. Easilly adding people to a discussion who are not necessarily privvy everything else a group discusses is exactly what email gives you and usenet doesn't.

  9. Re:Mozilla Has this by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What Mozilla doesn't have is a way to intergrate your responses into the message tree in your inbox. Sure, you can display stuff threaded, but it doesn't look like a conversation because it leaves out your input. I take it the proposed Outlook implementation would be different.

  10. And in a further show of innovation... by ttfkam · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Microsoft invents Kuro5hin!!!

    Witness the consistent interface. Marvel at the dynamic threading. Be wowed by the stimulus to content generation.

    Boy howdy, I am sure glad Microsoft is innovating here. I mean right now I could access news and discussions from any computer with a web browser. Now that Microsoft has laid its innovating hand on the problem, I'll only be able to get this from my MS Windows box. Thank heaven for Microsoft because I really enjoy having to set up my email account settings on my friends' computers.

    I mean if it weren't for this "thinking out of the box" idea, communication might actually take a step forward. Whew! That was close! No one wants that.

    --

    - I don't need to go outside, my CRT tan'll do me just fine.
  11. Re:Amazing...WOW by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Hmm...my little simple text email client, "Mutt", has been doing the threading of my emails for years now.

    If MS really wanted to impress me with an upgrade to Outlook, they'd take out the damned HTML mail capabilities. I've seen 3 line emails from people come at me, that were so overbloated with background images, fonts and other crap that is not only unnecessary, but, actually distracting from the message they tried to convey...

    I like threaded messages, been working well for awhile, but, do it in plain text like it was meant to be..

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........