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Microsoft Launches Outlook.com Premium Email Service, Costs $20 Per Year (thurrott.com)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the paying-for-emails dept.

Outlook.com Premium email service, which Microsoft began testing in October, is now available to all. You get the following features with this paid service, via a report: Outlook.com Premium provides a number of useful features: (1) Custom domain support for five users.

(2) Information sharing: Outlook Premium helps you easily share calendars, contacts, and documents (via OneDrive) between those five users.

(3) Ad-free inbox: Like Ad-Free Outlook.com, Outlook Premium offers no "banner ads" for a "distraction-free view of your email, photos, and documents."

9 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm, marketing dept confusion on the value add? by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, when you hear the Ad people talk it's "we add value by presenting opportunities for consumers" and the deep data mining is justified with "we use data to target unique ads that will delight our users"... ... and now we have a payment plan to not have ads. Admitting "yeah, ads suck so much people will pay us not to show them" Not that MS still won't datamine the crap out of you in other contexts though.

    1. Re:Hmm, marketing dept confusion on the value add? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Just because they're not showing ads in your e-mail inbox doesn't necessarily mean they're not data-mining you to use information collected about you from your e-mail inbox.

      For example, contents of your e-mail in gmail might be used to target ads against you outside of gmail as your browse the web. I don't use Outlook today, but the ads in Gmail are very minimal, such that, I don't notice them. However, I do notice that ads in my web browser have come from things triggered by e-mails I receive.

      I'd pay to get rid of having data from my e-mails saved to target ads to me- actual ads in my e-mail provider though is almost nothing and not worth paying to get rid of. It's not the ads I mind- it's the fact they're data-mining my e-mail in the first place.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:Hmm, marketing dept confusion on the value add? by number17 · · Score: 2

      Outlook.com supports the encryption tools (S/MIME) that can be used to prevent data mining.

  2. Too late by The-Ixian · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I waited for quite a while for this service to become available.

    I really wanted the multi-domain support without having to buy a business edition O365 plan which would then come with all the business versions of the apps.

    Instead, I found fastmail.com and I haven't looked back. I am super pleased with those guys and I am glad I didn't wait.

    --
    My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
  3. No scanning? by archer,+the · · Score: 2

    I'd only be interested if they didn't scan emails for data mining. Scanning for malware would be ok.

  4. Re:(3)... by corychristison · · Score: 2

    ... or use an e-mail client (desktop, mobile) instead of their web based mail client? I'm not sure if Outlook supports plain old IMAP and SMTP, though.

    Back when I used Gmail for a brief period, that's what I did.

    Now I pay for e-mail through a service provider... though I'm working towards putting together an e-mail cluster of my own.

  5. And for this price, ... by loranger · · Score: 2

    ... do you get the right to some privacy, at least?

  6. US-only by CanEHdian · · Score: 2
    Before getting all excited, from TFA: "The bad news? It’s still offered only to users in the United States."

    Would've been nice to add that little tidbit in the summary.

    --
    When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
  7. Re:First post by sglewis100 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Seems like a solution using a problem.

    No real sysadmin is going to use a $20 a year account just to (maybe) rely on onedrive. You're either rolling your own exchange server or renting email from google or office 365.

    It's 1 domain, $20/year, 5 users. It's not for sysadmins at a small company. It's for a family. Or a small time single consultant. Or a tiny non-profit.