Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Web Mail Spam Filters Still Lacking
In terms of identifying spam using complicated methods, the three major providers do very well. But at a very simple level they are failing...
I've signed up with the Microsoft Partner program. It appears to be some behemoth covering all professionals who work with or sell Microsoft products. They send me an email, because I am a subscriber. It is sent from Microsoft@newsletters.microsoft.com. For some reason Hotmail doesn't display the content. Instead I get a message saying "This message may be dangerous." and I need to click on a link to see it. It's their own freaking message!
Meanwhile Gmail is sending virtually every piece of spam to the spam folder, with the exception of spam that pretends to be Google :(
I've signed up with the Microsoft Partner program. It appears to be some behemoth covering all professionals who work with or sell Microsoft products. They send me an email, because I am a subscriber. It is sent from Microsoft@newsletters.microsoft.com. For some reason Hotmail doesn't display the content. Instead I get a message saying "This message may be dangerous." and I need to click on a link to see it. It's their own freaking message!
Meanwhile Gmail is sending virtually every piece of spam to the spam folder, with the exception of spam that pretends to be Google :(
Friday, December 12, 2008
Hotmail - How Hard is it to Test Things??
I've had a right wrist problem recently, causing me to use my left hand for mouse work, and I'm not ambidextrous.
The new Hotmail interface is mostly an improvement, but I have a major complaint. Typically I delete about half of my new emails from the inbox page. I just look at the subject line, decide I haven't got time to read that, and check the box alongside it. I check a dozen or so, then hit delete.
Unfortunately, if I am very slightly off-target clicking on the check box, for some crazy reason, all the boxes already checked are cleared. So after all that hard work getting my left hand to align the mouse pointer with the check boxes, I miss one and they are all gone. Start again. Aaaaargh!
Gmail and Yahoo don't have this problem, so I figure it's a coding mistake. It wouldn't take much testing to pick this up before inflicting it on the public. As hard as they are trying, usability is still not a priority for Microsoft, to their detriment.
UPDATE: They have responded to user complaints, and now the folder drop-down box doesn't work very well (you can get stuck in it), and the page never stops loading, so all I see in the FireFox tab is "Loading..."
The new Hotmail interface is mostly an improvement, but I have a major complaint. Typically I delete about half of my new emails from the inbox page. I just look at the subject line, decide I haven't got time to read that, and check the box alongside it. I check a dozen or so, then hit delete.
Unfortunately, if I am very slightly off-target clicking on the check box, for some crazy reason, all the boxes already checked are cleared. So after all that hard work getting my left hand to align the mouse pointer with the check boxes, I miss one and they are all gone. Start again. Aaaaargh!
Gmail and Yahoo don't have this problem, so I figure it's a coding mistake. It wouldn't take much testing to pick this up before inflicting it on the public. As hard as they are trying, usability is still not a priority for Microsoft, to their detriment.
UPDATE: They have responded to user complaints, and now the folder drop-down box doesn't work very well (you can get stuck in it), and the page never stops loading, so all I see in the FireFox tab is "Loading..."
Labels: hotmail
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