There was an announcement reported by ComputerWorld over the weekend that Microsoft has addressed speed issues in Outlook 2007. Apparently, it’s been a bit sluggish at downloading messages from Exchange Server.
Can’t say I’ve noticed it. Mind you, I’m running Outlook 2007 without Exchange Server and I am not using it to download RSS news feeds. Tried it for a short while and a) didn’t like the way it presented blog posts, b) figured it would make my Outlook .PST file too big. Sounds like b) turned out to be true…
What’s interesting about the article is the comment made by the Outlook program manager Jessica Arnold, when discussing the use of Outlook for local storage (and how to manage a large .PST file):
“Outlook wasn’t designed to be a file dump; it was meant to be a communications tool.”
Funny thing is, most people do see Outlook as a file dump and it isn’t their default communications tool any more. Instant messaging and mobile phones are usually considered preferable. Email (at least for the digital generation) is reserved for ‘formal’ communications where you want to keep a record (that issue of cc-itus a.k.a. ‘cover-your-butt’ syndrome). Gmail and other web providers seem to have tapped into this trend by offering large quantities of email storage up in the Internet cloud.
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