Monday, 13 December 2004

Microsoft MOOL Beta to Arrive Today

In a likely announcement that will mark the beginning of Microsoft's vision to further integrate Outlook with Hotmail, Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of the MSN Information, Services & Merchant Platform division at Microsoft Corp will be addressing the media on Monday, 13 December 2004, 10am PST. MOOL (Microsoft Office Outlook Live) on the replacement for its heavily criticised MSN Outlook Connector. Like Outlook Connector, the add-in aims to synchronise data between MSN Hotmail and Microsoft Outlook, but the idea is to extend the capabilities of such synchronisation (including contacts, calendar entries and tasks). However, unlike its Outlook Connector predecessor, which is available only as a feature of MSN Premium, MOOL will be offered as a separate subscription service to all Outlook users. Although the beta will be released today, MOOL is expected to be widely available in the first quarter of 2005.

Microsoft has posted a Flash demonstration detailing the use of MOOL with Outlook 2003.