Too many Microsoft Outlooks - we explain them all

[britechguy]

Too many Microsoft Outlooks - we explain them all

A truer title was never written, and the article is a decent synopsis of the current state of madness.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

That writer was bored.
Always called the program on the computer "Outlook"..as well as on smart phones.
Would the write get confused by Chrome browser on his computer..and needing to call Chrome browser on his/her smart phone something else? Total confusion? Bah! Not for some of us.

Accessing Outlook via browser...we always called "OWA"..."Outlook Web Access". Going back to Exchange...eh, I'd say 5.5. (Nt 4/Win95 days).

 

[britechguy]

Accessing Outlook via browser...we always called "OWA".

Key word, "we," as in tech geeks "we." "We" are not the demographic the article is actually written for.

I so seldom use OWA that I forget what the acronym stands for. You just refreshed my memory. Most people, if they call it anything, call it Outlook.com. And OWA can (and does) allow access to hotmail (and a couple of other services subsumed by MS) as well, so it's hardly fully accurately descriptive, either.

Even as a tech geek, I'm with the author of the article.

 

[fincoder]

Accessing Outlook via browser...we always called "OWA"..."Outlook Web Access".

But the free webmail service (aka Hotmail or Live) is also called Outlook, and that isn't OWA.

And the Windows 10/11 'Mail' app gives the name 'Outlook' to an outlook.com/hotmail/live account. So many customers say 'I use Outlook' and it turns out to be the Mail app. I still have some that say they use Outlook Express, turns out they're using Windows Live Mail or Office Outlook.

I call the Outlook desktop app 'Office Outlook', and the webmail service 'oulook.com' when talking to customers.

When asking customers how they access their email, it also doesn't help that they often don't know what 'browser' means. For that matter they often don't recognise browser names like Chrome or Edge. If you ask what they use to go to websites they usually say 'Google' which might mean Chrome or it might mean they're using Google search in another browser.

 

[Sky-Knight]

But the free webmail service (aka Hotmail or Live) is also called Outlook, and that isn't OWA.

Actually it is... and the service itself lives on Exchange too. You're correct in that it isn't branded as such though, never has been.

As for the rest, yeah... users have to be users.