Someone I know said they thought Outlook should be called Lookout because of the speed in which you could mess up. Here are some reasons why I agree:
- It is easy to send mail to the wrong recipient. The e-mail memory feature can be helpful when you don't want to look up someone's e-mail address, but if you aren't paying attention you may pick Susan in Accounting and you meant to send it to Susan in HR and you were forwarding your performance appraisal.
- Recall doesn't always work. It is a handy feature to have and if you read my last post you will see how it works, but it does not consistently work. It usually works when you are doing a test run, but when you really are hoping it will work, "Please, please, work..." -- it won't.
- E-mail can bring in viruses. Remember the I Love You virus. People came in to work in the morning and when they opened their e-mail thought, "How sweet," and opened an e-mail they thought was from a loved one and ended up shutting the whole company e-mail system down for a day.
- It is too easy to make user errors and reget it. A lawyer I know pressed Reply on a message, but he meant to press Forward and ended up giving the other side in a law case his strategy. He thought he was forwarding the opposing lawyer's e-mail to his client with his advice on the settlement, but instead pressed Reply. Oops!
