Greetings. I'd like to clarify one aspect of my Oops! - Microsoft's New Feature Guaranteed to Lose Important E-Mail posting from earlier this morning.

One reader quickly noted that Google has what he asserted was a similar capability to Microsoft's upcoming "Ignore" function in Outlook -- the Gmail "Mute" feature.

However, this is a perfect example of how the devil is in the details, and how Microsoft apparently got this functionality wrong, and Google got it right.

In contrast to the reported behavior of the MS "Ignore" command, which deletes current and future messages (relegating them to Trash and eventual automatic oblivion), Gmail's "Mute" command simply moves targeted messages to Archival, from where they can be easily retrieved at any time.

But here comes the real zinger of a comparison. The MS Ignore feature reportedly specifically targets messages in which the recipient is listed as a CC. But the Gmail Ignore function (as I understand it) uses the presence of the recipient on the To: or CC: line as an indication that this might be an important message, and triggers the recovery of the associated e-mail thread from Archival, presenting it high up in the current Inbox.

In other words, key aspects of these functions appear to be 180 degrees apart in the Microsoft Outlook vs. Gmail versions, with MS taking a path that maximizes the risk of confusion and missing relevant messages, while Google chose the route that minimizes these risks.

Case closed?

--Lauren--