Hotmail receives 'one-click unsubscribe' button to counter graymail

Microsoft is revamping its Hotmail service with new features, including clean-up tools, a revamped flagging system, custom categories and a one-click unsubscribe button - all aimed at countering graymail.

ADVERTISEMENT

Dick Craddock, group program manager at Hotmail, discussed the changes at the Windows Team blog this week.

Graymail is generally mail you don't want but possibly did at some point, said Craddock. It's far less dangerous than spam, but likely just as annoying - an alumni newsletter you signed up for in a fit of collegiate pride, or promotions from companies you were once interested in.

"What really characterizes graymail is that the same message that one person thinks is 'spam' could be really important to another person," he explained. "It's not black and white, hence the name."

ADVERTISEMENT

According to Craddock, customers are overwhelming confused by the concept and misidentify harmless graymail as its more sinister cousin spam around 75 percent of the time. One way he believes Hotmail can combat that problem is by tweaking Microsoft's anti-spam SmartScreen tech so it correctly recognizes newsletter graymail and then places it into a brand new, specially-designed folder.

Another new function, Schedule Cleanup, lets users tweak their email newsletter-reading experience so older copies are deleted and only new ones are displayed. Flagging also received an overhaul; it now places ticked messages above new ones. Hotmail's folder system received drag-and-drop nested support and an exclusive right-click menu.

However, a one-click option to unsubscribe from previously approved notices is the stand-out feature.

ADVERTISEMENT

"Sometimes you don't want a newsletter, but it's hard to find out how to stop getting it," said Craddock. "Now with Hotmail you can do it all in one step. Click on unsubscribe, and we'll do the rest - let the site know to stop mailing you, use Sweep to immediately clean up your mail and remove all the old newsletters from that sender, and finally send any new ones that come in to your junk mail until the sender takes you off their list."

In July, Microsoft banned Hotmail users from employing common passwords as a preemptive strike against potential hacking attempts.

Craddock promised the new features would be available for users "in the coming weeks." (via Windows Team Blog)

No posts to display