Dustin Mihalik's Blog

I can understand your frustration. Hey, no one likes FREE more than I do. The thing to realize is that Microsoft and Google are two different companies with two different business models. IMHO, the acquisition of Lookout means that much of what you liked about it will be available in future versions of our stack in a more integrated and productive way, so it will continue to be "free" to you in a sense.

Of course, no one likes to wait, but sometimes it's worth it. Just my 2 cents.

Hi, Scott,

I'm one of the folks from Lookout. As a software developer and writer of code, I like my stuff to live as long as possible (pretty typical of us software types!) So, in some respects, the fact that its not available for download is sad.... But, for the long term, joining up with Microsoft actually means the code lives much longer - because the ultimate product will definitely have the ability to impact a lot more people. And, with the team at Microsoft working on this as well, I think we'll actually get to a mode where we'll be able to deliver a lot more than little tiny Lookout Software could do on its own.

We certainly recognize the value of Lookout to Outlook; just because you read "MSN", don't think that we've forgotten or somehow misplaced what the real value of Lookout is... We definitely get it. And its been awesome users like you that have helped us hone in on it so far. I hope that relationship continues, despite the disappearance of Lookout; despite the change in ownership.

If at any time you doubt the future of the product, feel free to drop me a note and ask. I can't comment on specific Microsoft product plans, of course, but I always try to be honest about whats going on. I remain (as many others at msft do) committed to making email better and having it consume less time every day! But I'm no genius; I only do it with help of people feeding in great ideas...

So until something better exists, hopefully the existing Lookout continues to kick ass on your mailbox for you.

Hope this comment is useful; I'm sure you still have a healthy dose of skepticism, as everyone always should. This is just marketing-speak. Results are what really matter...

I think it might be worth pointing out that Picassa integrates with Hello, a service that along with sharing photos with other Hello users, also publishes your pictures to Blogger - so it's not Google just being nice to people, they're using it to promote one of their services.

It is a shame that the current version of Lookout is no longer available though; I think MSFT are missing out on a lot of buzz that's surrounding the purchase. I understand there are branding, testing and support issues here, but a little preparation would have gone a long way.

Conceit is the quicksand of success.

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