The next version of Microsoft's corporate email server will offer not only the ability to view email by conversations, but also the option of 'muting' any thread that a user would rather not take part in.
Conversation threading, a popular feature in Google's Gmail, and the mute option are several of the new features in Exchange 2010, the next version of the company's email and calendar server. The software is entering public beta on Wednesday, with the final launch slated for the second half of this year.
Among the other features of the product, which has been code-named Exchange 14, is something Microsoft has named 'MailTips', which offers warnings when one might be about to commit an email faux pas.
"MailTips is kind of like a guardian angel before you send the mail," Rajesh Jha, who leads Microsoft's development for Office Live and Exchange, said in an interview this week with ZDNet UK's sister site CNET News.com. For example, it will warn a user if they are about to send an email to a large distribution list or if they are going to send an attachment outside their company's firewall.
Microsoft is also building in new archiving features into Exchange 2010. These features will allow companies to store a user's email archive, as well as make archived messages available to users when they are not at their desktop or laptop PC.
Many of Exchange 14's features work in the web-based Outlook Web Access program. However, using them on the desktop will require Office 2010, which is not due out until the first half of next year, Microsoft said.
"Exchange is leading the way," Jha said.
Microsoft is already using Exchange 2010 to power its Live@edu service for schools and universities. Customers of Exchange Online, Microsoft's hosted service for businesses, will have the option of moving to the new Exchange after the server software is released, Jha said.
