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Lookout - Look Out!By Matt Stephens Update (24 July, 2004): It looks as if Lookout is available for download again (though unsupported) - thanks to everyone who posted comments here and emailed me about the subject! A few months back, I posted a review of Lookout, a seriously groovy search tool for Outlook. The news is just starting to break that Microsoft has bought Lookout Software, which (we all hope) is great news. It's certainly great news for the guys at LookoutSoft, and I wish them the best of luck with taking the product wherever it's now destined to go. But what will happen to Lookout itself? Will we still be able to use it? After all, Microsoft has previously been accused of following an "embrace, extend and extinguish" strategy... Currently the Lookout product cannot be downloaded from www.lookoutsoft.com. Existing users may continue to use the product, but (it seems) for an unspecified amount of time. Lookout Software has a FAQ on the subject, but it’s currently quite vague about the future of the product; and it suggests that Lookout will be tied into MSN, improving search capabilities for MSN customers. However, the FAQ doesn’t mention anything about, say, Lookout becoming the default search tool in Outlook (which would be the best-case scenario). Like many others, I’ve grown to rely on Lookout’s super-cool search features (it really does change the way you use Outlook). In fact the key sentence (for me anyway) from the FAQ is this one:
This is possibly the bubbliest and most positive way of saying "We've discontinued our flagship product" that I've ever seen. As I’d just got back from holiday today, I fired up Outlook, and Lookout prompted me to let it download a new version. I did so, and discovered that the license agreement had changed: the free, early-release version I’ve been using (can’t complain about that...) is now suddenly an evaluation version, which I’m allowed to use for "a reasonable amount of time". This suggests (reading between the lines) that when Microsoft decide to, they may suddenly pull the plug on Lookout, preventing its users from using it any more (unless we become MSN customers, of course). This is only conjecture, but it would be interesting to get a response from someone at LookoutSoft/Microsoft to either dispel or confirm my doubts! Someone suggested using ISYS:email (another search plugin for Outlook), downloadable from here. I haven’t tried it yet, as I’ve got so used to the way Lookout works. But with the future of Lookout (at least in its current form) in doubt, I think I’ll take a look...
Talkback: Have Your Say Message Index:
The Messages: My thoughts on Lookout Hi, Matt, To people who don't know me, I'm one of the owners and author's of Lookout Software, LLC. I've known Matt for several months, since he's had feedback and such wonderfully nice things to say about Lookout. First off, to Matt and all the users of Lookout - thank you for all your help with getting Lookout going. Your support and encouragement was the fuel which made Lookout happen. Now, regarding your concerns... I understand your pessimism. A lot of people have those general feelings about Microsoft. I'm not sure I can say anything useful about them except to say that I disagree; and in this specific case (Lookout) and I can tell you a little about Lookout, our interests, intents, and what is happening. Regarding the license: Prior to ever talking with Microsoft, Eric and I had already promised our beta testers that they could get a free license of Lookout when it was done. We didn't forget that, and a condition of the sale was that we coul fulfill that promise. Microsoft was 100% supportive of this, and helped us make that happen. So while the EULA legalese may sound like the license can be taken away from you, that certainly wasn't the intent. In fact, if you compare the EULA to the original EULA, its almost identical (scratch out "Lookout", replace with "Microsoft"). The old license was an evaluation license as well. That part never actually changed. Here is a quote from the old license: "You are hereby granted an Evaluation License to... " Anyway, if you dislike the new license, please don't blame Microsoft, blame Lookout Software - its almost entirely ours. My next point is that this acquisition is NOT about "extinguishing" anything. Microsoft certainly had the capability to extinguish Lookout if they wanted to. Just create a search plugin for their own product which does the same thing for free, and our little company would have been toast. How could our $30 product compete with their free one? It would have been tough. And they had the ability to add advanced features much more easily than we at Lookout did. So if anything, I'd say they took the high road here. Instead of just putting us out of business, they came to us, said we want you guys to help us make our products better. They recognized that a purchase here could help them make their products better. And thats exactly what happened. Will Lookout go away? From the customer perspective, it may seem like there is a hole in the market. If Microsoft were to never extend the Lookout technology, then that would be a real drag for Lookout users and consumers in general.... Lookout's success in email search definitely demonstrates that search is important to users. I can assure you right now, without commenting on any future features, that Microsoft totally gets this and does not intend to lose to some other company by not doing it. Rather, they (I should say "we" now) intend to do it even better. Search + Email are destiny - there is no stopping it. Microsoft and every other email software provider will need the feature in order to stay competitive over the next few years. One last comment about me and Eric personally. We were not interested in being extinguished! And we aren't interested in abandoning our friends and colleagues that have been so loyal and helpful to Lookout. Many users have already argued that Microsoft should have brought these features into their products years ago. Whether that is true or not, Eric and my intent with selling to Microsoft is about helping Microsoft bring these features to market. And Microsoft can take this to a scale we just couldn't have done on our own. So this acquisition, from our perspective, is an opportunity for little tiny Lookout - the first email search plugin - to acheive immortality and be a feature in all future email products. (OK - I admit that was a little dramatic - but hopefully you get the point) So, in the meantime, because we can't comment on specific plans or dates, things seem vague. And, time will tell whether my claims are true or false. But, there you have it. If you trust us a little (and I know that may be a hard thing to do!), then I think the whole deal looks great. If you don't trust us, or if you feel Microsoft has mal-intent in mind, then you may be more cynical... Unfortunately, there probably isn't much I can say to convince you otherwise, other than to roll up my sleeves, get to work, and help get some new products shipping so you can see that I'm right :-) Happy searching, Mike Mike Belshe mike@belshe.com California, USA Sun Jul 18 01:12:33 BST 2004 re: My thoughts on Lookout Hi Mike, Thanks for the response. It's good to hear that you'll be getting closely involved with future development of the Outlook UI (I appreciate you can't say too much about it at the moment, but reading between the lines I *think* that's what you're saying!) It did strike me as odd that Lookout had to be discontinued in the meantime. Was this a requirement from Microsoft? I know a few people who are concerned that if they need to reinstall Windows or whatever (which is commonplace), they'll lose their copy of Lookout. So they basically have Lookout until their current installation dies. Is there any chance that the Lookout binaries could be made available for download between now and whatever next version (in whatever form it might take) rolls out of the MS production line? Anyway thanks again, please keep us posted on your progress! Matt Stephens London, England Sun Jul 18 17:02:14 BST 2004 Lookout is up on Microsoft's Download Center You can now download the Lookout plug-in directly from Microsoft. It is indeed "lightning-fast." http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=09b835ee-16e5-4961-91b8-2200ba31ea37&displaylang=en Spotted this link at: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/ Bob Cross rcross@livewave.com Newport, RI, USA Fri Jul 23 18:57:40 BST 2004 Lookout Download Lookout is now available for download at: http://www.lookoutsoft.com/Lookout/download.html Anonymous person Sat Jul 24 19:05:24 BST 2004 The demise of Lookout Alas, Microsoft has managed to successfully kill off another outstanding product. Anonymous person Wed Sep 05 18:11:56 BST 2007 Comments on Lookout Lookout version 1.3.0 does NOT work with the file format used in Outlook 2007. :O( Lookout is (almost) the greatest thing since sliced bread! I have over 30,000 emails (many with attachments) on my XP PC using Outlook 2003. The *.PST files use more than 1.6 GB of space. I have Lookout index not only the emails but also the attachments. Almost every Lookout search works in less than 1 second! This speed enables me to perform several searches in less that a minute which in turn enables me to finally find what I'm looking for. I know of no other tool that provides this function. Why would the very smart folks in Redmond not want to provide this functionality to their Outlook 2007 users? (I'd like to see the cost / benefit analysis on this one.) It's true that the way Lookout works, some may consider it more suitable to computer nerds than to soccer moms, so making it available as an add-on should protect the soccer moms and satisfy the nerds. Anonymous person Silicon Valley, CA, USA Fri Sep 21 01:52:57 BST 2007 There you go... Hello there, you tell us, if i may Quote ...A lot of people have those general feelings about Microsoft. I'm not sure I can say anything useful about them except to say that I disagree; and in this specific case (Lookout)... But, since MS want there product to dominate they had to do something, and that was to make it unable to use Lookout in Outlook2007. Thats why i and a lot of people out there can say: MS bought you to bring the programm down, they do not care if it takes 1 or 5 years. in the end they win, and there will be only there product... Steffan Locker _deinemudda_@web.de Mon Dec 10 09:51:22 GMT 2007 Lookout Problem 2007 Microsoft made using Lookout with Outlook 2007 deliberetaly impossible. WDS is bloatware. I want Lookout, a neat little utility that is a REALLY USEFULL addon to Outlook slow search. It's also configurable (xml). WHY ON EARTH DID MICROSOFT KILL THIS PRODUCT? Yes, the index wasn't "realtime", but that's a no issue. Lookout just performed! Luckely you can still download Lookout: w.majorgeeks.com/Lookout_d4808.html It's just a shame that Microsoft punches it to the ground by hardcoding blocking code into Outlook 2007! Please bring it back... The community wants it back. Rinzwind Mon Dec 10 09:54:32 GMT 2007 Late to the party... Wow. I just started using dotLucene for a search engine project. I was turned on to this little gem. I have used it and I have to say that it is a loss to have it 'gone'. Windows 'Search' looks a bit cumbersome at first glance. I believe that the magic behind Lookout is behind this as well. Not sure how I would use the MS version in an application, but I will keep digging. Post here if anyone has any ideas on dotLucene, Lookout, Micrsoft's version, or where I could ge t my hands on some example code similar to Lookout. Thanks, B bcave Texas, USA Thu Apr 17 17:27:53 BST 2008
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