Monday, June 16, 2008

The Next Version of MarkMail

The Mark Logic User Conference closed out on an amazing high note. Ian Small, Senior Vice President and General Manager of MarkMail, gave an exciting preview of the next iteration of that product. If you are unfamiliar with MarkMail, it is an archive of public mailing lists that has been enhanced by Mark Logic engineers with superb retrieval and analytical functions. The next iteration of MarkMail will apply those strengths to private mailing lists and even to an individual's private email collection. This is so clearly what Microsoft ought to have had the foresight to do with Outlook and that failure could well cost them. Frankly, I would drop Outlook without a moment's hesitation, if I were able to use this application instead to slice and dice the hundreds of emails that flow through my inbox.

I will be keeping an eye on the MarkMail blog, expecting progress reports. (When I asked how soon I, as a member of the general public, might be able to gain access to the service, Ian would only give me and the rest of the audience a cryptic "soon".)

This session was the highlight for me of the Mark Logic User Conference. Even now, four days after watching Ian demo the product, I can still feel the excitement. Such a cool tool!

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