It will get better if you pay more, though.
It has been four years since we abandoned GroupWise, and I still get people who say to me, “Man, I miss GroupWise.” They know that I was the GroupWise guy for twenty years, so it is the obvious topic when I pass them in a hallway.
But still… they have a point.
I know that what they hate about Outlook is that search sucks. Randomly, there was even a meme on a website two days ago:
Outlook search is glaringly bad. You know the email that came in only a few days ago. You know a word in the subject line. You go into search, put in that word, and … there are countless results but not the email you’re looking for.
You try a different keyword, and the search still fails it. You try searching by who you think sent the message, and finally you find it WITH THE KEYWORD RIGHT THERE IN THE SUBJECT LINE!
(insert particularly profane profanity here)
GroupWise never had this problem. I know because I got to maintain the indexer. I had nightly jobs that kept the index up to date. The GroupWise search function was great. Once in a while, if someone’s mailbox had a problem finding things, I’d reindex the whole mailbox.
Fundamentally, Microsoft Exchange has a poorer design, which does make it tougher for Microsoft. Well, okay, if your product is crappier, it should be cheaper too, no? It is not.
And you, dear reader, who is being played for a chump by Microsoft, can fix this problem by just throwing a few more dollars per month at Micro$oft:
Copilot
Yes, if you pay for a Copilot license, it can ingest your mailbox. Then you use Copilot to find your email for you. It does so with ease.
Which goes back to the point: sure, what you paying for is shit, but why would Microsoft fix Outlook search when you’re going to be thrilled with the results after paying more for Outlook + Copilot?
I am certain this is what is behind the newly announced E7, G7, K7 license plans. Microsoft knows how to dangle the carrot in front of the hungry, and the hungry keep ignoring that it was Microsoft shorting them their rations in the first place.