Using Outlook.com with your own Web Domain

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How do you setup the new Outlook mail service on a custom web domain so that your email address reads like you@yourdomain.com instead of you@outlook.com? →

If you are on Google Apps, you can leave your existing setup untouched and access your Gmail account from inside Outlook.com via POP3. This is a recommended option if you are just experimenting with Outlook and aren’t ready to make the complete switch to Outlook (see: Gmail vs Outlook).

The disadvantage with the above approach is that your incoming mails won’t be delivered to your Outlook mailbox instantly. They’ll first land in your Gmail inbox, Outlook will issue a fetch request after a minute or two and only then will your messages show up in Outlook.

Alternatively, you can remove Gmail from the loop and let Outlook.com handle all your incoming and outgoing email traffic. Here’s how you do that in five easy steps.

Guide: Setup Outlook on a Custom Domain

Step #1: Go to domains.live.com and click the “Add Domain” button to add your custom web domain that you would like to use with Outlook. You may have to sign-in with your Windows Live / Outlook / Microsoft Account / Hotmail ID to access this Windows Live Domain section.

Step #2: On the next screen, you’ll be provided with a list of custom DNS records that you will have to add to your domain. The following two records are essential:

• MX record for handling your mail traffic
  •  It usually reads like abc.pamx1.hotmail.com
• SPF record to authenticate your outgoing Outlook emails
  • It has a fixed value v=spf1 include:hotmail.com ~all

Related reading: Prevents your emails from getting marked as spam

Step #3: While you are on your domain registrar’s page add these custom DNS records for Outlook, create an additional CNAME record if you wish to access the Outlook.com website as a sub-domain of your main website.

For instance, if your website is yourdomain.com, you can setup a CNAME record called “mail” and you will then be access to access Outlook.com from mail.yourdomain.com. The value of the CNAME record should be set as “go.domains.live.com.” (no quotes but period at the end).

Step #4: Once you have created all the DNS records, wait for 30-60 minutes as it might take a while for the DNS changes to propagate through the Internet. To verify, open the command prompt in Windows and run the following command (replace yourdomain.com with your own own domain):

C:>nslookup -type=mx yourdomain.com
C:>nslookup -type=txt yourdomain.com

If these records show the recently added Hotmail entries, proceed to the next step.

Related reading: How to Verify any Email Address

Step #5: Go back to the Windows Live Domains site and refresh the page. Once the domain and DNS records have been verified, click “Member Accounts” and add a new user. This will be your new email address powered by the Outlook service.

Configure Outlook Mail on your Custom Web Domain

You can now go to outlook.com or even mail.yourdomain.com (remember the CNAME record you added) and sign-in with the new email address you just created.

Unlike Google Apps which allows you to create a maximum 10 users in the free edition, the limit is 500 users in the case of Outlook / Hotmail. Also, Microsoft hasn’t mentioned any storage limitations for your Outlook mailbox as of now.

If you are making a switch from Gmail or Google Apps to Outlook, you can either use the POP3 option to import existing email into Outlook. Alternatively, there’s a free service called TrueSwitch that can automatically copy all you Gmail messages and contacts into your new Outlook account.

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This story, Using Outlook.com with your own Web Domain, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 09/08/2012 under GMail, Google Apps, Microsoft Outlook, Internet.

Introducing Dictation

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Ever noticed that microphone icon on some web pages?

The newer versions of Google Chrome include an impressive speech recognition engine that even works offline but with one limitation – the feature is only available to text input fields (like the Google search box) and you can’t use Chrome’s speech recognition to write longer pieces of text (say a message inside Gmail).

Meet Dictation, a speech recognition app powered by Chrome itself but one that is not limited to text boxes. Here’s a quick getting started guide:

1. Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + . (period) or click the big microphone icon to activate dictation mode and talk.
2. If you make a mistake, or if Chrome makes an error in transcription, simple click the incorrect word and edit it inline.
3. You can say “new line” to insert a new line or “delete everything” to make a fresh start.

Dictation requires the Google Chrome browser. The full source code is available at ctrlq.org and what follows is a brief video demo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ijsta6fBMM

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This story, Introducing Dictation, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 10/08/2012 under Google Chrome, Speech Recognition, Internet.

Google Makes Some Changes to the I’m Feeling Lucky Button

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The I’m Feeling Lucky button on the Google homepage, which has been sitting there since day one, takes you directly to the first search result completely bypassing Google’s search results pages. It’s a convenient option for consumers though it does cost Google a lot of money since the company miss an opportunity to serve you ads. →

Google won’t mind you spending a little more time on their own properties and thus, after nearly 15 years, they have made one little change to the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button.

Google wants you to spend more time on their own properties.

If you hover your mouse over the Feeling Lucky button for a second or two, it now shows a rotating list of Google’s other products like Hot Trends, The Arts Project, Image Search, Google Doodles, Google Earth and Local Search (see snippet below).

The interesting part is that these suggestions show up even if you have entered a search query in the Google search box. Thus, if you don’t click as soon as your cursor is over the Feeling Lucky button, you might land up on another Google property itself. It is not the most user-friendly approach though as consumers have no idea where that click will lead them to.

The change is now live on the main google.com website but not on the country-specific Google sites. And here’s the snippet of code that generates the list of suggestions.

{     "href": "/url?url=/doodles/gideon-sundbacks-132nd-birthday",
      "msg": "I'm Feeling Doodly"
}, {
      "href": "/url?url=http://www.googleartproject.com/",
      "msg": "I'm Feeling Artistic"
}, {
      "href": "/url?url=/search?q%3Drestaurants%26tbm%3Dplcs",
      "msg": "I'm Feeling Hungry"
}, {
      "href": "/url?url=http://agoogleaday.com/",
      "msg": "I'm Feeling Puzzled"
}, {
      "href": "/url?url=/trends/hottrends",
      "msg": "I'm Feeling Trendy"
}, {
      "href": "/url?url=/search?q%3Dreflection%252Bnebula%26tbm%3Disch",
      "msg": "I'm Feeling Stellar"
}, {
      "href": "/url?url=/doodles/30th-anniversary-of-pac-man",
      "msg": "I'm Feeling Playful"
}, {
      "href": "/url?url=/intl/en/culturalinstitute/worldwonders/machiya/",
      "msg": "I'm Feeling Wonderful"
}

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This story, Google Makes Some Changes to the I’m Feeling Lucky Button, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 14/08/2012 under Google, Internet.

What it takes to be a Facebook India Ambassador

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Facebook has introduced a new Ambassador program in India to promote the usage of Facebook on mobile phones in the country.

The requirements are simple and everyone can participate. You are supposed to convince your friends to install the Facebook app on their mobile phones. Once the app is installed, your friend will also have to associate his or her mobile phone number with Facebook.

You can then pass on this list of phone numbers to Facebook India and users who bring the maximum number of conversions will be rewarded with the Facebook Ambassador status.

There’s no compensation involved and going forward, you may be required to promote Facebook in your school as stated in the TOS document.

If instructed by Facebook, you will engage in activities to promote Facebook.

Such activities may include working with your school administration to setup the authentic page for your school on Facebook, creating you college Yearbook on Facebook, uploading pictures of each class and tagged students in the pictures, organizing a Facebook Day on Campus that focuses on educating the audience about using Facebook on mobile devices, etc.

It also possible to use Facebook in India without a data plan but am not too sure if that will count as a valid entry for the Ambassadors program.

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This story, What it takes to be a Facebook India Ambassador, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 14/08/2012 under Facebook, India, Internet.

You’ve Got Mail – A New Notifier for Gmail

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Back in the days of dial-up Internet, America Online (AoL) subscribers would hear a sound alert saying “You’ve got mail” every time a new email landed in their AOL mailbox. →

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfkqZQGvuL4

Voice-over artist Elwood Edwards initially recorded these three words on a cassette tape to sell them as a .wav file, AOL decided to use the sound into their mail program and the line became such a hit that it even inspired Warner Bros. to create a movie with the same name - “You’ve got mail.”

Much of the world has probably moved away from Aol Mail since then but there’s a new Chrome extension in town that adds the same sound alert to your Gmail. Just install the add-on (it requires no configuration) and you’ll hear Elwood’s voice every time there’s a new Gmail message in your mailbox.

If the alerts are too frequent, you can always hit the mute button and the add-on will display the unread counts in text much like the official Gmail notifier for Chrome. It works with both Gmail and Google Apps accounts.

You’ve Got Mail is a work of the same team that created Unbaby.me, a viral Chrome add-on that replaces baby pictures on Facebook with that of cats.

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This story, You’ve Got Mail – A New Notifier for Gmail, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 14/08/2012 under GMail, Google Chrome, Internet.