Microsoft has introduced a new feature that lets Outlook.com users add a +whatever to their Outlook.com email address to create an email alias. The email will be delivered into the user's normal inbox. The feature, which is similar to an already existing Gmail feature, lets users create these aliases which can be used to opt-in to marketing lists sign up forms and filter these messages into a specific folder or automatically delete all of these emails.

ExactTarget's digital marketing platform is now integrated with Salesforce.com's Marketing Cloud, forming the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud. ET CEO revealed the news in a keynote at ExactTarget's Connections '13 conference in Indianapolis, Indiana on Tuesday. Salesforce acquired ExactTarget earlier this summer and the deal closed in July. The new integrated console combines ExactTarget's email, mobile, web, marketing automation, data and analytics, and content capabilities with Salesforce's social media offerings: Buddy Media, Radian6, and Social.com.

Lavabit founder Ladar Levison spoke at the Privacy Identity Innovation conference in Seattle Tuesday and revealed that ever since he quit email in August (when he was bullied into closing his encrypted email service), he has been using LinkedIn, Facebook, text and Silent Circle to communicate with people digitally. But as AllThings D report, Levison said, "Anything that I consider sensitive, I try to talk about it to people in person, with my cellphone off, in an area where I know that nobody's pointing a parabolic mic at me. If you're fighting the government that's what you need to do." …

ExactTarget kicked off its annual conference "Connections" on Tuesday and Technocrati identified Four trends resonated through the first day of the event. According to CEO Scott Dorsey, marketers have four core challenges and opportunities that they face this year -- they have an opportunity to lead; they should be a customer-centric company; they should embrace cloud, social and mobile computing; and customer communication should happen anywhere. ET used the conference to introduce a new tool called the Journey Builder Application which helps marketers map customer digital marketing journeys. In addition, the company revealed that the Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud will …

The Washington Post issued a memo to employees today asking them to drive safely and not to email or text and drive. "While we appreciate speedy replies to queries, they should not come at the expense of safety," Post senior editor Tracy Grant tells staffers in a memo. "Too often we hear from reporters and editors that they are communicating from the car. Beyond the obvious concerns of endangering ourselves and others, there are also potentially significant legal ramifications for both individuals and The Washington Post Company in the event of an accident."

Unibox, a new email client for iOS users, is now available for download as part of a public beta test. The app organizes emails based on a user's relationship to the sender in order to make the inbox experience more personal. The UI has two columns -- the left side displays contacts and the right side displays every message that has been received with a specific contact.

Bastian Lehmann, the founder/CEO of the delivery app company Postmates told a customer to "f*uck off" when he accidentially responded to a complaint email instead of forwarding it on to his team. "Someone also please tell her to fuck off," he wrote. The customer took to Twitter to share her experience which led Lehmann to make a public apology on his blog. "My e-mail, which outlined how to resolve the customer issue, contained a bad joke which was very poor in taste," he wrote. "Subsequently, the bad joke was sent to the customer."

An Ohio book lover is trying to stop her local Barnes & Noble from shutting down and has started a grass roots email marketing campaign to do so. The woman sent an email about 350 of her neighbors asking them to email the shopping center owner Glimcher Realty Trust. The book seller has said that the landlord had raised the rent too much which led to the closure.

Fifty-four percent of marketers say that the new Gmail Tabs feature hasn't changed the amount of time they spend looking at promotional messages, according to a new report from email marketing services firm StrongView. The report did reveal that 40 percent of consumers say they spend less time viewing promotional messages. The feature automatically filters promotional emails into a subcategory in the inbox. Seven percent of survey respondents said that they spend even more time viewing promotional messages in tabs.

Ark is a new mobile app that lets you do a search on a person that you are emailing from the email client. The tool will search for the person and bring up feedback such as a LinkedIn or a Facebook profile within the mobile email client. The app helps people do research on business contacts without having to leave the email client.