It’s Official: Email is Hot!
Apr 12 2007
Part of me is distressed by this news and part of me is happy. Why? Because I’m eROI’s Emerging Technologies Manager; guess what I do! According to this survey, 90% of 4000 people state their leading activity on the internet is sending and receiving email. Booooooooring (shhh don’t tell my boss I said that)!!
While eROI is firmly embedded as a leader in the email marketing industry, I’m on the lookout for next thing, and enjoying every minute of it. And in the spirit of being completely honest, everything I am loving right now will probably never be as useful as email -or- maybe it’s just too similar to notice.
I was at SXSW last month and one of the speakers said something along the lines of, “everything social service on the internet eventually becomes email.” So in essence, all of the hot new stuff is just email reformatted. Take twitter for instance. Twitter is a one-to-many SMS/Text Messaging platform. It’s all opt-in too. Just like email! I’ve been using Twitter for about a month. I subscribe to the people I want updates from. To make it even clearer, the act of emailing can be compared to sending someone a text message. The act of twittering can be compared to email marketing, or blasting to a list.
Another example is MySpace, ever heard of it? People send messages to eachother within MySpace. Maybe it’s because people like the idea of clicking on people and sending them a message. Where’s the pictures in Outlook?
Ok, what else is there? Flickr? You can show people photos and send messages too! We need a new paradigm to explain all of this, it’s stressing me out! Ahh, I’m so divided. Should I throw away my quest for the new and cool and submit to the beast that is email? Or is there something else? I’m not sure, I think I’ll twitter about it. The hive mind will surely have something to say.
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April 13th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Is it all email? The act of sending messages through different applications doesn’t constitute email in my mind, but it is all communication, which is what it’s all really about. How can humans communicate with one another easier, faster, and with greater understanding?
I enjoy your myspace thoughts…email with pictures, and a great step in improving communication (minus the web cam spam). But where’s my attachment button? Add that and you’ve got an even greater solution, allowing you to find friends, colleagues, and that girl you met at the bar last night (but strangely couldn’t remember her name). It also allows you to sort these contacts visually, but only visually. What’s nice about Outlook is the integration of a simple to use address book. And what about IM. A great tool for back and forth conversations, but not very well integrated into Myspace.
Is there anything else communication is missing online? How about video. Now that nearly every new laptop features a built in camera, I really would like to start seeing video conversations to start happening like marketers have been dreaming about since the late 80’s. Not all conversations, but just the ones that warrant arm flailing and facial expressions.
And voice? I love all this typing, but my sarcasm is never received well in an email, text, or IM. Maybe I need more ” ;) ” to clarify my dry and abrasive humor.
I guess what I’m getting at George, is that there are many forms of online communication, all of which are similar to email, but very specific to a form of communication, and all I’m asking for is one simple to use piece of online software that consolidates it all; Stores every conversation, allows me to find anyone in the world, integrates with all current forms of communication, and then lets me communicate how I want, quickly, easily, seamlessly.
If that can be done, we’d have one killer “email” platform!