Yet Another Premature Declaration of Email's Death

mvip tips the latest in a long line of premature announcements of the demise of email. "The Wall Street Journal article Why Email No Longer Rules is making the rounds online. Fast Company provided a fast response, highlighting the technical shortcomings of trying to replace email with Facebook and Twitter (where do the attachments go?). Email Service Guide points out that Facebook and Twitter are ineffective for one-off communications. With Google Wave on the horizon, we'll probably have to go through the whole charade yet again."

Comments

The Right Tool for the Right Job

[sopssa]

That's all it comes down to.

But email was better suited to the way we used to use the Internet—logging off and on, checking our messages in bursts. Now, we are always connected, whether we are sitting at a desk or on a mobile phone. The always-on connection, in turn, has created a host of new ways to communicate that are much faster than email, and more fun.

Why wait for a response to an email when you get a quicker answer over instant messaging?

Because you don't always need some response within 15 secs, nor do you want to always be responding to some questions that take away your time and concentration. Even if you have your email client open all the time, you can leave writing a reply to it for later time.

If you know you need a quicker response, you send an IM or call my phone. Something in between and you send an SMS.

For that matter I dont want everyone to know everything about me, I dont want everyone to know I'm available or not, I dont want everyone to know all the other people I know, nor do I want everyone to know something that only certain people should know.There's also no way you'll get me to install facebook or twitter apps on my phone. If I'm not on computer, there's no need to contact me other way than calling me (and I dont even always keep my phone with me - if I'm busy with other stuff, I'll call you back on better time)

Re:The Right Tool for the Right Job

[Interoperable]

Exactly right. Why would anyone confuse Facebook or Twitter with professional tools. An email can be a very professional means of communicating (provided that you employ proper grammar an etiquette). Social networking tools are great and may find a place to communicate between close colleagues but they should never be mistaken for a professional solution.

Re:The Right Tool for the Right Job

[owlnation]

Absolutely right.

Email is useful for formal communication, for a long term record of something -- e.g. for CYA. It is also possible to get some work done by only checking mail at certain points of the day.

IM, Twitter, Facebook etc really are of very limited use in a business situation -- they are slower and clumsier than a phone conversation or face to face. Probably useful in situations where no phone is available (or VOIP for international calls) or for quick mass distributed maessages, but other than that they are inferior communication systems -- people just like them, that's all.

Nothing kills productivity more than IM. I'm astonished that businesses use it, it makes very little sense.

Re:The Right Tool for the Right Job

[tonyAG]

I'm in agreement with this as well. I'm so tired of businesses and employers thinking that I always want to be 'on'. This is their desire and dream.

This is why I'm more protective of my time and privacy. Once you are leashed by today's technology, it become very hard to rid yourself of that shackle.

Re:The Right Tool for the Right Job

[Trails]

What's more inherently professional about an email than a message on Facebook?

The lack of Farmville updates...

Re:The Right Tool for the Right Job

[tomhath]

There are basically three forms of communication we use:

1) Synchronous Conversation - face-to-face, telephone, IM

2) Asynchronous Mail - snail mail, email, fax, telegraph

3) Broadcasting - mass media, blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Google Wave

The article muddles all three together without recognizing that there's a place for each.

Re:The Right Tool for the Right Job

[Dan541]

Not to mention Facebook and Twitter are totally closed systems. Both you and the recipient need a Facebook account in order to communicate via Facebook. In contrast no one that I exchange email with has the same provider as me.

Email is right there with Phone number and Postal address.

Facebook and Twitter are one the same level as messaging someone through any third party website, many discussion forums have messaging features by default.

Re:The Right Tool for the Right Job

[monoqlith]

Actually that's the one area where Google Wave might actually be the next evolutionary step after e-mail, while Facebook and Twitter are not even close to being suitable replacements: Server federation and an open protocol specification(namely, XMPP). Allowing me to send a message to anyone@some.org is probably the best thing about e-mail, and it is something that will never be implemented by Facebook, as it goes against their entire business model.

In contrast, Wave has been built around this ability, and thus it stands a chance of succeeding e-mail. I'm not saying this will occur quickly - it took 40 years for e-mail to become entrenched - but it could happen.

The trouble with...

[Malc]

... things like Facebook and Google Wave is that surely not everybody subscribes to them. I certainly don't want a million different accounts, and nor will bother with Google Wave. Everybody has email though.

Re:The trouble with...

[tverbeek]

I don't subscribe to Facebook and Twitter, and I feel pretty confident in saying that I never will. Facebook would be just one more web site I have to visit, and Twitter... I can't even imagine a use for it in my life.

Another overlooked e-mail strength

[hotdiggity]

The article doesn't mention a major advantage of "legacy" e-mail - it's a standard that isn't tied to any particular company.

Facebook, Google, Twitter, whatever, are "single-source vendors" of their particular products, and they can be subject to any kind of financial, moral, political, or technological problems.

E-mail has no such dependencies. The only way to take it down is to take down the Internet in general. (Spam overloading aside.)

Re:Another overlooked e-mail strength

[joh]

E-mail has no such dependencies. The only way to take it down is to take down the Internet in general. (Spam overloading aside.)

And even then it's quite trivial to set up small networks using UUCP or SMTP to get email going again...

Anyway, the major reason that email isn't getting the attention it deserves (other than by spammers) is the fact that it's very hard to make money from it. It's somewhat like a free service available to all and the companies living off the net are too eager to have it fallen by the wayside and to have you use other services they *can* exploit and lock you in.

It's the same with mailing lists and usenet being replaced by a myriad of different blogs and forums. A few years ago I was able to read and participate in dozens of lists and newsgroups investing maybe half an hour a day. Now keeping track of a similar diversitude of blog articles and comment threads and forums and RSS feeds and Twitters and whatnot would require me to be on it full-time. It's madness.

silly

[Frogg]

i'll put my hands up and say i've not read the article - and i'll certainly not be wasting my time doing so.

but is anyone really so stupid to think that email (which is based upon open standards and is already running on hundreds of thousands of servers and comes installed by default on most servers) will ever be replaced by fecebook and twatter???

a few years ago i guess the same idiots would also be including myspaz on that list too? (and what is next years fad?)

email dying? pffffft - what a bunch of idiots (can't they see that?)

Those who don't know history

[jbolden]

So the call is for a collaboration / communication system which works like email but can pull in large groups that has an open standard.

Sounds like a call to bring back and update Usenet.

Corporate data? Not even the start!

[argent]

Would you trust Facebook, with its odd history of rights control, with a corporate Excel file?

Hell no. I wouldn't even trust Facebook to reassure my mother about a doctor's visit, or talk to my brother about his family. It's creepy the things people use social networking tools for, sometimes. It's like going down to the local bar and yelling out the results of your blood tests to whatever yobboes happened to be in earshot.

Yes, technically, email can be intercepted. So can phone calls and physical letters. And someone can be listening in on you in the restaurant, even if you keep your voice down. But... damn...

Tried to RTFA...

[IBBoard]

I tried to RTFA (well, not the first one, but the response from Fast Co) and failed. I got as far as:

Twitter's on every tech-fan's lips

(the first five words) and gave up. I'm a tech fan, but Twitter just doesn't interest me as it is. Making communication that short and easy just leads to drivel (or people using Twitter as an RSS feed for their site - I'll watch the site and its real RSS feed, thank you). Threading is hopeless in things like Twitter and while it might be semi-useful for faster conversations, it won't be as good as a proper IM client for a group chat.

Re:Tried to RTFA...

[Anonymous Coward]

Twitter is definitely a marketing campaign. I don't know anyone that uses it, I don't know anyone that doesn't make fun of it in the penny arcade "twitter shitter" manner. It is unnecessary, excessive communication that I never need at home, much less work.

I learned something a little while ago: no one cares what I'm doing if they're not involved. This really hurt for aw hile, I had to adjust my beliefs that the world doesn't revolve around me, but I've made my peace: i'm just not that important.

Niche Tools

[TaoPhoenix]

Email is the killer app. These other thingies are nice niche addons(plugins!?) but they won't replace email.

The only major nuisance to email is slight visual noise. (I DON'T count spam! I mean legit notes.) It might be nice to have a 1-click "you have a phone call" for the frontline admins. But darn near EVERYTHING else gains value from being logged.

Anyone who thinks they can super-promote twitter-clones is forgetting the lovely CYA bit.

Good. Now leave me alone.

[IGnatius T Foobar]

Someone please send this article to all of the spammers. That way, they'll all move to Fecesbook. I don't have a Fecesbook account, so I don't have to see their spam (for that matter, I'd rather read Viagra ads than "25 Things About Me" pages anyway).

Email isn't going anywhere. Fecesbook is a fad. Everyone has an email account. Email is also (in theory at least) guaranteed delivery.

Why Facebook and twitter will prematurely die.

[vegaspace]

I think that Facebook and Twitter will die before email, because email has not a propertary service and FB an TW are owned by someone.

Re:Actually

[Dan541]

I find that facebook fills a niche.

If you want to show people something, but it's not important enough to send an email.
Email is better suited to targeted communication, whereas with facebook you can just post inane crap all day and people will ignore it if they aren't interested.

Re:More social site users that email users? WTF?

[apoc.famine]

Multiple social networking sites linked to one email address, that's how.
 
If you don't bother linking the two together, it's really easy to get numbers like this. It's called "really poor statistics with unreliable research and no insight into your topic". It's all the rage these days.