Mark Evans

Sorry, Your Inbox is Still Exploding

ReadWriteWeb’s Alex Iskold has an intriguing post, “Is Email in Danger?”, looking at how different forms of communication (Twitter, social networks, etc.) are emerging as alternative communication tools.

Unfortunately, it’s the wrong question.

The question that should be asked is whether e-mail can become smarter, more efficient and faster. Even with new tools such as Facebook and Twitter to send shorter messages, e-mail inboxes are not getting smaller. In reality, they’re just expanding (including all those notifications you have got direction messages on Facebook and Twitter!).

The problem facing people who increasingly depend on the Internet to live, work and play is e-mail has remained the communication workhorse. It’s still the way we exchange ideas, facts, greetings and suggestions.

And as services such as GMail are launched, e-mail has become more complex as people use multiple e-mail addresses. Then, you’ve got multiple devices to get your e-mail such as iPhones and Blackberrys.

Clearly, e-mail is far from being “in danger” - something anyone can quickly tell by looking at their inbox.

If you take a different perspective, e-mail is a golden opportunity for someone to offer a more intelligent service. If inboxes are not shrinking, we need tools to filter and prioritize e-mail so people can more productive.

Email management could be one of the biggest business/investment opportunities out there. If someone can come up with a better mousetrap, the world could beat a path to their door.

Technorati Tags: Email, Inbox