Email: Killer App Or Just A Killer?
from the spam-spam-spam-spam-virus-distraction-spam dept
While many people consider email to be the "killer app" that brought the internet into homes and businesses, now some are saying that email has become annoying and costly. The most obvious issue is with spam, but there are other things as well. Maintaining an email server is a pain, and keeping email free from viruses is an additional cost. For companies that monitor email (and there are more and more), that's yet another expense. Finally, since there are questions about email security, some companies are telling employees not to use email for sensitive material. Thus, for many companies, email is only useful for informal communications, and you can only find those messages once you wade through all the spam and viruses - or so this article would have you believe. It's really not that bad - and there are reasonable technology solutions that should be able to keep most companies afloat with minimal costs. Yes, it's annoying, but the benefits of having email certainly outweigh the annoyances associated with it.
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agreed...
spam is getting worse though. it's not bad next to some people's inbox, but i'm getting around 50-70 spam messages per day. and that's all from accidentally posting my address to a message board once.
the biggest hassle, though, is changing your address when the spam problem outweighs the benefit of email. (especially when you really, really like your address the way it is.)
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Re: agreed...
People seem to forget what one had to do before email. All Day Phone Tag anyone?
The virus "problem" lays at the door of one specific company. I can't think of any one single application that has caused as much trouble as Microsoft Outlook and its assorted holes.
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