Email Is Not Dead Yet (Nor Any Time Soon)
from the in-case-you-were-wondering dept
zanek writes "Every time a technology gets "hot," magazines start pumping out articles declaring some previous technology "dead." Today, BusinessWeek opines that "E-Mail Is So Five Minutes Ago" because, apparently, they just learned the term "wiki." Email Battles points out the silliness of assuming that a new technology makes all older tech obsolete. " This is all too common. The press loves to talk up how one technology will kill another, often without any basis in fact. In the past, we've seen stories saying that the web, blogs, RSS and instant messaging will all kill email -- and yet, email keeps going strong. The chart at Email Battles does a nice job making the point quite simple: these applications have different purposes. One won't "kill" the other. In fact, as we've seen with stories about new technology "killing" paper, sometimes it seems the reverse happens. Wikis are great for collaboration (we use them all the time here), but sometimes they actually lead to more emails.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
....
-Emo
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: ....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not dead...just wounded
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
HaloKiller
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: HaloKiller
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Snailmail
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Are any of the "killed" technologies actually dead
I haven't had a long distance account on any land-line for 3 years now. Online communication is practically free, and the pre-paid phone cards you can get form Sam's or Costco are rechargable and drastically cheaper, not to mention that I'm on my mobile phone 99% of the time anyway - what long distance?
I don't have a modem in my computer, which is over 2 years old, because I've been on DSL for at least that long.
I have an e-fax account, but just the free version because for some reason it seems that about once every 9 or 10 months someone wants to fax me something. I never, NEVER have the need or desire to actually send enough faxes to justify the $12/month fee for that part of the E-Fax service.
Yet here it is, 2005, and a major corporation's accounts payable department told me that they couldn't accept a scanned and e-mailed version of a signed document, it had to be faxed. (Or delivered, but who wants to wait when you want paid before the holidays.)
So I've gotta take with a HUGE grain of salt anyone telling me that anything is going to kill a particular technology. Only time will do that.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Are any of the
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
not the same usage
rss: "Here's what I'm saying, check it out whenever."
blog: "Here's what I'm saying, check me out."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Video killed the radiostar?
Weblogs killed the email-star
RSS killed the email-star
Wiki killed the email-star
But email came and is still here
Oh-a-a-a-oh
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
One simple test...
They send me email and will occasionally IM with me (but it freaks them out, my mother, "I'll just call you, this is strange.") and I really doubt they will ever do much more than that in their lifetimes.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]