Has e-mail outlived its usefulness?

For me, e-mail is quickly catching up to voicemail as a form of communication that's more annoying than useful. Both can pile up quickly, making you more likely to ignore them altogether and just risk the consequences.

Let's all face the fact that e-mail's been around a long time, and it's simply not the most effective way to communicate personally or professionally. Excluding Google's blessed Gmail, most e-mail services haven't evolved beyond being anything other than a digital fax machine.

Recently, NPR had an interesting take on how some businesses are finally helping e-mail evolve -- by taking lessons from social networking sites.

After the jump, I flesh out my own theory of how e-mail is best when you treat it as just one of several ways to communicate on a daily basis.

Chances are, you're already thinking of e-mail in terms of your social circles: responding to friends, family and favored colleagues first, then dealing (or not) with the flotsam and jetsam.

Xobni -- that's "Inbox" spelled backward -- carries that idea forward by creating profiles for the people you're e-mailing, helping you better see what you've talked with them about in the past, when they're in the office, etc. (I haven't tried it yet, but I'd love to hear from those who have.)

This issue gets at one of the big benefits I have a hard time explaining about social media: the ability to have conversations on a huge, community scale or easily branch off for a one-on-one chat.

I picture it being like the "zoom in and out" feature on Google Maps.

1,000 feet: Sites like Twitter, Facebook or Google Reader give you a wide view of what people are talking about. If you're interested in one topic, you can zoom to...

500 feet: Blogs or forums let you read someone's in-depth thoughts. Want to dive deeper, and you can go to...

100 feet: Post a comment, send an e-mail or otherwise contact someone directly. Sure, that works, but wouldn't you rather hit the...

Ground level: Have an instant-message chat in real time. Whether it's for a work decision or you're just challenging someone's thoughts on the new Orlando Bloom movie, you'll get it done faster this way than by bouncing slow e-mails back and forth.

The nice thing about all this is that it's up to you how "zoomed in" you want to get. In the end, I think that makes for a lot better communication than just tossing back and forth e-mails that say things like, "Any update on this?" or "Thanks for the update on this."

Comments

[Alan Wolk]

David:

First off, congrats on the new blog. I look forward to reading it.

Second- I'm not quite unsold on email yet.

From a technical level, I know I can save it (in multiple locations) and respond to it as I wish.

Second, it's a great way to send attachments and whatnot, and

Third it's one of the few acceptable ways we have of approaching strangers.

Fourth, it doesn't demand an immediate reply- you can leave it sitting there for a while with no implied rudeness.

That said, I think you make an excellent point, that email can become more useful and can certainly start to employ some of the tricks of social media.

That's something I wish the makers of Apple Mail and Outlook will attend to in their next versions. I mean I know Apple Mail already lets you look up an address on Google maps, so other, similar integration can't be far behind.

Again, congrats on the new blog.