Will Twitter and Facebook Kill Email?
July 07 2008 / by jcchan
Category: Technology Year: General Rating: 4
Email was introduced to the public in the mid 90’s, marking a
big shift in communication efficiency and relegating snail mail to
the handling of American Express ads, magazine subscriptions, and
utility bills. Since then the corporate world has since embraced
it, just as Hallmark cards have been replaced by e-birthday cards.
But with times and the web changing so rapidly in the last decade
email is now increasingly considered an ‘internet app classic’.
A recent article by Alex Iskold at ReadWriteWeb looks to challengers like Twitter and Facebook to dethrone email sooner than later. Iskold points out that over the last five years the shift away from email appears to have be in favor of simplicity. People who once used emails to keep up with family and friends now have moved on to IM. Similarly, bloggers use bridge apps like Twitter that combines the shortness of an IM, with the get-to-know-you personality of blogs. Even the face of email has transformed with gmail taking the lead in a jack-of-all-trades interface combining chat and a word processor. (I’m typing this post right into Google Docs.)
Looking at the trends of the past, I don’t think email will go in the way of the Dodo. I think of email’s relationship to its ‘successors’ as radio to television. TV didn’t kill radio, and the Internet definitely didn’t kill TV. They just did all of their respective jobs the best. Email is still the perferred way for corporate communication, and a good number of us still tune into our favorite radio stations on the freeway. Is email in danger then? Will savvy web users and bloggers one day ditch email in favor of Twitter and Gchat?
Only two things are certain. Apps will become more modular and specialized and there will be cross-platform competition. (cont.)
Netflix has Blockbuster truly beat, radio DJs face competition from Ipods, and the Amazon Kindle has stepped into Barnes and Noble territory. As a photographer, I prefer to shoot film for its unique color and organic look, but I also spend a considerable amount of time behind a digital SLR for speed and efficency doing photojournalism. Which is better? I don’t know, but each of them is truly special to me because it offers unique value. So long as email continues to offer unique value it will stick around, certainly as the developing world jumps online.
While Iskold points out some solid web trends, I think his vision of email going extinct came a bit too soon.
(Image courtesy of Pbody, CC 2.0 )
