tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35360257.post4814470107684786091..comments2024-01-25T07:53:27.067-05:00Comments on Thinking Space: The future of EmailYihong Dinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08410466834942147505noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35360257.post-75434661675771163742008-08-04T13:20:00.000-04:002008-08-04T13:20:00.000-04:00@ Richard, thank you and I think you are perfectly...@ Richard, thank you and I think you are perfectly right. <BR/><BR/>@ Michael, thank you for your thoughtfully comments. I agree to you that email is different from phone or IM, and email should not try to replace them either. On the other hand, however, email needs to be improved so that it may continuously be compatible to the evolving Web (and this is the main point I want to address).<BR/><BR/>The typical example is tagging. Tagging is not the same as putting documents into folders. By contrast, through tagging users actually build up a mind network over its emails. If both the senders and receivers are tagging, through these tags we may construct novel thread communication among common tag users. And you will see that email functions could be significantly improved with this sense. Folders cannot work well for this kind of purposes.<BR/><BR/>About spam control and better email user community, they are critical demand for improving the email service. I agree to your viewpoints.<BR/><BR/>YihongYihong Dinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08410466834942147505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35360257.post-75056604743569653522008-08-04T03:47:00.000-04:002008-08-04T03:47:00.000-04:00Hi YihongAlthough I agree with you that e-mail nee...Hi Yihong<BR/><BR/>Although I agree with you that e-mail needs some enhancements, I don't agree with the ones you mentioned.<BR/><BR/>You compare e-mail to Twitter or IM. Well, Twitter and IM are synchronous means of communication while e-mail is asynchronous. It's very important to keep that in mind. If I need an answer directly I use phone, IM; if I need an answer sometime I use e-mail. Unfortunately many people use e-mail as if it were synchronous and require you to answer instantly.<BR/><BR/>Concerning your "feature requests". <BR/><BR/><B>edit after send</B><BR/>Outlook already has that feature and I'll use it regularly (for the case you mentioned - typos). So this feature already exists but is not implemented everywhere.<BR/><BR/><B>tagging</B><BR/>Sure this is a better aproach than using folders. However gmails tagging is basically nothing else than folders. With one major advantage, you only have one copy of the email. With folders you need to have two.<BR/><BR/><B>Features I'd like to see</B><BR/><BR/><B>Better spam protection.</B><BR/>I think we all agree that spam is the most annoying part of this type of communication.<BR/><BR/><B>Keeping sent and received e-mails together</B><BR/>One of the really good features of gmail is the abilit to see conversations, not just received or sent e-mails by itself. So it gives you a lot better view of the communication. But, this is not a new feature to the e-mail system itself, it just a better way of handling them.<BR/><BR/>So, I think e-mail doesn't need a bunch of new features, what it needs is<BR/>1. better tools to really use the current features.<BR/>2. people who understand that e-mail is another means than IM or twitter and use it in the correct way.<BR/><BR/>MichaelUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14928346396505166291noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35360257.post-15489010548546736822008-08-03T15:18:00.000-04:002008-08-03T15:18:00.000-04:00Hi,One advantage of e-mail at my workplace is that...Hi,<BR/><BR/>One advantage of e-mail at my workplace is that if someone asks you for something and e-mails you, you have a record of it. If that person or someone else comes back to you and asks why you did the task you were e-mailed, you can show them the original e-mail from the sender.<BR/><BR/>Thanks,<BR/><BR/>Richard Rinyai<BR/>www.theprofessionalassistant.netAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com