NEWS.COM 
Radio 

MENU
Reviews 
Hot list 
Just in  
All comparisons 
CD-ROM central 
Best of the Web 

Features 
How to 
Digital life 
Techno 
Events 

BUILDER.COM 

Browsers! 

Personalities 

CNET TV 
The shows 
The hosts 
Airtimes 
CNET studios 

Community 
About CNET 
Feedback 
Member services 
Posting 
Current poll 
Conferences 
CNET jobs 

Resources 
Software central 
Glossary 
Help 

CNET SERVICES
NEWS.COM 
BROWSERS.COM 
BUILDER.COM 
GAMECENTER.COM 
SEARCH.COM 
DOWNLOAD.COM 
SHAREWARE.COM 
ACTIVEX.COM 
MEDIADOME.COM 

MARKETPLACE 
BUYDIRECT.COM 
Specials 
CNET store 
How to advertise 

the future of email--I hope
(12/17/96)

The most important application on the Net isn't the World Wide Web, and it never has been. It's email--the application that makes the Net worthwhile by bringing people together. Unfortunately, the software industry seems to have a browser fixation. I guess it's understandable, because browsers let media conglomerates and advertisers brainwash the masses--unlike email, which is better suited to one-on-one communication. Look at other technology in your home: which is a more advanced piece of equipment, your telephone or your television? See what I mean?

But let's assume that for some reason, two (or more) major industry players were locked in a death battle over email. What would the current best-of-breed email app look like?

First, somebody would come up with an email interface that manages to be both simple and powerful, as opposed to the email app that comes with Microsoft's browser, which is just simple, or Eudora Pro, which is incredibly powerful. We'd have both. We'd also have email apps with helpers or wizards for complex functions, like setting up filters. And perhaps different operating modes for beginning email users and for power users who want to file everything (Email Connection lets you do just that).

Email standards move incredibly slowly today, but that would change if the market were superhot. While we would probably still have multiple ways to include files or attachments with messages, chances are they'd all actually work, unlike now. (Some people still insist on sending me BinHex-encoded files, which for some reason several PC email programs don't read.) Directory protocol standards might move more quickly too. Remember X.400 and X.500? Except in the largest corporations, these email and directory standards are totally ignored. In 1997, we should see the newer LDAP (lightweight directory access protocol) take hold. It's about time. And while I'm on the topic of directories, why is it that only one email program (the capable but declining Email Connection) lets you automatically add entries to its personal address book? Other programs make it pretty easy to add names, but none will do it automatically.

But the biggest problem facing serious email users is organizing the infoglut arriving in our in-boxes: personal correspondence, complex threads to business discussions, junk mail, subscribed newsletters, and so on. How to keep it all straight? Everyone has their own solution, it seems. Some people use filters to ignore all messages they are CCed on, figuring that if the letter was really for them, they'd be a "to" recipient. But these are imperfect solutions. (I recently missed an important conversation about a story CNET is doing on "spam" mail because I have a "spam filter" that shunts all messages containing that word into a mailbox I never read.) We need some serious research into the types of communication people receive and how they can best manage it.

And what about formatting text? Why must we give up formatting, fonts, and colors when we send email? Fortunately, it looks like HTML is taking hold as a formatting standard. But as I write this, HTML support in the major email apps is spotty: Microsoft and Eudora can create only simple HTML, while Netscape Mail can read complex HTML but not easily create it. All this will probably change in 1997. About time!

I also expect that Internet service providers will get into the email market by offering server-side options. End-user email programs can be made to do almost anything when mail comes in, but when the client program is not running or the computer is off, you're out of luck. If your company has an email admin worth his or her salary, though, chances are you can have your server auto-reply to messages (if you're on vacation, for example) or page you when certain topics show up in your mailbox. Wouldn't it be great if ISPs offered this service as well? (Come to think of it, it might make sense if the phone companies did this, but that's another column.)

Microsoft, Netscape, and the smaller email specialty vendors are putting a lot of effort into their next email apps, as we've already seen with Microsoft's Outlook and Netscape's Communicator (neither of which are available as I write this). The drive to improve email is coming from two directions: First, customers are clamoring for it. And second, content providers--from SportsLine to CNET--are beginning to supplement their Web services with email, and they need client software that will render this content attractively.

So in 1997 we might finally see email applications get the attention they deserve. If the vendors attack this market as they did browsers or suites, by the end of the year we might actually have email apps that are both powerful and easy to use.

Do you get so much email you had to buy a second hard disk to store it all? How do you manage your infoglut?

Choose a format to participate in posting: outline or table. There's also help if you're not sure which one to use. You may send us feedback via email as well.

Raphael Needleman is editor of CNET.COM.