Comments on: Who will be the first major (Google/Yahoo/Microsoft/AOL) to break ranks and apply a fundamentally new metaphor to email? http://greatfallsventures.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/we-are-in-the-midst-of-an-important-m/ Investments in and Assistance to Emerging Companies Sat, 11 Jul 2009 03:14:08 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: John McKinley http://greatfallsventures.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/we-are-in-the-midst-of-an-important-m/#comment-534 John McKinley Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:24:20 +0000 http://greatfallsventures.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/we-are-in-the-midst-of-an-important-m/#comment-534 Robert- I used Xobni this week, and really like it. That said, it is a plug in for Outlook that adds what I think are three neat features, but an incremental step. If I were Microsoft, I would look at buying these guys and/or doing a functional enhancement of the core Outlook client to implement similar features. Also, not sure how they will monetize the experience. There are no ads in the product (and no room) - maybe they want my contacts to build their own professional social network, and monetize that inventory... Robert-

I used Xobni this week, and really like it. That said, it is a plug in for Outlook that adds what I think are three neat features, but an incremental step. If I were Microsoft, I would look at buying these guys and/or doing a functional enhancement of the core Outlook client to implement similar features. Also, not sure how they will monetize the experience. There are no ads in the product (and no room) – maybe they want my contacts to build their own professional social network, and monetize that inventory…

]]> By: Robert http://greatfallsventures.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/we-are-in-the-midst-of-an-important-m/#comment-533 Robert Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:15:40 +0000 http://greatfallsventures.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/we-are-in-the-midst-of-an-important-m/#comment-533 while I agree it will ultimately need to be one of the majors, I'm not sure it has to *start* that way. Played around with this at all? http://www.xobni.com/ while I agree it will ultimately need to be one of the majors, I’m not sure it has to *start* that way. Played around with this at all?

http://www.xobni.com/

]]> By: bookbook blog » Interesting things I’ve read recently… http://greatfallsventures.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/we-are-in-the-midst-of-an-important-m/#comment-515 bookbook blog » Interesting things I’ve read recently… Tue, 18 Sep 2007 02:26:06 +0000 http://greatfallsventures.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/we-are-in-the-midst-of-an-important-m/#comment-515 [...] crazy because it forms such a large part of their daily life. Then a few days ago I read this really good post explaining why email is on the way out. I had a really good example today of the way in which email [...] [...] crazy because it forms such a large part of their daily life. Then a few days ago I read this really good post explaining why email is on the way out. I had a really good example today of the way in which email [...]

]]> By: Charlie http://greatfallsventures.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/we-are-in-the-midst-of-an-important-m/#comment-513 Charlie Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:43:57 +0000 http://greatfallsventures.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/we-are-in-the-midst-of-an-important-m/#comment-513 I can't wait until I can give up email. It's an outdated form of communication now. Why bother sending letters when the internet gives you the ability to meet someone in realtime. I can’t wait until I can give up email. It’s an outdated form of communication now. Why bother sending letters when the internet gives you the ability to meet someone in realtime.

]]> By: Will email be dead in 5 years? « Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog http://greatfallsventures.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/we-are-in-the-midst-of-an-important-m/#comment-506 Will email be dead in 5 years? « Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog Mon, 17 Sep 2007 02:10:07 +0000 http://greatfallsventures.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/we-are-in-the-midst-of-an-important-m/#comment-506 [...] President of Digital Services. I have enormous respect for him. In a recent blog post, he says that email in its current form is under attack and doesn’t have long to live: We are in the midst of an important moment of truth - email as we know it is under attack, and the [...] [...] President of Digital Services. I have enormous respect for him. In a recent blog post, he says that email in its current form is under attack and doesn’t have long to live: We are in the midst of an important moment of truth – email as we know it is under attack, and the [...]

]]> By: Bringing email into the 21st century « reDesign http://greatfallsventures.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/we-are-in-the-midst-of-an-important-m/#comment-497 Bringing email into the 21st century « reDesign Sat, 15 Sep 2007 23:10:31 +0000 http://greatfallsventures.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/we-are-in-the-midst-of-an-important-m/#comment-497 [...] 14th, 2007 John McKinley, former AOL CTO and now VC, asks “Who will be the first major (Google/Yahoo/Microsoft/AOL) to break ranks and apply a fundament... There’s been a proliferation in ways to communicate — IM, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, [...] [...] 14th, 2007 John McKinley, former AOL CTO and now VC, asks “Who will be the first major (Google/Yahoo/Microsoft/AOL) to break ranks and apply a fundament… There’s been a proliferation in ways to communicate — IM, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, [...]

]]> By: Rocky Agrawal http://greatfallsventures.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/we-are-in-the-midst-of-an-important-m/#comment-496 Rocky Agrawal Sat, 15 Sep 2007 23:07:52 +0000 http://greatfallsventures.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/we-are-in-the-midst-of-an-important-m/#comment-496 John, Some great thoughts there. There are some more fundamental things I'd add. Here is my email hit list, in priority order: Spam control - One of the reasons I like Facebook messaging is that I know that messages are much more likely to be real — no Viagra or stock pitches. I’d say more than 70% of the mail I get in my Gmail account is spam. I also have had numerous cases of false positives with important personal mail getting sent to the spam folders. As a domain owner, I also get to deal with the bounces from spammers forging my domain name. We need to move to a model where we focus on identifying the good email. (See my blog post on <a href="http://blog.agrawals.org/2007/05/02/fighting-spam-with-picture-e-mail-id/" rel="nofollow">Picture ID</a> for one example.) If the big four would work together to secure email sent among them, it’d be a big step forward. Security - This strikes me as a business opportunity for the big 4. It amazes me that this far into email, it is less secure than paper mail. I’d love to sign up for e-billing with all my credit card companies and utilities, but it’s a pain. The lack of email security requires that I get an email reminder (hope that the email doesn’t get spam filtered), log into their site and then view a PDF. I just want them to send me a copy of my bill that I can view, store and search. You could probably charge for this - 1 or 2 cents per bill is a lot cheaper than the post office. You could also provide the ancillary service (which is becoming even more important) of authenticating the emails to prevent phishing. Smarts - I wrote a blog post about <a href="http://blog.agrawals.org/2007/05/10/the-dumbest-application-you-cant-live-without/" rel="nofollow">smart email</a> a while back. Many of the emails I get are from computers - banks, credit card companies, airlines, etc. They’re all generated off templates. Understand them and do the right thing. Put my bill due notices on the calendar, along with my itineraries. Show me when that package from Amazon is going to arrive. Automatically archive all the sales and deals that have expired. I don’t think entity extraction and parsing emails is good enough for this. Google has been trying for a while with Gmail and the results have been fairly poor. It will likely require the mailers to follow microformats and append the data in machine readable form. But if the Big 4 were to agree on a framework for the formats, it would take off. You could start with vCal and work from there. Rocky John,

Some great thoughts there. There are some more fundamental things I’d add. Here is my email hit list, in priority order:

Spam control – One of the reasons I like Facebook messaging is that I know that messages are much more likely to be real — no Viagra or stock pitches. I’d say more than 70% of the mail I get in my Gmail account is spam. I also have had numerous cases of false positives with important personal mail getting sent to the spam folders. As a domain owner, I also get to deal with the bounces from spammers forging my domain name. We need to move to a model where we focus on identifying the good email. (See my blog post on Picture ID for one example.) If the big four would work together to secure email sent among them, it’d be a big step forward.

Security – This strikes me as a business opportunity for the big 4. It amazes me that this far into email, it is less secure than paper mail. I’d love to sign up for e-billing with all my credit card companies and utilities, but it’s a pain. The lack of email security requires that I get an email reminder (hope that the email doesn’t get spam filtered), log into their site and then view a PDF. I just want them to send me a copy of my bill that I can view, store and search. You could probably charge for this – 1 or 2 cents per bill is a lot cheaper than the post office. You could also provide the ancillary service (which is becoming even more important) of authenticating the emails to prevent phishing.

Smarts – I wrote a blog post about smart email a while back. Many of the emails I get are from computers – banks, credit card companies, airlines, etc. They’re all generated off templates. Understand them and do the right thing. Put my bill due notices on the calendar, along with my itineraries. Show me when that package from Amazon is going to arrive. Automatically archive all the sales and deals that have expired. I don’t think entity extraction and parsing emails is good enough for this. Google has been trying for a while with Gmail and the results have been fairly poor. It will likely require the mailers to follow microformats and append the data in machine readable form. But if the Big 4 were to agree on a framework for the formats, it would take off. You could start with vCal and work from there.

Rocky

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