Jonathan Zittrain pronounces the end of email:
Like others, in the past week I've noticed a major uptick in the spam I receive on longstanding email addresses. It's gotten to the point where I've configured Gmail to scoop up the mail from those boxes so it can do its own junk mail sorting, and then I POP the mail into my Eudora client from Gmail. It's taken me from downloading email where more than 9 out of 10 are spam to fewer than 1 out of 10 as spam -- with the spam sitting harmlessly on Gmail.
But this is a good time to point out something beyond the cat-and-mouse of spam-and-filter: email is dying.
... If one were denied email in 1997 it would eliminate much of the Internet's usefulness. Today it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Indeed, most students today rarely use email, preferring instant messaging, Facebook, Myspace, and other private messaging attached to a proprietary service. The benefit of these alternatives is that, because they're run by a central source, there's an extra custodian who can take a hard line against spam and other abuse. Myspace doesn't do such a great job at it, but try spamming on Facebook and you'll quickly lose your account.
Read more here (from Concurring Opinions). I agree with this analysis as from my own experience I know that I almost never use email for any personal communication; I have to use email for work, but most of my personal communication occurs through Facebook. The end of email may be upon us much sooner than we all think ...
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