Is email broke?

The other day I was comparing notes with my US colleague Terry Grunwald and musing just how far overload and spam is making email less and less useful. For some purposes, said Terry, 'email is broke'. The respected Pew Internet Project now confirms that hunch with a substantial report.
"The huge increase in email spam in recent years is beginning to take its toll on the online world. Some email users say they are using electronic mail less now because of spam. More people are reporting they trust the online environment less. Increasing numbers are saying that they fear they cannot retrieve the emails they need because of the flood of spam. They also worry that their important emails to others are not being read or received because the recipients’ filters might screen them out or the emails might get lost in the rising tide of junk filling people’s inboxes."
Thanks to Mark Gaved for the reference, now reported up by the BBC.

Comments

[Simon Berry]

Wait a minute while I get my hobby horse out . . . . there. Email has always been a very limited tool. Great for communication, not much good for collaboration. Even without spam only the sophisticated can cope by implementing filtering and keeping it tweaked so it continues to work properly.
Extranets that provide trusted online spaces have a role in cutting down email but also provide 'proper' secure email. Spammers get away with it because identifying them is virtually impossible if you have a life. You cannot sent 'anonymous' email from extranets. An underlying feature of extranets is 'trust' and to establish this nobody can act anonymously. Email security is therefore 'built-in'.

[David Wilcox]

Simon is too modest to mention that he runs the excellent Ruralnet and Networks Online systems - and as a member I know how good they are.
However, problems still arise because it is difficult to get everyone on the same extranet unless they are in the same organisation or network... and a lot of good communication is about crossing boundaries.