I personally find email fascinating as a tool and also as a cultural phenomena. Email is used to share ideas and is essentially free (there are are many good offerings for ad-supported email making the entry cost minimal), which has democratized information sharing, and yet there is also a dark side to email too. There is no cost so inboxes are filled with spam, updates, and advertisements, while security is always balanced with convenience.
This page is a repository for information on email including articles on usage strategies, email program, and email service descriptions. If you have a service or article you'd like to add to the site please let me know at george at georgdpr dot com.
Articles About Email:
- Email is the New Pony Express and It is Time to Put it Down by Ryan Holmes (Fast Company, 10/2012)
- The Inefficiency and Inequity of E-mail Distribution in Large Organizations by Ian Thorpe (KM on a Dollar a Day, 8/2012)
- In Defense of Email by Dave Giroud (Techcrunch, 2/2013)
- The Psychology of Why You Suck at Managing Email (and What You Can Do About) by Thorin Klosowski (Lifehacker, 10/2012)
- Stop Using Email for Everything by Joel Mathis (Macworld, 6/2012)
- This is What We Can't Have Nice Things: Reclaim Your Inbox by Erin Dorney and Lindsay Sarin (In the Library with the Lead Pipe, 11/2012)
- Email Overload 19 Tips for Taking Control of you Inbox by Kadhim Shubber (Guardian, 6/2014)
- The Uncomfortable Truth About Email by Betony Kelly (Tumblr, 6/2014)
- Email is the Best Thing on the Internet by Alexis Madrigale (Atlantic, 08/2014)
Email Service(s):
- Gmail (gmail.com): Mail service (plus calendar, contacts, video chat, documents) from search company Gmail. The service is ad supported through textual based ads.
- Fastmail (fastmail.com): Paid email service with no ads.
- Hushmail (hushmail.com): Paid email service that offers no ads and email encryption (though it appears the company can access your email if required by law).
- iCloud (iCloud.com): Mail service (plus calendar, contacts, documents) from hardware company Apple. The service is free with no ads.
- Yahoo Mail (mail.yahoo.com): Mail service from web-portal/search company Yahoo. The service is ad supported through banner, and text based ads.
- Zoho Mail (mail.zoho.com): Mail service from Zoho, an online services company, which offers a full suite of online products such as an invoicing, and CRM service. The lowest tiered service is free and offers free mailbox hosting for your domain.
Application(s):
- Airmail: A lightweight desktop email client that integrates well with Gmail (though can be used with other providers too. It is available on Mac OS X via the Mac App Store for $1.99.
- Apple Mail: The standard email client for Max OS X it comes included with the operating system. It includes integration with Contacts, and Calendar, which also come standard on Mac OS X.
- Mailbox: Client for iOS, Android, and Mac that combines productivity tools with email.
- Outlook: The mail client included in the Microsoft Office productivity suite. It the is standard in the enterprise world.
- Thunderbird: A customizable free mail client from the same folks that brought us Firefox.
- Postbox: A mac mail client built with integration other third-party services like Dropbox and Evernote. Available via their website for $9.95.
Application Plug-ins:
- Cargo Lifter (Apple Mail): Stop sending attachments via email. This plug-in automatically uploads documents to the cloud and then sends embeds a link to the document in the email. It works with Dropbox, Google Drive, You Send It and other services.
- Mail Tags (Apple Mail): Adds tagging options to Apple Mail such as Gmail labels or finder tags.
Email Add-on Services(s):
- Boomerang: This service provides email reminders and allows users to have the email at a later time or date.
- Re-bump: This service atomically resends as email if they have not heard back. The service is available Gmail.
- Pluto: This services allows users to unsend, and edit their email after it has been sent (though unread by the recipient. The service is available many different email platforms.
- Signals: This service lets you know when know when you emails are open, and provides hooks into other services (Hubspot) for metrics, and CRM templates.
- Unroll: This services allows you to unsubscribe to list serves, eliminate SPAM, and also combine multiple subscriptions into a single email.
Platform:
- Inbox: This company provides a framework for developers to build email applications.