John C. Dvorak has a nice piece in PC Magazine called “9 Reasons E-Mail Is Dead“. He has composed a list of behaviors or features of e-mail that has all but killed it as an efficient tool of communication. I have sort of written on his first complaint, “The ever-changing address”, previously at Useless Nexus when I wrote about what a terrible idea it is to use your ISPs email address.Over all, I agree with his assessment despite my love of email.
I once wrote a piece on my ideal of a modern communication tool. The idea was basically one drop box that recieves all the messages sent to me from the many places I am. This box would recieve messages from Twitter, e-mail, SMS, comment replies, voicemail, and all the other bacn that websites and communication services generate. This box would have an intelligence that would allow me to route these messages to the locations I want to receive it based upon who sent it, the time of day, or where I am. Then I could reply in the form I choose. But my response would be routed back to the sender and delivered the way they want to recieve it.
Communication message how I want, where I want from whom I want, when I want it!
I think the day that technology will make this possbile is approaching. Google Voice/GrandCentral may be a move in the right direction. If Google integrates Google Voice with Gmail and GTalk and allows for the same management capability and transcription Google Voice then it might be possible.
This doesn’t solve a single porblem of John C. Dvorak‘s list. But it at least gets each individual the power to choose how they want to communicate. The future could be very cool!
If you own a business then you need to be sure you visit Google Map’s Local Business Center. Once you add your business to your account then you can do some pretty cool things to how your business appears on Google Maps or what it says on the bubble when people click on the pin for your business.
Watch this video from Google for a great explanation:
I spotted this on the Google Lat Long Blog. If you enjoy Google Maps then keep an eye on this blog for more good stuff.
So now your thinking, “Is this a marketing blog, Michael?”
No, but this is such a cool feature, I had to mention it. Recently, Google added the ability to post coupons to your businesses map entry. I’ve taken control of the listing for my church, Central Square Baptist Church. I added our website and moved the pin slightly. So will Google let me add a coupon to Central Square’s map entry? We shall see…
I used it when it first came out a few years ago but prefered Google’s offer. Since then I have just forgotten about it. But if you are looking for an easy and inexpensive place to host your own domain and manage your own email then Microsoft is worth a look too.
And of course DreamHost Apps, can give you some other options and Google Apps.
