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What’s happening to my e-mail?
By Steve Outing on Aug 17, 2007 in E-mail
Increasingly, I’m getting messages from people via Facebook. That is, folks who are in my friends list on FB (around 200 now) go to my profile page and then use FB to send a message. I am alerted to the message with an e-mail, of course, but that just provides a link to the message on FB. I respond within FB.
Problem: I use my e-mail archive constantly, using Gmail’s incredible and fast search functionality to find stuff. But when there’s a thread stored on Facebook — when I’ve had a conversation with someone on FB — I can’t easily search for that. My communication archive is getting scattered.
I assume someone will soon come up with a solution. (Google? Most likely; I hear they’re working on it.) I want to be able to search across all the online discussions I’ve had in the past, on multiple platforms. That’s necessary, since an increasing number of folks now communicate outside of e-mail, especially younger people.
On Aug 17, 2007, Howard Owens
said:
I trust FB more to get a message through spam filters and get a person’s attention (say, yours) better than a straight e-mail.
But you raise a valid issue about archives.
Speaking of archives … online-news?
On Aug 17, 2007, Howard Owens said:
I trust FB more to get a message through spam filters and get a person's attention (say, yours) better than a straight e-mail. But you raise a valid issue about archives. Speaking of archives … online-news?
On Aug 17, 2007, Steve
said:
Good point, Howard! My e-mail in-flow is too much for me to keep up with, so I do sometimes miss stuff. But if someone contacts me via Facebook, I’ll see it. … But that’s for now, when incoming messages on FB aren’t that frequent yet.
On Aug 17, 2007, Steve said:
Good point, Howard! My e-mail in-flow is too much for me to keep up with, so I do sometimes miss stuff. But if someone contacts me via Facebook, I'll see it. … But that's for now, when incoming messages on FB aren't that frequent yet.
On Nov 26, 2007, Steve said:
I just have to laugh. Ever since this item was written, I\'ve gotten a steady stream of comments added to this post, all saying something like, \"subscribe breaking news\". I just thought it was odd at first, but they keep coming! (You don\'t see them here because I moderate comments, and kill these oddball ones.)
It does go to show that using an antiquated e-mail system — like the ones I used when I first started hosting e-mail discussion lists back in the mid-1990s — is too confusing for many folks in 2007.