Decaflon

I can't really give any insight into this, because I've been using Gmail almost exclusively ever since I got an invite to it. Other than it being down three or four times for a couple of minutes, I've never had any problem with it at all. Out of the hundreds I get a week, occasionally one or two spam messages will make it to my inbox.

If we're talking usage, for me, email isn't dying. In fact, I'm probably using it more now than I was a few years ago.

It's obviously a lot less of a problem for the tech savvy, but the bulk of internet users, especially business users are not so much.

I am not sure whether it is tech savvy or filtering on an ISP level. I have clients who are tech savvy that sent me emails and I didn't receive them and vice versa. It is not abnormal for someone to say they sent something to 9rules (which I have downloaded to multiple places as backups) and the email is never received.

One reason why I've seen this happen (but is not the explanation the majority of the time) is because the IP the email is sent from is on a spam list. For example, Gmail gets on spam lists from time to time and that can cause email to be delayed.

I use email a lot and I do not see that changing but thankfully now there are ways to have alternate online methods of communication.

Like other people have said, I use Gmail (all 10 accounts of mine that exist forward to one Gmail a/c) and have around 15,000 conversations (maybe 50,000+ messages, can't say) and there is absolutely no problems with it. No spam. At all. Nada. Nill. =D

Although I agree with you on Yahoo and other providers (especially Hotmail). Messages get delayed sometimes, but most of the times (Hotmail especially) they just go into Spam and the person never reads it.

The problems I'm finding exist in corporate environments, local isps, and yes, occasionally the big providers like yahoo and hotmail. You would think at least they would have their acts together.

I rely on a lot of emails being sent back and forth especially from my university email which forwards the mail directly to my Gmail and Gmail to send under my official email addresses. In fact, most of my official business though goes through my university email so the chances of me being picked up as spam is relatively low especially for important business.

I suggest that for anyone doing business, they should rely on their own official email addresses rather than free accounts to relay information. It cuts down on problems sending things back and forth .

I suggest that for anyone doing business, they should rely on their own official email addresses rather than free accounts to relay information. It cuts down on problems sending things back and forth .

I think that depends A LOT on who is providing for your email. In my university, sometimes official emails don't get sent or received. And the scary thing is that you will never know which email was sent, and which wasn't.

Perhaps it is still best to get back to "basic email etiquette"? For example, to shoot the sender a note which says that you've received the email and things like that? I know those action may waste bandwidth and what-nots, but I feel that it's better to check and confirm than to be left in the dark, thinking that the recipient has received your email, when in fact, he hasn't.

@Pelf: That's my personal beef though, when people don't take some time to at least reply to your mail, even if it is to tell you that they are too busy to go through it and reply in detail, even if they might forget it later on, at least they have gotten it.

That's why in my experience though, I've known no cases where a university fails to actually receive or send an email. Just that they don't bother replying you at all. Which is extremely bad.

@Kami: Exactly! That's common courtesy! :D

For example, to shoot the sender a note which says that you've received the email and things like that? I know those action may waste bandwidth and what-nots, but I feel that it's better to check and confirm than to be left in the dark, thinking that the recipient has received your email, when in fact, he hasn't.

You mean, like a delivery or read receipt? If someone is worried about emails not actually getting delivered, a delivery receipt can usually be set in the email client for each message they send.

a_romig,

That only helps if everyone uses it. It's entirely out of the sender's control.

My work blocks all forms of internet communication except email and even then, attachments are filtered out.

Due to the nature of our own corporate spam filter, I often get misdirect emails as well as having client's email end up being in the junk filter. If I have to count, it'll be 1 missed email per 1000 real emails received.

Junk email to real email ratio is around 1:1.

Our solution? We get on a conference call at a specific time of every week with the important clients and at the end of the call, ask them whether or not they received certain important emails we sent. Vice versa from their side.

Sure it's low tech, sure it's been done to death, but it's the only way to make sure.

That is absolutely ridiculous.

i pretty much live by it. My blackberry is tied into my email account, so i'm constantly receiving stuff

Yeah, I pretty much got phobias for all sort of communication because of my job. There was a time where I get yelled and swore at at least 5 times a day whether in email or phone.

We were getting about 150k emails a day at work. Put a Sendio I.C.E. Box in, dropped immediately to 1-2k emails a day. My life suddenly became a lot happier at work.

Like most of these, I have been using only Gmail since I got the invite (from an invite pool *_*). And so I have had no problems at all with spam really, maybe a couple.

You ask whether email is dying? It may be, and I've noticed some of mine go astray..

But the fact is, that there is nothing to take its place.

I always had problems with Yahoo Mail, but only one spam has gotten through Gmail in recent memory. Email better not be going anywhere, it's my only effective communication medium for pretending that I never got the communication from someone.