Internet email in its current form has been with us since the early 1980s. The early 1990s brought major improvements with the introduction of MIME -- Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. This short article provides a short summary of some areas of Internet email that still need to be fixed.
There's too much abuse
Our email system is both simple and open. In a world where the number of internet users is hundreds of millions, abuse is certain to happen.
Abuse comes in various forms:
Messages are locked up in one application's database
What application controls your email? Is it Outlook? Yahoo Mail? Eudora? Email client applications are almost all alike, in that they don't share. Wouldn't it be nice if you gave the application permission to access your email, instead of vice versa? Wouldn't it be nice if you could decide to use Eudora now because you like its tools for composing messages, and use Outlook Express later because you like its tools for reading messages?
Specific problems cause by the lack of sharing:
HTML email
In general, rich text such as HTML is better than plain text. Proportional fonts are more readable than monospaced fonts. Color can be used effectively to highlight more important words over less important words. Filled paragraphs, bullet lists, block indented quotes, and italicized words can improve readability, even in informal writing.
However, the HTML that we see used in email messages needs work. The biggest problem with HTML email is the same problem we see with the web: lack of open standards and browser lock-in. The rendering of the IE web browser, which is used in Outlook, Outlook Express, and other Windows email client applications, is the de facto standard. A second problem with HTML email is that it's too complex. If it were simpler, we would have many more tools to help us with our email. If it were simpler, spammers and virus writers would find fewer ways to trick us and to slip past filters.
No confidentiality
Email messages are not encrypted. Perhaps this was not such a bad thing in the past. It kept email simple, and simple meant that developers created lots of email tools. That's all changing now because of Wi-Fi. It has become much easier to intercept email. Even worse, it has become much easier to intercept login passwords. And once Mallory has your password, she can do more than just snoop on the email you download. She can log in to your account and read all your mail, and she can send forged mail using your account.
Not enough user control
There are many organizations that require that you give them an email address. Typically, this happens when you are required to register at a web site. If you don't give them an email address, you don't get whatever it is the web site offers. The problem is, that after you give them your email address, you lose a bit of control over your email inbox. It would be nice if you could receive messages from an organization until you decide you have had enough. Unfortunately, your only option is to ask that organization to stop sending to you. It's ultimately their decision whether or not they want to stop sending.
Email addresses are recycled
Your email address is not your email address for eternity. Maybe you will keep it until you die, then pass it on as part of your inheritance. However, chances are, you will give up your email address long before you die. Then someone else may have it. Chances are, too, the email address you have now was not used by anyone else before you got it.
But email is still relatively new. In the future, the recycling of email addresses will affect email use. When you sign up for a new email address, you have no information about the previous life of that address. It's possible that that address is on every spammer's list known to man. It's also possible that that address is on a number of blacklists, or on do-not-spam registries.
Organizations that assume an email address is a permanent identifier for an individual make a big mistake. Imagine that you can't register at a particular organization because the person who previously had your email address already registered, and he didn't tell you the password!
Posted by Doug Sauder at April 10, 2004 09:47 AM