Social Networks More Popular Than Email

The data is now starting to trickle in.  Here, is a recent Neilson study, for example, that shows that email is starting to slip behind social networks in terms of “active reach”.  Here’s the key exhibit:

I can’t say I’m terribly surprised.  The sad fact of the matter is that the companies that lead the market in consumer email (Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, and Google in that order) simply can not evolve their products in the ways that the need to evolve in order to address the needs of today’s users.

It would be too upsetting to the existing users to have the products change as drastically as they need to if they want to remain relevant in this new world.   The new Yahoo Mail Beta and the Gmail labs efforts are marginal adjustments that amount to little more than window dressing on an experience that is still 40 years old at it’s core.

As I’ve said before, the future of email is way better email.

Posted: March 26th, 2009 | Author: admin | Filed under: Social Media, email | Tags: | View Comments