How Do You Do? How do you Email?

Please pardon my interruption, but I noticed you from the other side of the Web and I was curious if I can buy you a drink. And by the way, how do you email?

I know it’s a terrible pickup line. And no, I have never followed up a pick up line with a discussion about email. In fact, I really don’t throw out many pick up lines. But “How do you email” is a question that I ask many people I meet. There are so many ways to email; most people have multiple accounts; and I am genuinely curious how the average user manages her many inboxes.

How do you email? Do you login to each account separately through each provider’s webmail client? Do you use an email client application, like Outlook, Thunderbird or Lotus Notes? Do you forward all your email accounts to a single inbox? Do you use your Blackberry or iPhone?

I haven’t conducted research that you could necessarily call “scientific”, but I have asked this question many times. It turns out that the majority of email users choose to login to each account separately. I find this interesting because it sounds like a burden—an inefficient way to utilize a tool that is supposed to make communication more convenient.

Why don’t more people use Outlook or Thunderbird? These applications are great for managing multiple accounts. If your email accounts support POP3, IMAP or MAPI you can integrate them with most email client applications. Most provide you with an individual folder for each account. With an email client application you can access all your accounts through a single, well-organized interface. So why don’t most people do this?

The answer shouldn’t surprise you. Most people don’t know what POP or IMAP is. Those that are better versed with the jargon don’t necessarily know how to find their provider’s server settings, and Outlook, Thunderbird and Lotus Notes do not make it easy for a non-technical user to set up their POP or IMAP accounts. Furthermore, not all email providers provide POP or IMAP access. Hotmail only integrates with Outlook (Microsoft still plays monopoly). Yahoo users can only utilize POP3 if they upgrade their account to the $20/year Mail Plus subscription. In addition, many of these email applications are expensive. And lastly, most corporate users who utilize Outlook or Lotus Notes are restricted from integrating their personal email accounts. (More on this subject to come!)

So what about forwarding? Many email providers allow users to forward their messages to any inbox. Why don’t more people do this? I have found that most people shy away from email forwarding because they like to keep their inboxes separate. The main reason users have multiple accounts, is to stay organized. I have an account for business, an account for personal use and an account for my newsletters (my bacon). I like it that way. I know when I am in my business account, its all business. When I am in my personal account, it’s all fun. And my third account is for shopping and killing time. Gmail has a new forwarding service called Mail Fetcher that allows you to forward all your other accounts and distinguishes the messages source account through a half-baked color coding scheme. I am not sold on this solution; I simply don’t like it.

So how do you email? Let me know. Maybe we can talk it over a drink.