Dave Pell on why email is still the killer app

Curated Excerpt:

Why an email newsletter (and app), when everyone’s constantly screaming email is dead?

I wrote NextDraft about a decade ago and then stopped. A friend suggested that I relaunch it. At first, I was dubious that people wanted another news source and yet another item in their inboxes. But I gave it a shot. And I’ve been surprised on the upside. The inundation of news, tweets, and status updates has left people feeling overwhelmed. Email is a tried and true, old school way to communicate with people. In the app, I’ve tried to add some benefits to the reader, while maintaining the good things about email. It’s easy to read and it’s about the content. Email has always been a great medium. It’s the content of most emails that’s problematic.

“EMAIL HAS ALWAYS BEEN A GREAT MEDIUM. IT’S THE CONTENT OF MOST EMAILS THAT’S PROBLEMATIC.”

How does email have such staying power?

Email is still the killer app. It looks great on all your devices and the user experience is always exactly what you’ve come to expect. Look at the rise of Instapaper, Readability, and Pocket. People love plain, glorious, readable text. Email is also a technology that everyone understands, and it’s personal (if someone wants to respond to me, all they have to do is hit reply). Tweets and status updates flow by and disappear into the black hole that is the Internet of five minutes ago. Interesting links and stories you find in an email newsletter are always right where you left them.

Continue Reading:  NextDrafts Dave Pell on why email is still the killer app | The Verge.