It's not a messaging protocol - email was never built for conversations, which is why conversations over email often get clunky, confusing and finding some piece of information later is near-impossible.
The thing is, most 'email killers' like Slack are closed systems and thus have no shot at replacing email - the reason why email has persevered is its openness, how it is the lowest common denominator in online communications (ahem, 2,5bn users worldwide).
Instead of a new open protocol, Fleep (https://fleep.io) has built a messenger that relies on the email protocol by integrating with email seamlessly. With Fleep, you can send messages to anyone who has an email address - if they're not a Fleep user yet, they will receive the messages as normal emails. As a Fleep user, however, you already get the improved conversational experience of emails.
(Full disclosure: I do work at Fleep and I absolutely love the product, the ambition and the ingenious approach our founding team has taken to merging IM & email.)
Microsoft didn't force that, they reflected it. Microsoft just made their software facilitate what users actually wanted to do. They don't care about all that tedious effort to scroll and selectively trim and indent and format quotes for a neatly curated conversation. They just want to start typing. They just want all that junk out of their way. Microsoft merely reduced resistance to what users were already finding natural to do.
Email was built as a digital version of snail mail. I guess good old mail services are conversations in a way - but both snail mail and email are more for sharing information than having a written conversation.
Sort of like - I'll send this piece of information out, and maybe I'll get something in response. Maybe I won't.
It's not a to-do list protocol. In fact, as Paul Graham has put it, it's a disastrously bad todo list (Source: http://www.paulgraham.com/ambitious.html)
It's not a messaging protocol - email was never built for conversations, which is why conversations over email often get clunky, confusing and finding some piece of information later is near-impossible.
No wonder people just plain don't like email as a communication method. It was invented in the 70s and it was intended for much lower volumes (Source: http://www.techworld.com/startups/skype-cofounder-jaan-talli...)
The thing is, most 'email killers' like Slack are closed systems and thus have no shot at replacing email - the reason why email has persevered is its openness, how it is the lowest common denominator in online communications (ahem, 2,5bn users worldwide).
Instead of a new open protocol, Fleep (https://fleep.io) has built a messenger that relies on the email protocol by integrating with email seamlessly. With Fleep, you can send messages to anyone who has an email address - if they're not a Fleep user yet, they will receive the messages as normal emails. As a Fleep user, however, you already get the improved conversational experience of emails.
(Full disclosure: I do work at Fleep and I absolutely love the product, the ambition and the ingenious approach our founding team has taken to merging IM & email.)