I don't think the premise is right. From the beginning to now, Gmail evolved quite a bit. For one, they used their analytical knowledge to prioritize emails, which I found to be very helpful. Two, they started filtering newsletters and advertisements automatically. Third, the UI got revamped quite a bit. Add to that all the basics Gmail does right (spamfiltering, tag+-syntax, …), and you see why it is hard to compete.
That said, I don't use gmail anymore because I don't want my emails to be directly in the hands of the NSA.
But let's focus on their list for a bit. Because innovating a sector is not a goal. Having a goal and therefore innovating, that is a goal. So, does the list they formulated hold up? I don't think so:
better interfaces: Better than gmail? Good luck. Besides, even old-style programs like claws-mail, sylpheed and thunderbird have really good interfaces, for their purpose.
better email management: Gmail does that. And one has to be really careful with that: It is not something every user need, sure not something every user wants, especially if it even once sorts something the wrong way.
better workflow integration: Emails are not tasks. They don't need task management in general. Emails are a communication medium, and sometimes, they contain or become tasks. but that is not a general requirement for users.
better attachment handling: What does that mean besides searching for attachments, maybe including their title, and browsing through the photos? Like attachments.me tried to do. But all of that is not innovation…
better social integration: The action one might want to do, like tweetbacks, should be linked in the email. Isn't that already the case? Blogs do that (ok, serendipity does, don't know about the others).
better prioritisation and analytic: To general. Besides, Gmail tries that already.
So, hmpf. Though I want to add that their general product idea (shared inboxes for taskmanagement) doesn't look bad, for a very specific usecase.
I agree with you almost entirely. Although I do have one specific minor off-topic feature I'd love to have in email that I haven't seen anywhere.
I want the ability to "like" an email, and have the sender know that I "liked" it. I don't want to write "yes, I agree", or even worse, a terse response of "like" as I feel that's a waste of my time, the sender's time, an unnecessary "+1" in their inbox.
I just want a way to say "I read your email and it sounds good to me" without having to actually write anything. Just click the "heart" or whatever symbol, and the sender is notified next time they open their email client with the heart showing next to the thread. Would work out nicely for lists and group emails as well.
I suppose there are clunky workarounds that would allow such a thing dependent upon client implementation, but it's just not that significant of a thing.
As for shared inboxen for task management, I'd recommend Asana (with whom I've no affiliation, besides being a happy customer).
What about an UI which mimic a social network in the Facebook style but which uses email as backend? It would be decentralized for free, and entirely interoperable with people using plain email (those who uses this UI would see that you liked there message, others would see a reply that says "I liked your email", for instance). Comments would be responses to email (using the In-reply-to header). The interface could easily creates groups of contact or post to all of them (equivalent to posting on your "wall"), etc. The action of "friending" someone on this UI could optionally be mutual GPG key signing behind the scene which would enable encryption of messages between friends.
I have wondered if you could build a federated social network (or something that is more like an inter-social-network) with email as the underlying transport. You'd need to layer a lot of top of this, of course, but it would be kind of fun.
I like the idea. There is many ways to extend e-mail functionality by building additional layers on top of it. But imagine having a group e-mail conversation for a large number of people where just a fraction of them is using the featured e-mail client. How would you communicate this additional information to the other? More e-mails? Or just completely skip it?
At http://www.mailcloudapp.com We're currently working on new ways to use e-mail. Always hungry for feedback and new ideas! ;)
My first attempt at a solution, were I to actually try something like this - say, with my hypothetical chrome/firefox extension called LikeMail - would be to send out a canned email with custom headers.:
"enobrev has read and 'liked' your message with the LikeMail chrome extension! Download it _here_ so you can do the same with your emails."
Then on the recipient's client, if they have LikeMail, consume that message and hide it, while showing the appropriate signaling in the inbox, etc.
Definitely a clunky workaround, and can easily be considered spammy, I suppose, although if that automated message were customizable, maybe less so. I think the reason for the email (as opposed to skipping it) is to convey the info the action of "liking" is meant to convey. Essentially if I hit "like" button in LikeMail I'm trying to tell the sender "I read and liked your email". Sending nothing would go against that intention.
This in general is one of those things that I thing's been growing in the background of the internet: the utility of fake Internet points as social feedback. This includes karma, likes, +1's, retweets and more.
It's the ability to give pure positive reinforcement without actually using words, and it's one of the most powerful ideas to come out of the Web.
To a lot of corporations email is more like version control. The attachments are the source code, and the text of the message is like comments in code. The stream of information is a fundamental output of the business, and is definitely not just a communication medium. Managing that stream is not something that can be fully automated; it just needs better tools (like Github achieves for Version control).
Emails are not tasks? I disagree. You're right that they are a communication medium but it not incompatible. From my point of view most of the time they are both.
Sometimes it is just a question of definitions. If I get an email from my mum with an ebook attached, I can regard it as a task (to add that ebook to my reader, to write back later). I'd argue that this is not the definition of a task, the writing back part alone especially not. That is just communication.
But sure, if you use emails primarily to collaborate with others, for you the emails are task thinking might very well be true.
That said, I don't use gmail anymore because I don't want my emails to be directly in the hands of the NSA.
But let's focus on their list for a bit. Because innovating a sector is not a goal. Having a goal and therefore innovating, that is a goal. So, does the list they formulated hold up? I don't think so:
better interfaces: Better than gmail? Good luck. Besides, even old-style programs like claws-mail, sylpheed and thunderbird have really good interfaces, for their purpose.
better email management: Gmail does that. And one has to be really careful with that: It is not something every user need, sure not something every user wants, especially if it even once sorts something the wrong way.
better workflow integration: Emails are not tasks. They don't need task management in general. Emails are a communication medium, and sometimes, they contain or become tasks. but that is not a general requirement for users.
better attachment handling: What does that mean besides searching for attachments, maybe including their title, and browsing through the photos? Like attachments.me tried to do. But all of that is not innovation…
better social integration: The action one might want to do, like tweetbacks, should be linked in the email. Isn't that already the case? Blogs do that (ok, serendipity does, don't know about the others).
better prioritisation and analytic: To general. Besides, Gmail tries that already.
So, hmpf. Though I want to add that their general product idea (shared inboxes for taskmanagement) doesn't look bad, for a very specific usecase.