Imagine if Email Worked Like RSS   - 1,630 Views, 4 Comments

Summary: Now here's an interesting idea. Imagine if email worked like RSS. Your email program would aggregate a list of new message subjects and senders for you, and if you wanted to read them, it would go retrieve them from the sender's ...

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Now here’s an interesting idea. Imagine if email worked like RSS. Your email program would aggregate a list of new message subjects and senders for you, and if you wanted to read them, it would go retrieve them from the sender’s site.

As Todd Marshall, the developer of this version of this concept points out, this model could have several advantages, not the least of which is that it requires a spammer to stay put and leave their account active, in order for people to retrieve their spam messages, should they really want them. And a stationary spammer is a spammer who can be found, making the whole spamming thing much less fun.

Also, Marshall explains, if significantly adopted it could lead to an appreciable reduction in Internet traffic,
as rather than each bulk mail run containing the..well…bulk of the mail, it would contain instead only those small notices with an invitation to retrieve the full text of the email.

Is the Internet ready to move to a “pull” model of email, rather than the current “push” state of affairs?

What do you think?

You can read more about this here.

Imagine if Email Worked Like RSS

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Previous Article « Is BitTorrent Traffic Going to Bring Down the Internet?
Read Next Article » Microsoft Takes Sender I.D.’s Case to the FTC Authentication Summit

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4 Comments »

  1. Imagine if Email Worked Like RSS
    Now here?s an interesting idea. Imagine if email worked like RSS. Your email program would aggregate a list of new message subjects and senders for you, and if you wanted to read them, it would go retrieve them from the…

    Trackback by Lockergnome's Windows Fanatics — 11/9/2004 @ 3:57 am

  2. Um, isn’t this what IMAP already does for us? Aren’t we just talking about a different approach to IMAP readers. I’m sure that Greg at NewsGator would love the irony of having developed an Outlook plugin for RSS, just to find that someone is actually suggesting an EMAIL plugin for an RSS aggregator. :-)

    Comment by Dave Taylor — 11/9/2004 @ 6:30 am

  3. on your web site I click to subscribe to your newsletter and nothing happens

    can you help thank you

    Comment by David Hopkins — 11/10/2004 @ 12:33 pm

  4. Hi
    I have read Todds full article and I believe this could well be the way forward.
    Please keep me informed of any future development

    Wilf

    Comment by Wilf — 11/12/2004 @ 10:59 am

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 This article first appeared on 11/9/2004
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