A few weeks ago I wrote a post about messaging on social networks and how they are redundant because it’s just another inbox you have to check. I proposed a system that would give users the option to reply to messages directly via email.
So here’s my proposal: a social network messaging system that allows you to read and respond to messages via email. So if someone sends a me a message, the site forwards it to my email where I can read and respond to it—without leaving me email—and the site automagically forwards the email to the recipient who can respond however she wants to as well. Ideally the inbox on the social network would be kept synchronized.
I targeted social networks because everyone uses them and MySpace happened to be the source of my annoyance in the first place, but the same can be said for any software that has its own messaging system. For example, Basecamp, the Swiss Army Knife of project management and collaboration.
I ran across a post detailing a new feature they added to Basecamp on the 37signals product blog. The new feature: reply to a message via email. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? I doubt they got it from me, but apparently I’m not alone in my annoyance.
