Email was the second “killer App”, a feature so obviously superior, useful or even necessary that the need to get hold of it and make it work for you drives the further adoption of the parent technology. Using email was the force behind the rapid expansion of access to the Internet once the National Science Foundation turned it over to the public at large.  And the thing just grew and grew to the point at which it is now a fixture, something taken for granted, which gains notice only when it’s not available for some reason. A number of start-up operations are seeking to get email off the dime on which it now reposes. Their arguments are not inconsiderable one: the available systems are all based on old technology…in terms of the subjective digital calendar, it’s ancient technology.There is too much traffic from sources you don’t know and don’t want to hear from.  It’s hard to do certain things with email. And so on and so on. There’s plenty wrong with email as we know it.  So, some bright sparks are doing a re-think of email, and the various little companies are thrashing out various techniques they feel might re-invigorate email and give the old tub a good shot of  wind in the sails. And it’s not an easy task.  The new versions have to offer something dramatically new and better, without  allowing any degradation of existing performance or loss of capabilities. It may be turn out to be a case similar to that of the QWERTY keyboard. There is plenty wrong with the QWERTY layout. And some interesting and definitely superior keyboard layout designs have been suggested over the years, almost all of them better than what we have.  But the old pattern is so widely displaced that the momentum for changing it is very hard to generate and keep up.  So,Burn on, Bright Sparks and good luck to you!

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/508471/startups-aim-to-bring-e-mail-back-to-the-future/