I was just thinking

that eventually email will become a thing of the past. It exists at all because it's based on a form of communication with which we're already familiar, but if we didn't have snail-mail as a precedent, I think online communication would have evolved differently. Like snail-mail, email has too much junk that wastes resources and time, and it's difficult to send large file attachments. I think eventually blogs that combine the features of Friendster and instant messaging will replace the use of email altogether. Already there is nothing that these tools can't do that email can. For large files there are also websites that will host files up to 1gb (maybe more, I haven't searched around) for free, google among others has a video service, and many more sites host images.

I think gmail shows signs of making the transition because it arranges emails like a message board rather than like 'mail,' and tailors its advertising to the content of your emails. But this same stuff could be done with blogs (and blogs are way easier to update people about your life than mass emails), including the tailored ads (which you can get the added bonus of getting paid for hosting). Add a feature of leaving private messages on blogs a la Friendster style or something else, and what purpose is left for email to serve?