Threaded conversations. Enhanced filtering. Smartphone connectivity.
Just a few reasons why people have chosen Gmail as their universal e-mail inbox. Forwarding their “just slightly embarrassing” AOL and Hotmail accounts here, and giving new contacts their new Gmail address. But the idea of getting rid of the old addresses altogether? That’s simply terrifying to many people.
But time consolidation has become more and more pressing. Having to check so many different e-mail and social media channels every day can be a chore. And that’s precisely why Facebook is releasing their new “not e-mail” service, in order for Facebook to be that consolidation channel. While Gmail’s Priority Inbox hopes to use non-social algorithms to sort your e-mail into only the things that you want to see, and in the order you want to see them.
But what about the one-offs like Twitter? Because, many people prefer Twitter Direct Messages as their favorite “inbox” due to their 140-character brevity. Well, we’ll see. But for right now, if you’re a tweeter, you’re going to have to stick with a browser extension, Twitter interface or the site itself.