Priority inbox from Gmail: email's last great hurrah

Though email is on my TECHNOLOGY RANKINGS: DINOSAUR WATCH list, I am not 100% convinced it will die. While the probability of email's extinction by 2016 remains high, I acknowledge that it's one of those technologies, like the fax machine, that may be almost fully marginalized from our daily activities yet, as with notary publics, has to be kept alive for those very rare instances when needed.

Google has just launced a PRIORITY feature for its Gmail. I use gmail, think it is by far the best email program available, and welcome this new auto-magical prioritization service. No matter how often I go in and hack away at my emails -- not just the spam -- more continues to come, like weeds or in-laws after you hit the lotto. This new feature is a welcome addition. That said, it's really more like making a simpler, less noisy, non-paper killing, non-busy signal getting fax machine. The least amount of time and hassle I am forced to spend on this, the better.

The smartphone is the computer. We are moving towards a world that is highly mobile, social, real-time; one that is hyperlocal but scales global. Email pretty much sucks at all these. It doesn't know nor does it care to know my likes, my schedule, my focus, my friendships. It is dumb and anti-social, unaware that the world is an increasing array of momentary and lasting connections, some work-related, some non-work related. It doesn't change based on my location, time of day, interest. It is a carrier pigeon: all messages are the same, no matter from whom, from where and when sent.

Gmail is the best of the bunch, but I am quickly transitioning away from email. Permanently. I suspect many more will, as well. Social media, texts, Skype, videochat, SMS, location-based services and more, all optimized for the now, for the anywhere, and personalized, are the future. Not surprisingly, all thrive on the smartphone. Yet like a dutiful bureaucrat, just before heading off to bed, I scan through my emails, responding as necessary.

(Oh, yes, the death of email will harm no company on the frontlines of the smartphone wars than RIM/Blackberry. Not even Microsoft, which has the potential to offer more smartphone features and services, will be as directly negatively impacted.)