I'm pretty sure that the majority of emails sent are received.
What's more, I imagine that most emails land in the recipient's mailbox just a few seconds after they were sent.
How fantastic is that? Can you imagine what people in the 1950s would say if we could go back in time and tell them that? They'd be truly amazed. They'd be even more astonished if we told them that the service doesn't cost anything. And, what's more, we can attach files to those emails and send photographs, documents and videos to people in a matter of moments. If I want to send a photograph to my family in the UK, it would be with them, in their own living room, just minutes after it was taken. (Who remembers the days of taking film to be developed? Then waiting weeks for them to come back. If I lived in those days, I'd then have to put them in an envelope, buy a stamp, go to the post office ....)
"Utopia" people in the 1950s would think "The future is certainly going to be incredible".
I wonder if we realise how lucky we are these days?
Hang on a minute - did I say 'free'? Yes.
"But I pay Bell South for my internet service" you might say. Yes, you do and for that small monthly figure you can surf the internet as much as you want to - twenty four hours a day, if you like.
You can join in at forums and social networks. You can catch up with old friends and make new ones on sites such as Facebook. You can research just about any subject under the sun. You can shop for almost anything and have those products delivered to your home. You can do crosswords or quizzes. You can listen to and download music. You can watch films and videos. You can get directions from Google maps. You can apply for a job. You can see the latest Hubble telescope pictures. You can play games. You can calculate or convert figures. You can send greetings cards. You can pay bills or review your bank account. You can renew your passport. You can book a flight, a hotel or a restaurant meal. You can take part in auctions. You can check the weather forecast. You can send invitations. You can make price comparisons. You can do background checks. You can track a delivery. You can find out a zip code. You can pay a speeding fine. You can find recipes. You can find a date. You can write book or product reviews. You can keep a blog. You can instant-message people. You can Skype. You can Twitter.
What can't you do??? Well, for those of you who are thinking about you-know-what, if you have a credit card in your hand you can enjoy all sorts of pleasures - or so they tell me.
You can do all the above, and a lot more for about 50 cents a day. And don't forget that included in this is the facility to send and receive email. As many emails as you want.
Let's say I want to send information to a hundred people. If I am sending that by regular mail, the stamps alone are going to cost me over forty dollars before I start to factor in the cost of the paper and the envelopes and of course, my time.
And yet have you noticed how very affronted people get when an email doesn't arrive within seconds of being sent? How very grumpy they get if their emails get lost or stopped by spam-blockers or firewalls?
Remember, email works most of the time. Free.
And finally, I'm getting to the point of this grumpy-old-woman-rant-of-the-day. If you're a TSDG client, you'll know about our production area where you can leave messages, upload files and so on.
It's not enough to say "well, I emailed it" because, as a free service, email is NOT 100% effective all the time.
Related topics:
Online tools for your start up
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