Email vs. RSS

My friend Chris Baggott started ExactTarget, an email marketing technology company. Ever since RSS feeds have become somewhat popularized, I've been intrigued by the opportunities and threats it poses to the direct email business.

Clearly the value of Email is that it's immediate (so long as someone is online and checking their email), direct and right in front of the person you want to get the message.

Google Reader has called itself "Your Inbox for the Web", which it has certainly become for me. I love it. I can subscribe to any number of feeds, check in on it a few times a day and get my hit of updates whenever I want.

Of course, with RSS there isn't quite the urgency of email, which I think you can look at both ways. Here's why: My goal for the day is to get through my Inbox. I don't want to leave without unread or un-dealt-with messages. It's kind of like going to bed with dirty dishes (sorry honey). If I'm on an email list and I'm not really ready to absorb what they're offering at that moment, unless I know I'll be really interested at a later time, more often than not I'll delete the message.

In Google Reader, I feel at ease to save, star or share the message. Note to Google: make it easier to Email posts, please!

Also with RSS: I rarely get spam, I always get the messages, I know who it's coming from and I trust the sender.

Email & RSS serve different purposes, but what I wonder is if RSS will eventually become your de-facto 'information resource' for the web, while Email will regress into what it was started for: a simple human to human communication mechanism.

I'm sure we'll see a hybrid for years to come.