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"We've been hearing for a couple of years now about the potential of social networks like MySpace and Facebook to replace web-based email services like Yahoo and Hotmail.  And with the recent stats  indicating that there's more attention being shown towards social networks than email services, it's no wonder that Google and Yahoo have perked up efforts to innovate.  With both giants having dabbled in social networking, from 360 to Orkut, it's clear that replicating existing social networks just wouldn't be enough.  \nRole Reversal\nWith a little more head scratching, they came up with the idea of morphing the actual email applications into the very social networks in and of themselves.  The logic seems to fit in theory:  if social networks are supposed to be replacing email, then why not bring everyone back to their roots?  If this actually works, then it will effectively shift the attention of users in reverse, right back to the web-based communication tool that started it all.  And that means that it would be the social networks that would become more peripheral and used for various and random purposes.  \nTailored Email\nAs far as email goes, Google and Yahoo (mostly Yahoo, actually) have indicated that its email service could be made more personal (i.e. customized, tailored) by displaying the email messages that are most important to you.  It would tap into your social sphere to promote messages from those you know, and care about.  It's a tricky feat to pull off, and if spammers get anywhere near this method, then the whole system is negated.  \nBut I wouldn't entirely mind an attempt at what Yahoo's dubbed \"Inbox 2.0.\"  I often delete useless messages prior to reading through the ones from friends and family.  To start, Yahoo's testing this to see if it can, in fact, determine the strength of relationships based on the frequency of your email exchanges.  Should Google try its hand at this method as well, I fear what will come of its targeted Gmail ads.  This tactic of teasing out relationship bonds sounds like the advertising methods of AdInfuse, which figures out your demographic based on the phone numbers you call.  And that's just scary.  \nBetter Start Pages?\nSo based on this core concept of showing you the important information about your personal network, Yahoo is hoping to literally turn your email and start page into more of a social network.  That means that Yahoo profile pages (which have been around since I was in middle school) and start pages will become more central to this cause, as will widgets, for the incorporation of social media and data that's coming in from third-parties.  Sounds like Pageflakes, right?  \nYahoo is actually hoping to build on this, in an effort to incorporate more of its other services, like Music, Local, Shopping, etc.  And AOL  is attempting a similar project (by leveraging developers), with hopes of intertwining more services within its network.  I'll tell you one thing\u2014Yahoo can start by making its own widget offerings more practical for widespread use.  Importing widgets wouldn't hurt, either.  \nSo can it actually work?  Or will all these social efforts simply need to become integrated with the MySpaces  and Facebooks  of the world anyway?  \nTake Aways:\nFocusing on the start pages would make the most sense for what Yahoo and Google are trying to do.  Screwing with people's existing schemas around email will ruffle a lot of feathers, require mind-altering concepts to be introduced, and a lot of people to question the driving motives.  Not to mention options for preserving existing methods (to an extent), and permission for changing them in the first place.  Would it feel like Yahoo's spying on me if they know emails from Jenni are more important than that daily horoscope spam?  Emails are extremely private sectors of our online life.  One of the last spaces we can feel like we have privacy.  I'm not entirely sure that Yahoo and Google should mess that up.  \n[via  nyt]"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2007/11/13/inbox-20-google-yahoo-email-startpage/>