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Throbbing e-mail | page 1, 2
The product is still in beta, but it's
easy to see how it could be extended to
commercial applications such as running a
private auction or a sale on a specific
product, good only for one day, after
which the message expires. Click here
right in this message to buy now! In the
works, according to FireDrop co-founder
Brian Axe, is the "Mission Impossible"
Zaplet: "This Zaplet will self-destruct
in 30 seconds!" he laughs. Thankfully, the company isn't placing
ads on Zaplets, but instead hopes to
make money by selling its services to
companies who want customized Zaplets
for their customers. So for the moment,
the business model seems to depend on
keeping development of new Zaplets in
FireDrop's own hands. Right now FireDrop is only giving away
the handful of initial Zaplets to
consumers, while developing more
customized versions for partner firms.
But, Axe mentions suggestively, that's
just Phase 1. "We don't want to be the
world's biggest bottleneck to creating
Zaplets," says Axe, choosing his words
carefully. The company has more than a dozen patents pending on the
technology, which has competitors
raising eyebrows and calling their
lawyers. Josh Silverman, CEO of Evite.com, an online
invitation company in San Francisco,
says that it experimented with the same
concept over a year ago, but customers
didn't understand it. "The technology
behind Zaplet is super easy," says
Silverman. "When you open your e-mail,
it's the same as hitting a Web page
except it's in your e-mail box." Axe
counters that the hard part is making
the application understand what kind of
e-mail client you're using to make what
you see work for you. Every time you open the message, the
Zaplet contacts FireDrop's server to
look for new information. Of course,
this means opening a message may involve
a delay, just like calling up a Web
site; in effect, the Zaplet is clicking
on a link for you, which brings up the
new dynamic information in the message.
The result: As long as you're online,
the information is current when you open
the message, not just when it's sent. If live e-mail sounds like a computer
version of the ebola virus waiting to
happen, don't be too nervous about
getting zapped. Zaplets do use
JavaScript, as well as HTML, but work
even if JavaScript is turned off. "What
they're doing is not risky," says
Richard M. Smith, a computer security
expert in Brookline, Mass., who
recommends shutting off
JavaScript as a preventive measure
against viruses. Web usability consultant Jakob Nielsen,
who is on the advisory board of
FireDrop, thinks that wide use of
Zaplets could cut down the number of
e-mails we all receive by as much as 75
percent. Reducing in-box obesity may sound like a
Holy Grail for time-starved,
information-overloaded Internet users.
But though Zaplets may help reduce the
number of clicks between us and the
information flowing toward us, they
won't necessarily reduce the volume of
that information. And cutting down on
the number of messages doesn't cut down
on the number of times that we'll have
to open them to see what -- if anything
-- is new. Still, Zaplets might make it easier to
tune out some interminable e-mail thread
that you never wanted to join in the
first place. And, now, instead of
compulsively checking to see if you have
new messages as a handy form of
procrastination, you can compulsively
open old messages to see if anything's
happened since the last time you looked.
Neat. The other promise of Zaplets is to bring
some of the functions of Web sites
conveniently into your e-mail. In that
spirit, I've sent a Hunger Site Zaplet to
myself. I used to have to try to
remember to visit the Hunger Site every
day -- making my infinitesimal
contribution to charity -- by pulling
down the bookmark in my browser. Now, I
have to remember to call up my e-mail
program and dig up my Zaplet. In this
case, I'm not sure that I've gained
anything, except another e-mail awaiting
my attention.
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