[thelist] Pop-up from an email

Richard Bennett richard.bennett at skynet.be
Mon Dec 6 05:31:53 CST 2004


On Monday 06 December 2004 11:05, Maximillian Schwanekamp wrote:
> Richard Bennett wrote:
> > No, we could have had that for the last couple of years, but it hasn't
> > caught on. In fact, the emphasis has gone from html email to plain-text
> > email.
>
> This statement caught my eye.  Do you have some data to back that
> statement?
Well seeings as 76% of all internet statistics are baseless, YMMV...
But you could go with this:
http://evolt.org/article/Style_Without_Substance_Will_HTML_Email_Survive/25/60204/
I did clarify that statement in that mail by adding:
> > we will be and are also seeing less 
> > html-only email
'only' being the keyword.
I have been viewing my mail in text-only mode for the last year, and these 
days the only mails that are not text-based or multi-part mime encoded are 
spam. 
Almost every mailing-list has an option for a text-only version. (except one 
called MarketingVOX which is probably just spam as they don't allow you to 
unsubscribe either).

It is also becoming harder to find coroporate systems that allow viewing html 
emails. If they do, they won't anymore once their network has had a major 
spyware infection.
Microsoft advises this:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/settings.mspx
Theregister.com reports on corporate spyware:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/02/corp_spyware_survey/

> My experience speaks otherwise - I seem to be seeing more, not less,
> HTML mail, both from corporate heavies like eBay and Amazon as well as
> from small business sites.  There seems to be better use of multipart
> mime for text-only readers and yes much less use of email to send
> executables, but that would not indicate a decline in use of HTML in email.

Maybe not so much a decline in those sending it, as in a decline in those 
viewing it.
You can no longer rely on your customers having html enabled when you design 
your mailings, so something like a email-based pop-up calendar is more likely 
to show your company up as not being up to spec on email security issues than 
anything else, and the only thing you need to do to keep everybody happy is 
to put the app on the internet, and send an email with a link to it.

Cheers,
Richard.












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