Sam Michel's blog

A snippet from Meta Group's April study featured in the ever-useful eMarketer Daily, provides confirmation that email usage in the corporate world dominates the volume of communications. 80% of respondents preferred email to phone. Interestingly, the speed and effectiveness of email weren't the key factors. The top three reasons were:

It can be a major test of patience and pocket if you're looking for a wireless hotspot. Even in a teeming metropolis like London there's no guide map, and only persistent online searches reveal the location of the capital's hotspots. Places where you can surf wirefree crop up in the strangest places, for example the BP services on the A4 on the way into London.

Have a heart. According to a recent report from Ferris Research, the average US worked receives 10 spam emails per day, compared to only 5 for their lucky European, Middle Eastern and African (EMEA) counterparts.

Following a previous story about reading email on the toilet, it's been fascinating watching recent stories on The Register.

Paid-for online content is all the rage these days, following hot(ish) on the heels of the FT, The Times and The Independent have both launched sections which you'll have to cough up to view.

A recent posting to the uk-netmarketing discussion list asked for recommendations for sales management tools.

Following a flood of replies, we've compiled a list of the tools mention, which gives a pretty comprehensive look at the different software and ASP solutions available on the market at the moment.

Software Solutions

Yes, that's right, the scourge of your inbox isn't a recent phenomenon. According to recent research by Brad Templeton, DEC have the dubious privilege of being the first company to have sent spam. This also pre-dates the Internet itself to a time when the network of inter-connected computers was the preserver of the academic and defence communities.

The traditional newspaper has always won hands-down in the go-anywhere contest with the web. You can't take the web or emails with you on the train (barring small-screened phones/PDAs or laptops) and taking it with you for some quiet-time in the loo wasn't entirely practical either. My suggestion at an office meeting for ethernet ports in our 'cubicles' wasn't greeted with much enthusiasm.

According to a recent survey in North America by Osterman Research, 52% of respondents said half their work email was sent internally.

Lean across the desk? Nope, send an email, instead. The reliance on the medium and the speed with which we've come to rely on email is truly amazing. So the fax is relegated for contracts and other documents that need signatures, but for how long? You can already digitally sign email, although the process is complicated and expensive...for the moment.

Until recently Wi-Fi has meant enabling PDAs and laptops to go wirefree. That's all changing with the new breed of home entertainment centres that are using wireless' ability to shift bits without wires to the maximum.

It's official. From October all unsolicited email in the EU is illegal. No, really, it's true. Well, kind of. In reality legitimate companies need to give the customer an option to subscribe and also be clear about what they're going to receive.

According to a recent US survey of home users, nearly 40% are interested in having anti-spam software or services to protect their inbox. It's not difficult to empathise with this view and not surprising that AOL and MSN have both recently offered new anti-spam tools.

The research also threw up some other interesting titbits...entrepreneurs and visionary ISPs take note:

Good news for the mobile phone industry, it looks like mobile phone masts aren't destroying our grey matter, at least according to this article in Silicon.com.

Maybe it's just the other person shouting that makes the side of my head heat up when I'm on my mobile.

Chinwag has been asked to help with the Comic Relief 'Viral Challenge', a great competition for the great and the good of the new media world to put their wits to the test on behalf of a good cause. The shortlisted entries will appear on Comic Relief's Red Nose Day website in the next few days.