This email smells bad, has it expired?

[Joshua Baer]

What if some emails had an expiration date? After the expiration date,
both mailbox providers and mail clients (MUAs) could do smart things
with the message instead of just leaving it there.

This might be implemented with a simple "X-Expires" header.
From: Groupon <ner...@groupon.com>
Subject: Deal of the day: 50% off at Target
Date: January 17, 2011 2:24:08 PM CST
X-Expires: January 19, 2011 2:24:08 PM CST

This would be useful for daily deal sites and limited time offers.
Sysadmins who receive automated reports and daily log files would love
it. It's also great for news and stock alerts, weekly newsletters and
more.

This is a win for consumers because they have less mailbox clutter.
Messages that are no longer relevant wouldn't hang around in the
Inbox. Depending on implementation, messages that have expired could
be flagged with a visual indicator, moved to a special folder or just
deleted. Users should be able to override this behavior if they don't
want messages to expire automatically.

This is a win for mailbox providers and ISPs because they provide a
better user experience and reduce email churn. Plus they save disk
space and bandwidth. IT administrators should love this because it
will keep Outlook PST files smaller and help people stay under quota.

This is a win for marketers because they will get fewer spam
complaints and higher open and clickthrough rates. If a user see lots
of mail piled up, they are more likely to select all of them and
delete them without reading them or even worse, mark them all as spam.
If there is just one or two messages that are recent and relevant,
they are more likely to be opened and acted upon and less likely to
mark them as spam.

[tehmasp]

I think it's a cool idea but I'm skeptical w/ your expectation as to
how users might actually want to use it - when it exists of course.
Like you say, it is implementation dependent. Should this be an
implementation that people should be made aware of - an in your face
'hey - this is going to expire soon'. If that is the case, then i'm
skeptical as to how many people will like this but I would be less
skeptical
if I were to see that say, Priority Inbox from Google, is now very
successful. I feel this way because you are adding another email
task burden to users and I'm not sure how they would receive it.
Getting my mother to understand how to access and use her email
on her iPhone and Laptop is a chore - having to add another 'Oh, BTW,
some emails expire' is another burden. And, since emails
would expire you are left with having to make sure the user really
understands what they are doing. So, perhaps this would have to
begin as an advanced option which upon enabling the user is explained
what will happen. In that scenario, it would be great - I would
enable it - but not many I expect. And I'm assuming that even though
this would be part of the original email header and supported by email
providers - the user would have the final say - of course - as to
whether they want to enforce the expiration rule.

I fully agree w/ this being a win for mailbox providers - even w/o
data on how many emails compose 'expiration' criteria - assuming a lot
of SPAM
then maybe this is a big win. What would be great is to force SPAMMERs
to use 'X-Expires'.

Your last argument seems like a bit of a stretch - but completely
valid IMO.

Regardless, I think an 'X-Expires' header is a great idea. Think about
it, actual snail mail very often has a 'Hurry Up - This Mail Expires'
message on it or something
along the line like coupons w/ an expiration date - so why not e-mail?

BTW, I'm too anal and picky w/ junk mail - both digital and non-
digital - to ever let my inbox go beyond 10 emails. So my opinions are
influenced in that respect :)

Cheers,

On Jan 17, 4:38 pm, Joshua Baer <joshuab...@gmail.com> wrote:
> What if some emails had an expiration date? After the expiration date,
> both mailbox providers and mail clients (MUAs) could do smart things
> with the message instead of just leaving it there.
>
> This might be implemented with a simple "X-Expires" header.

> From:   Groupon <nere...@groupon.com>

[Joshua Baer]

Thanks for the feedback. We definitely wouldn't want to add more work
or tasks - the idea is reduce work by making the messages go away
automatically. The user shouldn't have to take any extra steps,
besides a one-time opt-in. Then everything should happen
automatically.

~Josh