February 21, 2012, 1:15 PM —
Fluent, started by three Australians who left Google after the Wave program folded, offer a fix for "stagnated" email.
By looking to Facebook for inspiration, Fluent wants to put email into streams, and show photos like a slide show. Integrated searching will pull up email messages as you type. Putting email from multiple accounts into one screen will speed processing as well. Fluent believes their new email approach will let users handle email at least 20 percent faster.
Currently, Fluent only works with Google's Gmail, although the founding trio promises integration with other services and mobile support. Declaring typical email as "stagnated," the group hopes their "slick and fast" interface, with messages arranged like a Facebook wall with attached slide shows for photos and attachments, will shake up the email biz. Currently, there are only a limited number of beta users.
Good on ya mate
I like the image slide show and inline replies, those features alone are incentive enough for me to switch. Also, the Fluent interface is beautiful.
Jaf on businessinsider.com
Also, the whole history shouldn't hang on each email. Fix that and you would have fixed email for me.
maigret on news.ycombinator.com
My wish list
What I'd really like to see is a P2P, encrypted, bittorrent-based mail system, basically something that works similar to bitcoin, but used for sending encrypted mail instead.
SkyMarshall on news.ycombinator.com
ah google wave - anybody remember that?
David Ford on plus.google.com
And I bet they're hoping google buys them back :)
Ben Petro on plus.google.com
Email blah
Unsure of the value here - isn't this like putting lipstick on a pig?
AlanH on businessinsider.com
email is 4 old ppl. i checked my email every other day now.
Honor Lai on plus.google.com
The weekly "re-invent email" posts are getting quite tiresome, the majority of people have absolutely no problem with email, email is an incredibly simple concept and it works for almost everyone.
citricsquid on news.ycombinator.com
Personal Email is on its final run here and it's not worth future investment by any company, more so with Google who already have a decent Gmail and an up and moving G+.
Charles Vaz on plus.google.com
History shows that new communication tools supplement, not replace, existing ones. We still phone and fax people, even with all the newer options available.
