Sep 28, 2009

Yale Braunstein Analyzes New Street Address–Based Email Service

From the San Francisco Chronicle

Online services let cities bypass the mailbox

Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera

Last week, the city of San Francisco sent its first letter to residents using Zumbox, a secure e-mail service that allows senders to contact people online using their street address, which regular e-mail doesn't do....

Adoption of these services would depend a lot on filling a real need and having a good pitch, said Yale Braunstein, UC Berkeley professor of economics of information and communication.

"All they really are are integrated visual enhanced e-mail boxes," he said. "There are two questions for all of them: Do they have the right characteristics to attract users and do they have a financial model that makes sense?"

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Last updated: October 4, 2016