Email may not be a "web technology", but integrating it with the web is easy, because it is still just text based with an open and simple protocol.
You'll have a much tougher time integrating Skype's audio conversations with the web for example ... it's not an open protocol, and it is not text-based. Flash was also a problem for a long time, even though Flash interfaces are served from HTTP servers. Adobe may have released tools to extract metadata from Flash movies, but it remains to be seen if those tools can be used effectively.
These are better examples of what it means to be truly web-incompatible. Email is not because it can be served through the web, and it's also a painless process.
I like mailing lists more than I like forums. With the tools available I can easily filter messages ... block people I don't like and tag messages related to a certain subject of interest. An online forum can support these features, but it usually does not.
That's the problem with online interfaces ... if the web interface doesn't provide an API to plug-in external tools then you cannot adapt it to your needs. And that's also why (IMHO) older protocols, like Email and IRC are still around and popular.
You'll have a much tougher time integrating Skype's audio conversations with the web for example ... it's not an open protocol, and it is not text-based. Flash was also a problem for a long time, even though Flash interfaces are served from HTTP servers. Adobe may have released tools to extract metadata from Flash movies, but it remains to be seen if those tools can be used effectively.
These are better examples of what it means to be truly web-incompatible. Email is not because it can be served through the web, and it's also a painless process.
I like mailing lists more than I like forums. With the tools available I can easily filter messages ... block people I don't like and tag messages related to a certain subject of interest. An online forum can support these features, but it usually does not.
That's the problem with online interfaces ... if the web interface doesn't provide an API to plug-in external tools then you cannot adapt it to your needs. And that's also why (IMHO) older protocols, like Email and IRC are still around and popular.