Michael Eakes

You can easily spot an Inbox Address Book user.

First, her email message subjects all begin with "Re:”

Then, look beneath the message she sent you. You’ll find something unrelated that you sent her months ago, now quoted back to you.

I am thinking about the emergent phenomenon I call the "Inbox Address Book." Traditionally, people kept a paper or electronic list of friends and their email addresses. The Inbox Address Book is more grass roots, and has some interesting properties.

The Inbox Address Book user never creates a new message with a fresh subject. Everything is a "reply" to the last thing you sent him. When the Inbox Address Book user wants to email you... well, hopefully you've recently emailed him.

Only the most sophisticated IAB user will change the subject line. For example, "Re: Conference in Las Vegas" changes to "Re: cristiano ronaldo". I always appreciate and enjoy this phenomenon. Notice how the meaning of "Re:" is accidentally morphed from "Reply" to "Regarding" in this type of modification. It happens so easily because both words are abbreviated "Re" and both have to do with correspondence.

I don't have statistics, but a good many humans I know make use of the Inbox Address Book.

I am curious: does the Inbox Address Book user more frequently email those who have recently emailed him? Or, is the impulse to correspond generated without influence from the current contests of his inbox?