Guess what? E-mail is Pass?.

It all has to do with that new generation of services, such as Facebook, Twitter, vkontakte.ru, Linked-in and a few more that are swamping e-mail as the predominant form of communication. And to think, the common use of e-mail as most of us know it is hardly more than a dozen years old.

That doesn't mean that e-mail isn't growing - it is.  However, other services are growing much faster due to the convenience of instant messaging and the very nature of so-called social networks, which, in essence, can be business networks as well.

In August 2009, 276.9 million people used e-mail across the U.S., several European countries, Australia and Brazil, according to the A.C. Nielsen Co., up 21 percent from 229.2 million in August 2008.  But the number of users on social-networking and other community sites jumped 31 percent, to 301.5 million people.

So, how will these new tools change the way we communicate?  Let's start with the most obvious: They make our interactions that much faster.

Years ago, we were frustrated if it took a few days for a letter to arrive.  A couple of years ago, we'd complain about a half-hour delay in getting an e-mail.  Today, we gripe about it taking an extra few seconds for a text message to go through.

In a few months, we may be complaining that our cell phones aren't automatically able to send messages to friends within a certain distance, letting them know that we're nearby. Actually, a number of services already do this.

The big question remains: Will the new services save time, or eat up even more of it?
Many of the companies pitching the services insist they will make people more free.

Jeff Teper, vice president of Microsoft Corp.'s SharePoint division, which makes software that businesses use to collaborate, says that in the past, employees received an e-mail every time the status of a project they were working on changed, which led to hundreds of unnecessary e-mails a day.
 
Now, thanks to SharePoint and other software that allows companies to direct those updates to flow through centralized sites that employees can check when they need to, those unnecessary e-mails are out of users' in-boxes.

"People were very dependent on e-mail. They overused it," he says. "Now, people can use the right tool for the right task."
 

Test Drive Your Potential Employee

No company wants to hire an expensive employee only to find out the person doesn't work out, even over the short term.

The new "recession trend" is away from hiring permanent employees without first giving them a tryout.  Sometimes a tryout can last weeks, and sometimes even months.  As one human resources director said, "Why get married after only a few dates?"

Come to think of it, it is rather na?ve to think that a company can predict from an interview how well someone's talents match the job or how well that person can work within the current team.

With all the top-notch talent available these days, bosses often have the leverage to put potential recruits through their paces, and there is good reason for this. Forty percent of all executives hired from the outside last only 18 months.

Actually, try-out before hire has long existed in parts of Europe and Asia, and now it is spreading to other parts of the world.  Proponents point out that risk is mitigated on both sides: No. contracts. No severance. No drama.

Celebrity Endorsements: In the U.S. It's All About the Truth

That character on the Subway sandwich shop ads has been telling people he lost 60 pounds just by dining at Subway. In the future, he will have to note that most people only lost 10 pounds, which still isn't bad.

America's Federal Trade Commission is attempting to clarify rules with a new set of guidelines effective next month.  It has to do with establishing when a blogger or consumer becomes a product endorser and what an endorser can say about a product.

The main rule is this: Tell the truth.  However, critics say the new rules are vague, set a double standard and violate free speech.  We think that's an over-reaction.

For example, if your endorser is making a claim that you, as a marketer, couldn't make, then he or she shouldn't.  This means that many popular products advertised by infomercials - often notoriously over-the-top - will have to modify their messages.

The most clear-cut of all the FTC's new guidelines has to do with bloggers who tout products and receive money or product in return.  This relationship must be disclosed.  However, less clear is when a product is given to a blogger to review on an editorial site.  The best advice is to play it safe, and disclose the free gift or use of the product.dri