The long-time-coming update to Cites Express Email is finally coming on January 6, 2009.

The new design includes:

• Increased accessibility (e.g., for those who use screen readers or other assistance technology to navigate web pages)
• Reorganized buttons in your Inbox, making it easier to find the function you need
• Search, Logout, Spam Control, and Help features present on either the Login or Inbox windows

The bad thing is that it appears that it is only a new design – essentially the same thing with some added buttons and new colors. I think forwarding email to a modern email interface like Gmail will still be very popular for students even after the “upgrade.”
CITES: New CITES Express Email Look Coming Soon

What U of I student doesn’t like free stuff? What U of I student doesn’t forward their email to Gmail?

If you answered ‘none’ to both of those questions, we’ve got quite the news for you:

So how do you get your stickers? We may be all about speedy electronic communication, but this time we’re going old school with snail mail. Just send a self-addressed stamped envelope …

Official Gmail Blog: Get your Gmail stickers

Next year, freshmen at Boston College will not get full email accounts – they will get an email forwarding service that will pass along messages to whatever personal e-mail account a student specifies.

From my experience at Illinois, the Express Email interface is so bad that most students forward their email to another account (Gmail) anyway. They can even alias their replies. So, Boston College seems right here – students don’t need a webmail client – just give us an address that we can forward to wherever we choose.

Want an easy way to relieve stress this week? Two easy steps: 1) Select all email messages in your inbox; 2) Press delete.

E-mail overload is caused by the sheer volume of messages zipping around the globe. Each day, about 39.7 billion person-to-person e-mails, 17.1 billion automated alerts, and 40.5 billion pieces of spam (unsolicited commercial e-mail) are sent worldwide, researcher IDC says. White-collar workers often receive 140 messages a day, executive coach Marsha Egan says.

Michelle Kessler: Fridays go from casual to e-mail-free