E-mail may not totally disappear, but experts say in five to 10 years, it may look far different than it does today.

“Within five years, we think the questions about social networking versus e-mail will be largely moot, as the two elements will have been fused together,” said the report by Gartner analysts Matt Cain and Ray Valdes.

E-mail thrived, after all, because it was one of the first forms of Internet sharing for the masses. It is still the third most popular online activity, behind social networking and gaming, although younger Internet users are turning to other more immediate electronic communication forms, such as texting from mobile phones. —SF Gate