[timw4mail]

Unfortunately, it's probably too late. Email caught on because it was the first option, and it's become ingrained in spite of itself.

At this point the closest thing to a standard for person to person messaging is SMS... which like the old guard of ICQ, uses a number rather than a screen name.

That said, I would love to see a good standard for person to person chat, especially one that doesn't rely on magic numbers.