E-Mail War: Facebook Launches New ‘Gmail Killer’ Messaging Platform
- Posted on November 15, 2010 at 4:10pm by
Meredith Jessup
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP/TheBlaze) — If you thought so-called “social media” sites were just a modern fad, think again.
Facebook unveiled a new messaging platform Monday that takes aim at one of the Internet’s first applications, e-mail.
Although blogs had been speculating that Facebook would announce an e-mail service to rival Google Inc.’s Gmail and others, Facebook said e-mail was just one component of its plans.
Declaring e-mail past its prime in the age of texts and instant messages, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company doesn’t believe e-mail is going to be a modern messaging system. The first Internet e-mail system arrived in the early 1970s.
Zuckerberg dismissed notions that “Project Titan,” as its service is called, is the “Gmail killer” it’s been dubbed as in the press. But he also said that just as high school students are forgoing e-mail in favor of shorter, more immediate chats, more people down the line will send IMs and chats because it’s simpler, “more fun” and more valuable to use.
Though e-mail is still a primary form of communication for older adults, recent studies suggest this is not the case for young people. Text messaging has surpassed face-to-face contact, e-mail, phone calls and instant messaging as the primary form of communication for U.S. teens, according to a 2009 survey from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
E-mail use was the lowest — only 11 percent of teens said they use it every day to interact with friends, compared with 54 percent who said they text daily and 30 percent who said they use landline phones.
The popular social network unveiled its plans in San Francisco on Monday, a day before Zuckerberg speaks at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.
Underscoring the enormity of the project, Facebook’s director of engineering, Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, said 15 Facebook engineers worked on the project for 15 months.
The new platform has three main pieces:
Seamless messaging – Instead of dealing with the dilemma of reaching people via e-mail or direct message or SMS, all of these will be combined, so that you’ll be able to reach someone the way they prefer to be reached, without you having to think about it. “All you need is a person and a message,” said Andrew Bosworth, director of engineering for Facebook.
Conversation history – All communiques between friends will be logged, regardless of their format, so that you can browse all sorts of exchanges between you and your individual peeps.
Social inbox – Since they know your friends, and those friends of friends, Facebook will apply social filters to the e-mail inbox, prioritizing real humans who you like over spambots you’d rather avoid. Even just the stuff you don’t care as much about, bank statements, pages you’ve liked, etc., gets routed to an “Other” folder, which you’d check less often.
You’d even be able to set your controls so that any e-mail not from a friend gets bounced completely.
As for those facebook.com e-mail addresses, if you’ve already got a Facebook username, that, plus @facebook.com, will be your new e-mail address. However, the whole thing is rolling out slowly, over the course of months, and will start by invite only at first. “Once you receive an invitation,” says a Facebook blog posting, “you’ll be able to get started and also invite your friends to join you.”
Though the vast majority of older Americans still rely on traditional e-mail to communicate back-and-forth, Zuckerberg predicts sites like his will be the future of online messaging.
“If we do a good job with that, someday people will start to say, hey, this is the way the future should work,” Zuckerberg concluded. “Maybe E-mail just isn’t as important as it once was.”
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donottreadonme
Posted on November 17, 2010 at 12:07amIt fits right in with the dumbing down of our youth by the government run public education system. The attention span of the youth today is about 140 characters, if that much.
Report Post »JEANNIEMAC
Posted on November 16, 2010 at 12:35pmMerchants can sign up for a Facebook program which will, for a fee, provide them with specific information for their target lists. Information such as residence, age, preferences in music, art, friend’s names, etc. Facebook takes this information from profiles and from games played, etc. Whenever you use an app or play a game, you open your entire file to anyone, even if you try to keep your info private. Best to enter only minimum info into Facebook, if at all. Remember that the founders of Facebook are good friends with Obama, and helped to organize his campaign.
Report Post »Tyson
Posted on November 16, 2010 at 8:21amBlight on Humanity!
Report Post »Conserving Ink
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 10:40pmEven though I’ve been known to see black helicopters from time to time, I don’t think this is some New World Order conspiracy to track us all. I think a young billionaire found a new line of revenue.
Report Post »_________________________________________________
http://conserving-ink.blogspot.com/
Rowgue
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 9:32pmThis is bad business. They got where they are because they offered a new service. That is good business. What they are engaged in now is trying to monopolize a market and eliminate competition. They realize they are a one trick pony and without artificially manipulating the market their long term viability is non existant.
Report Post »MommaGrizzly
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 9:22pmyikes, I got on facebook 2 yrs ago for my small business and sharing photos of kids with my family…I don’t have anything to hide (except my distaste for the extreme left – is that all it takes???)
Report Post »FreedomIQ
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 8:18pmUh oh! Dr. Evil has spoken again.
This facebook guy is a bad joke. He probably wouldn’t think twice about hooking a direct line from facebook accounts to Homeland Security computers.
Report Post »KCMike
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 7:49pmI can’t stand Facebook & am glad I’m not a part of it.
Report Post »mikenleeds
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 7:40pmanyone using their real name and information on the Internet at all is really,really stupid , your giving the government all of your information plus anyone can search you up to get dirt on you ,, Americans are truly the stupidest people in the world
thethinman
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 8:09pmyou do realize that they have the internet all over the world dont you?? talk about stupid geesh
Report Post »OriMai
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 7:38pmOk so I lived to see the day that email is considered to be the primary method for “old people”. Good times.
Report Post »WhatTheHuh
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 7:24pmI don’t Facebook either. I’m simply amazed how people are so willing to give out personal information. This is a marketer’s dream. They no longer have to conduct surveys. Today they simply go through sites like Facebook and Google and use their “social media” technology to reach you. I understand you give up some privacy when you use the net, but this is too much and too centralized. And the generation that is supposed to be the most “savvy” is the one allowing it. How Orwellian.
Report Post »seemsew
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 7:21pmDON’T LIKE IT!!! DON’T WANT IT!!! You can get too many friends, you know. Got to weed them out now and then.
Report Post »sWampy
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 6:37pmgmail is free, fairly much just a marketing campaign to get people to encourage their companies to use pay corporate gmail, that makes a little with ad revenue. And is a great source for google to data mine in, but it’s not like they have a shortage of things to datamine. A few people not using their gmail accounts as much really won’t hurt them, I bet hardly anyone will bother shutting their gmail accounts down.
Report Post »mcskippy
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 6:30pmNo matter how much my friends pressure me, I will never get a facebook. Sorry, I like my private life too much. I guess I just find having my pesonal information and profile floating around the internet, where potentally millions of people can veiw, is just a little bit creepy.
Report Post »I know you’d probably say that facebook has all of these safety features and blockage opptions, but why take the chance? Once something is on the internet, it’s pretty much out there for good. Anybody can look at it.
Spyder
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 5:35pmConsidering how many problems I’ve seen and had with Facebook security changing my settings, as opposed to the lack of issues with G-Mail, I think I’ll be staying with G-Mail for all of my email needs.
Report Post »BubbaCoop
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 5:27pmI don’t understand the text messaging addiction. I don’t even HAVE texting on my phone.
Report Post »suran
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 5:15pmI don’t trust of like Facebook. Everyone’s laundry out there for all to see. Too many lemmings live by it. Can’t anyone think for himself/herself anymore?
Report Post »shofar
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 5:13pmNeed to bring back the old BBS. May end up being the only way that conservatives will be able to keep in touch.
Report Post »N37BU6
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 5:05pmI don’t have Facebook, and never will.
I’m a technophile… just not one who is into intelligence gathering tools disguised as “social networking”.
Report Post »HouseNegro
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 4:35pmIf I have to remember one more pass word…………
Report Post »seanpatriot
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 4:26pmAll those networking sites are government databases
Report Post »HillBillySam1
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 4:18pmWow. What will they think of next?? I’m still waiting on someone to invent motorized underpants.
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 4:48pmWill not be long, they have already developed exploding ones; just need some extra work…must have been a government design committee.
Report Post »betterthantv
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 8:47pmBest post I’ve read all day.
Report Post »theninthplanet
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 4:18pmI don’t trust Facebook at all – they change their privacy policy too much, they make it nearly impossible to delete your account (you will not find the link anywhere on the site, you have to google for it), and Zuckerberg doesn’t have any respect for the people that make up his network.
That’s why I deleted my account, and that’s why I encourage anyone else to delete their account.
Report Post »SICKANTIRED
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 7:54pmThats why im not me on facebook…lol
Report Post »SHTFMilitia.com
Posted on November 16, 2010 at 8:31amAgreed !!
http://www.shtfmilitia.com
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 4:18pmThey say Facebook has 500 million followers of some kind; so the government will be able to lock down the nation and the world all the easier with everything else shunted into one media platform.
Well done facebook, well done. The Feds most lovingly applaud you.
Get it America, wake up and make the changes needed now, the storm is here.
Report Post »Rogue
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 4:49pmYeah, there ya go, Facebookers. The government will increase thier database ten-fold with all the info you will be giving them about you. Link your email account with your internet history (so they can see where you have been), your credit card or debit card info ( online purchases giving them a way to look at all your finances), your mobile phone (so they can track you at a moment’s notice), and your Facebook private (?) info (where you live, who your friends and family are). When the FCC demands info on anyone, it’s a one-stop-shop to just go to Facebook and get it.
Report Post »Fear The Voices
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 5:12pmReal nice, all of the above linked with your cell phones ability to provide you location, and at any time they decide your too much of a threat, or have said to much; they can send the obama goon squad out to bring you in.
Boy just hope one of your friends doesn’t get the idea to make a joke and send you notes saying anything about bombs or explosives….. I wonder if they’ll be filtering those words, if they aren’t now. I can see someone talking about their weekend…. I was so bombed, and ended up w/ explosive…. You get the point!
Report Post »john seven eighteen
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 5:12pmI think it’s like anything else. You just have to use common sense. If you open a Facebook email account you should only use it to communicate with your facebook friends. You should never give it to banks, businesses or anyone you don’t want having your information. It should be used as a way of communicating with your friends and that’s it! I know, I know, it’ll never happen, but if people are careless they get what’s coming to them.
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 5:24pm@Fearthevoices
Yes the system most likely will be such as this…
(Boyfriend posts: Got bombed this weekend, onboard the plane coming home.
(Moments later: “Homeland Security…we need to take a long talk with you, no rights, and no one will be seeing you for a long time…”
Report Post »2
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 5:26pmDo you people have lives? Is yours a Black or a Crack Berry?
P.S. GET THE ILLEGAL MEXICANS OUT & 12 THE BATTLE IS OVER.
Major Infidel
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 6:07pmThats a scary point.
Report Post »thesixfour
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 6:51pmKinda funny even if you “delete” your facebook profile – everything still stays – you can log back in at anytime. If you are “off” it and once were “on” – better scrub as much as you can.
The profile doesn’t actually delete.
Report Post »thepatriotdave
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 7:02pmjohn seven eighteen,
John, then lets say you piss-off one of your friends and they decide its time to give out your personal info to the cyber-world….. see where I’m going with this?
Facebook is a place for people that do NOT care about privacy concerns.
PatriotShops.com
Report Post »vg0va3
Posted on November 16, 2010 at 7:12amFacebook….never used it and refuse to do so!
Report Post »RightWrite
Posted on November 16, 2010 at 10:17amGoogle has SMS and Google voice for their Gmail — makes gmail so powerful that facebook is no comparison. The problem is that most people don‘t use these features because they don’t know about them. With Gmail, you get free phone calling and texting — free phone for anywhere in the USA on the web.
Report Post »superbyelich
Posted on November 16, 2010 at 11:34amCheck this artical out all:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/04/report-facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-doesnt-believe-in-privacy/
Report Post »