The rumor mills are swirling at warp speed with news that Facebook is set to launch its own e-mail service tomorrow. The so-called Fmail (formerly known as Project Titan, or Facebook's Gmail killer) is seen as another front in the growing war between Google and Facebook for dominance of the web services world.
Why is this so important? I'll be overly simple: Because whoever gets more people like you and me to spend more time hanging out online with their particular services wins the right to see more advertising.
There's way more to it than that, of course, but a titanic battle is shaping up, and Google may find itself on a slippery slope if it doesn't play this one right. Pop some popcorn, pull up a chair and enjoy the show.
Your turn: Would you use Facebook Mail? I'll pre-bias the discussion here: I would, because I can't comment on or write about things that I don't use first-hand. But I wouldn't be happy about it. Facebook's spotty record on the privacy front gives me great pause. This is the company that allows third party developers to quietly scaff personal data from your Facebook account every time you so much as answer a question online. Are you really going to trust them with your personal - and increasingly professional - correspondence?
One more thing: I discussed this very issue on-air this afternoon with John Downs, host of Newstalk 1010's Sundays with John Downs. If you're a CFRB listener who tuned in and have dropped in for a read, welcome! As this is shaping up to be a major topic for the coming week, I expect I'll be writing about it in some capacity over the next few days. Stay tuned.
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18 comments:
Got my chair..popcorn, pen and paper..Taking notes.. Personally, no I will not use FMail..I already do not use their instant messaging service..
Keep us posted!!!!
While I appreciate facebook for the life-sharing properties, I do not care to give them full access to my e-mail. (They ask for it every time I log in, to "help" me find people from my e-mail contacts on facebook. Um, no thanks.
Never. I love my gmail.
Carolyn
Carmi- prolly not...
since i started following a bunch of blogs, it is everything i can do to clean out trhee in boxes...
plus i only like a couple things about fb...reconnecting with a couple HS friends and a place to post my new blog link...
don't play hte games and rarely comment other than like, and only change my status once a day if that...
nope! i wouldn't use FB mail...
and if they shoved it down my throat because i have a FB account with them...
then i'd say ByeBye...
Nope. I've got gmail, hotmail, my school email and couple of my own srossi.net email accounts. That's enough to keep track of.
I have a facebook account, but almost never visit it. I spend enough time on the internet with my blog and the blogs I follow.
since i'm basically tech stupid i'll stick with th email i know
Facebook is great for social networking. It has no place in e-mail services since it sells your information to people who send you trash mail.
I don't even use facebook, so I won't be adding yet another e-mail address to my numerous ones I already have.
I think I would use it... I rarely check my email but i check my facebook regularly.. I can do them both in record timing.. awesome!11
I have a number of email addresses already, but I doubt I would use it anyway. Facebook has an appalling record on member privacy, and the last thing I need is to have them reading my emails. If it is not tied up in their web interface, and I could use PGP, I would consider it, but I trust Google a lot more than I do Facebook.
Even though my Fb account is private, some search website shows my fake Fb birthday year. That clearly says that there is no privacy on FB. I'll never use their email service. Privacy from ordinary folks not from Web beacons.
nope here too...don't trust them after some of those issues with privacy
I'm with you Carmi. Facebook's spotty record on the privacy front gives me great pause.
Nope. FB is for social networking. Linked in is for Professional networking. Google is for email, as is Yahoo. That's plenty to keep track of.
I use FB's internal email for some things, but if I have someone's email that exits outside of FB I prefer to use that. I won't give up my Gmail account. It is my primary contact and I trust Google's ability to protect my info a lot more than Facebook. And who wants farmville ads and dating ads in email...
busy busy day at written inc.
no to FB mail, or its endless surveys
Your email, chats, IM's and text messages all rolling into your Facebook mail. What could be simpler? 'Course that assumes you're always connected to facebook (instead of face time) and that's just not my style.
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