Facebook Email in response to Google Gmail Buzz

Thursday, 11 February 2010, 19:07 | Category : Fiction, Internet, News, Technology
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The inevitable has finally happened. The war of Email and Social Networking between Facebook and Google has reached an all time high. Facebook, world’s no. 1 social networking website has quietly launched its dramatically new email service, the FBMail or the Facebook Mail. Some select Facebook users have reported that were surprised to find that their Facebook accounts had a new tab called “email” which had an entire email application built onto it that Facebook calls FBMail. Their existing friends were already included in the address book. The Facebook email application is said to be in beta phase and it may be possible that it would roll out to more users in the months to come.

New Email Service from Facebook FBMail

It is anticipated that this is in response to Google Buzz, the social networking application that is built right into Gmail and is attracting lot of users. The first hit by the Google Buzz is the traffic on websites like Facebook and Twitter. Many of the Google Buzz users have indicated that Google Buzz built in Gmail has made Twitter and Facebook less tempting to use.

Google Buzz

The facebook email service has all the usual ajax/javascript features to give it the desktop client like feel (just as it is with Gmail, Yahoo mail and Hotmail). In addition the users also have to option to send alternate forms of messages. From the same compose box users have the option of:

  • Sending Emails
  • Sending Status Updates
  • Sending Text Messages
  • Sending an IM

This has been termed as a smart move as it converges every form of communication though it still keeps the distinction intact in order to keep more formal communication like the email with attachments intact while giving users the freedom to make use of social networking features. Although some analysts have hinted that Google Wave was a similar product though it could not take off really well as it was considered geeky by the masses.

It may be interesting to note that Microsoft is particularly happy with the product as it continues to have a share in Facebook. This new email feature in Facebook is expected to make a lot of people especially those in the age group of 12-40 to switch from Gmail to Facebook email which could be a major upset for Google as after the advent of Gmail the war of email was considered nearly over.