Facebook seems to be giving Google one blow after another. Just when you thought Google had the upper hand by banning Gmail users from importing their contacts on Facebook, Facebook comes up with a killer idea. It is planning on revamping its messaging system. Yes the same messaging system, which a few changes here and there aside has been mostly static since its inception.
Dubbed ‘Project Titan’, Facebook is coming up with a full scale webmail client like Yahoo Mail, Hotmail and Gmail for that matter. But then it has already crossed many landmarks such as being the top most social networking website in the world with over 500 million users and being the most visited website on the net. If it were a country today, it would be in the top 5 on the list in terms of population.
So then, why does Facebook need to come up with an email application?
- An average user has more than 130 friends on Facebook. This makes entry into email an interesting option as Facebook already knows the friends a user interacts with most of the time. This can be much better than the recently introduced Priority Inbox by Gmail in filtering messages
- Millions of people log onto Facebook via Facebook Connect and more than 80,000 third party applications. The fact that Facebook Mail is expected to have both POP and IMAP will make it all the more easier for people to login through third party sites
- Facebook has the best products like Facebook Photos, Facebook Events, Places etc. and the fact that this could be shared via Facebook Mail could make it a competitor for Gmail to watch out for. Microsoft is also working with Facebook to integrate the Office Web Apps with Facebook Mail to exchange and share documents.
- Facebook has more than 500 million users which is much more than the most popular webmail client currently – Hotmail with 400 million users. Though all the users may not use it, this definitely could prove to be a turning point in the history of email
Facebook Mail will give users an opportunity to have @facebook.com addresses. From social networking to search to now a webmail client, Facebook is showing Google that it has the ability to constantly innovate and come up with new products. The fact that Google had to recently raised the salaries of their employees by 10% to prevent them being poached speaks volumes of how much they are feeling the heat.
Think about it – Who will not want @facebook.com email IDs? There will be huge rush…there is no doubt about that !
There is a long time to go before Project Titan can be hailed as a Gmail killer. But one thing is clear, Facebook is ready to take on Google, HEAD ON!
Whats your take – Will Facebook Mail be Gmail Killer or not? On a side note, why no body is calling Facebook Mail as Yahoo mail killer or Hotmail Killer….Something to ponder on :)
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