Facebook Messages - It's Not Email!

“This is not an email killer” the words of Facebook co-founder, Mark Zuckerburg, yesterday. So what can we expect of Facebook’s new Message’s system?

It was widely expected that Facebook would announce an email service on Monday (15 November 2010) and they duly delivered in what could be a major change in the landscape of email.

It’s important to stress that, as Mr. Zuckerburg has already done, this doesn’t mean the end of email but it does mean a new approach and major competition to Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL and Microsoft.

“Messages is not email”

The new Messages service is designed to create a single hub that allows you to contact and interact with everyone you want to and through whatever medium that suits them best. However, they stress that this is not email, even though a @facebook.com address is now available. The Facebook blog stated

“We are also providing an @facebook.com email address to every person on Facebook who wants one. Now people can share with friends over email, whether they're on Facebook or not. To be clear, Messages is not email.”

This integrated style of messaging is likely to gain traction as it aims to create a more seamless mode of communication, including email! Bad news for Gmail et al then; especially as this service goes out to more than 500million users straightaway.