Facebook Inbox Throws Blow At Google... No Flinch? 207
CWmike writes "Facebook's new messaging system may not be a Gmail killer, but it's definitely another blow in the growing battle between two Internet bigwigs. Facebook took the wraps off what it's calling a modern messaging system on Monday. The new system is designed to handle the convergence of different kinds of messages — Facebook messages, IMs, SMS and e-mail — and bring them together under a single social umbrella. The system also allows users to have a facebook.com email address, though it will work with other e-mail systems like Gmail and Yahoo. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is adamant that it's not intended to replace e-mail, but industry analysts say the new system will almost certainly draw some users away from Yahoo mail and Google's Gmail. Meanwhile, Google CEO Eric Schmidt told Computerworld that he's not worried at all about Facebook's new 'Social Inbox.' 'More competition is always good because it makes the market larger,' Schmidt said, charging that journalists were hyping the rivalry: 'As a group, you all are focused on the competition rather than the market getting larger. It brings more people in. We are all served by having everybody in the world get online.'"
Schmidt might not be worried, but I am. (Score:5, Insightful)
More people shifting from open federated protocols to the closed world of Facebook is a bad thing. I sincerely hope that it doesn't happen.
Re:Schmidt might not be worried, but I am. (Score:5, Insightful)
More people shifting from open federated protocols to the closed world of Facebook is a bad thing. I sincerely hope that it doesn't happen.
AOL had a shot at this and lost it. People are fickle and the 'latest greatest' trends will turn Facebook into the next MySpace within a few more years. What will replace Facebook? That is the billion dollar question.
what ever happened to good old email? (Score:3, Insightful)
You know, the kind where the content was not owned and searched by a multinational corporation?
I mean it as a serious question, not rhetorical. Why are SO many people willing to have all their communication logged and data-mined by for-profit companies? We've had email since around 1720. OK, maybe more like 1970-1, but anyway still a really long time. Until very recently, it was never true that a huge fraction of it was all going through facebook or google.
Why on earth would people give that up? I can't see what benefit they are getting. As far as I can tell, all modes allowed by something like gmail or facebook can be accomplished without the corporate overlords in the picture. There is email, non-corporate IM, and so forth.
What am I missing? I seem perfectly able to communicate with all my friends online both in real time and non-real time without using those things, so it can't be "you will be isolated!!11!one!"
How about some V14GR4 in your facebook? (Score:5, Insightful)
Google has always done a really, really good job at keeping spam out of my actual inbox. I have had a gmail account for an awfully long time, and the amount of spam that has made it into my inbox is miniscule.
Facebook, on the other hand, makes it a point to spam you with as much crap as possible. What use will a facebook.com mail account be when it is just choked with messages about virtual cows, virtual gifts, virtual sit-ins against and / or for just about everything, etc.
Google is a notorious marketer, but I don't fear them in the same way that I fear facebook. Google promises not to use the information they collect to personally identify you. Facebook already has your personal identification. What do you think that little prick Zuckerberg is going to do with it?
Let's ask Zuck himself:
SLASHDOT: so have you decided what you are going to do about the users?
ZUCK: yea i'm going to fuck them
ZUCK: probably in the ear
ZUCK: yea so if you ever need info about anyone at internets
ZUCK: just ask
ZUCK: i have over 400000000 emails, pictures, addresses, sns
FRIEND: what!? how'd you manage that one?
ZUCK: people just submitted it
ZUCK: i don't know why
ZUCK: they "trust me"
ZUCK: dumb fucks
Facebook (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Meh (Score:5, Insightful)
Correction.
One company just directs ads to you. They serve the ads directly and they don't hand over your private data.
The other company routinely changes privacy policies every couple months so you don't know they're exposing and selling your data after you repeatedly told them you don't want them doing that.
Google's "nightmare scenario"... (Score:5, Insightful)
If I understand the presentation I saw, one of the things this Facebook tool will have going for it is, it'll be an IMAP client. You can punch in the details of your mail server, and use it as webmail for that service. Like, embed SquirrelMail in Facebook.
If Facebook can convince users to punch in the details for GMail's IMAP server, reading their GMail mail via Facebook instead of the GMail web interface, then Google runs the mail infrastructure, but Facebook gets the ad impressions. Remember, if you access GMail via IMAP, you see no ads at all. (I use GMail via IMAP, from several desktop and handheld IMAP clients.) If that started to happen in any volume, I bet Google would wake up and notice.
trust my private and professional mail with Zuck ? (Score:5, Insightful)
sorry, no dice. zuck is trustworthy and reliable for me as much as
I already have convergence (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't see the issue... (Score:5, Insightful)
At this point, if you've used facebook and you haven't been completely neurotic about what you're exposing, they've got a very good handle on who you are, who your friends are, what's in your inbox and what's in your friends inbox.
Those of us, who want to keep our privacy won't use this service. That other group of people have already lost their privacy, they just haven't realized it yet.
Re:what ever happened to good old email? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why are SO many people willing to have all their communication logged and data-mined by for-profit companies?
For the features, of course. Grepping through 7GB of email is slower than hell. I have yet to find a mail client that will import and index that much mail without crashing. Even if one exists it will be damn slow when searching. It also won't be very useful from my phone for maintaining a merged email/phone/postal address book. That PC based client also won't store SMS texts with included images. Or translate my voicemails into text emails.
There's certainly a market for an email system that does all that without storing data non-locally. Nobody has developed it yet, and it won't gain wide acceptance unless it is marketed by Microsoft. And there you're back to having trust issues again.
AOL (Score:1, Insightful)
Yes because centralized integration worked so well for AOL.
Re:what ever happened to good old email? (Score:3, Insightful)
I want a single inbox that is accessible from all of the half dozen devices that I use, and completely up-to-date at any given point regardless of which device is used. I don't see any other choice but the "cloud" here.
FaceBook Has more to worry about now a days. (Score:1, Insightful)
If Facebook is going to become top dog of the internet they should be first focusing on the customer support. As there are thousands of users who are currently "locked" or "blocked" from their accouns for one reason or another. I am one of them, I have been waiting months for a reply and a fix. I just made a second account, and re friended everyone telling them that I am locked out of my other account. No its not a problem with something I did, as all I did was add my mobile number to my account, I recieved the confirmation text and entered it into the page, and was able to log in once. Now when i try to login, it takes me to a page, where it tells me I need to verify my mobile number and to enter it. When I enter it, it tells me that my account has already been verified, and takes me back to a login page where I start the circle again. I have other friends whos accounts have been disabled for some unknown reason, Facebook is asking them to prove they are who is trying to log in, and asking for certin credentials, Which they are minors, and do not have said credentials. Me being the tech savy guy of our click, they come to me for help, unfortunatly there is nothing I can do to help them until FaceBook gets a better customer relations system. They need a tech support, FaceBook looks good for some, until they fall into the darkness of the facebook problems, they will continue to believe facebook is good. FACEBOOK SUCKS when it comes to solving problems that is brought on by the sites scripting errors.
Way I look at it (Score:5, Insightful)
When I submit my cv for a job do I really want my email address to say @facebook.com?
Didn't think so.
Re:Way I look at it (Score:5, Insightful)
When I submit my cv for a job do I really want my email address to say @facebook.com?
Didn't think so.
Even worse, when they look up your profile and see all the "pictures of you" taken by friends at that party you'd rather forget. It happened to me, its really embarrassing. How was I to know that going to the local tea party wasn't going to involve a nice cup of Earl Gray, buttered scones and Jam.