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.'"
Re:what ever happened to good old email? (Score:4, Interesting)
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!"
I don't have an answer, other than the fact that these services are "free" and whatever downsides there are to these technologies, most people seem blissfully unaware of them. I'm on your side though: I've run my own mail server since before the Internet went public (I ran a decent BBS at one point, and was a hub for a number of mail networks.) When I first got online with the Internet, my first thought was to do the same for my own mail. I saw (and still) see no reason to let my mail pass through anyone else's servers if I don't have to. I wouldn't want my snail mail pawed over by a corporation looking to sell "targeted" junk mail either.
Several problems (Score:4, Interesting)
The big problem Facebook has right now is credibility. Given the myriad of accounts that are hijacked daily, the privacy issues, I can think of no other company I want my data to be on less than Facebook. Except maybe Microsoft but I like piling on Microsoft.
From what I can tell, it would take years for FB to get spam under control because they don't even have it under control on their site now. One reason I'm using GMail is because no other online email app rejects spam better.
Facebook can't rely on pretty colors and whirly thingies. They need to get their act together before branching out. Yes, Microsoft was able to branch out by spreading mediocrity but the world was a lot less tech savvy then.
Re:How about some V14GR4 in your facebook? (Score:1, Interesting)
On Facebook, I posted my real name and my gmail address. Outside of that, I used it some for posts (no images; I'm sure they'll revert to claiming ownership again some day) when I first got it, now it's basically quiet. I have the privacy dialed back pretty far, for whatever good that does, and I've given nothing more than my real name and gmail address still to this day. Friends can find me. That's all I wanted.
I'm just waiting now for a distributed system and open protocols to break down the walled garden. If Google would push that (as they pushed XMPP and federation with GTalk) then I think the momentum would help. As for Facebook, you know they WON'T push that kind of thing EVER. That's why I'm more likely to leave data with Google. At least they've shown evidence of a modicum of respect for privacy and open standards.
Google? (Score:4, Interesting)
Here's an interesting graphic that surprised me. U.S. Internet traffic to Web-based email clients [zdnet.com]
#1 Yahoo - 72.8 million
#2 Hotmail - 48.5 million
#3 GMail - 25.1 million
Re:Google? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Schmidt might not be worried, but I am. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Google? (Score:1, Interesting)
It helps that Yahoo has one of the more draconian sets of privacy rules out there. Terrible as it may sound that they have (if memory serves) refused relatives of the deceased access to their former e-mail without a court order, at least you know going in that you'll never get an advertisement for Gillette after mentioning it in a mail.