Facebook's 'Gmail killer': Site set to
launch its own email service to take on Google
Mark Zuckerberg is expected to unveil
a new Facebook email service
Facebook is set to launch its own email
service to rival Google’s Gmail and Mircrosfot’s Hotmail.
The social networking site - which boasts more
than 500 million users worldwide - will host a
special event in San Francisco later today.
According to technology website TechCrunch,
Facebook will tonight unveil a full-fledged
web email product, which is being referred
to within Facebook as a ‘Gmail-killer.’
There are also rumours that all Facebook users
will be given a ‘facebook.com’ email address
as part of the new concept which is known as
'Project Titan'.
At the moment Facebook users are able to
contact one another by either posting on
each other's wall or by Facebook's own
internal messaging service.
Project Titan is expected to be a revamp
of the existing messaging as well as a fully
functional ,stand-alone email client
just like Gmail or Hotmail.
Eden Zoller, principal analyst at Ovum, said:
'An email service from Facebook makes a lot of sense.
'It has a huge base of 500 million users
that already love to communicate and share,
and Facebook is giving them richer ways to
do this through virtual gifts, games,
location and even voice thanks to the
recent integration deal with Skype.
'Adding email to the mix is a logical step
and Facebook could tap into user data to
provide an attractive, highly personalised
service. You would also expect it to push
mobile features given its big move in
this direction. '
The move will certainly alarm Facebook's
nearest rivals such as Yahoo and Google.
The press conference this evening in
San Francisco comes amid an ongoing row
between Google and Facebook. Last week,
Google began blocking a Facebook feature
that allows users to automatically import
Gmail contact data into the social
networking service.
Google accused Facebook of siphoning up
Google data without allowing for the automatic
import and export of Facebook users' information.
They are also increasingly vying for engineering
talent in Silicon Valley. This week, Google
internally announced plans to boost salaries
by 10 percent, according to media reports,
in a move viewed as an effort to staunch an
exodus of engineers and managers to Facebook.
Google has banned Facebook from importing its
users' e-mail contacts, a move it says it
made because Facebook refused to allow the
export of contact and friend data from
within user profiles.
The expected announcement by Facebook comes
as former internet big-hitter AOL is opening
the doors to its new web-based e-mail program,
code-named Project Phoenix, for a limited
number of users. Starting next year, anyone
will be able to sign up for access to a
beta test site.
The Project Phoenix inbox page was designed
to make it easier to fire off a quick email,
text or instant message with just a few clicks
on a ‘quick bar’ at the top of the page.
People can also send short replies directly from
the inbox page, without having to click on a
message first. The new design displays thumbnails
of recent photo attachments at a glance,
and lets people toggle between several
open e-mails at a time.
When someone is reading an e-mail with pictures
attached, the photos will also show up as
thumbnails next to the message.
Addresses in the body of the e-mail will
trigger the system to display a map from
AOL's Mapquest on the right-hand side,
with the option to click for directions.
Project Phoenix lets people link up their
email accounts on services from Microsoft
Yahoo and Google. In future versions,
AOL also plans to pull in Twitter,
Facebook and LinkedIn messages.
2 comments:
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