@facebook.com email?

[whiskeylover]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/15/techs-big-day-the-battle-to-see-who-will-change-your-web/?hpt=T2


First up, Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg's company is expected to make a big move today against rival Google by announcing its own e-mail service. (http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/11/15/facebook.email/index.html) So, if you're one of the 500 million active Facebook users, your online activity may become even more streamlined. Depending on the depth of the service, it could mean that your chats, posts, photos and e-mail will all come from the same window - or app. It's been dubbed a possible "Gmail killer," a tough name to live up to, but if it can pull it off it may solidify Facebook's spot atop the tech mountain.What do you guys think? Personally I think this is going to be a flop. Facebook doesn't know huge databases and storage like Google does.

[SeijiSensei]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/15/techs-big-day-the-battle-to-see-who-will-change-your-web/?hpt=T2

What do you guys think? Personally I think this is going to be a flop. Facebook doesn't know huge databases and storage like Google does.

Not to mention that Google bought Postini (http://www.google.com/postini/index.html), one of the principal suppliers of pre-delivery mail scanning services. I have a bit of experience with Internet services for law firms here in Boston; I'd bet half or more of the larger firms get their mail via Postini.

[Mr. Picklesworth]

I think Telepathy and Purple have been doing this for a few years now, although Telepathy (sadly) ignores email in its design philosophy. Maybe this will kick off a telepathy-imap service ;)

They both break at the same point: messages that come in on other devices, like text messages to your phone. Maybe it'll lead to some change in that space eventually.

[Verbeck]

facebook itself would fail..eventually

[bryangwilliam]

That sounds great! Now Mark Zuckerberg can share the content of all my emails with advertisers as well!

I would sooner start using Windows Vista than rely on Facebook as an email provider.

[sydbat]

That sounds great! Now Mark Zuckerberg can share the content of all my emails with advertisers as well!

I would sooner start using Windows Vista than rely on Facebook as an email provider.Probably be more stable...Windows that is...

[whiskeylover]

Can you imagine the news feeds?

Sarah sent you an Email - Last night was awesome! - Like Comment
13 people liked this

[Tristam Green]

Facebook doesn't know huge databases and storage like Google does.

Seeing as gobs of Facebook employees are former Google employees themselves, I am sure they actually do.

[whiskeylover]

Seeing as gobs of Facebook employees are former Google employees themselves, I am sure they actually do.

I stand corrected.

[czr114]

What could possibly go wrong by letting one company datamine your entire digital life, sell the results, and database them forever?

I pay about $30/year for my own domain and hosting, with full POP3S/SMTPS connectivity. I could get that down to about $20 if I cut the web hosting and went only to hosted email. Compared to cable Internet which runs $60/month, the cost of real, private email is a non-issue.

Funny thing is, though, I've suggested this to people who shell out $100+/month on Internet and $100+/month on a smartphone, but they balk at the cost.

There's no such thing as a free lunch. Facebook, Gmail, Live, and others aren't providing a free lunch. Their email has a cost, even though it isn't money.

[ubunterooster]

What do you guys think? Personally I think this is going to be a flop. Facebook doesn't know huge databases and storage like Google does.
Actually, Facebook's growth is one of the largest and fastest; They could easily pull it off

[oldsoundguy]

It is part of their new server farm. They started out last spring breaking ground for a HUGE building in Prineville, Oregon (much bigger than the facility that Google built in The Dalles, Oregon)
Before the concrete had even dried on the slab and the walls started to go up, they doubled the floor space .. and before that was even started, they doubled the space again. They keep it up, and the building will surpass Boing's assembly building in Washington .. which is one of the largest buildings in the world!

Now, as to their eMail .. if those servers run Windows based crap as they do now, not a chance in hell that it will work or be stable!

[ubunterooster]

Now, as to their eMail .. if those servers run Windows based crap as they do now, not a chance in hell that it will work or be stable!I thought Facebook was linux.

[lisati]

I have enough of a task keeping my own server running smoothly with sufficiently interesting content and accessibility for legitimate contacts, without worrying too much about social networking sites.

[Lancro]

Well, hotmail has spread a lot, because of messenger, facebook can do the same, the quality of the service wont be the best, and less on the beggining, but they have 500 millions of potential customers, so they can do it.

[samalex]

I don't plan on ditching Gmail for a Facebook email account, but honestly from a security standpoint Google is just as bad as Facebook... Google has just done a better job keeping it behind the scenes. Not unlike Facebook, Google keeps everything saved someplace, so whether it's for their own analytics, for advertisement, or whatever I think they're two peas in a pod.

[simpleblue]

Next thing we'll see is a Facebook browser.


There's no such thing as a free lunch. Facebook, Gmail, Live, and others aren't providing a free lunch. Their email has a cost, even though it isn't money.
Great point. I'm surprised noone what brought that up yet. And I agree. I cringe to think of what info google has on me. They probably know more about me then I do! :shock:

Also, it's kinda tacky to have advertisements on the end of your email.

And what would they call it?

@fmail?
@facebook.com

[earthpigg]

And what would they call it?

@fmail?
@facebook.com

whois tells me that fmail.com and fbook.com are owned by someone not facebook.

my prediction is fb.com

[czr114]

Next thing we'll see is a Facebook browser.
We're not quite there yet, but browsers like Flock and Rockmelt are headed in that direction. Facebook can't let third parties steal their proprietary thunder for too long, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a Firefox or Chrome bundled with some sort of Facebook integration, just like Google was doing with FF and now Chrome.



Great point. I'm surprised noone what brought that up yet. And I agree. I cringe to think of what info google has on me. They probably know more about me then I do! :shock:


Google execs have already revealed their goal of building predictive algorithms more accurate than a user's own conscious mind.



Also, it's kinda tacky to have advertisements on the end of your email.

It's horribly tacky, and that's not even the worst part.

Would it be plausible that users of this service might unknowingly be contributing to the Facebook metastasis?

Suppose a user wishes to send a photoset or short video clip to ten contacts. With standard email, the SMTP server would queue up ten in the outbound, and deliver the content accordingly. Might a Facebook email service "suggest" that the content be hosted by Facebook, and replaced by a link in the outgoing message? This would reduce usage of Facebook's resources and insert brand advertising into more and more outbound emails.

Even if it doesn't become default or mandatory, as it probably wouldn't, more and more people doing it will create a greater nuisance and greater content restrictions for those not yet assimilated by Facebook. People who thoughtlessly assent might be rendering their content inaccessible by putting it inside a Facebook login gateway, instead of including it as standard attachments in a MIME message.

That's just one example. I can think of hundreds of ways in which a monolithic provider could undermine the purpose of SMTP/MIME and turn it into a sort of notification transport protocol having less utility for those not part of the service.

I can recall all the supposedly "helpful" pieces of commercial spam I used to get from Facebook every time a user thoughtlessly imported their contact list into Facebook's spammy invite engine. Their propensity for spewing out unwanted commercial email apparently thought I might relent and assimilate after a few hundred people with whom I have communicated via email turned over their contacts, creating multiple instances of spam "reminders" each time somebody did it.

Despite never signing up for the service, Facebook considers my email inbox their "product" and spams it relentlessly. Only a full block on facebook.com/facebookmail.com at my host was able to stop the unsolicited bulk email I never asked for and didn't want. I know my email address is still sitting on a Facebook server, just waiting to be stolen by criminal spammers with an inside connection, as Facebook continues to send these spammy reminders.

If Facebook launches an email service, and provides standard address books to users, how soon before a "notify my contacts" button appears on whatever people do on Facebook, as a way to generate more Facebook-branded email to people who have yet to assimilate? Even a few contacts who use this notification (or businesses, who import their contacts and don't seem to care) could quickly swamp an inbox with countless link-infested notifications of every meaningless little detail.


Will Facebook take a page from Microsoft and adopt embrace, extend, and extinguish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish) as a way to undermine email over SMTP in one way or another? Based on how they behave so far, it certainly seems within the realm of possibility. The other potential threat is a blizzard of unwanted email on an opt-out paradigm.

[v1ad]

I would never use a Facebook email. just the thought alone brings shivers.

1. Facebook tends to be targeted by hackers quite often.
2. too much data for 1 company.
3. Privacy--;
4. Personal distrust of Facebook :].

as someone has already stated, the best route is getting your own email. especially if you have your own site. yourname@yourdomain.com.

most of the time that comes with almost all host packages.

[kevin11951]

It is part of their new server farm. They started out last spring breaking ground for a HUGE building in Prineville, Oregon (much bigger than the facility that Google built in The Dalles, Oregon)
Before the concrete had even dried on the slab and the walls started to go up, they doubled the floor space .. and before that was even started, they doubled the space again. They keep it up, and the building will surpass Boing's assembly building in Washington .. which is one of the largest buildings in the world!

Now, as to their eMail .. if those servers run Windows based crap as they do now, not a chance in hell that it will work or be stable!


I thought Facebook was linux.

Facebook runs F5 Big-IP which are Linux based appliance servers... http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=facebook.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F5_Networks#BIG-IP


F5's BIG-IP product is based on a network appliance (either virtual or physical), which runs F5's Traffic Management Operating System (TMOS), which runs on top of Linux. This appliance can then run one or more product modules (depending on the appliance selected), which provide the BIG-IP functionality.

[fatality_uk]

Facebook doesn't know huge databases and storage like Google does.

What do you count as huge? 500 Million users needs some big ol databases

[oldsoundguy]

Facebook runs F5 Big-IP which are Linux based appliance servers... http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=facebook.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F5_Networks#BIG-IP

I stand corrected. .... then it must be poorly maintained. (of course, people with easily cracked passwords do NOT make it easy for the IT crew!)

Of course .. people that rely on G-Mail and Yahoo and other "free" mail services instead of using their internet provider, have absolutely NO recourse when something goes south, nor do they have any reasonable expectation of complete privacy.
Those accounts are fine for using as spam catchers when you "register" at on line sites you seldom visit or many never visit again.

[kevin11951]

I stand corrected. .... then it must be poorly maintained. (of course, people with easily cracked passwords do NOT make it easy for the IT crew!)

Of course .. people that rely on G-Mail and Yahoo and other "free" mail services instead of using their internet provider, have absolutely NO recourse when something goes south, nor do they have any reasonable expectation of complete privacy.
Those accounts are fine for using as spam catchers when you "register" at on line sites you seldom visit or many never visit again.

Well, my personal email is hosted at GMail, but my business email as self-hosted on Citadel/UX and Ubuntu...

[corrytonapple]

Just a bad idea. They already know a lot about people, and you know that they are just gonna know more. So now we have three big competitors right now:


Google; Gmail and Buzz
Yahoo; Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messengar
Facebook; Facebook Mail and Facebook.com

Take your pick. However you roll the dice, you will still have privacy invasions and sites that are probably always trying to be hacked. I use Gmail now, but I plan and am getting a server going for our sites and then for an email server.

[czr114]

A better way to catch registration spam is using forwarders on your own domain. Not only can they be effortlessly shut down when abused, but because each abused account is unique, it enables a traitor tracing strategy to identify the leak or the renegade spammer. If enough users identify rogue or compromised services, they can be exposed, fixed, shamed into change, or shut down. Only a handful of watchers is necessary before the spam problem appears in search results or goes viral.

The Gmail +subbox notation is ineffective as the spammers are able to identify and remove it.

[pizza-is-good]

I would sooner start using Windows Vista than rely on Facebook as an email provider.

Same here...


What could possibly go wrong by letting one company datamine your entire digital life, sell the results, and database them forever?

I pay about $30/year for my own domain and hosting, with full POP3S/SMTPS connectivity. I could get that down to about $20 if I cut the web hosting and went only to hosted email. Compared to cable Internet which runs $60/month, the cost of real, private email is a non-issue.

Oh, nothing at all, right?

On a more serious note, I have been thinking of doing that as well.
The question I am still researching is how much safer is it? How much right to your data does your host have?


I would never use a Facebook email. just the thought alone brings shivers.

1. Facebook tends to be targeted by hackers quite often.
2. too much data for 1 company.
3. Privacy--;
4. Personal distrust of Facebook :].

Agree 100%. To me, just the thought of using facebook itself scares me.


Just a bad idea. They already know a lot about people, and you know that they are just gonna know more. So now we have three big competitors right now:


Google; Gmail and Buzz
Yahoo; Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messengar
Facebook; Facebook Mail and Facebook.com

Take your pick. However you roll the dice, you will still have privacy invasions and sites that are probably always trying to be hacked. I use Gmail now, but I plan and am getting a server going for our sites and then for an email server.

I would say google is the lesser of the three evils here. While the privacy thing is huge in all three, google keeps your data to themselves. From observation, I think google is the one that has been least hacked. At least only google employees read your email. :lolflag:

[Dr. C]

What could possibly go wrong by letting one company datamine your entire digital life, sell the results, and database them forever?

I pay about $30/year for my own domain and hosting, with full POP3S/SMTPS connectivity. I could get that down to about $20 if I cut the web hosting and went only to hosted email. Compared to cable Internet which runs $60/month, the cost of real, private email is a non-issue.

Funny thing is, though, I've suggested this to people who shell out $100+/month on Internet and $100+/month on a smartphone, but they balk at the cost.

There's no such thing as a free lunch. Facebook, Gmail, Live, and others aren't providing a free lunch. Their email has a cost, even though it isn't money.

Which is a truly excellent idea. I have had my email on my own domain for over 10 years now. By the way for maximum protection one needs to use a domain registrar that does not have a business relationship with the web hosting company.

[themarker0]

Anyone else tired of facebook? I use it purely because one person i talk to can't get on MSN because of troubles they have computer wise, and live farish away.

[RiceMonster]

I think I'll stick with gmail.

[Dr. C]

A large number of organizations block facebook.com making a @facebook.com email a very poor choice for an email address. This is also one of the big downsides to using someone else's domain in one's email. One can never know how the recipient feels about the domain name owner.

I can just see someone applying for a job by email, using a @facebook.com email address, at a company that blocks facebook.com. How will the resume be received if it even makes it past the firewall?

[czr114]

Here it is: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/16/facebook_embrace_and_extend_email_hubris/

As predicted, the whole thing is proprietary, and embrace, extend, extinguish seems to be the announced policy.

Different walled garden, same problems.

[CharlesA]

A large number of organizations block facebook.com making a @facebook.com email a very poor choice for an email address. This is also one of the big downsides to using someone else's domain in one's email. One can never know how the recipient feels about the domain name owner.

I can just see someone applying for a job by email, using a @facebook.com email address, at a company that blocks facebook.com. How will the resume be received if it even makes it past the firewall?

Yep. I wonder how that would affect job applicants. @facebook vs @yahoo or @gmail. :confused:

[pwnst*r]

I don't plan on ditching Gmail for a Facebook email account, but honestly from a security standpoint Google is just as bad as Facebook... Google has just done a better job keeping it behind the scenes. Not unlike Facebook, Google keeps everything saved someplace, so whether it's for their own analytics, for advertisement, or whatever I think they're two peas in a pod.

Citation needed, thanks.


Facebook runs F5 Big-IP which are Linux based appliance servers... http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=facebook.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F5_Networks#BIG-IP

Not sure why pointing that out makes a difference. Incorporating BigIP servers doesn't mean much since it's mostly traffic management. Trust me, I know.

[czr114]

Yep. I wonder how that would affect job applicants. @facebook vs @yahoo or @gmail. :confused:

Not well. Gmail and Yahoo already have an unprofessional image about them, but it's not a big deal for most positions, and SMTP blocks on those domains are exceedingly rare.

Facebook, as an symbol of unprofessional frivolity, is even worse, and facebook.com/facebookmail.com blocks are already common or the domains score higher due to repetitive invite spam. The domain itself is regularly 86'ed for all traffic, HTTP included, in many business or educational environments.

Zuckerberg is on crack if he thinks most sysadmins are going to open the Facebook floodgate so people can access the Facebook mail portal, and send and receive email free of filters and blocks.

I'm sure their branding monkeys wanted @facebook.com, though.