Facebook's New Messaging Service - "It's Not Email"

This morning experts were still speculating what Facebook's new feature would be and now the secret is unveiled!

Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg presented Facebook's "Messages" this morning in San Francisco. Email will not be the main part of it, as many were expecting. According to Facebook's blog post this new messaging system allows users to choose how they would like to communicate with others. The options are via SMS, chat, email or Messages and users will receive messages through whatever medium or device most convenient for them.

Messages will integrate three different parts:
- Seamless Messaging
- Conversation history
- The Social Inbox

The latter one filters incoming emails so that users only see emails from friends and family in their inbox and all other emails will initially land in the "Other Folder". This new feature allows the user to be in control and lets them decide by whom they want to be contacted. Facebook will provide an @facebook.com email address to every user, but it is still up to them whether they want to use it or not.



On the blog, Facebook specifically mentions that Messages will not be email, but can rather be seen as a convenient chat or conversation tool. Messages is not yet available for users, but will be rolled out over the next few months.

Now that the word is out and Facebook will not directly compete with Google or Yahoo email, what do you think about the new Message? Do you think it will be successful?

@facebook.com - Could This Be The Future?

The situation before the Facebook announcement

I came across Pete Cashmore's (CEO of Mashable) latest weekly column on CNN, where he speculates whether the social networking giant Facebook is planning to upgrade its message product so that users would be able to send emails, too. Apparently Facebook invited for a special event this Monday to introduce a new feature. Why is Cashmore speculating? The invitation for the event featured an Inbox logo!


Let's assume Facebook will burst the bubble today and its new feature would be email. The next question would be, whether I would want to switch and use an @facebook.com email for all my future correspondence? I guess several aspects would influence a decision. Personally, I am pretty happy and satisfied with my current email provider, Google. Its services are good, convenient and simple. Thus far, I cannot find a good and compelling reason to switch my provider anytime soon.

Additionally, Facebook is known for its fun social networking services, which Cashmore describes as services reaching from photo sharing to FarmVille. Thus, the question would be how well a Facebook email address would be associated with serious business correspondence? Maybe this again depends on different factors. In what industry you work in for example might influence the acceptance of an @facebook.com address. It might be less appropriate in a law firm, but maybe more acceptable at a tech company or company involved in new media.

For many an @facebook.com email might just be a secondary email address that they can use to interact especially with Facebook friends. A yahoo or gmail address on the other hand could still be used for all other correspondence.

Today is the day! I am sure we will hear about the big Facebook news soon. You can be sure to read about it here at the GGU AMA Marketing Club blog. Until then, let us know what you think about an @facebook.com email? Would you use it?

Foursquare as a "Social Connections Manager"... Will People Buy It?

Hot off the press! TechCrunch just reported that Foursquare has updated its website. You can find the original article on TechCrunch here.

The social application, once reliant on its predominantly mobile platform, has made major improvements to its website. As TechCrunch reporter MG Siegler puts it, Foursquare website now "has utility: as a social connections manager."

But wait a minute - isn't that Facebook's role in people's social network?

IMO, Facebook is currently the most popular "social connections manager" out there - on both mobile and website platforms. Foursquare, in a small way, is also a social connections manager. It's mobile "check-in" feature is popular within the social networking realm because it allows your friends to know where you are currently located. It's an instant GPS locater, and you as the user are in control of the information posted. It's only downside - until now at least - is that it exists primarily on a mobile platform as an application. With the new "Find Friends" feature where you can find and follow your friends on Foursquare on your phone and via the website, Foursquare might just elevate its usefulness onto a whole different level.

While keeping in mind my points below, I pose the following questions:
1) If Foursquare is already a hit as a Facebook application (with a dominant mobile presence), why try to compete with Facebook as a social connections manager?
2) With so many people's real-time updates (News Feed on Facebook, following people on Twitter, instantaneous informational updates via RSS) blowing up your phone, will Foursquare updates turn into yet another platform that induces informational overload?