Someone asked me why Facebook would want to get into the e-mail business. I told him that there were 500 million excellent reasons. With Facebook's official Facebook Messages announcement that it's unveiling radically reimagined messaging, Facebook has, indeed, stepped into the e-mail fray, though the company is at pains to call it anything but e-mail. Email, messaging, whatever you call it, Facebook's Facebook Messages rethink will certainly change the way we think about e-mail.
Some of what Facebook unveiled is not particularly revolutionary: folders, junk mail, a Facebook.com e-mail address. However everything else will take e-mail and messaging to new, unexplored places. Imagine your e-mail system choosing for Pandora Bracelets on sale your how to message a contact based on where you are and what you're doing. I'll be honest, it might freak me out if the message I started typing in Facebook "e-mail" suddenly shifted to Facebook "chat" because the contact happened to be live on the Facebook service. That agility, however, will likely be welcomed by the core Facebook audience.
Such an agile message system will quickly break down the walls separating texting, IM and e-mail. This is a truer form of conversational interaction than the "conversations" on Gmail, which is really nothing more than message threads.
There will be privacy concerns, because that glare shines on almost anything Facebook introduces. The now fluid mix of various conversation platforms will startle some, but there's nothing intrinsically intrusive or unexpectedly open here. Chat, Messages and SMS conversations as they currently stand are point-to-point conversations, easily controlled by Facebook users. If, for example, you want to hide your existence as a live user on Facebook Chat, you can do so. In theory, if you're not visible on chat in the new service, then your messages could not automatically switch gears.
One of the big changes will be all the incoming mail. New services and people who aren't even on Facebook will be introduced to your Facebook e-mail address and to your Facebook inbox. What a marvelous branding engine—even more impressive because Facebook did not use the much shorter FB.com. I'm sure Facebook members will happily use the new vanity e-mail domain. It will be interesting to see how much of users' every day mail actually ends up in the Facebook in-box. Facebook is providing some storage space, and I'm certain it'll be able to handle all the mail you can throw at it. I bet, though, that some mail may take a while to make it into the Facebook e-mail inbox. Will anyone want their financial and healthcare e-mail messages in an inbox inside Facebook? I doubt it.
Facebook's Zuckerberg said he isn't positioning Facebook Messages as a Gmail killer, and I believe him. I don't see people leaving Gmail or any other messaging service for Facebook Messages. On the other hand, 500 million people getting a blend of social and e-mail messaging in one package, may start to demand the same from their other e-mail services. Microsoft, Yahoo and Google are certainly trying to blend the social with e-mail, but coming from the other direction—e-mail-to-social, which is a much tougher climb. People have a deep-seated distrust of e-mail going social, especially when it comes to their contacts. I think that was the problem with Google Buzz. No one was happy when Google created all your Buzz friends out of your Gmail contacts, without first asking permission. Google's spent most of the time back peddling away from this decision ever since (even fending off a lawsuit). I'm not sure Buzz will ever recover from this first misstep.
Facebook's contacts are already part of your social circle. I don't expect anyone to squawk.
Though I just said Facebook message won't kill other e-mail messaging platforms, I do believe it will change the e-mail landscape. The line between personal and private mail will become much more pronounced. The linear world of work email and even Gmail-style services will be about tasks, work and getting things done. Personal e-mail will be about fluid social interaction that can happen anywhere, at anytime and any way Facebook likes it.
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