Facebook email aka the Gmail-Killer

Facebook has recently delivered what they have been promising for a while now and that is, integration of email and text within your existing Facebook account. They have kept it simple. Your Facebook username becomes your email, so for example the username of “AtifHussain” will automatically have the email address of atifhussain@facebook.com. The new feature also lets users send text messages once a mobile number has been registered. This will allow you and you friends to text each other through Facebook. Although Facebook will not charge you for sending the text, reply back will cost as per provider. I tried to register my number in Egypt and it did not work.

But is it the end of email, as we know it? Is it a “Gmail-Killer” as it was pitched previously? I suppose it’s too early to tell but I would think Facebook would have to offer a different medium to access their Facebook email if they truly want to move in to the territory of Hotmail and Google. Facebook is generally not accessible in work and educational establishments, so it is highly unlikely that it’s going to kill of Gmail. Most users initially will be registering their email with Facebook for fear of loosing their desired Facebook email.

Timing is always crucial when it comes to technology. Google and Microsoft know this. Introducing a technology too early or too late can both have a negative bearing.

To conclude in the words of Mark Zuckerberg “This is not an email killer. This is a messaging system that includes email as one part of it”. So far that seems to be the case.