I had a tough decision this week when it came to my blog. Do I write about The Beatles finally becoming available on iTunes or the big Facebook announcement? While I think The Beatles coming to iTunes is worthy of its own blog, Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement intrigued me more. Earlier this week, the Facebook founder claimed that the company would be gradually rolling out a “social inbox”. The inbox will house all kinds of communication from all different platforms. There will be a single inbox for e-mails (with your new Facebook.com e-mail address), SMS, Facebook chat messages, instant messages, etc.
What is the purpose of this sort of convergence? Does this take communication too far? In this day and age, convergence is key. Last week we read “Convergence Culture” which really hit home for me having recently started a convergence multimedia news site, Hands on Dallas. I believe that if you can go to one specific place and access multiple types of messages you can spend less time on the computer and more time on other tasks. The flip side of this argument, however, is if you are only using one or two types of communication, you will easily become bogged down with a SMS appearing next to an instant message.
For the user who has five e-mail accounts, sends thousands of text messages a month and spends thirty minutes, more or less, on Facebook each day, this social inbox can help organize your thoughts. Google attempted to make a fully converged experience with Google Buzz, but it really failed to take off. Although I didn’t test out the service, I believe that it didn’t have as much success as hoped in part because G-mail (Google’s e-mail service) was the hub of the experience. Facebook isn’t just a place to send messages and up until now, you couldn’t send e-mails. People enjoy Facebook because of the social aspects and connections it offers. While Google may be a more complete package, Facebook definitely has the social advantage. Ironically, Google and Facebook are number one and two in most visited websites. I think that the success of this new feature, ultimately, depends on how easy it is to integrate and converge multiple platforms. As different methods of communication develop, the older method becomes “too” formal. First it was person-to-person communication, then phone calls, is e-mail next?
Great analysis of the whole facebook email announcement. I wonder if this new development is a signifier that email is still going to be around for years to come? I’ve heard some talk recently about how the email will become obsolete if it doesn’t reinvent itself drastically. it does seem like this is what facebook is implying by their actions.
In a way, it seems kinda backwards: before social media, there was email, and along with IM and chatrooms, it was the closest thing to social “anything” via the web, now facebook is coming full-circle by getting into the email game. I guess what I’m trying to say is that this facebook email better rock everyone’s faces off and not end up being empty promises.
If Facebook does take-off as an email provider I think Gmail will stick around because as you mentioned it would be the older method “too formal.” I don’t think I could trust Facebook for work related communications, they seem to have too many problems as is.
A little while ago (weeks/months, or something like that) there was an article that ranked the credibility people assigned to you based on your email domain.
At the top was having your own, such as bri@brianni.com. At the bottom was having hotmail and aol accounts.
Because facebook has made itself “the social network,” I couldn’t imagine it having any serious persona.
For non-young users, how do you think they could use an @facebook account as their main email?
I think Facebook email still not able to substitute the traditional email yet. Most people still use traditional email to send out resume and contact customers.
I think Facebook email will not substitute the traditional email in a short time. People still need the email to send out resume and use email for business purpose.
I do like your convergence analysis. Cell phone is a good example. It convergences camera, phone, mini-computer, and iPod. Convergence will become a trend.
I would never trust FB with that much of my information. The more they role out with things the less that I want to be a part of them.
There is such a thing as doing too much.
I love my gmail because it does everything for me and I trust them way more that FB.
If I were ever to use any kind of FB email I would let them have my junk mail. LOL.
Facebook JUST overtook Google as the #1 visited site on the web. Which is crazy. (They are still battling it out as we speak).
The facebook VS google thing is all about open-VS-closed eco-systems. Facebook is incredibly closed off; they try to make everyone join, or you cannot access anything. Google is all about openness; you can share and access information without joining an ecosystem. You don’t have to be within Google’s walls. With facebook you have to be within it’s walls.
Facebooks email thing confuses me. I don’t get how its going to be any different then their messaging service, except you can send/accept emails from non-facebook users. It seems like it adds a pointless communicative layer to Facebooks (really well thought out) conversation system.
It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out. I think Facebook are relying on all of their young users getting @facebook.com emails and using them forever. Facebook are trying to copyright the use of the word ‘face’, so who knows if they’ve lost touch, or if they’re on to something.