[gerrit]

So Facebook once again is going to play copy-cat on MySpace, who have @myspace.com email addresses already for a while (note: I am absolutely not a fan of MySpace, stating this fact doesn't mean I like them). Facebook apparently want to integrate email into their package in addition to the common PMs, allowing to email people outside of the Facebook platform using a @facebook.com email address. Zuckerberg tape states he does not want to be a competitor for regular email, but for sure it seems the idea has strong similarities with Google Wave and to certain extent with other webmail that integrate chat systems and profiles within their service.

Obviously nothing new, Facebook has been based on longer existing profile sites such as MySpace, Friendster, Bebo, etc and now they're just copying yet another idea. But given the popularity of FB this could maybe be a serious threat to the established email providers out there.

Anyone intending on using this service? Am I the only one longing for the days when email was just that, email without any chats and agendas and messengers integrated? As I abstained from Facebook and MySpace quite a while ago, I won't be using it, but I can see a load of emails coming in from those facebook.com addresses and can't say I am very pleased with that.

Seems for many people Facebook has become the new internet. In the past you had your email account, a website for your self introduction, a photo space for sharing pictures, and a messenger system for chat. Now this is all integrated in one platform and for many people this has almost become a surrogate for the internet in itself. To the extent that people are almost astonished when you tell them you don't use Facebook ...

Story (apologies for being a week late but I see no topic about this existed yet anyways...)

 

[Sam James]

clearly facebook would like to not only sell your personal identification information and your network to marketers, he would also like to sell your correspondence to them as well.

Next he will want to provide online banking on Facebook.

 

[Alcalaina]

No way! And I wouldn't use my mobile to do status updates either, or put any personal contact information whatsoever on Facebook.

It's been fantastic for locating and keeping in touch with distant friends and family, but that's all I want from it.

 

[Sam James]

When George Orwell first conceived "1984," the distopia depended on an resource intensive superstructure of spying on each other and review by the government. It required a lot of government employees.

The United States government was far more devious. They invented the internet, so people would spy on themselves in their own free time, then report the results. Those results - Facebook. Cheaper and 100x more effective. Now with pictures and speed-of-light updates.

 

[gerrit]

It's been fantastic for locating and keeping in touch with distant friends and family, but that's all I want from it.

But that can be perfectly accomplished by email and Skype. Less preying eyes, and equally effective. I email my friends very often, with my parents I talk on Skype very often. You don't need a platform like FB or MySpace to stay in touch with loved ones far away. Email is old school but still very effective, with that difference your conversations are not read by a ton of other people

Facebook is borderline criminality, Sam James' post is spot-on. Sometimes old school is still the best. Email is all I need to stay in touch with my friends.