Facebook to launch integrated email and messaging service 

Tuesday, November 16 2010 by Steve Swallow

If one company knows about website promotion, it will be Facebook. Taking its rivalry with Google to a new level, the social networking site has announced that it will be expanding its communications to include SMS, email, chat and Facebook messages in one handy hub.

Facebook's initiative is targeting a longevity drive for the popular social network, which hopes to ensnare new users with a full-on assault on communications. Mark Zuckerberg, the creator and chief executive officer of the website, noted how younger people can find emails both formal and slow, so hopes to change this belief with some heavy

However, a number of commentators - particularly the Daily Telegraph - have noted that as a marketing campaign, Mr Zuckerberg may have hit the nail on the head with the new direction. It said: "It isn't about tech writers, media critics or their parents: it's about the next generation of messengers and - most importantly - locking in tomorrow's advertising demographics."

Google has already failed to create a messaging system after it decided to shelve the unpopular Wave, though its idea did not go as far as that promoted by Facebook.

Among other tools, the biggest addition will be an email client that will offer the previously-unseen "@facebook.com" domain name. However, Mr Zuckerberg tried to play down the purported rivalry with Google, stating: "Gmail is a really good product."

He was quick to add that Facebook's new message service will not replace inboxes where people receive bills, receipts, newsletters and other emails in a formal manner.

Google also has a history of praising Facebook. Google's ownership of YouTube has gained even more popularity through links being posted on the website, while Facebook itself is one of the most popular terms on the flagship search engine. It is anticipated that the latest development in social network communication could, if anything, improve Google's fortunes from its own marketing strategy further.

It follows research from Gartner earlier this month which claimed that20 per cent of employees at companies across the western world will use social networks as their hub for business communications by 2014.

Gartner had noted that communications platforms are trying to incorporate reactions to the major uptake in social web and mobile use as people look for richer interactions with firms.

Living Streams "Improving clients' profitability through better use of the internet".