by Rachel Phythian
Last Monday, with much fanfare, Facebook revealed its ‘next generation’ messaging system at an invitation-only event in San Francisco. The product, billed as a ‘Gmail killer’ by the media prior to the announcement, comprises three main elements:
1. ‘Seamless Messaging’ – real-time communication where the participants each choose their own medium and device
2. ‘Conversation History’ – a record of all communication between participants, regardless of medium, in one thread
3. ‘Social Inbox’ – a division of Inbox and ‘Other’, whereby messages from people within your social network (your Facebook friends and their Facebook friends) appear in the Inbox but all others are automatically filed into ‘Other’
Does it live up to the hype? Well, it’s difficult to say without having actually used the product (Facebook is rolling it out over the next few months). However, the move towards making e-communication more ‘human’ is certainly interesting and the unified communications system provides increased flexibility for users which can only be good.
Moreover, the social inbox, probably the most exciting feature of the product, could really revolutionise the way email operates. If adopted across the board, it could signal the end of spam and of course, minimise unwanted attention from cyber stalkers... And in today’s geek chic world, where Apple in particular has become a new religion, the allure of an @facebook address will surely be enough for many.
Nevertheless, you have to question not just whether we need this, since necessity has long since ceased to be relevant in social media, but whether we actually want it. Elements of the service are highly reminiscent of Google’s failed Wave project, albeit in a better integrated and better marketed model, and Wave was emphatically rejected by the mass market.
That’s not to say, though, that conceptually, this ‘modern messaging’ product won’t change how we communicate. Zuckerberg denied that Facebook had created a Gmail killer, but that may be because he has bigger aims. While he conceded that email is a good product, he also implied that it would be become increasingly irrelevant, describing it as slow and too formal, particularly in the opinion of the high school students he has met. A separate announcement this week, one which has received less attention, is that Facebook has also teamed up with Microsoft on the messaging product. This represents a real threat, not just to Gmail but to Google Apps as a whole and gives Facebook some of the business credibility which it has always lacked. Given Facebook’s refusal to share data with Google, resulting in Google recently blocking Facebook API access, it seems like Facebook is determined not only to move into Google’s communication territory but also to hinder Google’s ability to build on its social graph (i.e. to encroach on Facebook’s own territory).
Despite Zuckerberg’s admission at this week’s Web 2.0 conference that he has made “any mistake you can think of”, the fact that it was described as its largest ever engineering project demonstrates that the company is taking it very seriously indeed. Perhaps we (and Google) would do well to do the same.
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