Facebook Unveils Messaging Service

By SCOTT MORRISON

Facebook Inc. launched a messaging service Monday for its 500 million members, a move that could make the social-networking site the largest Internet messaging provider and challenge rivals such as Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. 

The new service, which will provide users with an "@facebook.com" email address, is designed to meld email, instant messaging and SMS text messages so that users can manage their communications through a single inbox.

"This is not an email killer. This is a messaging system that includes email as a part of it," said Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.

The company was launching the new service because many young users don't use email because it is too slow and formal, he said. The company unveiled its new messaging service at an event in San Francisco.

Mr. Zuckerberg said the service, which has been under development for about one year, will also maintain users' conversation histories so that members can keep track of all the communications they have had.

The service will also feature a "social inbox" that filters messages from people who aren't part of a users social circle. "We can do some really good filtering for you because we know who your friends are," said Mr. Zuckerberg.

Facebook's new service, which will be rolled out over the next several months, could transform email by melding messaging functions with people's social connections to provide a more personal and intuitive experience. Facebook would have an advantage over rivals because it holds a wealth of information about people's connections.

Facebook currently has an internal message service that only allows members to communicate with other Facebook accounts. The new service would allow its more than 500 million members to communicate with anyone inside or outside the walls of the social network. Microsoft's Hotmail, in contrast, has 361 million global users, followed by Yahoo Mail's 273 million users and Gmail's 193 million users, according to comScore.

Mr. Zuckerberg downplayed suggestions the new service was a Gmail killer, arguing that email is "still really important to a lot of people" and he doesn't expect people to shut down their current email accounts. But he acknowledged that he hoped that people would gravitate to Facebook's messaging service over the next several years.

Yahoo, Google and Microsoft are already scrambling to retool their email services to build them more around people's social connections--with mixed results.

Analysts said Facebook's new service could help it attract even more members and strengthen its claim of being the Internet hub of choice.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said the new service represents a threat to both Google and Yahoo's email platforms over the next several years. "Longer term we think Google's Gmail and Yahoo Mail could have more difficulty attracting new users," he said.

Google and Yahoo are working to add social-networking features to their email services. Google suffered a major black eye recently when it built its Google Buzz social-networking service around people's Gmail contacts, a move that turned into a privacy disaster when Google automatically imported people's email contacts into Buzz.

Yahoo, the most popular U.S. e-mail provider, has launched an updated version of Mail that allows users to broadcast their status on both Twitter and Facebook. (Fonte: Wall Street Journal)