Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Tech Tuesday: Facebook e-mail = the end of Gmail

...Or at least that’s what Facebook would like you to think.

The good: Facebook’s new e-mail system is seamlessly integrated into the companies’ IM, chat, and other IMs and SMS. The new e-mail delivery system is promised to be faster, more integral to the Facebook culture overall. The company decided to get into e-mail after founder Mark Zuckerberg received input from high-schoolers calling traditional e-mail too slow and formal. Facebook will introduce the social in-box as a feature of the new e-mail client that will work in prioritizing which messages you respond to sooner, and more often as well as which contact are more likely to get a response, thus “speeding up conversations amongst close friends”.

(Intermission): As an alternative, you could stick or join Gmail. As the leading internet e-mailer it still has tons of great features, and continues to grow in popularity and size everyday. Googles e-mail client already allows users to enjoy their version of Facebook's social in-box with Gmail's ‘priority in-box’ service, which selects which messages will most likely get a response.

Now for the bad: Facebook introduced this new e-mail client service in a midst of growing chatter of the companies continued privacy issues. Security software giant Bitdefender, released a study commissioned by its Safego division which tries to keep Facebook users a bit-safer. The study finds that about 20% of Facebook users are currently exposed to malware. Most of the exploits come from the ‘walls’ which people post their favorite websites, or songs, etc…. When a user clicks on one of these links, the account is hijacked and the malware then gets posted on the wall of the user that clicked on the link – creating an ever-growing mess. To read more on the new threats within the Facebook community please navigate to this Cnet article

So, will you be switching or at least trying out the new e-mail service from Facebook? If so, for what reason would you try it out? Are you unhappy with your current e-mail provider or want to try the latest tech trend?

4 comments:

  1. As long as Google doesn't make a movie about its founder - i'm sticking with GMAIL!

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  2. While I use fb to connect with friends, i would NOT trust it for official email. Jmho. If high school students are influencing fb policy then it's no wonder security is an afterthought. Will advertisers decide which messages get priority?

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  3. Staying with Gmail...don't trust FB.

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  4. Same here, i've gotten rid of my fbook account a while back, and have not looked back!

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