Facebook will be announcing later today that they are launching an email service for their users that will provide Facebookers an email address that I will assume be based on the user’s URL friendly user account. So, I’m guessing my email address will be [email protected].
I wrote over a year ago that Facebook should start offering email addresses to its users. The idea of not being able to e-mail friends and families outside of the Facebook walled garden always surprised me. I think we should also expect perhaps an automatic footer in emails that would encourage recipients that weren’t already members of Facebook to create an account. Think about it, they know by the recipient’s address if they have that address in their system already.
I’m not sure how much I’ll use a Facebook email account, but the ability to email into and out of the Facebook walls will come in handy.
With the number of people who’s online experience already revolves around the Facebook site, incorporating email into that service has finally proven what was to be the obvious next step will indeed be reality.
It will be interesting to see how many e-mail accounts from Yahoo, Windows Live and other services start getting moth-balled and ignored. I don’t think anything by itself will be a “Gmail Killer” as projected though.