Facebook Email, 'Gmail Killer,' May Be Announced Monday

Earlier this year, rumors surfaced about Facebook's webmail project, nicknamed the "Gmail Killer."

TechCrunch is now reporting that Facebook will officially announce an email project at its Monday conference, according to unnamed sources.

On Thursday, Facebook sent out invitations to Monday's event. TechCrunch notes that the invite's design looks mail-themed, which could be taken as a hint that Facebook will address inbox and messaging issues on Monday.

Inside Facebook also predicts Facebook will tackle messaging on Monday:

Referred to as "Project Titan" among Facebook employees, the email revamp could address criticism about deficiencies in the existing Messages product such as lack of easy forwarding, mass "mark as read", and attachment uploading. More significant would be giving users an @facebook.com email address to which email could be sent and read within the messages product, as well as POP and IMAP support for reading your Facebook inbox from other email clients.

A more full-fledged email product, especially one without POP or IMAP-support, would reduce the reliance of Facebook users on Gmail and other email services, bringing email's extended time-on-site to Facebook. It would also further bind users to Facebook for the long term.

Indeed, news of this so-called "Gmail killer" seem to parallel the battle taking place between Facebook and Google over sharing contacts across both platforms.

Take a look at the Facebook invitation below, then tell us what you think Facebook will announce on Monday.

THE FACEBOOK INVITE:

Comments

[Natalie Davis]

09:23 AM on 11/15/2010

Just say NO to Facebook email. Zuck and his henchmen have way too much disrespect for privacy to be trusted.

[PaticaDeGato]

09:11 AM on 11/15/2010

Mark ZUCKergberg is an ethically challenged little geek that had a golden (if not quite original) idea fall onto his lap. He is one lucky one trick pony, mark my words.

[Gene Hammett]

07:41 AM on 11/15/2010

I am having a hard time believing that Facebook will have an impact on the email market, especially against Gmail. First the whole issue of security has not been one of Facebook's strong points (that is putting it mildly). And secondly enticing someone to shift to another mail tool is not an easy task (especially with no financial incentive like drastic savings).

Just my opinion, Facebook will have a difficult time competing with anyone, much less Google.

Gene Hammett
http://www.facebook.com/gene.hammett
http://twitter.com/genehammett

[dtrobert]

07:24 PM on 11/14/2010

The phrase pattern " Killer" needs to be permanently deleted from the vocabulary of tech writers. I can't think of a phrase that leads to a journalist having to eat crow faster than that one.

[evinmc]

07:05 PM on 11/14/2010

I'm counting this as a +1 for Facebook, in the epic battle royale between Commander Schmidt and Captain Zuck.

It's been added to the score here on a little blog I've put together to keep score in this faceoff :)
http://facegoogle.wordpress.com

[WurrdUp]

05:05 PM on 11/14/2010

The only thing is that I'm not sure I want all of my social networking interconnected. In fact, I don't.

[rchsod]

04:48 PM on 11/14/2010

facebook email? now that`s a joke. i`m going to change all my email address to facebook...not in a thousand years.

[Epiphany2b]

05:07 PM on 11/14/2010

Well, I know a lot of people who do most, if not all, of their communicating with their friends through FaceBook, so I suspect that those people would prefer one stop shopping, so to speak. I hate to get messages sent through my FaceBook page, and then have to go there to log in to read them. I wouldn't use it, though, since all my email comes into my Thunderbird.

[ragtag]

02:28 PM on 11/14/2010

Share with your friends and we'll share it with everyone else - often for cash.

[MrVee]

02:26 PM on 11/14/2010

What I'm interested in is what FB email has to offer. I'll make a decision then about if I'll kill off Gmail to use it. Because if it turns out to be better, Gmail is history.
But again, that remains to be seen. It could turn out to be another yahoo email utility which is basically a repository for spam.

[Digeeedad]

02:06 PM on 11/14/2010

And in other news..... the Facebook app for IPhone and iTouch is seriously broken and they appear to be having no luck making it stable!

With the exception of a very few short duration periods of it working, it has been crashing upon opening for DAYS!

[Brody Marino]

12:03 AM on 11/15/2010

I haven't heard from anyone else that has had it crashing, nor is it for me...you might want to see if it's just you. Try deleting/redownloading the app

[Digeeedad]

03:56 PM on 11/15/2010

Hi Brody... Actually on iTunes for the Facebook app, there were hundreds of complaints over the past couple of weeks. I had tried doing what you suggested (thanks for the tip though) several times, but the app would open and then close withing seconds, monst of the time. They had released am update a few weeks back that apparently was the problem. Yesterday afternoon a NEW update was released and when deleteing the previous app and installing the new one... all is well again in mobile FB land! lol

[PaticaDeGato]

10:10 AM on 11/14/2010

I recommend watching "The Social Network". Seriously, I would not want my personal e-mail exchanges in the hands of the ethically challenged Mark Zuckerberg.

[MrVee]

08:04 AM on 11/15/2010

I thought that was a movie and not a documentary. I saw the social network. Good flick but I thought they took a lot of creative license in the presentation. Oh wait. You didn't think Justin Timberlake owned Napster too did you?

[PaticaDeGato]

09:09 AM on 11/15/2010

Justin does NOT own Napster? *gasp*

[SwingingFromCenter]

02:54 AM on 11/14/2010

What is it with this site labeling every new offering from every company a (insert thing here) ki.ller? 

Nothing is ever going to dethrone Gmail.  Ever.  So why put it in a headline?

[bertha112]

08:13 AM on 11/14/2010

Amen.

[StopthemadnessS]

01:56 AM on 11/14/2010

When do I get my Facebook brain chip?

[RumiSouth]

01:53 AM on 11/14/2010

But what if I gave Facebook my Gmail address when THEY REQUIRED AN EMAIL ADDRESS at signup hmmmmmm???

[Jeremy Frasier]

01:01 AM on 11/14/2010

Personally, with Facebooks lack of security, and the fact that they freely make way to much personal info available to application developers and 3rd parties, I would not even consider swapping out my Gmail account for a Facebook email.

[bertha112]

08:15 AM on 11/14/2010

And I don't know anyone with the lack of brains to do so. Amen.

[desultude]

08:53 AM on 11/14/2010

I agree completely. If I want privacy, it won't be via Facebook!