Facebook unveils e-mail system - USATODAY.com

Facebook unveils e-mail system

How would you like a Facebook.com e-mail address?

The social networking giant is slowly rolling out a new messaging system that will offer Facebook's half-billion active users an optional e-mail address that will let folks send or receive messages from Facebook to or from traditional email accounts.

Facebook made the formal announcement at a press conference today in San Francisco.

Facebook's approach differs from Google's Gmail or other Web-based e-mail services. "We want people to be able to communicate in whatever way they choose: email, text or Facebook message," notes Facebook spokeswoman Meredith Chin. "People are given the choice to opt in to having a Facebook e-mail address as a way to have one destination for all of their messages. But, this product is not e-mail. It is modeled much more after Chat."

Along those lines, the messages won't have a traditional subject line or the ability to send a cc (carbon copy) or bcc (blind carbon copy). Nor will you be able to set an "out of office" message.

But you will be able to exchange picture and video attachments. Facebook says it doesn't have a set limit on file size constraints, but will have systems in place to prevent abuse.

Meanwhile, Microsoft Office will also be part of the new Facebook messaging system. Microsoft says that in coming months you'll be able to view Word, Excel and PowerPoint attachments with Office Web Apps directly in Facebook.

Your @Facebook.com e-mail address (if you choose to get one) will match your public Facebook user name.

The initial rollout -- for U.S. members only at the start -- will kick off today to a few thousand people. Facebook plans to continue rolling out the service over the course of a few months.

Messages will be organized by relationship, with texts, chat and email from the same friends all weaved together as part of the same conversation. You can pickup a conversation where you left off, with the most recent ones appearing first. Facebook engineer Andrew Bosworth compares it to an old-fashioned box of letters in which you can trace the history of a relationship.

If you're online, a normal Facebook message will be delivered as a chat. As with chat, you can send messages just by pressing "enter" on the keyboard.

There will be two main messaging views: The Messages view only includes missives from Facebook friends or friends of friends. All other messages, including newsletters or other stuff you find interesting but are not worthy of top billing, are housed in an "Other" folder.

Facebook says you'll be able to access privacy controls to determine who can send you messages. If you block members, their messages will never get to you.

Facebook also says it will aggressively police spam, and the company is preventing developers from using Facebook messages to contact you without your explicit permission.

Current Facebook employees who have @Facebook.com e-mail addresses will be switching to @FB.com to accommodate the changes.

By Ed Baig

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