Facebook Shuts Down @Facebook Email System

First time accepted submitter beaker_72 writes "The BBC are reporting that Facebook will end their email system which provided users an @Facebook.com email address in March. The official line from Facebook is that not many people have been using the service. Is that really the case or have they found it too challenging to monetize that part of their service? Did users stay away from this 'service' because they've become more savvy and recognized it for what it was — another way to harvest their data? Or is it the case that the market is currently saturated with free webmail services and there wasn't room for another one?"

Facebook Shuts Down...

[Anonymous Coward]

A thrill of hope. Drat.

Re: Because people already have E-mail addresses?

[stdarg]

Not only did they have a better interface, they offered a ridiculous (at the time) amount of space. I used to use Yahoo mail, then they imposed a cap of 2MB (I think), and you had to pay to up that to 10MB. Gmail came out swinging at 1GB.

Re:Because people already have E-mail addresses?

[_Shad0w_]

It just forwards all the e-mails to your @facebook.com address to your reigstered address now.

Re: Because people already have E-mail addresses?

[loufoque]

No.
Gmail took off because it provided a free POP3/IMAP email service with a large storage capacity.

Re:Because people already have E-mail addresses?

[tlhIngan]

It's the same basic problem with any website that tries to force it's "neat new features" on users. Youtube and googleplus is a similar thing. When google plus inevitably fails(and it will), they're going to have to go through an elaborate shutdown process that impinges on all the other google services people use.

Google's not going to shut down Google+. In fact, Google+ is central to their business. Google has admitted the main reason for G+ is to collect more user information [nytimes.com]. Given the unified privacy policy, the fact that Google can now track you through your use of its various products adds a ton of valuable information. And even if you don't "use" a G+ account, your use through YouTube etc, and those G+ buttons is monitored.

So no, G+ is NOT going to go away, because it's central to Google's business. Google even admits that while some people find it creepy, as long as they remain "good", they can get away with a ton of things.