The dawn of a messaging revolution? Or the end of Privacy?
'Seamless Messaging' - that's the big news from Facebook this week as it reveals its revised messaging system. Recent rumours suggested that the social network was set to launch a 'Gmail Killer'. Well, it's certainly something to rival Google Mail as it sets out to revolutionise the way we communicate with our friends, family and business associates.
As Facebook explained: "Today I'm excited to announce the next evolution of Messages. You decide how you want to talk to your friends: via SMS, chat, email or Messages. They will receive your message through whatever medium or device is convenient for them, and you can both have a conversation in real time. You shouldn't have to remember who prefers IM over email or worry about which technology to use. Simply choose their name and type a message. We are also providing an @facebook.com email address to every person on Facebook who wants one. Now people can share with friends over email, whether they're on Facebook or not. To be clear, Messages is not email. There are no subject lines, no cc, no bcc, and you can send a message by hitting the Enter key. We modeled it more closely to chat and reduced the number of things you need to do to send a message. We wanted to make this more like a conversation."
Certainly makes sense doesn't it! Who wants to have to use all sorts of different communication when one could simply channel their messages through one simple medium?
Google has been a dominant player in the email market for so long that Facebook would seem like no threat at all. But Facebook's continued dominance of the Web is definitely something Google is worried about. In fact, 'social' is the way things are going and 'search' is likely to become less and less important. Facebook knows that. Google knows that. Everyone knows that. If Google wants to retain its standing in the online world, it needs to pull its socks up and get back into the game.
Despite all this, what amazes me the most is the privacy implications. Do you feel comfortable having all your private messages under the Facebook umbrella? Because if you're one of those people who gladly gives up your privacy in exchange for access to something like Facebook, then this new messaging system is unlikely to phase you or millions of others.
The danger is that Facebook is the world's largest social network and if all of our messaging takes place through Facebook, then it's unlikely anyone will use anything else.
So is this the dawn of a messaging revolution or the end of privacy as we know it? Whatever your opinion, with something so internationally recognised as the leading social network, Facebook is set to be around for a long time yet.
blog comments powered by Disqus