Facebook unveils 'next-gen' messaging system Facebook has unveiled a "next-generation" messaging system for its social networking–obsessed users. After speaking with some high schoolers during a Thanksgiving trip a couple of years ago — who told him that they rarely used email because it was "too slow" — Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg decided his social networking cum …
Both these services attempt to "span email as well as IM, text messages", so from this initial description, they do indeed sound identical.
The difference is that Google Wave offered a genuinely new and useful method of communicating, which flopped because it proved too difficult for the masses to understand.
I expect that Facebook Wave will dumb things down to near-uselessness, but the Farmville crowd will love it, and it will be a huge success.
Nah, anyone with sense has a Facebok account but doesn't put all thier personal details in thier profile. Nor do they open up thier entire profile for all to see. They don't use thier main email address to register and don't import thier address books from elsewhere.
And they use Firefox with Adblock
It's not what Facebook wants but sod 'em it's a handy site to use at times. It pretty much killed off Fiends Reunited - not a bad thing.
"It spans email as well as IM, text messages, and on-Facebook messages"
Looks like Facebook has come up with a new way to get unsuspecting people to give up more information about themselves. By capturing text messages facebook will now have a monopoly for owning all the information relating to drunk peoples shenanigans.
I've thought for sometime that texting and email should converge, seeing as how the only apparent difference to the common user is the endpoint. Might as well throw chat/tweeting into that mix.
I'm as cautious about vertical integration as the next person here, but the idea won't be tied to facebook for long.
Thanks Zuckerberg!
Now when cruising through CV/resumes, as well as being able to filter out old and useless people by their use of @aol.com for their their email, we'll now be able to filter out young and useless people (and obviously narcissists and low self esteem too) by their use of @facebook.com
Sweet.
No wonder you posted this drivel anonymously
Filtering people because of their email address and age? Are you 12 or 13?
If you want to filter retards out, I'd look for the use of the word "sweet" as a signoff to start. I've not heard that term used for a long time.
Are you a mullet-munger?
Are you new to Facebook? You do it in privacy settings... once a month after they keep re-enabling it.
Alternatively, you do as those of us who are sensible and forced into using Facebook since our friends are too retarded to handle an e-mail account, and don't let it access anything of any value in the first place.
You're forgetting the really annoying bit where you're best mates 6 year old gets hold of his mobile and decides copying it all onto facebook is a great idea because everyone will need that won't they...
then its infuriating because you know that information is never really going to dissapear.
but the strength of sending messages on Facebook as things stand is the ease of picking names from the address book, combined with the fact that nearly everyone you know is there (that is the case for me anyway).
I think it stands a better chance gthan Wave, but I suppose we'll see.
In a mellow moment, I see lots of paranoia here!
lots of people want to stop/choke/kill/mock this
I for one, welcome what the new uber geek on the block has to offer. This is what we are all supposed to be about! open to new ideas and concepts, give it a go eh? if it's no good it WILL FAIL and in a big way. If not, then we will embarce it and wonder how we did without it just like the 'Fondle slab' et al.
I am not a fan of faceflash and others but it occurs to me that people want openess on the net but also want to hide, a bit duplicitous if you ask me.
What I am trying to say is that I am interested to see what's on offer. I admin a lot of business folk and am intrigued as to the implications here. Remember, it works two ways! you might not want to work for the 'respectable' CEO who has certain kinds of parties every weekend :)
openness, not just open source
<comment/>
<Beer> as it's late and I realise that I am disadvantaged at this time of night and a future emplyer/controct giver might fund up the trith>
Even more opportunity for the tards that can't be assed to check or reply to their E-Mail on a regular basis. "Why don't you send me a message on FB?!" - Barf. Some of these people have a Blackberry and still won't reply. I especially love academics who solely rely on a webmailer and then complain about the inconvenience of E-Mail. At least with this "invention" you'll be able to reach them without having to log into freakbook. Regardless, thumbs down. DOWN!
...as negative about this as most commentards; I think there's some merit in the idea to join social (as in 'friends', as opposed to 'professional') email, SMS and chat in a single interface, especially since every smartphone on the planet offers FB access.
The biggest issue such a feature faces is that it's potentially going to be a spam magnet of epic proportions. Every spammer on the planet is going to chuck spam at every possible combination of <firstname>.<lastname>@facebook.com.
This post has been deleted by its author
Google Warning for exporting info to FB:
"Hold on a second. Are you super sure you want to import your contact information for your friends into a service that won’t let you get it out? "
Facebook Wave Warning: "Hurry and export all your data to us so we can protect it from being stolen or sold. Creating a Facebook Email account is a legal admission that you are handing us your data to look after. Opting out from the Facebook Email program is also an admission that you want us to hold your data, as is starting a lawsuit, dying, or any other circumstance. Thank you for using Facebook Wave"
...with a built-in set of ready-connected people, none of whom will need to wait months for an invitation to join in. So it might actually work this time.
If it actually IS wave (as in an implementation of the protocol underlying Google Wave) then there may be a chance that this would be the event that allowed the Wave protocol to reach critical mass and actually take off. Phoenix-style, in this case. Wouldn't that be nice?
Not sure I'd sign up for FaceWave though. They can Zuck my Berg...
And it works because on a smartphone, you have access to all the channels and its immediate. Nobody's friends are exclusively on one channel, nor do I use use a consistent channel for with each friend. I have one with a blackberry who replies to emails with texts (go figure), she does it to avoid the danger of reply all.
So when this service is available on a smartphone or it can incorporate a lot of channels its might be worth worrying about.
This post has been deleted by its author
So does this mean someone using a random email service can message someone at Facebook, and vice versa? And someone can SMS someone at Facebook, and vice versa? If so, great.
But if this is a walled garden, then there's no integration, it's just Yet Another Messaging Service. With the downside that it's all controlled by one company (unlike email, SMS etc where anyone can use the protocols). If I have to sign up to Facebook to contact someone at Facebook, and still have to use email to talk to someone not on Facebook, where's the integration?
Now given that they say "This is a messaging system that uses email as one part of it." it suggests the former. But given Facebook's walled garden approach, I'm sceptical...
Regarding privacy - yes, I would be concerned over Facebook's habit of making data public even when you'd previously specified it to be restricted.
...the system I use for personal, private, point to point communication to avoid having data i don't want on Facebook end up on Facebook is now integrated into Facebook? More, people I don;t share some of those things with, but yet that I am friends with, may have access to those other addresses now too?
[[[Seeking Opt-Out Link Now]]]
The ONLY reasons I have a Facebook account are so that the wife and her friends have another neighbor in those damned flash games, and so people i have not talked to in 10 years have SOME way to find me that does not involve me sharing or publishing accounts I actually care to protect. I check the feed on my phone periodically, just to chuckle, usually at how stupid some people are to be posting publicly what they do, and if i post a reply once a week its rare.
it makes me laugh when the self appointed elitists all mock the facebook generation
yeah, facebook has a lot of shite, all block able, but at the end of the day facebook is a bit of a (enter deity of choice here)-send for me..
In the past, the amount of times I have had to sort out email accounts for family, complain at them for sending me e-cards via email from dumbass companies that then spam me to death... re-setting accounts because they lost the password, making new accounts because of all the spam they get...
these days because facebook is so simple for them to use and understand it has given me plenty of free time to get on with what i want to do... i don’t get phone calls to talk them through attaching a photo to an email.... they don’t send me emails riddled with virus....
for all you self appointed elitists... learn to embrace the facebook generation.. They are not your enemy...they, in a lot of cases, are your family…
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
