Facebook takes on Gmail

Everybody loves an all-star game, when two of the best are battling when the stakes are high. Even people that don’t like baseball enjoy a little Yankees vs. Red Sox rivalry. Those that may not be avid basketball fans may tune in to watch the Lakers play the Celtics. Even those who weren’t hugely interested in smartphones had a chance to watch Google battle Apple.

Now we have another chance. Facebook is launching a messaging platform that will compete with Gmail.

And some think this is a serious threat. This could do to Gmail what Gmail already did to Hotmail and Yahoo. Will the platform disappear altogether? No, but with Facebook’s user base already resting at just over half a billion, 50% of which use the site every day, Facebook has one of the largest user bases in the existance of human history. That means that no matter what Facebook decides to meddle in, it becomes a big player.

But when I heard this, I thought, “Why change over? I already have my Gmail account?” This is what keeps Hotmail on the top right now, as convenient as Gmail made it to change over to their better email service, a lot of people didn’t care… Hotmail worked, that’s all they need. So Facebook’s strategy will be to make it so gosh-darn convenient you naturally switch over.

One of Gmail’s big selling points when it was released was its amazing spam filter. Gmail wrote complicated programs designed to determine what you would be interested in reading and what you would not be. But think about it this way: Facebook has been tracking your every move and your communications with friends for years (about which it receives many complaints). Facebook knows and understands who you like to communicate with, who you avoid, and who you don’t know.

So the battle begins. Will a company like Google just sit there and take it? Or is Facebook going to wake up a sleeping giant? Google has been dipping its fingers in the social networking as well, releasing “Buzz” and making pictures and videos publicly visible in Gmail. For example, my little sister, who never got into facebook, says she doesn’t need a page because “[She] communicate[s] with [her] friends through Gmail.”

And Facebook countered by removing the “Add friends from Gmail” option. But this is just starting, and we don’t have all of the information about exactly how Facebook will be building its email system. I, however, think it’s safe to assume that it will have some twists that we won’t be used to, and won’t look like all previous email systems. But if I were a betting man, I would keep my money with Gmail. Why? 1. Because no matter what Facebook does, it won’t be as professional as a Gmail account, and 2. It would be a pain for me to switch over, so I wouldn’t. I’m sure I’m not the only one in that category.

So now we just wait and see. *Grabs lemonade

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