back to article Facebook ditches TOP SECRET email service. Did YOU know it had one?

Facebook is quietly closing down its failed attempt to get its users to switch over to its @facebook.com email addresses. The social network said it would be letting Facebookers know through the site that it would be getting rid of the addresses. Any stray email that is going to an @facebook address will be diverted to folks' …

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  1. Shannon Jacobs
    Holmes

    Much as I dislike Facebook, I wish...

    I actually wish that Facebook hadn't dropped the ball on this one. All they needed to do was offer a superior email alternative.

    Hint: Less SPAM.

    What if Facebook had offered an integrated anti-spam fighting system? Not a lynch mob tool per se, much as the spammers deserve it, but just a way to help with the best targeting of the anti-spam countermeasures. Don't you wish you could help break ALL of the spammers' infrastructure? Help pursue ALL of the spammers' accomplices? Help protect ALL of the spammers' victims (from their own stupidity in giving money or personal info to spammers)? No, we can't eliminate spam, but with better tools we could reduce the spammers' profits. The spammers still wouldn't become decent human beings, but they would move under less visible rocks.

    Too bad. Facebook actually had a chance to make the world better, in stark contrast to whatever it is they think they are doing now.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Much as I dislike Facebook, I wish...

      You mean like gmail's Report Phishing option..?

      1. chr0m4t1c

        Re: Much as I dislike Facebook, I wish...

        >You mean like gmail's Report Phishing option..?

        Yeah, those Google reporting tools work really well.

        I've had a GMail address almost since the service became available and I always report false positives when asked, yet it still sends every single email I get from PayPal, Amazon and my bank into the spam folder.

        In the end, I got so fed up that I specifically set up filters for the more common cases to stop it putting them in the spam folder - at which point it helpfully displays a message above every one of these messages insiting that it *is* spam and that I should change my filters.

        Damn you, Google Mail Team! ::shakes fist impotently::

    2. James 51

      Re: Much as I dislike Facebook, I wish...

      As much as I love the idea it would fall foul of facebooks basic business plan I.e. Expose people to as many adverts as possible.

    3. theblackhand

      Re: Much as I dislike Facebook, I wish...

      Facebook business plan: make money from advertising

      Assuming FB's plan's for personal e-mail world dominance had worked, guess what would have been used to "monetise" their new empire?

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Much as I dislike Facebook, I wish...

      All they needed to do was offer a superior email alternative.

      What, to gain access to even more of people's private life?

      "Mark (status: Married) has a secret affair with Jenny" Like?

      Facebook message to Mark: "We changed your relationship status to "it's complicated"

      No thanks

    5. Tom 13

      Re: Much as I dislike Facebook, I wish...

      There was never a ball there to begin with. To sign up for FB, you had to have an email account. It was completely redundant.

      And that's before you get to people like me who wouldn't use an FB email account for the same reason I haven't adopted Google's FB equivalent: Both of them already have more than enough of my information. I'm not about to combine ALL of my stuff into one big searchable box. The bastages are going to have to search at least two of them dammit!

    6. Crazy Operations Guy

      Re: Much as I dislike Facebook, I wish...

      I had tinkered with the idea of a social-network backed email system some time ago. It would be easy to determine if something is spam in real time with the data they have. If a message is sent to multiple people (or very similar messages are being sent) you'd just check to see if there is some sort of link between the recipients such as going to the same schools, having friends in common, etc. Otherwise you'd block the message as spam.

  2. Terry 6 Silver badge

    Why on earth....

    ...would anyone feel the need to switch from an existing email address/set up to an @facebook one?

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Why on earth....

      Convenience I suppose, if you viewed your email through FB.com. Plus it would allow integration e.g. reply to a chat message/comment by email, etc.

      For active FB users I'd have thought it could be quite useful so I'm surprised it didn't get used. Maybe the implementation was cruddy? Or maybe they didn't advertise it well... I heard via El Reg about the "use FB email by default" stuff but I don't recall FB trying to promote its own email service to me through the main page.

      1. Tom 13

        Re: don't recall FB trying to promote its own email service

        I do and in my case I knew it was falling on deaf ears. The only surprise here is the percentage of deaf ears on which it fell.

        1. JDX Gold badge

          Re: don't recall FB trying to promote its own email service

          Maybe I just blocked it out :)

          It is surprising though - to many people FB is the hub of their online interaction, rather than email, so it seems weird so few people bothered with it. Maybe inertia against changing email addresses is just too great.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I remember it, well I remember reading about it and thinking "well that wont get used"

    1. Elmer Phud

      FBMail

      I got a new Hotmail account to register with FB, (No way was I going to use any 'real' ones) the last thing I needed was yet another email account - despite the constant prompts.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ',Twas a dumb idea

    It made no sense to try to mix an internal messaging system with external mail functionality, so good riddance to it.

    One drawback, though : it seems likely that the spam people may have been getting within Facebook will now be diverted to their proper e-mail accounts. Facebook should really just kill it dead, rather than continuing to facillitate spam.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    One provider, one service please

    Call me old fashioned, but if one provider can focus on one service that'd be great.

    Facebook - don't offer me email.

    Google/Gmail - don't offer me social networking.

    Sorted.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: One provider, one service please

      Apple: you make computers, don't bother making a personal music player

      Netflix: you rent DVDs, don't get into all this streaming hi-tech stuff

      Amazon: you are a shopping site, don't invest in a cloud computing platform

      Nintendo: you make playing cards, don't get into video games

      Nokia: you're a paper company, don't get into phones

  6. Test Man

    It seemed like a good idea - anyone no matter whether they already had a Facebook account or not could send a message direct to a Facebooker's inbox. Execution was, however, POOR:

    1. Messages went into the "Other" inbox. Most people aren't even aware they have a "Other" inbox, and those that do don't bother going into it.

    2. THAT TIME when Facebook decided that everyone's @facebook.com address had to be the default primary one. Such a cock up - it meant that no matter how many e-mail addresses someone chose to expose on their profile, they were all hidden and the @facebook.com address displayed. It didn't stop there - mobiles that synced Facebook with the contacts only synced the default primary address, which meant that existing e-mail addresses were removed.

    As a result, no one cared about it.

  7. Sooty

    Why redirect?

    Any stray email that is going to an @facebook address will be diverted to folks' primary address associated with their account

    I don't actually want anyone discerning whatever my facebook email was and using it to send spam to my real address, that I actually use.

    1. Youngdog

      Re: Why redirect?

      Agreed. Now I am going to start recieving spam sent to an account I didn't want or need so not to inconvenience the (very) few people who actively used their FB mail. Thanks Mark. No really.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Why redirect?

        So long as you don't care about emails you get from Facebook (i.e. notifications or whatever) you could always open a free email account somewhere and change your Facebook settings to use that. Then all the spam is dumped into an account you never use. I assume Gmail allows setting up accounts that only collect email and never get used?

        Hopefully this will either only be enabled for those who actually used their facebook.com email, or they'll provide a setting to block external email forwarding.

        1. JDX Gold badge

          Re: Why redirect?

          If it's being redirected, will it still be addressed to a @facebook.com address? Then you could easily set up a filter/rule.

          Equally, you shouldn't need a new throwaway email account. If your email is john.smith@gmail.com, change your FB profile to john.smith+facebookcrap@gmail.com. Then again, set up a filter/rule to delete anything sent to that address.

  8. Ol'Peculier
    FAIL

    The irony

    I'm sure I remember reading that Zuck said that email was "dying" and the main way of communication would be via social networks.

    Maybe not...

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: The irony

      Considering nobody is interested in his email, he looks to have a point!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They never thought the idea through.

    From the very beginning it was a flawed idea, how hard is it to realise that every member you have already has an email account, they had to have one to join your service.

  10. roblightbody

    Missing the big picture

    I already have problems with people contacting me via my Facebook account (which I don't check often) instead of emailing me (which I constantly check). Its going to drive me to deleting my Facebook account altogether.

    They've already managed to replace email for most people - this is the crucial part of the story for most people. Facebook, owned by an American corporation, is becoming the de-facto global communications platform and contacts directory. Its a terrifying proposition.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Missing the big picture

      > Facebook, owned by an American corporation

      I guess it would be okay if it was owned by a Russian, Chinese, Iranian, Nigerian or North Korean corporation though.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Missing the big picture

        If I've learned anything from the internet, it's that the United States is the worst, most evil country in the world, and that any individual connected with it in any way is essentially subhuman. If challenged on the merits of this argument, all that is required is to say something like "world's policeman" or "copyright" and all sense of scale will be forgotten.

  11. Joseph Haig

    More spam?

    Anything sent to an @facebook.com address will now be forwarded to the user's real address so presumably if your page is, say, www.facebook.com/zuck and it is publically visible then anyone can spam you even if you have specifically kept the address private by using zuck@facebook.com.

    What am I missing here, because it seems like a perfect way to harvest large numbers of genuine email addresses?

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