Every so often, something will come along that threatens to kill email. And nearly as often, that ends up dying instead. And now, as of yesterday, Facebook has its own answer to email–and it’s even being advertised as something to give Gmail, Microsoft etc a run for their money. Before you start thinking that sounds vaguely familiar, read this.
Google tried its own email killer, only it was also supposed to take out Facebook. It fell over dead. Now, Facebook’s coming out with its own supposed email killer, aiming at Google–among others. Just one problem. Nearly as many people don’t use Facebook as didn’t use Google Wave. And at the moment, it’s not looking a whole lot like their new messaging platform is going to do entirely too much to draw in more usage. So I have to wonder if email will only be dead if you’re on facebook and/or care enough to switch. Since I don’t, and since my resistance of the service is kind of still there, I’m going out on a limb and making a prediction. Email is dead. Unless you’re not on Facebook. But then you probably don’t care.