Facebook to offer full e-mail service

Facebook is about to launch a major challenge aimed at the world’s largest free webmail providers by setting up its own e-mail service, based upon the message sending facilities that already exist on the social networking site. The new e-mail program is part of a larger attempt to make Facebook an even more essential part of the web experience and supplements plans to revamp the website’s much maligned photo uploading tool. Facebook has reportedly named its new goal of taking on Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo as “Project Titan,” and the very name aptly summarizes the challenges that the social networking site may face as it tries to dislodge brands that have been around much longer than itself.

According to media reports, Facebook’s new e-mail system will be accessible without having to sign in to one’s actual social networking profile. Each user’s e-mail address will automatically be based on his/her current Facebook vanity URL. For example, user Jane Doe’s e-mail address would be janedoe@facebook.com. The new e-mail system will dramatically alter the way in which the social networking site’s often criticized messaging system operates. It will be easier to search the contents of old messages, delete unwanted e-mails and the service will offer complete POP or IMAP support.

Some observers in the tech community have mused about whether or not Facebook’s new e-mail service may just become a “Gmail killer.” The social networking site already attracts a staggering 60 million log-ins per month and repeated surveys suggest that people are spending an increasingly larger portion of their online time using Facebook. While it would be premature to mull the demise of the largest names in the e-mail business, it is almost certain that Facebook’s new webmail service will give them all a run for their money.