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View Full Version : Facebook shuts down email service. Was anyone actually using it?



Harold Mansfield
02-26-2014, 10:04 AM
Facebook started notifying people that they will be discontinuing their email service. It rolled out back in 2010 and was supposed to make SMS, Email, Instant Messaging seamless. To date I've never sent anyone an email from my @facebook address and have never received an email from one.

So it begs the question, "If Facebook shuts down an email service that no one was using, will anyone even notice?"

Has anyone ever used their @facebook email account?

There's more here: Facebook retires its troubled @facebook.com email service | The Verge (http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/24/5443454/facebook-retires-its-email-service)

vangogh
02-27-2014, 03:16 AM
I've never used mine assuming Facebook gave me one automatically. I remember when they first announced this and then remember thinking how little I wanted a Facebook email address. The next thing I remember about a Facebook email is replying to this thread. I know I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't mentioned it. Something tells me I'm not alone, though I would imagine some people use it and will be sad to see it go.

Harold Mansfield
02-28-2014, 08:45 AM
There used to be a time when a new email service was exciting. I've had or have them all..@outlook, @msn, @hotmail, @yahoo, @aol, @gmail, @jaegermail, @earthlink, @cox.net, @shortmail, a ridiculously long Blackberry email address, and probably another 5 that I'm not remembering. Not to mention my own private email accounts.

Even if Facebook's solution was the holy grail of email, by 2010 I think most of us were so emailed out that the thought of yet another inbox to worry about didn't make us all warm and fuzzy inside. I actually just found out more about it's options since it's demise, than I cared to learn about when it was launched.

LeadMaster
02-28-2014, 03:30 PM
I have never used Facebook email really. I have sent messages to Facebook email addresses because it was the only contact detail listed by a couple of businesses, the email went through but I don't recall ever receiving a response..

BrandGeek
02-28-2014, 06:31 PM
Thanks for posting this. I hadn't heard about it, and wouldn't even have noticed were it not for your mention.

Facebook email has always been a mystery. Why is it there? I'm in no way an expert in building a social media platform (I've worked on two social media startups, and it's a brutal undertaking). But any time I look at a business from a marketing perspective, it's necessary to ask: what problem is this solving for the customer?

The only answer I can divine for Facebook email, both as a marketing guy and as a user of Facebook is this: it's not solving any problem.

This is also an evergreen challenge in marketing: businesses try to solve problems that people don't have.

Not sure how Facebook email came to be, but no. I've never used it and ain't gonna miss it.

Cheers,

Blaine Parker

JohnF
02-28-2014, 08:26 PM
No one was using it, and there was never a good reason for it to exist. The thinking was probably that people wanted to get all their online communication needs from one source- except it just means doing some work to switch to a service that's not as good as gmail. And when you consider all the stuff people sign up for with their e-mail addresses, e-mail services have sizable lock-in effects.