TONYZERRER@facebook.com

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I read today that Facebook is working on an email service for their users. I think this is a fantastic idea and welcome the innovation. I can't say I'll participate with the service, but I know many of my friends and family will.

The Good:

1) Everyone already has a Facebook account and uses it regularly, this new email feature will help consolidate the user's time  by making Facebook a one-stop shop for most of their Internet uses.

2) I'm sure Facebook will be able to integrate their email service with all the other services seamlessly. Surely the mobile app will continue to be a streamlined version of the popular desktop version, which will make reading and writing emails from Facebook even easier.

The Bad:

1) Trust is an issue for Facebook users. Many are familiar with Facebook's unscrupulous actions by selling user data to third parties, integrating email will become another avenue for advertisers to target users on a deeper level than before.

2) Alone the lines of private data becoming compromised, I could see email messages being searchable via Facebook or oven Google. Have you ever heard of myopenbook.org? Imagine if they could add email addresses and messages to their search engine.

The unfortunate part of all this are the scores of people that think Facebook is the Internet. I'm afraid that adding email services will only help complete the brainwashing. On the other side I see Facebook having a lot at stake. If they don't execute this service properly they could risk a major downfall and alienate many users prior to their big IPO. On the other hand if Facebook is able to build email as a popular service, they could possibly become the largest email provider in the world.

Related articles

• Why You'll Give Up Gmail for Facebook Mail [Facebook] (gizmodo.com)
• Here's How Facebook Email Is Going To Kick Gmail's Butt (businessinsider.com)