At the end of September, I wrote an article speculating that perhaps Facebook purchased FB.com in private. There hasn’t been any public acknowledgement about whether the company bought it or not (or who may have bought it if Facebook didn’t), and the domain name still does not resolve. See update below.
Multiple websites are reporting that Facebook will be holding an invite-only event in San Francisco on Monday, November 15th, and it is expected they will announce a new email system or platform that Techcrunch has dubbed “Facebook’s Gmail Killer.” According to the folks at Techcrunch, this project has been referred to internally as “Project Titan.”
This is pure speculation, but it would be pretty neat if they launched this mail service on FB.com (if they own this domain name now confirmed that Facebook owns it). Assuming it is a mail service they intend to launch on Monday, they could also use another name like FacebookMail.com (which they already own), or they could just tie it in with Facebook.com.
In my opinion, launching a mail service on FB.com would be a great idea. I am sure there are still plenty of people who still think Facebook is just for social networking, despite the company’s growth and evolution. By using FB.com, they could somewhat disassociate from the Facebook brand, which could make a mail service @FB.com look more professional and serious. I think it would look strange to receive a job application from someone emailing me from Facebook, perhaps somewhat unprofessional in my opinion.
Google moved away from the Google name when it started its GMail platform, and I think it would be a smart idea for Facebook to use FB.com for mail, if they did in fact acquire the domain name.
**8:45pm Update**
As Andrew pointed out within the last hour, the Whois information for FB.com has changed, and Facebook is now listed as the owner (see screenshot below). Additionally, FB.com is now forwarding to Facebook.com.
If it is a mail service they’re launching then it would be a great success. FB.co has been registered as well.
I don’t think it’ll be a GMail killer though.
I thought facebook was supposed to be an email killer? Many people do their online conversing and contacting through facebook and twitter now anyway. You don’t need to email your close contacts anymore if you are both on the same social network site. Starting an email service would almost be like a step backwards for facebook. They would have to put some kind of twist on it to make it stand out.
On the other hand, they have the eyeballs and maybe this would be another way to increase pageviews and keep a stranglehold in social networking, plus serve up more ads.
It’s now confirmed that FaceBook did acquire FB.com — check the live WHOIS (at internic.net or MarkMonitor.com). BTW, DomainTools.com caches the OLD WHOIS from earlier in the day, so won’t show the new one until tomorrow.
I don’t know about you guys but it seems this URL is more email ready…
https://mail.thefacebook.com