Facebook's 'Gmail killer' Site set to launch

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Facebook's 'Gmail killer': Site set to

launch its own email service to take on Google

Mark Zuckerberg is expected to unveil

a new Facebook email service

Facebook is set to launch its own email

service to rival Google’s Gmail and Mircrosfot’s Hotmail.

The social networking site - which boasts more

than 500 million users worldwide - will host a

special event in San Francisco later today.

According to technology website TechCrunch,

Facebook will tonight unveil a full-fledged

web email product, which is being referred

to within Facebook as a ‘Gmail-killer.’

There are also rumours that all Facebook users

will be given a ‘facebook.com’ email address

as part of the new concept which is known as

'Project Titan'.

At the moment Facebook users are able to

contact one another by either posting on

each other's wall or by Facebook's own

internal messaging service.

Project Titan is expected to be a revamp

of the existing messaging as well as a fully

functional ,stand-alone email client

just like Gmail or Hotmail.

Eden Zoller, principal analyst at Ovum, said:

'An email service from Facebook makes a lot of sense.

'It has a huge base of 500 million users

that already love to communicate and share,

and Facebook is giving them richer ways to

do this through virtual gifts, games,

location and even voice thanks to the

recent integration deal with Skype.

'Adding email to the mix is a logical step

and Facebook could tap into user data to

provide an attractive, highly personalised

service. You would also expect it to push

mobile features given its big move in

this direction. '

The move will certainly alarm Facebook's

nearest rivals such as Yahoo and Google.

The press conference this evening in

San Francisco comes amid an ongoing row

between Google and Facebook. Last week,

Google began blocking a Facebook feature

that allows users to automatically import

Gmail contact data into the social

networking service.

Google accused Facebook of siphoning up

Google data without allowing for the automatic

import and export of Facebook users' information.

They are also increasingly vying for engineering

talent in Silicon Valley. This week, Google

internally announced plans to boost salaries

by 10 percent, according to media reports,

in a move viewed as an effort to staunch an

exodus of engineers and managers to Facebook.

Google has banned Facebook from importing its

users' e-mail contacts, a move it says it

made because Facebook refused to allow the

export of contact and friend data from

within user profiles.

The expected announcement by Facebook comes

as former internet big-hitter AOL is opening

the doors to its new web-based e-mail program,

code-named Project Phoenix, for a limited

number of users. Starting next year, anyone

will be able to sign up for access to a

beta test site.

The Project Phoenix inbox page was designed

to make it easier to fire off a quick email,

text or instant message with just a few clicks

on a ‘quick bar’ at the top of the page.

People can also send short replies directly from

the inbox page, without having to click on a

message first. The new design displays thumbnails

of recent photo attachments at a glance,

and lets people toggle between several

open e-mails at a time.

When someone is reading an e-mail with pictures

attached, the photos will also show up as

thumbnails next to the message.

Addresses in the body of the e-mail will

trigger the system to display a map from

AOL's Mapquest on the right-hand side,

with the option to click for directions.

Project Phoenix lets people link up their

email accounts on services from Microsoft

Yahoo and Google. In future versions,

AOL also plans to pull in Twitter,

Facebook and LinkedIn messages.