So the splashy headlines the media seem to be going with, at least in the UK, are along the lines of 'Mark Zuckerberg says email is dead', which is a pretty ridiculous statement but is, of course, great PR. Facebook is more or less claiming to have found a revolutionary solution to a problem everybody encounters every day, which platform should I, or can I, speak to this person on - SMS, email or through social media messaging or IM? Everyone except me? I don't believe I've ever been faced with this dilemma and nor do I need another email address to contend with, one work and one personal suits me just fine, and I'm not about to drop my googlemail, which I'm entirely happy with, for this or any other service.
It's very difficult to imagine how Facebook's new Messages service will exactly work, look or feel and I hope it lives up to what seems to be an initial positive reception but at this stage it unfortunately smells of hype. I have lots of questions, especially around the integration of SMS, such as, will Facebook users who don't have a smartphone be able to receive and send messages? If not then this shouldn't really be part of Facebook's patter and if yes, that surely means you have to share your mobile number with Facebook - cue to start the privacy settings alarm bell ringing.
The Facebook blog says: "Between mobile devices and the Internet we can be more connected today than ever before, but there is still a feeling that the technology can also act as a barrier between us."
Well, I for one like certain barriers and with Facebook, I would go so far as to saying there aren't enough of them. For example, grouping people should mean you can restrict what those people can see - I'd prefer it if old school friends I don't really know didn't see my wall - but groups just mean you can share with only them. For this very reason I will never befriend a work client because my Facebook is very personal. Dare I ask, but is there too much emphasis on sharing with everyone and not enough on crucial one to one relationships?
New Media Age's Charlotte McEleny seems to think that Facebook has for once got its approach to privacy right because only messages from Facebook friends appear in your inbox but of course, that's how the messages service operates now. Also it is an option to block all non-Facebook messages completely, which again is surely how it currently works and that sounds not dissimilar to the more simple 'don't give your email address out' solution.
My last observation is on new Messages pulling together all the various types of communication, SMS, email and chat together in one stream so that everything you've ever talked about with someone will be there for... forever? The only emails I keep for long periods are for business purposes in my work account or those messages that have important sign up or purchasing information and even then there is only a window of time in which they need to be saved. So although this sounds like a cool way of displaying varied information, I'm not sure exactly why it is needed.
Facebook has done a sterling job of positioning Messages as something that we all need but I think the best way to decide is to let the public relations play out and wait to see the new facility in practice. I'm obviously sceptical but I can also see its future may lie with all those who are coming of age to email - if you use Facebook already and decide you need an email address then why wouldn't you choose it over the current three big hitters, Hotmail, Yahoo and GMail? Either way, I believe email is far from dead, in fact, I don't think it's even sick yet!