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E-mail secondary as Facebook revamps messaging
BARBARA ORTUTAY - The Associated Press


05:45:47PM (ET) Wednesday,November 17,2010.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook is betting that one day soon, we'll all be acting like young students — more texting and instant-messaging, at the expense of e-mail.

Facebook unveiled a new messaging system Monday, and while CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn't go as far as declaring e-mail dead, he clearly sees the four-decade-old technology being eclipsed by more real-time ways of communicating.

"We don't think a modern messaging system is going to be e-mail," Zuckerberg said.

Right now, Facebook's Messages section is a lot like an e-mail inbox. The overhauled version, which will be rolled out to users by invitation in coming months, brings in cell phone texts, IM chats and e-mails from non-Facebook accounts.

All the messages stack up in one inbox, and they're organized by the person sending them rather than the type of technology they use. For those who want one, Facebook will hand out facebook.com e-mail addresses — mostly to make it easier to communicate with people who aren't on Facebook.

"If we do a good job, some people will say this is the way that the future will work," Zuckerberg said.

By making e-mail part of its communications hub, Facebook escalates its duel with Internet search leader Google Inc., which shook up online communications 6½ years ago with its Gmail service. Google has said it will roll out more social networking features to counter Facebook's growing popularity, and within Gmail it already lets people chat, e-mail and make phone calls.

Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft are also working on incorporating messages from Facebook, Twitter and other social sites into their main e-mail systems.

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* Wondering at this time why the revamping so soon ?
Noting the last sentence... *

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