We asked all of you to take a flash poll to take a pulse on how the real estate community feels about using the new Facebook email coming out soon and although it’s just a sampling, the results are relatively consistent with other polls we now see floating around. The trend in our industry is that Facebook email will be claimed by all so others cannot take their name, but not for actual use. The AG Flash Poll results are as follows:
To clarify the second chart, when we asked “will you actually use Facebook mail?” here is what you said:
- 59% No, I don’t need yet one *more* place to be. Duh.
- 13% No, not until it is a proven, stable email service.
- 21% Yes, but only as an alternate/additional email service.
- 7% Yes, I will replace my current email service with it.
In a fast moving world where Google is the reigning king of email, calendars, mobile mapping apps, etc. Facebook will likely be appealing to people not in the tech circles or in the professional world. Is this yet one more move to make Facebook more like MySpace?
In steps AOL… I’m trying not to laugh…
AOL is no longer famous for the “you’ve got mail” tagline, rather the “we buy web content” buys they continue to make. AOL is heavily leveraged in several top blogs (like TechCrunch) and is snatching up blogs left and right in a move to remain relevant. This week, they are crying “look at me! I did email first!” by beta testing their new email system, “Project Phoenix” which looks a heck of a lot like Gmail and offers to bring over your Yahoo! messaging as well as Gmail messages, chat and the like.
Why does your email service provider matter? It’s not just about what others think, it’s about functionality, features, flexibility, privacy, stability and more. Facebook sends me messages days after someone has sent them and sometimes they simply disappear. AOL is where we used chat in the 1990s with the well rehearsed A/S/L line that we all faked for fun. I’m not alone in my inability to take either seriously, take a look at what famous web artist, Matt Inman charted about what people read into your email address:
I’m sticking with my own domain which forwards to my Gmail which I use as home base. What are your email plans? What are you sticking with, dumping or trying out?
BONUS: if you’re an email snob like me, Inman did another web comic called “If you do this in an email, I hate you.” You’re welcome.
