Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday

Re:Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday by rkwz on Friday November 12, 2010 @07:00AM (#1897374)

I think Facebook has much much bigger goals than silly gmail killing. It's trying to become the internet for all those who don't know the difference between a browser, web site and the internet. Offering email services is just a small step in that direction.

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Re:Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday by krschultz on Friday November 12, 2010 @08:34AM (#1897544)

A lot of people compare Facebook to MySpace, but isn't AOL also a good comparison?

Remember all the companies that were AOL keywords. Now they have Facebook pages. AOL has a messenger, now Facebook does. It just strikes me as AOL for the 21st century.

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Re:Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday by BrandonM on Friday November 12, 2010 @09:19AM (#1897696)

> A lot of people compare Facebook to MySpace, but isn't AOL also a good comparison?

"Facebook is the new AOL" is about as close as Hacker News gets to a meme.

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Re:Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday by gonzo on Friday November 12, 2010 @08:58AM (#1897624)

I actually got to pose the question (live and in-person), "Isn't Facebook the new AOL?" to Steve Case last week.

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Re:Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday by chopsueyar on Friday November 12, 2010 @09:16AM (#1897680)

"Actually, it reminds me of Prodigy." - Steve Case

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_%28online_service%29

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Re:Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday by gaius on Friday November 12, 2010 @09:30AM (#1897734)

And...? Don't leave us hanging!

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Re:Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday by chime on Friday November 12, 2010 @09:13AM (#1897673)

What was his reply?

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Re:Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday by pitdesi on Friday November 12, 2010 @09:34AM (#1897749)

How did he answer?

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Re:Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday by iantimothy on Friday November 12, 2010 @02:04PM (#1898738)

So the interesting question to me is, after learning about the history of AOL, why would Facebook want to pursue what on surface seems like a similar strategy.

What's different this time with Facebook? And are the threats to its growth, success and longevity in principle the same as AOL's.

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Re:Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday by jbrennan on Friday November 12, 2010 @11:21AM (#1898117)

I wonder, then, if they'll ever enter into web search. It would make sense, given the seeming herd migration of engineers from Google (though I don't know how many were from Search).

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Re:Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday by mistermann on Friday November 12, 2010 @07:28AM (#1897423)

I agree. One market I'd like to see them enter is online payments and micropayments, they have enough reach that they could probably pull it off.

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Re:Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday by BBonifield on Friday November 12, 2010 @08:35AM (#1897548)

You can already purchase Facebook credits for games and the like. It's just a matter of time before they transition that into something with a wider reach.

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Re:Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday by steveklabnik on Friday November 12, 2010 @08:30AM (#1897533)

Facebook Credits don't count?

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Re:Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday by mistermann on Friday November 12, 2010 @10:16AM (#1897884)

Not familiar with those....are they interchangeable for money?

I'd like to be able to easily send $5 to a friend via facebook, or 25 cents to the author of a blog post I enjoyed. Others have tried the micropayments, but it needs a heavyweight to really pull it off. Maybe facebook can buy a startup that has it nicely figured out technically, but can't get traction.

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Re:Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday by steveklabnik on Friday November 12, 2010 @10:53AM (#1898010)

You buy them with real money, and can spend them within applications on Facebook. It's not usable for anything outside of Facebook, or directly sending stuff to your friends.

But it's still the beginnings of an entry into the market.

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Re:Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday by samuel on Friday November 12, 2010 @08:33AM (#1897539)

So it's more like a hotmail killer. Gmail users tend to be "power" ones.

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Re:Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday by Gibbon on Friday November 12, 2010 @10:04AM (#1897842)

Hotmail and Yahoo Mail are also more than twice as big as Gmail.

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