That's still stupid, and it still doesn't do what Xobni's app does. This just lets you spam non-FB users from within FB. I want my damn FB messages to go to my inbox, not a note saying "you have an FB message waiting for you if you log into FB"

I gave this a try and it's not what I hoped for. You have to hit a reply button inside the email in order to respond or see attachements. I was hoping facebook would stop linking back to the site and let you reply to the email itself.

Facebook are directly trying to squash my app:

http://apps.facebook.com/webmail/

It's exactly what you hoped for and what Facebook haven't yet managed to deliver :-)

Looks like a nice app there. What I want is api access to facebook messages so that I can write a twitterific style desktop app.

I guess they felt pressured by Xobni's plugin.

This is the brilliance of the facebook platform. If someone comes up with an innovative idea and releases a facebook application that proves valuable to users, facebook can just build its own version to kill it and then build off its success. Its almost like free R&D.

Walled gardens are great.

Walled gardens are great, but walls keep people out as well as keeping people in.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000052.html

Indeed. If I ever build a platform, the only circumstance I'd ever make someone else's work native to the platform is if I had their full permission, and even then I'd give them full credit.

We now need a comment from one of the Xobni team for completeness. Brezina? Adam? Gabor?

Email me instead was just a weekend hack. I made it because I was sick of getting "you have a message" emails. This update from FB doesn't change that.

The only thing that annoys me is that they ask for comments on their blog, but they don't publish them. Is it even a blog then?

None of the above (but still what you asked for)!

FTFA: "Now you can enter a friend's email address into the To: line ..."

Uh oh, Facebook just reinvented SNDMSG ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNDMSG ). I'm shaking in my boots! :)

I'll definitely still use "Email me instead".

Spammers rejoice!

"Facebook lets you send messages direct to email addresses"

I'm sorry but... I can't be the only one that laughed while reading this, right?

Never mind that keeping conversations inside facebook is what keeps facebook nerwork active and running. The moment proper emailing happens outside, facebook is dead.

In other words, it's a huge weakness in their design that is just waiting to be exploited.

They scare me, just like how google scared me when they started. I think they are unto something. Google better watch out for these guys.