Facebook shuts down failed email service

USPA News - The social networking website Facebook will shut down its failed email service next month, just over three years after the popular website introduced the feature as a `modern messaging system` that allowed users to communicate no matter what format was used. A Facebook spokesperson said late Monday that people who use their @facebook.com email address will no longer receive messages in their `Messages` folder on Facebook.

Instead, the email will be forwarded to the personal email address that is registered with the Facebook account. "I can confirm that today we started notifying people who use their @facbook.com email that the feature is changing," said the spokeswoman. "We`re making this change because most people haven`t been using their Facebook email address, and we can focus on improving our mobile messaging experience for everyone." The feature was launched in November 2010 and billed as a `new modern messaging system` to make communication simple. "This is not an email killer. This is a messaging experience that includes email as one part of it," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the time, adding: "This is the way that the future should work." The feature allowed users to use a single social inbox to receive Facebook messages, Facebook chats, SMS texts and conventional emails. But the service would turn out to be a failure, and the company came under fire just months later when it replaced users` email addresses with an @facebook.com email. The move to shut down the failed email service comes just days after Facebook reached a definitive agreement to acquire the popular mobile messaging service WhatsApp for approximately $19 billion in cash and stock, making it the largest-ever purchase of a company backed by venture capital. Facebook has 1.23 billion users as of December 31.