Facebook's New Email Client: 'Gmail Killer'

Facebook plans to replace its clunky old messaging system with a fully featured e-mail platform in the hopes of taking down the biggest players in the market. The project’s official internal name is Project Titan, sources tell Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, but unofficially they’re calling it “the Gmail killer.” It’ll have full POP/IMAP support, too, giving users access to their accounts from outside Facebook.

Henry Blodget of Business Insider calls it a “brilliant” move, noting that Facebook is far better positioned to own the email space than Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft ever were, because its core business is already communication. “If Facebook produces an excellent email system, it has a huge opportunity here,” he writes. “Google has already demonstrated that it's possible to come from behind in web mail.” (More Gmail stories.)