Did you know that you can now send emails to people from within Facebook?! Pretty cool, I thought…then I did some testing.
If you send an email to someone who already is a Facebook user, even if you type the email address in, they receive the mail in their Facebook inbox. If they’re not a Facebook user, then they have to become one to retrieve the message… sheer brilliance! The catch is that you are not told this upfront, as you may be led to to believe that the user is receiving a normal email, but in actual fact, you’re helping Facebook acquire new users!
How much faster can Facebook grow? A lot, by the looks of things!
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Comments On This Post
August 23, 2007 at 10:24 pm
This sounds too shady to last. I don’t think people will put up with this feature for long before it has to be changed. Either they’ll change it to give users proper warning of what happens when they send the email, or people will just not use it. There’s great power in an 18-25 demo’s boycott of an online service.
August 24, 2007 at 2:23 am
This is certainly a pretty strategic move on Facebook’s end. It is inevitable that a non-Facebooker who receives an email only accessible via Facebook will choose to become a member simply to view the email. Although this is an easy way to recruit more Facebook members, I don’t necessarily think that people will choose to use Facebook email as opposed to their normal email server. However, I will admit that Facebook messages and wall posts are becoming an ever-increasingly common way to communicate with others – sometimes even replacing a phone call!
August 23, 2007 at 8:24 pm
This sounds too shady to last. I don’t think people will put up with this feature for long before it has to be changed. Either they’ll change it to give users proper warning of what happens when they send the email, or people will just not use it. There’s great power in an 18-25 demo’s boycott of an online service.
August 24, 2007 at 12:23 am
This is certainly a pretty strategic move on Facebook’s end. It is inevitable that a non-Facebooker who receives an email only accessible via Facebook will choose to become a member simply to view the email. Although this is an easy way to recruit more Facebook members, I don’t necessarily think that people will choose to use Facebook email as opposed to their normal email server. However, I will admit that Facebook messages and wall posts are becoming an ever-increasingly common way to communicate with others – sometimes even replacing a phone call!
August 24, 2007 at 7:32 am
I think it will bring new users to Facebook even if it doesn’t last. Most 18-25’s are already on Facebook and those that aren’t will want to be – I’m not guessing there will be boycotts from that generation – they’re into change – maybe its the older ones who’ll grumble about having to access their emails by first having to join Facebook.
August 24, 2007 at 5:32 am
I think it will bring new users to Facebook even if it doesn’t last. Most 18-25’s are already on Facebook and those that aren’t will want to be – I’m not guessing there will be boycotts from that generation – they’re into change – maybe its the older ones who’ll grumble about having to access their emails by first having to join Facebook.
August 28, 2007 at 12:15 am
What I think would be really viral and awesome is if they had a facebook application that ran on your cellphone and allowed people to add other people to their network of friends via their cellphone by sending an sms or perhaps via bluetooth.
So lets say that you’re out, at an event, or something and you hit it off with someone, or you meet an old friend and want to connect with them later, whip out your cellphone and hook up together with facebook and if the one person’s not on facebook, allow them a really easy way to sign up. What do you think?
August 27, 2007 at 10:15 pm
What I think would be really viral and awesome is if they had a facebook application that ran on your cellphone and allowed people to add other people to their network of friends via their cellphone by sending an sms or perhaps via bluetooth.
So lets say that you’re out, at an event, or something and you hit it off with someone, or you meet an old friend and want to connect with them later, whip out your cellphone and hook up together with facebook and if the one person’s not on facebook, allow them a really easy way to sign up. What do you think?
August 30, 2007 at 10:39 pm
[...] nun lese ich gerade auch noch in dem Blog von Vinny Lingham dass Facebook „viral“ auf sich aufmerksam macht - ähnlich wie im Viralen-Paradebeispiel [...]
December 28, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Hopefully, they’ll remove the friend adding count restrictions in 2008!
http://www.Drewryonline.net
December 28, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Hopefully, they’ll remove the friend adding count restrictions in 2008!
http://www.Drewryonline.net
July 15, 2009 at 12:20 am
Does Facebook still practice this? It seems a little shady to me, but it probably works wonders attracting new members. Heck, my mom is a new member!
July 31, 2009 at 10:05 am
Facebook Apps have a huge demand today, Every Developer working on it to make a quality facebook applications. Nice info . Thanks
August 15, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Thank youu very muchh….ssvs
August 16, 2009 at 11:22 pm
thank you for sharing
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