Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls it a "modern messaging system" that will bring numerous message applications under one social umbrella. Zuckerberg also said the new messaging system — code-named Titan — will save all messages for five years and eventually include voice chat.
Scores of users will be invited to use the new messaging system starting today, with a general roll out expected over the next several months. The new system will work with Gmail and Yahoo mail, among others, and for the first time allows users to have a facebook.com email address.
"I don't expect people to wake up tomorrow and say, 'I'm going to shut down my Yahoo account or my Gmail account,'" Zuckerberg said. "We expect that more people will IM and more people will message just because it's simpler and easier and it's more fun and valuable to use."
While Facebook has millions of users, it also is heavily used in the adult entertainment industry for marketing purposes; many of the same users also belong to XBIZ.net, an adult B2B social networking site.
