Wait and watch before you switch to FB mail

New Delhi: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the newly launched Facebook messaging system will soon replace the regular mail.

"We spent lot of time building a handful of products to fit what we think the need is in a modern messaging system," said Zuckerberg in his fresh attack on rival Google.

So what is the difference between the newly launched Facebook messaging system and the good old Gmail?

The new Facebook system unifies all your conversations that happen through e-mails, Facebook messages, SMS, other chat clients and puts them as a thread on your new @facebook.com email address.

Your e-mail username will be similar to your profile name and you will be able to send your emails from within your Facebook page.

Facebook's 'Social Inbox'; much like Gmail's 'priority inbox' will sort your personal messages and prioritising notes from Facebook friends. All other messages go in a second inbox. You will be allowed to move people from one folder to other.

Facebook has about 500 million users so this product is a direct threat to Gmail's 170 million users and Yahoo!'s 303 million users.

The new feature is already being rolled out in the US but might take a while to reach your inbox. And you will have to sign up for this service at .

So should you switch from your e-mail to this? Considering Facebook's track record on privacy maybe you should wait and watch.

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