(Research Triangle Park, N.C.) In a recent study, Reuters reported that 85 percent of online-connected global citizens in 24 countries use the internet for emails while only 62 percent use it for social networking. In another recent study, the contents of our email inboxes were found to reflect our real-life ties to the people in our lives. In 2010 Facebook introduced its own email addresses and its social inbox, and is once again putting email in the spotlight as it has linked users' timeline names to their Facebook email addresses: “Starting today, we're updating addresses on Facebook to make them consistent across our site. Now, the address people use to get to your timeline and send you email on Facebook will be the same. Updated addresses will be rolled out over the next few weeks. Note: Anyone who already selected an email address will not be affected.”
Google, which considers Google+ its "social spine," has already integrated it into Gmail. Facebook merging social network connections with email also makes sense. Google CEO Larry Page described Google+ as the "social spine" and the "social destination." Already, Google has Facebook-like user numbers through entities like YouTube with its 800 million monthly active users. A Google vs. Facebook showdown with both social media AND email looks to be coming very soon.
Email is still the more popular element of social connection. Facebook may have started in social, but Google's been doing email for much longer – many Facebook users connect via their Gmail addresses, as a matter of face. to log into Facebook on a daily basis. Google+ may be the "social spine" of Google, but email is still part of the Internet's backbone.
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