I’ve started testing the new FaceBook messaging system.
One interesting thing I noticed was that during the setup process, FaceBook allows you to ‘claim your email address.’
After claiming my address, which originally appeared would be pilley [at] facebook.com, I sent a test email and received the following message:
Dear Sender:
Facebook has changed its corporate email address domain from @facebook.com to @fb.com.
Your message has been delivered to the intended recipient, but please update your contact details with <address>@fb.com for future correspondence. You will not receive this message again if you utilize <address>@fb.com. We will not be forwarding any email sent to @facebook.com corporate email addresses past January 5th, 2011.
Regards,
Just last week, Mark Zuckerberg seemed to hint that employees would be using the fb.com domain, while users would be using facebook.com. Now it appears that FaceBook will be dovetailing user’s email on the corporate fb.com domain as well.
I’m guessing the change in the domain was after the fact, since the messaging setup verbiage had not been updated prior to allowing folks to ‘claim their email.’ Only after sending the test message did I receive the above no-reply message.
Could using an alternative domain be part of a strategy to reduce traffic through the FaceBook.com domain? Or is using the shorter FB.com domain because of a vanity reason? Or is the message I received simply a mistake? Time will tell as the new messaging system is rolled out to more users.
BTW, email messages sent from outside the messaging system appear in your ‘other’ mail.
FaceBook’s new message system is opt-in, and you can sign up now for an invitation.