Facebook’s Email Land Grab

Most people misunderstand our place within the business of Facebook. If Facebook was a restaurant selling chicken dinners we would be the chicken! Facebook’s real customers are advertisers. We’re the product.

It’s no surprise Facebook’s recent email change wasn’t implemented to make your life better. Facebook’s goal is to make Facebook more ubiquitous… more deeply a part of your life. Anything they can do to become indispensable is literally and figuratively money in the bank.

Most people misunderstand our place within the business of Facebook. If Facebook was a restaurant selling chicken dinners we would be the chicken! Facebook’s real customers are advertisers. We’re the product.

It’s no surprise Facebook’s recent email change wasn’t implemented to make your life better. Facebook’s goal is to make Facebook more ubiquitous… more deeply a part of your life. Anything they can do to become indispensable is literally and figuratively money in the bank.

If you haven’t heard, Facebook has replaced your publicly viewable email address(es) with your username@facebook.com. Facebook wants you to use Facebook as your email provider.

I don’t want to use Facebook for my email. I like the unified mailbox I’ve set up through Google. As I’ve recently found, having all my email in one easily searched place is very powerful (more powerful and useful than I can explain right now).

Even Facebook understands this really isn’t a good idea for their users. After all, they will continue to contact you via the email address you originally provided them.

In the past I have found email addresses for people I want to reach through their Faceook “About” page. That will now be much more hit and miss.

Here’s PC Magazine’s guide to your switching your viewable address back

Go to your Facebook Timeline or page (get there by clicking on your name at the top left).

Click About. It’s on the left side beneath your profile picture and short information about you.

Look for Contact Info, and select Edit. Next to each of your email addresses are two settings: a) The first one controls who can see each email address: public, friends, only you, or some customized setting, which can include special groups of friends, if you’ve created any. b) The second setting controls whether the email address appears on your Timeline.

Will Facebook relent? If they don’t in the next 72 hours my guess is, no.

8 thoughts on “Facebook’s Email Land Grab”

  1. It’s a little different if you’re not using timeline. Click your name at top right, then the pull-down arrow in the very top right. Click account settings, then find “edit your profile” in tiny letters on the left.

  2. sooner or later we all will get timeline, so far I’ve been lucky. we will see for how much longer

  3. Im getting so frustrated with facebook,how do we keep our page for friends only??? I can look for someone,type their name,and in seconds ,know evrything about people I dont even know!!!!

  4. My one goal in life is to be the last FB user to get the timeline… (Hey, I know it’s not much, but ya gotta have some goals) 🙂
    One piece of advise, don’t use the apps…

  5. My one goal in life is to be the last person on earth to join Facebook! I consider it an intrusion on my privacy. George Orwell had a good name for it—Big Brother

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