Facebook has begun rolling out @facebook.com email addresses to its users after a "by invite only" test period of just over two months.
The new Facebook Email service isn"t your traditional email service, as it has a social networking, immediate chat twist. The new email service helps speed up how users communicate with one another, through email.
The main features to the service includes seamless messaging, conversation history and a social inbox. Users can choose an @facebook.com email address, and with that email, they"re able to have instant inbox alerts, the same concept as Google Instant Search, with conversation history and a social inbox, using an algorithm to filter out all the messages you don"t want. The email service is currently optional to current users, but like the recent profile page updates, we expect that all users will eventually be migrated over.
Microsoft also plays a role in the Facebook email inbox with Outlook Web Apps. With Web Apps integration, users are able to use Microsoft Office documents like Word, Excel and PowerPoint to share with friends and family, a feature already integrated with Facebook and docs.com.
Users can also connect their account with Windows Live SkyDrive, offering up to 25GB of online storage for school work, photos, and personal documents you can share across computers, friends or use as additional storage.
To claim your email address, log in to Facebook, go to "messages" and you will see an upgrade option (may not apply to all countries yet).