TechCrunch has released details of a project codenamed ‘Titan’ that may well change the face of e-mail marketing. Facebook are planning to launch a full functional email solution much akin to Gmail or Hotmail in the coming months. So what will it include?

• Access from the walled garden of Facebook or via POP/IMAP (Outlook/Express/Live Mail can be used to read your email.)
• A unique @facebook.com email address. Probably based on your Vanity URL

The quick win could be for Facebook to utilise it’s Microsoft connections and base their email solution on Hotmail, but knowing Facebook they are going to develop this themselves.

If they do develop something unique to themselves from the ground-up then we could have a whole new email client to deal with – more testing of e-mail rendering and spam scoring is guaranteed…

So where does this fit in the webmail landscape? I think Gmail has a hardcore, committed following that love the labelling, organisation and simplicity of the conversation based layout. The big threat ironically could be to Microsoft and it’s Hotmail solution. This has become a spam filled webmail system that people are using as a rubbish bin for unwanted email. If a new solution was introduced that offered better spam control, a great user-interface and was hosted on a website you visited almost daily then I think the winner is clear to see.

This project is one that all digital marketers will have to watch closely.

Read more about this at AllFacebook in their 5 Features Facebook Should Add To Their New Email Product

• Australian e-mail marketeers Campaign Monitor have a released a birds-eye view of the e-mail client popularity and usage over time. This is priceless for any e-mail marketers out there.
• It used to be ‘If you build it, they will come’ but times have changed, social media guru Chris Brogan contributes an an excellent PDF download titled – Trust Economies: Investigation into the New ROI of the Web
• For anyone using or considering using Twitter as a commercial communication channel ‘50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business‘ and the ‘14 Types of Twitter Personalities‘ are good insights.
• Mashable reviews a nice online way of creating instant Twitter Communities with Tweetizen.
• Brendan Regan looks at homepages for a living (nice work!), he’s blogged about a strong homepage design he recently found whilst ‘working’.
• The final article is a great introduction to developing an Optimisation Culture into the business you work in.