We’ve been covering the new web email project MySpace has been working on in stealth mode for the past several month. Now it’s ready to begin a quiet rollout today, in beta, for users around the globe.
Here’s why this matters: Right off the bat, MySpace Mail with a sexy new interface is a major player in the e-mail space based on sheer size alone. With nearly 130 million global users, it will enter the field as the 4th largest email provider in the world, and 2nd largest in the U.S. (see chart). And it’s being built on top of the MySpace Messaging service that plenty of people are already using a lot — it accounts for some 20% of MySpace’s site traffic, we’re told.
Here’s what else is nice: Because MySpace has had so-called vanity URLs since its inception (unlike Facebook, which just rolled out the feature), you can use those as your email address with the new MySpace Mail. So for a page that resides at myspace.com/techcrunch, the email would be techcrunch@myspace.com, for example. And, if you don’t like the vanity URL you currently have, MySpace is giving you the opportunity to change it to something else (assuming it’s available). This would also change your vanity URL for your profile.
So what’s different in this new version? Well, besides the obvious upgrades to the overall look, there’s a new Mail Activity Stream. This basically gives users a real-time view of what people you are having a conversation with, are doing on the site. The new MySpace Mail also allows you to embed photos in one step, and send music and video as attachments.
And like Yahoo Mail, MySpace Mail comes with an unlimited amount of storage space. Contrast that with Google’s popular Gmail, which limits to just over 7 GB (though it is consistently growing).
We’ve talked about MySpace using Gears to do cool things with its messaging service in the past, and this new MySpace Mail will also utilize it to allow for power searching of mail.
So the big question is, how does it compare to what Facebook is offering? Well, as we’ve written before, Facebook mail has a lot of issues. Here’s how they stack up on some features (along with the other big guys):
As we said, this new MySpace Mail will begin rolling out today in beta, and it will continue to reach users across the globe over the next few weeks. When you first see it on your account, you’ll be greeting by a walk-through screen (pictured above) to set it up for the first time. This is where you’ll be able to choose which address you wish to use.
Here’s the core functionality:
- New Mail center provides a snapshot of all your mail activities including messages, sent messages, requests, and notifications
- Send and receive messages from inside or outside the MySpace network
- Unlimited file storage
- One click to embed photos directly from your profile or desktop
- Send and receive file attachments including music and video
- Search within Mail using our Google Gears implementation
- Check out friends’ activities in real time via the new Mail Activity Stream module
- Address book that automatically saves your contacts
In terms of privacy, here’s what MySpace is saying about the product:
MySpace Mail is safe and reliable. MySpace has always taken a holistic approach to privacy and Mail is no exception. MySpace Mail empowers users to be as open or as private as they choose. Just like traditional mail, users can choose to receive messages from anyone whether they are in the MySpace network or not, while enhanced privacy features enable users to receive mail from only their MySpace ‘friends.’ Leading anti-spam technology and virus scanning ensure a safe, spam-free mail experience.
And here are a ton of screenshots:
“You must first enter a the words in the box before you can check your e-mail.”
“Hi, my name is Candy Cara, would you like to see my Myspace profile? I gotz cam!”
“You must first enter a the words in the bx before you can send an e-mail.”
“Hello sweet, my name is Licous Tricia, come to my Myspace profile to seee mah picz!”
“You must first enter a the words in the bx before you can compose an e-mail.”
“Hey there baby, I’m hott for you on Myspace.”
“You must first enter a the words in the bx before you can check your e-mail.”
“Hi, my name is Lindy, and I’m an upcoming model. Check out my blog posts on Myspace to see my pics! MUAH!!!”
“You must first enter a the words in the bx before you can delete an e-mail.”
lol
“You must first enter a the words in the bx before you can read this”
lol
Fix your grammar dude.
“for the past several month.”
You sound like a damn FOB.
MySpace is on the verge of being shut down. I wouldn’t trust them with my email unless it’s a spam account.
You obviously haven’t logged in in a long time. MySpace has gotten rid of most of these types of spam messages. Haven’t received one of these in like four months.
Hopefully Facebook will push something like this soon as well. They’re UI is much cleaner and should appeal to a larger audience, in my opinion.
I think we’ll see video chat before we’ll see email.
Besides… MySpace /who/?
“They’re” means “They Are”. You wanted to use “Their” which denotes ownership.
Sorry, just a particular peeve of mine.
ADS, ADS, ADS.
they should have cut back on the ads to attract users.
i’m sure everyone on myspace already has an email account, so why not make it something tempting for them to use before you start bombarding them with visual ugly ads.
Seriously. The only thing I saw in those screenshots were big ugly banners. I know TC has banners too, but at least they’re presented a little more tastefully.
That’s why MySpace (unlike Facebook) actually makes money.
lol @ previous comment
I still think MySpace should just be a music/porn site.
You’ve pig shit for brains..
4Chan guy brings up a good point: how do you decipher real messages from spam on MySpace?
I believe Facebook is also working on a similar project, which would have even a larger impact given its size.
Well, they cannot make the Facebook message system and worse, so more power to them.
Wow… I can’t believe the email addresses are going to be that public. Spammers won’t even need to use a dictionary to guess email addresses.
Oy. As if MySpace wasn’t spammy enough.
Randy
Totally, totally agree with you.
You can just get some random user, take his vanity, use it as his e-mail, brute force the password, and voila.
Or, now that you have his e-mail, you can google it to see where else there are instances of it on the web.
Of course, who uses myspace emails for anything other then myspace-related?
Tons of possibilities.
Just because they are offering users a new email address, doesn’t mean the new email will be what they use to login to myspace with.
Yes it does. Read the article.
Yes it does. Read the article.
No, it doesn’t, read the article.
It does not become the email address you log in with. It does become the vanity url of your account. So, unless a user also changes the email address they use to log in to their MySpace email address, there wouldn’t be a concern about brute-forcing a password (in regards to MySpace email,) as there wouldn’t be one. (Not that I think MySpace would even allow someone to use their MySpace email as their MySpace login… If you forgot your password to login, and the password recovery email is sent to your MySpace email, how the heck would you get it?)
will it have IMAP/POP support?
According to the chart above, no, but let’s really, really, hope so.
CrapSpace
Overly negative. They want to prove they can deliver value, so let them try.
Amen to that Gary. Naysayers suck.
Opening up will eventually win over users back to Myspace. Spamming is everywhere, not just unique to Myspace.
Gmail, Facebook, hotmail probably have a bigger spamming problems than Myspace has.
Are you some sort of idiot whose never used an email account. All my spam goes into a spam folder I never see. On myspace.. all the spam goes on top of your mail center
“CLICK HERE TO SEE MY SEXY PICS”
myspace’s spam problems have not been fixed… they are 10 times worse
Siegler´s headline and the response from commenters correlate BIG-TIME…………………………….NOT
So is it open to users now, how do we sign up… tho I probe won’t use it, ill at least give it a shot.. tho for me myspace has died,I’m not into getting Spam messages every time I log in. Facebook and more importantly twitter have ruled my world as of late
I agree–I’d like to try out MySpace email too, but don’t see how to sign up. Gmail will likely stay my primary email, but I’m very bullish on MySpace’s ability to turn things around, and in email they should be a big player.
interesting twist…if Facebook does this it could really start to box Google out
I like the threaded view they have while reading messages.
Although I use Facebook to communicate with people much more than I use email, Facebook is still not an email client.
They only put themselves next to Facebook on that chart so they can pat themselves on the back for looking better than FB at something.
I don’t think they have nearly enough ads. Look at all that white space! Look at that big space next to the logo “mail” and under the netflix ad. Plenty of space to stuff even more!
I also love have they are trying to make everything look like Facebook.
Without a doubt, I will stick with Gmail.
Let the force be with you, Joeseph Engo.
More shoot the chicken flash advertisements are in the works.
Thanks
Do they offer Email forwarding?
i’m needing
MyLocator@MySpace.com to forward to MySpace@MyLocator .com.
There is a mistake in the chart Yahoo does or had the ability to have multiple emails per account I have one i got about 2 years ago.
They would let you add another email but you had to jump through a bunch of bullshit to get its not mentioned anywhere within mail and there was a seperate page I think it was from Yahoo Next but i dont quite remember.
I love the screenshot of a table, complete with red underlines for misspelled words and everything. ALT text: 8!
Currently, Myspace has you log in with your email address… So would you be logging in to check your email with another email address? That’s kinda weird. Or log in with your vanity address, which is totally public?
Hotmail has free IMAP/POP?!?!?!
I didn’t know that either. I just hope Hotmail’s IMAP support is better than Outlook’s
Okay, I don’t see Hotmail supporting IMAP. Anyone?
I just tried emailing myself at my MySpace username@myspace.com from another email account, and it was returned undeliverable. I did it just to see if MySpace had already reserved the address for me. Apparently not. Anyone know how we test this service out?
u need to login to your myspace first and set it up. until then, it will just work internal for myspace as it does right now
Yeah, I also logged into MySpace, but still have no idea how to set it up. If you know, please share. Thnx.
“As we said, this new MySpace Mail will begin rolling out today in beta, and it will continue to reach users across the globe over the next few weeks. When you first see it on your account, you’ll be greeting by a walk-through screen (pictured above) to set it up for the first time. This is where you’ll be able to choose which address you wish to use.”
Hooked on phonics worked for me.
Kudos to MS for trying to build out its connection and communication products and being ahead of the competition on this one. Whilst we all may not be users there are still loads of people who are, particularly in 12-17 year old age groups who think FB is something their parents use.
good luck myspace … while google is working wave project, do we really need one more email provider.
The best way to market to consumers is to read their email. C’mon man – figure it out.
Cool? Yes, for MySpace users… innovating, hmmm… I wouldn’t go that far. Google Wave (http://graphica...mic-proportions) offers a whole new world in how we communicate online than an email attached to your MySpace profile.
Yahoo offers multiple email addresses per account. The table above should probably be reviewed.
Gmail does as well ( as well as multiple senders ). It also has custom folders, they’re just called labels. And “display profile pics from senders” isn’t quite fair when 2 of the 5 services are social websites, not email programs.
Pointing out Gmail only has 7Gb is stupid, considering you have an extremely hard time using that unless you get hundreds of emails a day.
Not all that sexy.
that’s useless, who is going to use that? Easy for spammer to find out millions of email addresses, not the innovation Van Natta was promising few months ago, I still believe MySpace is dead….
wow myspace is being so f’n innovative with not only a rebranded citysearch, but now a new email client.. they are definitely on the right track ..
Myspace is like that dirty allyway with the bar that plays good music from time to time. You don’t ever want your friends to know that you go there, but sometimes the music is just so damn good you don’t have a choice.
I truly believe that they’re on they’re on their last leg, which is unfortunate because they really were the ones to commercialise social networking, but it goes to show you, if you don’t grow your community properly, and have near Flawless security, you’ll find yourself floundering to keep up with the competition, and last ditch efforts to stay afloat become very transparent. It all went downhill after the Fox buyout in my opinion.
So you are counting every MySpace user as a user of the new email system. There is your mistake. I doubt even 10% of the users will use it for regular email. Which brings the rank of MySpace way down.
Hope facebook does this. Myspace did a great job with this mail but I don’t want the @myspace.com for an email.
I am eager to access myspace email.
I just wonder how all those *unlimited spaced* disk racks look like.
myspace did not have vanity url’s since its inception. not even close. they have had it much longer than facebook though.
What happens to all the email addresses used by myspace employees? (that are @myspace.com) I already found one where if you take the employees email and plug it in as a myspace user it comes up as the wrong person. Are those people going to receive email meant for employees for a while? Or did they block out those names? Maybe they fired everyone who overlaps, and that’s the reason DeWolfe was ousted?
Check the links in the article the previous TC articles.
MySpace employees were switching from @myspace.com addresses to @myspace-inc.com addresses
1. Employee emails are @myspace-inc.com
2. No
3. Chris was fired because MS sucks. But he earned $1M/month in the process…sucks to be him.
4. I was an early adopter of CyVeillance
@MG
What do you get in return for this pathetic pandering?
if u hate MS that much then why you even care to open post and comment? funny idiots..
68 million email accounts. How many people signed up for it? Zero. How many people will use it?
Who cares? Seriously.
Gmail does display sender profile pics, when mouse-over, and it does allow multiple accounts, through some configurations. And it does have custom “folders,” though being called “labels.”
Wow.
First “MySpace Overtakes Evite On The Event Planning Totem Pole”, and now “MySpace Mail Quietly Emerges As A Big-Time Email Competitor”.
Of course, just weeks ago, “MySpace Is In Real Trouble If These Page View Declines Don’t Reverse” and “MySpace To Terminate 2/3 Of International Staff”
Why the sudden change of heart? Is Myspace a sinking ship, or the future of the internets?
this feature has more potential of driving users away than bringing new ones in.
Anyone else notice that the advertisements in the myspace mail screenshots take up MORE space than the emails??
Precisely the reason I quit using myspace.
How do you view your saved messages on the NEW myspace mail ?
its reallllly bugggin me.
YOU RULE MG YOU RULE!!!
This new mail is absolute trash.
I’ve been having a conversation on there with somebody, and I’ve now sent 3 messages, and it does not say they’ve been sent.
Last night one of my replies didn’t go through until 4 hours AFTER i sent it.
Myspace is horrible now, they keep adding new junk that nobody wants. The only reason I keep it is to talk with ONE person, and I’m probably going to ask them to make a facebook tomorrow.