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Comment by rkwz | Hacker News Reader

I think Facebook has much much bigger goals than silly gmail killing. It's trying to become the internet for all those who don't know the difference between a browser, web site and the internet. Offering email services is just a small step in that direction.

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A lot of people compare Facebook to MySpace, but isn't AOL also a good comparison?

Remember all the companies that were AOL keywords. Now they have Facebook pages. AOL has a messenger, now Facebook does. It just strikes me as AOL for the 21st century.

I actually got to pose the question (live and in-person), "Isn't Facebook the new AOL?" to Steve Case last week.

What was his reply?

"Actually, it reminds me of Prodigy." - Steve Case

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_%28online_service%29

And...? Don't leave us hanging!

How did he answer?

> A lot of people compare Facebook to MySpace, but isn't AOL also a good comparison?

"Facebook is the new AOL" is about as close as Hacker News gets to a meme.

I wonder, then, if they'll ever enter into web search. It would make sense, given the seeming herd migration of engineers from Google (though I don't know how many were from Search).

So the interesting question to me is, after learning about the history of AOL, why would Facebook want to pursue what on surface seems like a similar strategy.

What's different this time with Facebook? And are the threats to its growth, success and longevity in principle the same as AOL's.

I agree. One market I'd like to see them enter is online payments and micropayments, they have enough reach that they could probably pull it off.

Facebook Credits don't count?

Not familiar with those....are they interchangeable for money?

I'd like to be able to easily send $5 to a friend via facebook, or 25 cents to the author of a blog post I enjoyed. Others have tried the micropayments, but it needs a heavyweight to really pull it off. Maybe facebook can buy a startup that has it nicely figured out technically, but can't get traction.

You buy them with real money, and can spend them within applications on Facebook. It's not usable for anything outside of Facebook, or directly sending stuff to your friends.

But it's still the beginnings of an entry into the market.

You can already purchase Facebook credits for games and the like. It's just a matter of time before they transition that into something with a wider reach.

So it's more like a hotmail killer. Gmail users tend to be "power" ones.

Hotmail and Yahoo Mail are also more than twice as big as Gmail.

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