Washington, Nov. 13: Facebook, rumoured for some time to be planning its own email service, may finally be on the verge of doing so in a move that would send a shot across the bow of Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft.
TechCrunch said Facebook’s planned Web-based email service is part of a secret project known as “Project Titan” that is “unofficially referred to internally as ‘Gmail killer.’ And while it may only be in early stages, there’s a huge amount of potential here,” TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid noted.
The report comes amid a recent bout of sparring between Facebook and Google over data sharing and Silicon Valley engineering talent.
Hotmail currently has the most users, 361.7 million as of September, according to online tracking firm comScore, followed by Yahoo! with 273.1 million and Gmail with 193.3 million.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Internet search king Google, in a bid to stem defections to rival technology firms such as Facebook, has given all of its 23,000 employees a 10 per cent pay hike.