Starting today Facebook developers can opt to communicate with users directly via e-mail, replacing the need for application-to-user notifications, which the social networks plans to eliminate.

The new initiative was announced this morning and will go live today. Developers can now request user e-mail addresses during the initial authorization process (which they can make optional or required), Facebook will extensively promote the feature on every application page users visit, and users can either share their actual e-mail address or a Facebook proxied e-mail address for anonymity.

How it Works

On the surface, user e-mail sharing is just another extended permission that application users will be able to allow (or not) during the authorization process. For the user, this means that the process will flow similar to other application requests that they can accept or reject during authorization.

Here’s how it looks if the developer chooses to make e-mail sharing optional:

And if the application requires your e-mail address:

Given that Facebook wants to make full transition from application-to-user notifications to direct-to-user e-mail communication, it plans to promote the change extensively.

As an application user, you’ll start to see dialog boxes at the top of every application canvas page you visit. You’ll see these for the next three months or through three independent sessions with a single application.

You’ll probably get pretty familiar with dialogs that look similar to this:

What It Means

For developers, the big e-mail push by Facebook is huge in terms of connecting directly with their application users, something that most have only been able to do indirectly up until now. Essentially Facebook will no longer serve as the middleman between you and your users.

For sites that leverage Facebook Connect as an alternative login, it’s also an important development that will help you store new member e-mail addresses, or the proxied Facebook e-mail address, for future contact.

As for Facebook application users, some of you might not relish the idea of sharing your e-mail address, but Facebook has built-in a number of safe guards should you not only wish to reject sharing your e-mail or do so anonymously. They’re also holding developers to the CAN-SPAM Act and requiring that they pledge not to sell your info to third-parties.

Tags: facebook, facebook application, facebook notifications, social media

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Opinions were passionate in comments on the article, and as of the writing of this followup are approaching nearly 500 strong. From among all the comments several clear opinions emerged on the state of email and selecting an email provider and username.

• The username you select is vastly more important than the provider you use. Firstname.lastname@aol.com is preferred to and more respectable than sexkitten2010@aol.com—cutesy, offensive, or unprofessional nicknames are big mistakes.
• Domains are important, especially in technology-related fields. An AOL address might be just as serviceable as any other address when it comes to sending and receiving mail but to most people in tech fields it says “Hi. I’m from 1996. What is this internet you speak of?”
  

  As an IT exec, I definitely made judgments against prospective hires based on email addresses (as well as a wide array of other factors). It wasn’t uncommon for me to have 100-500 resumes for a single open position, and I didn’t care to rely on HR to sort through them, so I did it myself, and I needed some way to get down to a short-list of around 10 people. As such, it was pretty easy to toss a resume because somebody had a goofy email address. And I would certainly raise an eyebrow at a supposed IT tech who had an AOL.com address. – Mike De Lucia

  As an IT manager in the tech field, I have to say that I’m a little prejudice when it comes to using a Hotmail or AOL address for business or on a resume. AOL is a more dated personal email address. Hotmail is known as an email for kids, for people who don’t care if their mail is thrown out if they don’t log in for awhile, and for a spam throwaway address. – Gankaku

• More concerning than people using inappropriate emails handles on their resumes? Businesses that don’t have their own domain and personalized email. SomeCompany@sbcglobal.net or SomeDude2049@yahoo.com were huge turn offs to readers and many expressed that they would question the professionalism of a company with such an unpolished image and do business elsewhere.
  

  I’m a photographer and also wonder when I see other photographers without a domain name email.
  It seems as though they aren’t serious about their career if they haven’t taken the time to create a website and therefore have a domain name email. – veronykah

• The flood of comments wasn’t without dissenting opinion by any measure; many commenters weighed in pointing out that it was superficial and judgmental to make snap decisions based on an email address.
  

  I don’t understand the prejudice against hotmail. I’ve had my hotmail address for like 15+ years. Though I’ve had it so long I was able to choose @msn.com for my address. Fortunately I took it over hotmail.com so maybe people don’t look down on me quite so much. When I see a hotmail.com address, I think, ‘wow, that person’s been using email for a long time.’ Read the rest of mrknowitall’s comment here..

• One astute observation made by several readers was that it’s a huge hassle to switch email providers so most people never bother. One reader even noted that the hassle-factor could be a big reason why people get defensive:
  

  This issue comes up every now and then, and it always gets people so riled up. People get defensive because so many e-mail services entrench their users – they can’t switch to a new one without a lot of hassle. Read the rest of veblen’s comment here.

As we noted in the original post, email addresses have become ubiquitous and because we hand them out so liberally in professional and social situations it is worth taking the time to assess what your email address says about you. Your cute username might have been novel back in high school or college but entering the professional world it’s definitely time to retire SexyStud99 in favor of John.R.Smith.

Like your clothing, your hair style, and your manner of speaking, your email address is part of your personal image. Certainly it’s a type of prejudice that a hiring manager might look over you because you have an “antiquated” email address or a “stupid” username, but that’s not entirely different than a hiring manager being unimpressed that you showed up to a job interview sans a neck tie. Sure it might be unimportant or silly to you and you might say “I wouldn’t want to work at a company that uptight anyhow,” but it’s worth taking into consideration because whether or not a prejudice—big or small!—is fair or reasonable, it is still out there.

Have an email-related story? An awkward moment revolving around an email address? Some insight as someone who handles applications or other hiring processes? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

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Yesterday I downloaded the new version of the Facebook application for iPhone 3.1 that introduces new useful features such as address book synchronization and push notifications. Now you can synchronize all contacts of your iPhone Address Book with the list of your friends on Facebook and receive instant notifications when someone leave a comment or send you a message on your Facebook profile. I think this application is great, useful, I like the interface and the simplicity of use. But I noticed two serious problems that can discourage its use.

Synchronization fails

After synchronizing my address book I noticed some errors with pictures and data of my friends. Many pictures and Facebook profile URLs was wrong and they linked to people I never meet and not present in my list of friends on Facebook. I “discovered” this error after synchronizing my iPhone with iTunes, so I had to change manually all wrong information related to my contacts.

Push notification kills iPhone battery

Push notification is a very useful feature. Every time someone send you a message, wall post, friend request, friend confirmation, comment, you’ll receive a short message on your iPhone (it’s like an SMS notification). The big problem is that this feature kills iPhone battery in less than three hours. So, if you can’t recharge frequently your device I suggest you to turn off push notifications.

To turn off push notifications select Settings > Notifications:

If you don’t want to turn off all notifications, you can deactivate some of them from Settings > Facebook > Push Notifications:

Are you using this application? Have you encountered similar problems? Let us know!

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Betwn.us is the only client that allows you to post on Facebook and Twitter through your email.

You send an email to a specific email address at betwn.us. Betwn.us posts that message to your Facebook Wall or Twitter Stream.

http://betwn.us/

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SendSocial makes sending things to your friends and relatives easy – you don’t even need to know where they live.

You can send an item knowing only your recipient’s Twitter ID or email address. Click here to begin. We’ll send your request to the individual, and – if they choose to accept – will take their address details from them.

You’ll then receive a notification that they’re happy to hear from you, and will be asked to confirm the collection address and pay by credit or debit card. Once this is complete, we’ll provide you with an address-less label to stick to your package, which will be collected by myHermes, our delivery partners, and delivered in 3-5 working days.

The barcode contains all the important delivery information. myHermes have upgraded their systems to be able to read these: this means that items can travel safely from A to B quickly and easily, whilst giving you the peace of mind that your privacy is guaranteed.

http://sendsocial.com/

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Our apologies for double-posting, dear readers – but here’s the intended post, with links.

Good Evening Type Aficionados,

We’re grateful for the patience you have all bestowed upon us in the previous several weeks, most particularly through our Greatly Unstable Server Switch. The Founders have been working feverishly to get things going again, including bringing incredible new things to our communal table – all of which will be revealed in the coming months, weeks, and, most excitingly – hours.

We recently welcomed a new contributor, Mr. Barry Schwartz and his new typeface Sorts Mill Goudy to The League. And in just a few moments, we’ll be making history with the addition of our very own typeface, one we’ve been working on endlessly for weeks.

Because of the internal changes we’ve been cooking up, we’re afraid you’ll have to resubscribe to our new RSS feed address. Consider this its permanent address, used for our most important announcements.

To keep up with other exciting news regarding new features, sneak-peeks, and the latest state of the movement, you can subscribe for our new newsletter. . If you’ve sent us anything before, we’ve taken the trouble of adding your email to the list already, which you can unsubscribe from at your discretion.

And lastly, let us say once more, thank you. Thank you to all who have offered to join us, thank you to our contributors, and thank you to everyone working to improve the state of the Internet.

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We’re grateful for the patience you have all bestowed upon us in the previous several weeks, most particularly through our Greatly Unstable Server Switch. The Founders have been working feverishly to get things going again, including bringing incredible new things to our communal table – all of which will be revealed in the coming months, weeks, and, most excitingly – hours.

We recently welcomed a new contributor, Mr. Barry Schwartz and his new typeface Sorts Mill Goudy to The League. And in just a few moments, we’ll be making history with the addition of our very own typeface, one we’ve been working on endlessly for weeks.

Because of the internal changes we’ve been cooking up, we’re afraid you’ll have to resubscribe to our new RSS feed address. Consider this its permanent address, used for our most important announcements.

To keep up with other exciting news regarding new features, sneak-peeks, and the latest state of the movement, you can subscribe for our new newsletter. . If you’ve sent us anything before, we’ve taken the trouble of adding your email to the list already, which you can unsubscribe from at your discretion.

And lastly, let us say once more, thank you. Thank you to all who have offered to join us, thank you to our contributors, and thank you to everyone working to improve the state of the Internet.

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Does your email address reveal something about your credit score? According to Credit Karma, an online credit checking service, it might.

The company has taken data from its users and split it up by email address, finding that Yahoo Mail users have the lowest credit scores of all. Bellsouth and Comcast users have the highest credit ratings, while GMail users rank third. MSN, Hotmail and AOL users take 4th, 5th and 6th position respectively.

Assuming the data is accurate (and the sample size is large enough – 20,000 credit scores), the more interesting question is why. Could it be because AOL, MSN and Yahoo email addresses are often linked to IM accounts, where the demographics skew younger? Do those who use their ISP-provided email address skew older? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

[via HN]

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