Facebook is expected to launch a new messaging system seen as a challenge to Google's Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail.
The giant social network - which boasts more than 500 million
users worldwide - will host a special event in San Francisco on Monday.
Unconfirmed reports suggest Facebook could announce its own
e-mail address - @facebook.com - or even a fully-fledged web-based
e-mail system.
Google-Facebook rivalry has increased recently amid a series of disputes.
Google has banned Facebook from importing its users' e-mail
contacts, a move it says it made because Facebook refused to allow the
export of contact and friend data from within user profiles.
In reply, Facebook enabled a workaround that let users save
their Google contacts to their computers before importing them into
Facebook.
'Treasure trove'
According to a report on popular technology blog Techcrunch, Facebook's new venture - codenamed Project Titan - is being dubbed a "Gmail killer".
The blog suggests Facebook is preparing to unveil a fully-fledged e-mail service for the web.
It also suggests that Facebook's wealth of information on
users - from event planning, to their likes and even the frequency with
which they interact with other users - could be used to make the e-mail
service an irresistible proposition.
But little is known for sure, and it is also possible that
the new system could be a revamped messaging service only available for
Facebook users.
Facebook has made no comment on the report, and will brief the press in San Francisco on Monday at 1000 (1800 GMT).
Facebook's huge user base is seen as a potential treasure trove of information, especially for advertisers.
Analysts say the social networking firm, founded by Mark
Zuckerberg, is becoming an increasingly powerful rival to Google because
of the loyalty of its user base.
Facebook users willingly provide reams of private and
personal information, as well as interacting constantly with friends,
applications and organisations through the Facebook platform.
Jesus Diaz of technology blog Gizmodo said that while Google
had the most to be concerned about, other e-mail providers would also be
worried.
"If I were Google, Yahoo or Hotmail, I'd be very nervous," he told the BBC.
"Facebook Mail could be a killer, not only because of its
potential instant size but because of its natural advantage at making
mail more useful."
While it has struck a deal with Microsoft to allow user data
to power its Bing search engine, it has made no such arrangement with
rival Google.
Google insists it believes in open-sharing of information,
and stopped Facebook mining Gmail for contact information because
Facebook itself was keeping contact information private.
The companies have also become bitter rivals offline as well
as online, with Facebook's reportedly offering Google engineers
lucrative deals to defect across Silicon Valley.
Last week, Google awarded staff a 10% pay rise and will pay employees more of their total package through salaries instead of bonuses.
Analysts said this move was partly influenced by a desire to hold onto staff being wooed by Facebook.
This is Facebook answers towards the facebook banned by Google in importing its user's email contacts. It will surely make an impact to Google's email service.
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