In my opinion, Facebook is continuing to evolve from a social network to keep in touch with friends, into an informal branding, networking, and communication tool.

The reason why Facebook has shifted to this function, is because it has become extremely convenient to find and reach out to people that are within a given community via Facebook, rather than using more traditional methods such as email or phone. Facebook messages, usually connected to the Facebook Messenger app, are received more directly that other forms, which makes messages much less likely to be ignored, without being as direct as a phone call.

Realizing this need, Facebook is revamping their messaging system. Currently, messages received from strangers are directed to a separate inbox than the main message inbox: the “Other” box. This often causes messages from strangers to be missed, since those on the receiving end do not get notified of the message. Facebook’s new Messenger feature, which notifies receivers in the form of a “message request” that they can check without the other person knowing, and therefore can choose to reply or ignore the message.

In my opinion, this is a small tweak that has rather large repercussions for how people communicate in this day and age. Facebook is definitely making the right move. I’m an definitely looking forward to see this change in action in the coming weeks!

Inspired by this Mashable Article –> http://on.mash.to/1Hjrggc