Just in case you were thinking Mafia Wars or Farmville weren’t a big enough part of your daily life, Facebook has followed up on its promise and will now offer email notifications from applications. As we foretold in October, Facebook’s roadmap for developers contained several key points that would restructure the ways in which applications would be allowed to contact users.
But before you go diving off the deep end worrying about an inbox full of even more Facebook notifications, take a deep breath and remember that 1980s anti-drug campaign slogan and let it become your mantra – “Just Say No.”
In its blog post announcing the feature, Facebook is careful to note that its users will retain control over who can contact them by email.
According to Inside Facebook, our favorite social network will offer users the ability to use a proxy email address so they don’t have to divulge their email address to external entities but can still receive the notifications by email.
Thanks to Facebook moving in the direction of sharing things by default, this move is surely going to prompt accusations that Facebook is invading people’s privacy. However, we think that as long as no information is shared by default, emailing application notifications should be okay.
What we really hope, though, is that some of our friends don’t permanently disappear into the Farmville abyss as they are constantly reminded that the cows are coming home.
