Facebook Inbox Menu Looking Similar To Gmail

Facebook is notorious for adopting popular features from other online services. Well known targets for brand new Facebook features include Twitter and Friendfeed (which it recently purchased). I’m not sure why I didn’t notice it before but it looks as though Facebook might be targeting Gmail to guide improvements for its messaging feature. The last redesign of the Facebook inbox steamlined the layout to appear much more like an actual email menu, especially Gmail’s.

As you can clearly see below, the button design, the order of buttons, and the layout of the inbox menu for Facebook is very similar to that of Google’s Gmail inbox. Moreover, the positioning, names, and order of the checkbox links are nearly the same. While other popular email services like Yahoo Mail and Hotmail also offer some of the same inbox features, the wording and layout of the menu is very different in comparison to Facebook’s.

Gmail Inbox

Gmail Email Menu Facebook Stealing Gmails Features?

Facebook Inbox

Yahoo Mail Inbox

Yahoo Email Menu Facebook Stealing Gmails Features?

Windows Live Hotmail Inbox

Windows Live Hotmail Email Menu Facebook Stealing Gmails Features?

So what do you think? Is this a coincidence or is it just another example of Facebook cherry-picking features from popular online services?

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