CNET News blogger Dan Farber writes that for a number of reasons, Facebook is on a collision course with the more mature Web portals—in particular, AOL, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. Since Facebook is looking to add more features that enable users to spend more time on the site, that could lead to a cross-over with some of the things portal sites have offered for years on the desktop and on mobile devices—and he means more than just the fact that you can send e-mail in Facebook.

"One of the key metrics of a major portal is stickiness—the number of applications used per member and time spent on the site," Farber said. "Communications services, such as e-mail, instant messaging, group chat, and forums, have proven to be very sticky. Facebook is about to introduce a basic chat service and have some rudimentary e-mail capabilities. While Facebook executives have been cagey about specific plans to build more capable communications applications, they will evolve to be competitive with what AOL, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo offer."

Farber expects Facebook to also include Web search. For example, "Facebook could implement a search for friends that also surfaces public information about them from the Web, or Web search results, that factor in what friends in an extended social graph click on for similar queries," he said.

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