Facebook Mail and Office Web Apps combo to go head-to-head with Google?

Things are relatively quiet this morning in the blogosphere, with the except of rumblings about Facebook possibly launching their own webmail app to compete with the likes of Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Gmail. In reality, it's probably not so much about competition as it is with getting Facebook users to spend as much time on the site as possible -- adding to Facebook's glut of delicious, highly-targetable-by-advertisers data.

Like any good, up-to-date, Web-based email, Facebook's offering is said to offer integrated document editing and viewing, courtesy Microsoft's Office Web Apps (OWA). When Docs.com launched in beta, of course, the only way to get in on the action was to sign up via Facebook. It certainly stands to reason, then, that Facebook's rumored webmail app would feature tight integration with OWA. ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley cites a Facebook source as saying "The Office Team has been working on this for quite a while now."

We'll keep you posted as events unfold, but if the invite-only launch of Facebook Mail does happen today you'll have to be living under a rock to avoid hearing about it.

Tags: email, gmail, hotmail, mail, office web apps, OfficeWebApps, webmail