The Ultimate Gmail tour.

Gmail users can already update their statuses sort of through Gmails chat feature. Later we added chat and then video chat both built right in so people had choices about how to communicate from a single browser window. But every time a user updates their status the previous update disappears. Im not sure these tools add anything except to make it more bloated. com is the best online resource for PC News.

Five years ago Gmail was just email.

Based on what sources are telling the Wall Street Journal and others at least part of Googles plan involves adding a streaming status update feature to Gmail and Gchat enabling users to share their own daily activities and stray.

Yet Sterling doesnt believe that Gmail is the place where Google should enter the fray saying Gmail is a good product as it is.

According to the WSJs unnamed sources the new feature would be a module in Gmail where users can click through to see a stream of friends updates YouTube video sharing and Picasa photos. It adds the power of asymmetric following to Gmails interface.

As soon as this week Google might be rolling out a. The prompt reads let people know what youre up to or share links to photos videos and Web pages.

Until now Gmail has been primarily an email and instant messaging product.

Google already allows Gmail users to update their status. However with this new social push Gmail will offer a timelineview of. Today communication on the web has evolved beyond email. Currently this feature is more akin to the traditional IM away message. Thats why the introduction of Google Buzz is so noteworthy.

Social networks get all the attention but email remains an important information console for many. It would be an extension of Gmails. Now Google is taking aim at Facebooks and Twitters social tools apparently gearing up to turn Gmail into a hub for keeping track of friends. Visit Maximum PC and read about Launching Today Google Buzz a GmailIntegrated Twitter Killer.

Gmail is a free, advertising-supported Webmail, POP3, and IMAP service provided by Google. In the United Kingdom and Germany it is officially called Google Mail.

Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though still with beta status. As of July 2009, it has 146 million users monthly. The service was upgraded from beta status on July 7, 2009, along with the rest of the Google Apps suite.

With an initial storage capacity offer of 1 GB per user, Gmail significantly increased the Webmail standard for free storage from the 2 to 4MB its competitors offered at that time.

Gmail has a search-oriented interface and a “conversation view” similar to an Internet forum. Software developers know Gmail for its pioneering use of the Ajax programming technique.

Gmail runs on Google Servlet Engine and Google GFE/1.3 on Linux.

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