Google to launch Twitter-like service for Gmail

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Google to launch Twitter-like service for Gmail

By Matthew DeCarlo, TechSpot.com
Published: February 8, 2010, 5:35 PM EST

Google reportedly plans to add a Twitter-like service to Gmail later this week. Twitter, in case this is your first day on the Web, is a microblogging service that allows users to post messages of up to 140 characters, which are displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to subscribers. Facebook also offers a status update system.

While Gmail users can already set their status, each update overwrites the previous message. Google plans to extend this feature, allowing Gmail users to view a stream of status updates from people they choose to connect with. It will also be tightly integrated with YouTube and Picasa, Google's video and image-sharing services.

Yahoo introduced a similar "status-casting" feature last year, which allows users read their contacts' 140-character updates via Yahoo Mail or Messenger, as well as Flickr, Twitter and others. It's unclear whether Google will link Gmail status updates to rival social-networking services, but it seems like it would be beneficial.

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JudaZ on February 8, 2010 9:07 PM	is it just me, or does this seem rather pointless and useless? Reply \| Quote
unrealmp3 on February 9, 2010 6:29 AM	As long as they don't put too much emphasis on it.. Still meh. Reply \| Quote
Guest on February 9, 2010 11:46 AM	Far more important then wasting time on this rather meaningless feature would be to: A) Allow the choice to disable Conversation Threading on an individual email and/or global basis. It absolutely makes GMail a disaster once an email has more than a handful of threads (common). B) Build in real Contact Sharing in Google Apps. Not sure where Google's head is at these days!? Reply \| Quote