Google Keeps the Pressure on Microsoft

They always say competition is good for everybody, and so far that seems to be true these days. Since Google launched Gmail (beta version) several of the top free e-mail providers have made changes. Be it better SPAM filters, or in most cases a larger e-mail limit. Gmail can now import contacts from e-mail providers like Yahoo Mail, Outlook, Hotmail, and so on. Because of Gmail Microsoft itselft has had to trimmed its Hotmail fees, and increasing the amount of free Hotmail storage.

In the continuing tit-for-tat battle between Google and Microsoft over free e-mail, Google has again upped the ante. In an announcement posted to its Gmail beta Web site last week, Google informed testers it had added three new, requested features to Gmail. You asked. We said they were coming. And now, they"re here," the Google notice said.

The three features are:

• Import contacts: Gmail now allows users to import their e-mail name lists from Yahoo Mail, Outlook, Hotmail and other competing e-mail services to Gmail "in just a few clicks."

• Signature options: Gmail allows users to automatically add a customized signature to the end of all outgoing messages.

• "Safari" browser support: Gmail is providing compatibility for Mac OS X "Safari" users running versions 1.2.1 and higher.

Via its beta-testers site, Google has told testers it is working to add other requested features, too. Among those upon which the company is working are a plain HTML version of Gmail, as Google is hoping, but not promising, to add include the ability to send messages with HTML formatting, and POP3 client access. When asked whether Google had more features targeted specifically at winning accounts from Microsoft, a corporate spokesman declined to comment, citing the fact that the company is in a quiet period. Google announced last months its plans to go public.

News source: Microsoft Watch