Google Adds Twitter-Like Features To Gmail

Google seems all set to bolster up the appeal of its mailing service Gmail by adding a slew of social networking features to it, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The search engine giant is gearing up to capitalise on the hype of social networking in current scenario, and is apparently tweaking some interactive social networking attributes on Gmail to transform it into a communication hub.

The company will put in some new add-ons to Gmail that will allow users to post and view updates on their everyday activities. This will emulate the status updates features of social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter.

The idea here is to keep users on Gmail, as they usually tend to switch to social networking sites again and again to view what their friends are up to.

As of now, Gmail lets users post a small status message through its chat service, but with the new add-ons Gmail users will enjoy social networking-like status update features on it.

However, it’s quite unlikely that Google will integrate features from its rival social networking sites, and is believed to integrate updates from its signature Orkut platform.

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Google has already enabled watching YouTube through Gmail, along with the features to access to Picasa and Flickr through it.