Google has injected social networking features into its popular web email product, Gmail, as the world's No.1 search engine seeks to fend off competition from Facebook and Twitter.
Google introduced a new product dubbed Google Buzz on Tuesday that allows users to quickly share messages, web links and photos with friends and colleagues directly within Gmail.
And the company unveiled a handful of new products designed to make the new social networking features suited to mobile devices, such as smartphones based on Google's Android operating system.
Google's new social networking technology mimics some of the key features of popular social networking services such as Twitter and Facebook, which are increasingly challenging Google for web surfers' online time.
Buzz, Google's answer to social networking.
Gmail is the third most popular web-based email in the world, with 176.5 million unique visitors in December, says comScore.
Microsoft's Windows Live Hotmail and Yahoo's Mail were No.1 and No.2, with 369.2 million unique visitors and 303.7 million unique visitors respectively.
In addition to the Buzz features for Gmail, Google said it was launching a special mobile application for Buzz, as well as weaving Buzz technology into the mobile versions of its flagship website and its maps products.
Google has tried to ride the social networking wave before, launching the Orkut social network in 2004. But, while Orkut is big in certain overseas markets, such as Brazil, it has failed to attract as many users as social giants such as Facebook and MySpace in the US.
In building a social network on top of an email product, Google is following in the footsteps of Yahoo, which has taken a similar approach in efforts to keep up with Facebook.
Reuters