Google is designing a new social networking component to Gmail – a move which would edge the search giant further into territory traditionally dominated by Twitter and Facebook.
The Christian Monitor reported that the Wall Street Journal, which quotes anonymous sources within the company said Google could have the feature up and running by this week. (Google has declined to comment.)
Gmail already comes with a popular chat functionality, where users can post “away messages” and links. Google apparently wants to expand that service to collect status updates from multiple users, which would be streamed in the same way Facebook aggregates content on its news feed.
According to the Sydney Morning Harald roughly two-fifths of Twitter accounts have never sent a tweet, according to analysis by RJ Metrics, and a quarter of those signed up have no followers. Further, 80 per cent of all Twitter users have tweeted fewer than 10 times and only 17 per cent – not quite one-fifth – tweeted in December. This may mean that Twitter has reached its peak, giving Google the opportunity to surpass its popularity.
[TechSpot]
