Gmail going social

This is very interesting:

Google Inc. is set to unveil a new feature to Gmail designed to make it easier and faster for users to share media and status updates with friends, according to people familiar with the matter.

These people said Google could launch the new feature, which aims to make its Gmail email application more social, as soon as this week.

The change is a new module that will allow Gmail users to view a stream of status updates from people they choose to connect with, according to one of these people.

Currently, Gmail has a chat bar that can display a short “away message” for each user’s contacts. But the new interface will have an area that users can click through to see updates from more friends in a stream—a format popularized by Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., these people said.

Google also plans to integrate content that is shared through its YouTube video-sharing service and its Picasa photo-sharing service into the stream of status updates, according to one person familiar with the matter. But whether Google will launch those features in the coming days remains unclear.

A Google spokeswoman declined to comment

via the Wall Street Journal

So is this Google’s response to Facebook’s Project Titan? Only time will tell. I’m still not sure if I’d use Facebook as my primary webmail – especially since I have about 6 years worth of old mails in my current Gmail inbox. It will be interesting to see if this is a Google only status update, or if it’s tied into an existing product…

I guess this is a natural evolution from Wave. It’s just a way of creating a more fully featured social stream.