Gmail’s massive 2.7Gb of email storage space, plus the integration with Gtalk, their IM software, has proved enormously popular on the Web. But even so, Yahoo Mail still has 10 times the users that Gmail enjoys. So why are Yahoo copying Google?

Email is still the original killer app of the online world, with millions of messages sent back and forth everyday. But with instant messaging, millions more messages than even email traverse the system, as IM made text messaging on phones seem slow and IM’d conversations almost as fluid as speech.

Indeed, young people regularly have four of five different conversations going at the same time, something that is nigh on impossible when talking, even though we all know a few motormouths out there who seem to try anyway.

So, with web based mail such a popular online application and means of communication, Google decided months ago to embed Google Talk within the Gmail online app. Now Yahoo, with half a billion people using one its communications products, is working on the same thing, although they say they’ll still take months before it will be available to Yahoo Mail users.

It will work in much the same way IM works now. You’ll be able to email your contacts, but also see which contacts are online, and if you then want to, can send instant messages to them instead of by email. You’ll be able to do it from a web browser instead of a separate program, right in the email interface you’d already be using.

But while Yahoo and Linksys have finally unveiled a Yahoo Messenger compatible phone, as Skype and Microsoft have managed to make happen for their respective VoIP/IM platforms, Yahoo isn’t going to offer VoIP through the Yahoo Mail interface just yet, or so they say.

Yahoo have massively upgraded Yahoo Mail to be a true Web 2.0 app that looks incredibly like Microsoft Outlook, only even better with tabbed email windows and more. Anyone still using the old Yahoo Mail should seriously consider switching over.

Miles better than Gmail, it’s actually a big wake up call to Google to improve the Gmail interface, as it has the potential of stealing away Gmail users. Gmail still has the upper hand in storage space, but Yahoo’s interface cannot be ignored. Even Windows Live Mail has what looks like a better interface than Gmail, which is starting to look decidedly Web 1.5 these days.

Even so, Gmail is still a brilliant web app for email, one that I personally use every day even though all my mail streams into Outlook 2007 on my laptop. It’s just that with the competition already offering a better web mail interface, and soon to catch up with IM features, Google can’t stand still, although that was never in Google’s modus operandi.

But whichever web mail client you choose to use, the future of communications is looking more unified by the minute!

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