Google, the world's most popular search engine, is adding social-networking features to its Gmail e-mail software, in an effort to take on Facebook. The feature, known as Google Buzz, allows users to share photos, content from its YouTube video site and updates from Twitter.
Google said today at its Mountain View, California, headquarters. Google hasn't been able to transfer its dominance in Internet search to e-mail and social networking.
Gmail is the world's third-most-used e-mail service and Google's Orkut social site ranks fifth in the world, according to researcher ComScore in Reston Virginia. Facebook, the top social-networking service, updated its site last week to make it easier to check messages, notifications and friend requests.
MySpace, owned by New York-based News Corp., and San Francisco-based Twitter were the number two and number three social sites in the US in December, behind Facebook, according to ComScore. Some of Gmail's original engineers now work at Palo Alto, California-based Facebook.
They left Google to start a company called FriendFeed, which Facebook bought last year. Facebook said this month that it had 400 million users worldwide, double the number a year ago.
Bloomberg