Google Unites Mail Services

Online search engine leader Google Inc. is wedding its instant messaging and e-mail services in the same Web browser, hoping the convenience will lure users from the larger communications networks operated by its chief rivals.

The new chat feature, set to be unveiled today, will provide users of Google’s Gmail service with a list of contacts drawn from past e-mail exchanges. It will signal who is available for online conversations.

Automatic status reports about the online availability of friends, family and co-workers have been a hallmark of instant messaging services for years.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google hopes to make it even simpler to connect with an online contact by allowing users to initiate an electronic conversation within the same Web browser showing an e-mail box.

The new feature will begin to show up in some Gmail accounts today and should reach all users within the next few weeks, said Salar Kamangar, a Google product manager.

“We didn’t think it made sense for there to be this artificial separation that currently exists between e-mailing and chatting,” he said. “People don’t want to have to have two separate contact lists for e-mail and instant messaging.”

The new feature will work only if both users have Gmail accounts or belong to a service compatible with Google’s instant messaging service.

Besides Google’s own services, compatible networks include EarthLink, Jabber.org, Sipphone Inc.’s Gizmo Project, Chikka in the Philippines and China’s NetEase.