Social Networking E-mail?

After reading this article, I couldn't help but think about the use of Gmail chat. In my opinion, Gmail chat has already become somewhat of a social network. When you meet others that have Gmail, then you are able to Add them to your buddylist. In Gmail, you already have the profile which includes a picture of yourself and other information. You are also able to show your status and whether you are busy or not. This is similar to Facebook and their status option.

It seems Google has a way to go before making Gmail into a social network that is utilized by users. Although I do feel that Google is farther along than Yahoo, but Google is behind Facebook in the means of creating a social network.

I think the main point is that some people would love integrating a social network into their e-mail but at the same time others would not. We all have our preferences and we all want different things. For example, if we listened to our inner child, what would they say they wanted in a phone:



What do we want in an e-mail service?