2GB Gmail Inbox

Digital Lifestyles reported A year after its launch, Google has doubled the capacity of its Gmail service and added new features.

Those lucky souls invited to have an account now get a whopping great 2GB of storage, with the ability to send up to 10MB of attachments in a single message with free POP access - with Google promising further increases in the pipeline.

"Since we introduced Gmail, people have had a lot of places to store e-mail, but some of our heavier users have been approaching their limits, and have been wondering what is going to happen," says Georges Harik, Gmail's product management director. "So, starting today, we are going to give people more and more space continuously and indefinitely."

"Our plan is to continue growing your storage beyond 2GB by giving more space as we are able to do so. We know that email will only become more important in people's lives, and we want Gmail to keep up with our users and their needs."

The move comes hot on the heels of last week's decision by Yahoo to increase the size of its free account to 1GB. Both Yahoo and Hotmail can offer up to 2GB of storage as well, but users must fork out for the privilege.

The company has announced no immediate plans to increase Gmail's 10MB limit on attachment sizes, and there's no prospect of subscribers being able to turn their in-box storage into a full-featured virtual external hard disk....

Google is also testing phishing protection on the accounts, serving up a warning when it detects a dodgy looking email.