Google Gmail users can now access their e-mail accounts from their mobile phone by directing to a unique URL. The Gmail account can now be accessed both from the Web or a mobile interface, allowing easy and ‘always accessible’ usage.

This new offering from Google is featured with automatic optimisation of the interface for phone users, along with opening the attachments received in messages - including photos, Word documents and PDF files. It also allows you to reply to those calls whose phone numbers are in your Gmail Contacts list.

The company is also working to protect the services and its users from spammers who could sign up for the accounts to reach Gmail customers. The new service should work on most mobile phones and Gmail has a list of phones that it knows definitely support the service.

The move is seen as the latest in a long line of moves by Google, Yahoo and MSN, who are all competing for users in the free email sector. Yahoo! already offers a mobile version of its email service, and upped the storage capacity of its accounts to 1GB.

Google has also recently launched a new feature that allows Gmail users to arrange their contacts into groups, so you can easily send messages to a number of people at once as well as giving people the out of office option to tell people you aren’t able to check your e-mail.

The mobile offering is limited to English for now, with additional languages following at a later stage. The service is identical to the computer based version of Gmail, and messages sent using a mobile phone will appear in Gmail’s sent folder.

Gmail mobile uses a mobile Web browser. Alternatively, you can read your e-mail with a mobile using POP access. Google can also forward email messages as a SMS message or mobile e-mail. To access your Gmail account on your mobile phone, simply point your browser to http://m.gmail.com.

BIOS, Dec 20, 05 | Print | Send | Comments (0) | Posted In Internet