Google launches their email service

Google's service, called "Gmail," will include a built-in search function that will let people search every e-mail they've ever sent or received.

According to company executives, users will be able to type in keywords to sort e-mails or find old missives. And it will come with 1 gigabyte of free storage - more than 100 times what some popular rivals offer and enough to hold 500,000 pages of e-mail. [CNN.com]

I discussed the reasons why Google must do this in January. I won't repeat that discussion here except to say that this is probably the best opportunity Google will ever have to try to justify the huge IPO they hope for.

The details of the system look very impressive relative to the competition. Of course, there is no reason that the competition can't copy every one of those details. It will be interesting to see what happens.