In an April 1st article in DM News, Christine Blank reported that on the one-year anniversary of Google's beta test launch of Gmail, they have increased the storage to 2 gigabytes. This was probably done in response to Yahoo's announcement that it was increasing it's storage capacity to 1 gigabyte.

People are still annoyed at spam, but are more accepting of it. Approximately 53% of adults say they are spending less time on email because of spam, down from 62% just a year ago, according to a Pew survey.

Pornographic spam is on the decline, but it is being replaced by "phishing" scams which try to steal bank passwords and other sensitive information.

There was a slight increase in the number of email users who set up hard-to guess addresses, to make it difficult for spammers to send their junk email.

The process of choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a site, and ensuring that the site places well when those keyword phrases are part of a web search.

Google's addition of street maps and local business listings, accessible through cell phones and other mobile devices, is their attempt to compete in the local search space.

Yahoo has been offering driving directions and similar services for mobile devices since October, and other smaller players are involved.

"There were 170 million mobile phones in North America in 2004," said Richard Hagerty, CEO of the search marketing firm, Impaqt, Pittsburgh. He went on to say, "those users dwarf Internet users. It's going to give information to people when they need it, perhaps right where they're standing.
Source: DM News