Gmail changed Webmail forever when it launched over a year ago. With a proper 1 GB quota of storage, a good interface and subtle adverts it redefined what users who aren’t paying can expect from their email. The service was significantly better than the premium (paid) services being offered by rivals Yahoo! Mail and MSN Hotmail.

These rivals obviously needed to respond if they were going to maintain their user base. They were helped a bit because Gmail was not available on general release (only on an invitation basis) so these competitors had time to offer bonuses to keep their users. Hotmail announced 250 MB for everyone. Over 100 times its previous limit. After sometime (and several smaller increments) Yahoo! went up to 1 GB. Gmail immediately saw its service superiority being threatened and within a week Google announced unlimited storage for Gmail. Of course this is not really the case. Instead the quota is on a counter that is continually increasing. At the moment it is at 2.5+ GB.

But Gmail still lead the interface game. It was built for accessing mail, and not for viewing adverts as many people could easily mistake the design of Hotmail for. But it wasn’t just the adverts. Gmail was dynamic. It’s all written in JavaScript, making it feel much more like a Desktop application than a webpage. Rather the reloading a page to see a message, you call a JavaScript function. This is quicker and extremely smooth.

Yet Yahoo! and MSN are not about to give in. Both have recently announced brand new interfaces for their services and MSN will raise its storage to 2 GB when the new design is unleashed in a few months time. Both have opted for much more dynamic inboxes, with preview screens, keyboard shortcuts and drag-and-drop options. Unfortunately both are in testing and are not available to the general public.

The questions is: Will the new services be better than Gmail? And if they are better will I switch. Admittedly probably not. It is a hassle and Gmail is very, very good.

Perhaps the more interesting question is: What will Gmail do? And possibly most importantly when?