The battle for the hearts and minds of email users is underway with the world's largest internet companies racing to be the first to deliver improved access, navigation and web feeds into new products.
Both Microsoft and Yahoo! have architected entirely new web-based email offerings while Google continues to stuff ever more features into Gmail to fend off the looming competition.
The latest initiative from Google was announced this week, with Gmail now accessible via mobile phone in the US for those with internet-capable handsets.
The service will allow Gmail subscribers to view and forward email messages and attachments from their phones and to call contact numbers stored in their Gmail accounts.
Earlier this month, Google incorporated a new RSS feature called "Clips", into Gmail, allowing users to track content updates from their favourite websites.
While many internet users use RSS feeds to stay up to date with new content from blogs and websites, Google concedes in its blog that its feeds serve mainly as a diversion for those bored with the predictability of email.
" ... if you're one of those task-oriented types with no time for diversions, you can always turn Clips off," Google engineer Jared Jacobs wrote in the company's blog.
The new email systems from Microsoft and Yahoo!, both now in restricted beta, are promising to deliver more than inbuilt RSS links.
Superior drag and drop functionality between folders, better navigation between messages and other bundled features aim to complement the email interface and keep users logged in longer.
The changes in the web-based email space come partly due to widespread broadband adoption and partly in response to the launch of Gmail last year, which gave users an unprecedented amount of free storage at a time when Microsoft was charging Hotmail users for extra capacity.
Foad Fadaghi, research director at Frost & Sullivan, said the new generation of web-based email would deliver features comparable to those offered in server-based mail systems with the promise of future portability to devices such as mobiles and handheld computers.
"What we are seeing is a lot of small businesses considering these products as a real alternative to server-based email systems, especially now the storage space issue is solved," he said.
Rather than tacking functionality onto Hotmail, Microsoft has effectively rebuilt its system from the ground up. It is expected to introduce more of the functionality from its Outlook program alongside additional built-in features such as blogging and instant messaging.
Yahoo!'s beta has also turned heads among users, with the company's new-look user interface praised for bringing a desktop feel to its email platform.
Mr Fadaghi said that, despite the emerging "feature war" between the three players, it was unlikely any one would end up dominating the market.
"I dont believe there will be one winner-takes-all scenario. Just as people have preferences for different news sites so will they prefer different email applications. It will come down to what they find the most usable and functional," he said.
