Google raises free email bar on rivals

Google just escalated the email storage arms race by a factor of 1,000.

Several users of the search engine's Gmail web-based email service noticed on Tuesday that their storage limits had quietly been raised to 1 million megabytes or 1 terabyte. That's four times the typical capacity of a new high-end PC's hard drive.

The Gmail service is still in testing and it wasn't immediately clear how widely Google will offer the higher storage limit, under what conditions, or to which users.

Google didn't respond for requests for comment late on Tuesday.

Detroit resident Rajiv Vyas, who has been using Gmail for about a month, was wowed by the change.

"It's great. Although I am not sure what I will do will all this memory," he said. "In the long run, it would help me store not only photos but every file on my desktop. This is 10 times more [storage space] than what I have on my office or home PC."

Others who spotted the change posted notices to web logs and websites.

Google triggered a rush to offer more storage space for web-based email services with the April announcement of 1GB of capacity. The move pressured the dominant web-based email service providers, Yahoo! and Microsoft's Hotmail, which currently charge subscribers $10 to $50 per year for a much smaller amount of email storage space.

Yahoo! responded to Gmail with a plan for 100MB of space. In the UK, Lycos is moving to offer 1GB for a fee. And the Macintosh-focused competitor Spymac offers 1GB at no cost.

Gmail's liberal storage limits may be popular but the service's terms triggered privacy concerns because of Google's plan to scan the content of email messages in order to serve up targeted advertisements.

Stephen Shankland writes for CNET News.com.