Upcoming Gmail Features: Contact Deduplicator, Better Video Chat

Gmail's Product Manager Todd Jackson told CNet some of the Gmail features that will be released in the next months, but hopefully the best new things are still secret.

The video chat plug-in for Gmail will show higher-quality videos and this is one of the reasons why Google chose not to use Flash. "Jackson says the plug-in route will be able to provide even higher-quality video as people's connections improve, going to Video Graphics Array (640x480 pixels) all the way up to high definition."

Gmail's contact manager will add a feature that's even in Hotmail, not to mention some business-oriented mail clients: removing duplicates. "Jackson says a de-duper is on the way and that contacts will have more of a presence both in your inbox and in conversations."

Regarding email attachments, CNet suggests that Gmail could increase the already generous limit of 20 MB, but Gmail's Product Manager hints at something else. "We know people's file sizes are getting bigger. They want to share their files, keep them in the cloud, and not worry about which computer they're on. Google wants to be solving these problems."

Will Google release a more comprehensive solution for storing and sharing files, now that Gmail's storage quote increases much slower, small projects like Google Notebook enter hibernation and Gmail starts to limit the way you use free products like Google Apps Standard Edition?