Gmail has added new features to their email application; voice nd video chat. This looks like an instant messenger right in an email app.

When I was a new internet user, I admit that I was chatting the whole time I was online. It started with text chat, then voice chat and finally video chat. I was chatting with strangers but video chat was restricted to family and friends only.

However, after a while, I guess the novelty wore off. I no longer have the time or the passion for chatting and only do so when absolutely necessary. With voice and video chat in Gmail, I don’t even feel anything. I know that last time, I would welcome this but no longer.

Gmail to me, now, is just to log in and read and reply emails. I wouldn’t want chats to distract me from replying emails. I may be delayed, or reply the wrong email or miss out in the points that I would want to bring forward.

If I am inclined to chat, I would rather log in to a separate application like Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Messenger Live or AOL Instant Messenger. What do you think? Would having voice and video chat in Gmail be useful to you?

An arrangement has been made and we can soon watch some MGM films on YouTube. Is that a good thing? Only if you have fast broadband connection. As for me, I would rather watch them on DVD and not subject myself to the endless buffering.

I think that soon, YouTube will have a section for premium members where they will charge a membership fee to watch copyright movies like Netflix or something. There will be subscribers if the quality of content is good and cheaper than the US$1 per DVD that people in the United States are able to rent via DVD vending machines.

But I would rather watch YouTube as is, even if I may need to render up to ten parts to complete a full movie. LOL Yes, I have tried this before. Have you?

My friend, Terrence, was planning to set up a website just for the short term. He just needed a domain name and a small hosting package to host his website which he wanted to whip up for a year-end project.

Although he is not new to webhosting he has had a website for over ten years now, I would say that he is out of touch with the any hosting packages that are now available on the market. Web hosting is, after all, a very competitive business, considering the many websites that are launched daily.

When Terrence asked me for a good website hosting package, I was not able to let him know which he should subscribe to, since he just wants it for a few short months. BUT, short or long term, I would insist on maximum uptime. That should be the most important, right?

I did inform him that he should check out the best budget hosting and compare the available packages from Web Hosting Geeks, a website that gives us the lowdown to most major webhosting packages and domaining issues.

What I personally like about Web Hosting Geeks is the trouble they take to listing down package features and let us know the goodies that come with it so that we could easily compare and decide on the most suitable web hosting for our needs.

It used to be as long as we are careful with opening email messages from unidentified people and not clicking on links that come in email even though we know the sender; as long as we have security patches in place for our original copy of the operating system and a self-updating anti-virus software installed, we would be safe using the web.

However, my friend already told me, logically, that they only way we are safe from threats on the web is if we are not connected to the internet! Of course but if one is not on the web, there’s not much work that one could get done, right? At least, that is how it is for me.

A new threat known as click-jacking has been unveiled at the Hack-in-the-Box security ­conference (HITBSecConf) 2008 last week. The dynamics of it are not disclosed, obviously but apparently, as long as you are using a browser to access the web, you will be at risk unless security patches are up-to-date. That’s why it is so important to update your browser, especially if you are using one of the popular ones.

I read that Google Gmail has launched a new app in their long list of apps which you can find in Google Labs. Apparently, this is a computer – mobile device – computer short messaging system and it will be rolled out in stages. I just checked my list of apps but there’s no SMS messaging there yet so it’s too bad that I am unable to check it out.

The good thing is that each Gmail account will have a unique identification so that the recipient of the short message on his or her mobile device could reply to the message at a later time and it will reach your Gmail box without a problem. Well, let’s hope that the message WILL come; unlike the email that I received that was sent to me in error.

I am wondering, though, if this service is only available in the United States or if it’s open internationally. And if it is, what are the charges? This is a great concept, though. Free SMS from our desktop to mobile devices is still just as popular as ever.