According to the Wall Street Journal, Google have decided to take off its gloves, smack Twitter and Facebook across the head and challenge them to a dual. In the words of the WSJ, Google is “taking a swipe at Facebook and Twitter with a new feature that makes it easier for users of Gmail to view media and status updates shared online by their friends”.

The report went on to say that Google could announce the new Gmail feature as soon as later this week, citing “people familiar with the matter” as their source. However, reaction has been tepid thus far with PCWorld for one doubting the hoped-for Google notion that the whole thing is a ‘Twitter killer’.

Gmail plans are said to include a system that will see subscribers supposedly gain a stream of “media and status updates” within its web-based interface; users would also be encouraged to use the stream to “post and view messages about their day-to-day activities”; in addition, users would see information only from people with whom they choose to connect and the updates could eventually include info shared from YouTube and Picasa as well.

The new social Gmail platform, The Wall Street Journal reports, will “aggregate updates from more friends” into a single stream. However, PC World commentator JR Raphael isn’t convinced; “We’re already facing a serious bout of social network overkill; there are simply far too many different sites to keep up with as it is, and the last thing we need is one more destination to frequent”.

Whether we carp about such things is irrelevant though for the minute, it’s coming and we can’t do anything about it. With Google’s record of ridiculous success and with so many people using Gmail everyday, you wouldn’t want to write off any chances of the email service’s social side attracting a fair few subscribers either.