Now, get e-mails also at Google

Internet search provider Google Inc. is expected to announce on Thursday its offer of a test version of a free e-mail service to about 1,000 users.

The offering, called Gmail, underscores Google’s intentions to beat back the advances of Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.’s MSN division, which have set their sights on the search business that the Mountain View company has dominated. Google will give e-mail users 1 gigabyte of storage space for their messages — more than the 2 megabytes that come with Microsoft’s Hotmail and 6 megabytes offered by Yahoo Mail.

It includes technology that lets users search their messages for particular words or names. Google will help pay for the service by placing relevant ads in e-mail messages, said Sergey Brin, the company’s president for technology.