BEIJING, Mar. 24 -- Yahoo Inc. announced on Wednesday it will quadruple the amount of storage provided with its free

Yahoo Inc. is quadrupling the amount of storage provided with its free e-mail accounts and upgrading its desktop search software in its ongoing duel with rivals Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

e-mail accounts, which is an obvious move to compete with Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

    The company will soon give users of its free Web e-mail service 1 gigabyte of storage. The current limit is 250 megabytes.

    The expanded storage will be available in mid-April, said Brad Garlinghouse, Yahoo's vice president of communications products.

    The Internet media company also said it is beefing up antivirus protection for free e-mail users to clean viruses detected in attachments.

    Yahoo shares edged up 10 cents to $31.08 on Nasdaq early Wednesday afternoon. Enditem

    (Agencies)