On April 1, 2004, or 20 years ago today, Google introduced Gmail, the free email service that revolutionized the landscape of email services. At that time, Gmail launched with a generous 1GB storage per email, while major players like Microsoft and Yahoo only offered 20-50MB of space.
Gmail also revamped the user experience by prioritizing search functionality over chronological sorting of emails, grouping related emails into threads. Marissa Mayer, the former Yahoo executive who co-designed Gmail with Google, emphasized the importance of Storage, Search, and Speed as the three pillars of Gmail.
With its abundant storage capacity, Gmail introduced the novel concept of keeping emails indefinitely without the need for deletion, a stark contrast to the common practice of users at that time. The “Delete” button was only added two years later.
Selecting April 1 as the launch date for Gmail led some to initially believe it was an April Fools’ joke, but it quickly became evident that Gmail was a real and innovative product. Initially available by invitation only due to Google’s limited resources at the time.
Paul Buchheit, a former Google engineer and co-developer of Gmail, revealed that the early Gmail servers comprised only 300 machines and supported just 10,000 accounts.
Google eventually opened up Gmail for general sign-ups through the website in 2007, after more than three years of restricted access.
Today, Gmail boasts approximately 1.8 billion users, with each account allocated 15GB of space, inclusive of Google Photos and Google Drive storage.
Source: NBC News
TLDR: Gmail revolutionized email services 20 years ago with innovative features like generous storage, threaded conversations, and powerful search capabilities, eventually becoming a staple in the online communication landscape with billions of users worldwide.
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