Gmail launches with 1 GB of storage
Summary
On 1 April 2004 Google introduced the webmail service Gmail, with 1 GB of storage per user, more than a hundred times what typical free services offered. Instead of sorting and deleting messages into folders, users were meant to keep everything and find it again with Google’s search. Because of the date, many initially took the announcement for an April Fool’s joke.
What Gmail did differently
According to the press release, the idea came from a user who complained about managing folders and the four-megabyte limit of other services. A Google engineer turned it into a “20 percent time” project, the time Google then set aside for engineers’ own ideas.
Gmail relied on three things: search across every mail ever sent and received, 1 GB of storage and conversations that group replies into one thread. The service started as a preview for a small circle and was long available by invitation only.
Ideas
- With enough storage you no longer tidy up, you just search.
- Conversation views group mails by topic instead of date.
- With advertising companies, free means you pay with data.
- A generous offer forces competitors to respond.
Insights
- Gmail shifted expectations of email from “tidy the mailbox” to “keep everything and search”, and competitors raised their storage limits within months.
- The business model drew criticism from the start: Gmail showed ads matching the content of mails, which privacy advocates sharply attacked in 2004.
Facts
- Introduced on 1 April 2004 in Mountain View.
- Every user got 1,000 MB of storage, according to Google more than a hundred times other free services.
- The service started as a preview for a small number of testers.
References
Remarks
- The press release survives via the Web Archive; Google’s former press blog cannot be reached directly from here.
Recommendations
- For confidential mail, choose a provider that does not analyse content for advertising, or use end-to-end encryption.
- Even with lots of storage, regularly back up your own mail, for example via IMAP.
Links to the original source and the Web Archive open in a new tab.