Posted 3/31/2024, 4:07:28 PM
Gmail Upended Email When Launched in 2004 With 1GB of Storage and Innovative Features
- Gmail launched on April 1, 2004 with 1 GB of free storage space, drastically more than competitor services at the time
- It featured search within emails and automatic threading of message conversations
- The Gmail team focused on the "3 S's" - storage, search, and speed
- Gmail was invite-only at first due to limited computing capacity, making invites highly desirable
- Over time Gmail added features like Google Drive integration and grew to over 1.8 billion users, prompting other free email services to also increase storage