Almost a decade after one woman complained about the poor quality of existing email services, Google this month celebrates the ninth birthday of its solution: Gmail.
On April 1, 2004, Google launched the invite-only beta version of its Ajax-powered email system with 1GB of storage, threaded conversations, and the promise that the new feature was not an April Fool's Day joke.
"You told us you were tired of spam, so we set to tackling that, and today your feedback makes it possible for Gmail to filter out well over 99 percent of incoming spam," the Gmail team said.
Over the next three years, Google introduced Chat, Calendar, and an early version of Google Apps, boosted storage to 2GB, and expanded Gmail to 40 languages. By Valentine's Day 2007, Google spread the love by making the invite-only service open to the public.
In October of that year, Google's simple email service became one of the first to offer free IMAP for all devices, making it accessible from anywhere. But it wasn't until about a year later when Gmail took its first real step toward mobile, launching an Android app for T-Mobile's G1 device.
More than five years after Gmail debuted, Google finally took off its beta tags in July 2009, by which point video chat, offline Gmail, and "Undo Send" were already available. In the fall of 2011, iPhone and iPad owners received their very own iOS app, unshackling them from the confines of Apple's Mail application.
By late June 2012, Gmail boasted a whopping 425 million active users, all of whom soon had access to Google Hangouts, 57 languages (and counting), and the ability to insert Drive files up to 10GB — 400 times more than a traditional attachment allows. Some users are still getting acquainted with the pop-out Gmail compose option, which last month became the default for all users.
Now, with its party hat strapped on, the Gmail team continues to welcome feedback. Who knows — Maybe you could be the inspiration for Google's next technology phenomenon.
"Nine years and hundreds of millions of users later, we're still just getting started," the company said.
For more, see PCMag's original, 2004 review of Gmail, as well as our more recent review of Gmail for iPhone. Also, check out the entire nine-year history of Gmail in Google's full infographic below.
