Gmail

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gmail

A screenshot of a Gmail inbox and compose box

Type of site Webmail

Available in 105 languages

Owner Google

Created by Paul Buchheit

URL www.gmail.com 
 Commercial Yes

Registration Required

Users 1.5 billion (October 2019)[1]

Launched April 1, 2004; 18 years ago

Current status Active

Content license Proprietary

Written in Java, C++ (back-end), JavaScript (UI)

[2]

Gmail is a free email service provided by Google. As of 2019, it had 1.5 billion

active users worldwide.[1] A user typically accesses Gmail in a web browser or
the official mobile app. Google also supports the use of email clients via
the POP and IMAP protocols.

At its launch in 2004, Gmail provided a storage capacity of one gigabyte per

user, which was significantly higher than its competitors offered at the time.
Today, the service comes with 15 gigabytes of storage. Users can receive
emails up to 50 megabytes in size, including attachments, while they can
send emails up to 25 megabytes. In order to send larger files, users can insert
files from Google Drive into the message. Gmail has a search-oriented
interface and a "conversation view" similar to an Internet forum. The service is
notable among website developers for its early adoption of Ajax.

Google's mail servers automatically scan emails for multiple purposes,

including to filter spam and malware, and to add context-sensitive
advertisements next to emails. This advertising practice has been significantly
criticized by privacy advocates due to concerns over unlimited data retention,
ease of monitoring by third parties, users of other email providers not having
agreed to the policy upon sending emails to Gmail addresses, and the
potential for Google to change its policies to further decrease privacy by
combining information with other Google data usage. The company has been
the subject of lawsuits concerning the issues. Google has stated that email
users must "necessarily expect" their emails to be subject to automated
processing and claims that the service refrains from displaying ads next to
potentially sensitive messages, such as those mentioning race, religion,
sexual orientation, health, or financial statements. In June 2017, Google
announced the end to the use of contextual Gmail content for advertising
purposes, relying instead on data gathered from the use of its other services. [3]

Features
Storage
 The Gmail webmail interface as it originally appeared

1. On April 1, 2004, Gmail was launched with one gigabyte (GB) of storage space, a

significantly higher amount than competitors offered at the time. [4]
2. On April 1, 2005, the first anniversary of Gmail, the limit was doubled to two gigabytes
of storage. Georges Harik, the product management director for Gmail, stated that
Google would "keep giving people more space forever." [5]
3. In October of 2007, Gmail increased storage to 4 gigabytes, after recent changes from
competitors Yahoo & Microsoft.[6]
4. On April 24, 2012, Google announced the increase of storage included in Gmail from
7.5 to 10 gigabytes ("and counting") as part of the launch of Google Drive.[7]
5. On May 13, 2013, Google announced the overall merge of storage across Gmail,
Google Drive, and Google+ Photos, allowing users 15 gigabytes of included storage
among three services.[8][9]
6. On August 15, 2018, Google launched Google One, a service where users can pay
for additional storage, shared among Gmail, Google Drive and Google Photos,
through a monthly subscription plan. As of 2021, storage of up to 15 gigabytes is
included, and paid plans are available for up to 2 terabytes for personal use.[10]

There are also storage limits to individual Gmail messages. Initially, one
message, including all attachments, could not be larger than 25 megabytes.
[11] This was changed in March 2017 to allow receiving an email of up to 50

megabytes, while the limit for sending an email stayed at 25 megabytes. [12]
[13] In order to send larger files, users can insert files from Google Drive into

the message.[14]

Interface
Main article: Gmail interface

The Gmail user interface initially differed from other web-mail systems with its
focus on search and conversation threading of emails, grouping several
messages between two or more people onto a single page, an approach that
was later copied by its competitors. Gmail's user interface designer, Kevin
Fox, intended users to feel as if they were always on one page and just
changing things on that page, rather than having to navigate to other places.
[15]
Gmail's interface also makes use of 'labels' (tags) – that replace the
conventional folders and provide a more flexible method of organizing emails;
filters for automatically organizing, deleting or forwarding incoming emails to
other addresses; and importance markers for automatically marking
messages as 'important'.

In November 2011, Google began rolling out a redesign of its interface that
"simplified" the look of Gmail into a more minimalist design to provide a more
consistent look throughout its products and services as part of an overall
Google design change. Majorly redesigned elements included a streamlined
conversation view, configurable density of information, new higher-quality
themes, a resizable navigation bar with always-visible labels and contacts,
and better search.[16][17] Users were able to preview the new interface design
for months prior to the official release, as well as revert to the old interface,
until March 2012, when Google discontinued the ability to revert and
completed the transition to the new design for all users. [18]

In May 2013, Google updated the Gmail inbox with tabs which allow the
application to categorize the user's emails. The five tabs are: Primary, Social,
Promotions, Updates, and Forums. In addition to customization options, the
entire update can be disabled, allowing users to return to the traditional inbox
structure.[19][20]

In April 2018, Google introduced a new web UI for Gmail. The new redesign
follows Google's Material Design, and changes in the user interface include
the use of Google's Product Sans font. Other updates include a Confidential
mode, which allows the sender to set an expiration date for a sensitive
message or to revoke it entirely, integrated rights management and two-factor
authentication.[21]

On 16 November 2020, Google announced new settings for smart features

and personalization in Gmail. Under the new settings users were given control
of their data in Gmail, Chat, and Meet, offering smart features like Smart
Compose and Smart Reply.[22]

On 6 April 2021, Google rolled out Google Chat and Room (early access)
feature to all Gmail users.[23][24]

On 28 July 2022, Google rolled out Material You to all Gmail users.[25]

Spam filter

Gmail's spam filtering features a community-driven system: when any user

marks an email as spam, this provides information to help the system identify
similar future messages for all Gmail users.[26]

In the April 2018 update, the spam filtering banners got a redesign, with
bigger and bolder lettering.

Gmail Labs
The Gmail Labs feature, introduced on June 5, 2008, allows users to test new
or experimental features of Gmail. Users can enable or disable Labs features
selectively and provide feedback about each of them. This allows Gmail
engineers to obtain user input about new features to improve them and also to
assess their popularity.[27]

Popular features, like the "Undo Send" option, often "graduate" from Gmail
Labs to become a formal setting in Gmail.[28]

All Labs features are experimental and are subject to termination at any time.
[29]

Search

Gmail incorporates a search bar for searching emails. The search bar can
also search contacts, files stored in Google Drive, events from Google
Calendar, and Google Sites.[30][31][32]

In May 2012, Gmail improved the search functionality to include auto-

complete predictions from the user's emails.[33]

Gmail's search functionality does not support searching for word fragments
(also known as 'substring search' or partial word search). Workarounds exist.
[33]

Language support

Gmail supports multiple languages, including the Japanese interface shown here

As of March 2015, the Gmail interface supports 72 languages,

including: Arabic, Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (simplified), Chinese
(traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (UK), English
(US), Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hu
ngarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Latvian, 
Lithuanian, Malay, Malayalam, Marathi, Norwegian
(Bokmål), Odia, Polish, Punjabi, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese
(Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, 
Swedish, Tagalog
(Filipino), Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh a
nd Zulu.[34]
Language input styles

In October 2012, Google added over 100 virtual keyboards, transliterations,

and input method editors to Gmail, enabling users different types of input
styles for different languages in an effort to help users write in languages that
aren't "limited by the language of your keyboard.” [35][36]

In October 2013, Google added handwriting input support to Gmail. [37]

In August 2014, Gmail became the first major email provider to let users send
and receive emails from addresses with accent marks and letters from outside
the Latin alphabet.[38][39]

Platforms
Web browsers

Gmail's "basic HTML" version works on almost all browsers. The modern
AJAX version is officially supported in the current and previous major releases
of Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge and Safari web
browsers on a rolling basis.[40][41]

In August 2011, Google introduced Gmail Offline, an HTML5-powered app for

providing access to the service while offline. Gmail Offline runs on the Google
Chrome browser and can be downloaded from the Chrome Web Store.[42][43][44]

In addition to the native apps on iOS and Android, users can access Gmail
through the web browser on a mobile device. [45]

Mobile
 Gmail running on Android

Gmail has native applications for iOS devices[46] (including iPhone, iPad,

and iPod Touch) and for Android devices.[47]

In November 2014, Google introduced functionality in the Gmail Android app

that enabled sending and receiving emails from non-Gmail addresses (such
as Yahoo! Mail and Outlook.com) through POP or IMAP.[48]

In November 2016, Google redesigned the Gmail app for the iOS platform,
bringing the first complete visual overhaul in "nearly four years". The update
added much more use of colors, sleeker transitions, and the addition of
several "highly-requested" features, including Undo Send, faster search with
instant results and spelling suggestions, and Swipe to Archive/Delete. [49][50]