Gmail

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Shot taken when the Terabyte bug hit Gmail

Gmail is a free web-based email service, currently in beta testing, created by Google. It was announced on March 31, 2004, but many became aware of it on April 1. There was speculation that this announcement was an April Fool's joke, because of the 1 gigabyte limit of storage space, which was unusually high at the time for a free web mail service.

Gmail was announced amid a flurry of rumor owing to April Fool's Day, however, the company's press release was greeted with skepticism in the technology world, especially since Google already had been known to make April Fool's Jokes (such as PigeonRank). However, they explained that their real joke had been a press release saying that they would take offshoring to the extreme by putting employees in a "Google Copernicus Center" on the Moon ([1]). Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's vice-president of products, was quoted by BBC News as saying, "We are very serious about Gmail."

Gmail also initially received a lot of criticism for a statement they made in their original terms of use, refusing to guarantee that all e-mails at Gmail would be deleted upon request by the user. Google later clarified that they were referring to backup copies of emails, and promised that all deleted mails would eventually be expunged completely from their servers. This, along with the feature that advertisements would be generated by software-based scanning of e-mails in order to better target them, gave rise to a controversy on web privacy (see [2] and [3]).

Before being acquired by Google, gmail.com was a free email service offered by Garfield.com, online home of the comic strip Garfield. This free email service has moved to e-garfield.com.

Contents

Features

Gmail offers several features, some of which were previously not utilized by competing web mail systems before being proposed by Gmail.

Conversation views

The main innovation in Gmail is a new mode of categorizing e-mails, which Google calls Conversation view. In this view, Gmail will keep track of "conversations" (back and forth e-mail sending), displaying summaries of all previous mail correspondence when displaying a mail. Google argues that this makes it easier to look back to check what was being discussed in earlier e-mails. However, as Gmail must resolve how conversations fit together, conversations may be fragmented or unrelated conversations become attached together. One problem, which probably has no easy solution is the fact that a minor modification of the subject line by the sender will fragment a conversation.

Filtering

Filters can be set up on incoming mail. The interface to set up the criteria for a specific filter is similar to the Search Options (see searching below). It allows for specifying the From, To, or Subject fields, as well as looking at the body text through the options Has the words, Doesn't have, or specifying whether the mail has an attachment or not. After setting up the criteria for the filter, one can test to see which emails match it, and then go on to the next step to set up actions to be performed on incoming mails matching the criteria. The actions include archiving the mail (i.e. removing it from the Inbox), marking the mail as starred, applying a label to the mail, moving the mail to the trash, forwarding to another email address, or a combination of the aforementioned options.

Gigabyte of storage

Gmail offers 1 gigabyte (1024 megabytes) of email storage space, which was hundreds of times more than what the competition offered at the time of the announcement. The large capacity is intended to allow users to keep thousands of emails permanently, through their Archive system. The service also allows the searching of a user's emails with Google's searching technologies. Attachments of up to 10 MB each are allowed.

Both the number and percentage displayed in advertising and in the Gmail interface itself are sometimes abbreviated 1000 MB, and the Gmail Help Center states that a user receives "About one thousand megabytes"[4], which is clarified with the statement "Gmail includes 1,024 megabytes"[5].

Improved interface

In the initial beta phase, Gmail made heavy use of JavaScript for its user interface and tools. This has the side-effect of "breaking" the back button.

Spellchecker

Gmail provides an interactive spell checker. In the Gmail spellchecker, one can select the spell check mode while composing a message. In the spell check mode misspelled words appear in place and can be replaced in any order. In this regard, the spell checker is different from a web-based iterative spell checker, which usually go through each spelling error one at a time, and different from a batch spell checker, which lists all misspelled words at once.

Address completion

An interactive address completion tool allows users to quickly fill in email addresses of friends while composing email. This feature allows you to click on the name of the contact after you've partially typed in his or her name or email. Gmail will then fill in the rest of the name and email address.

Keyboard shortcuts

An option to use keys like "c" to compose a message or "!" to mark something as spam, in addition to using the mouse to access these common functions. The shortcuts are not enabled by default.

Below is a quick list. Commas (",") below denote a key sequence. <shift> works with many actions to open a new window.


Writing and Sending Gmail

c Compose a new email.
r Reply to an email.
a Reply to all recipients of an email.
f Forward the current email.
<esc>, a Change a reply to a reply all.
<esc>, f Change a reply to a forward.
<esc>, r Change a reply to a reply to sender only.
<tab>, <space> Tab to the send button and press it.

Navigating Gmail

Gmail has two sets of navigation keys (one for conversations and one

for messages).

k Move cursor to newer conversation.
j Move cursor to older conversation.
p Previous message in conversation.
n Next message in conversation.
o Open a conversation in message view (Expand/Collapse in conversation view)
<enter> Open a conversation in message view (Expand/Collapse in conversation view)
u Return to conversation view from message view (Refresh from conversation view)
g, a Go to All mail view.
g, s Go to Starred mail view.
g, i Go to Inbox mail view.
<esc> Removes the cursor from your current input field.

Acting on Email

y Remove from current view. In Star View, unstars. In Spam View, unspams and moves to Inbox. In Trash View, moves to Inbox. In Label View, unlabels.
/ Move cursor to search box.
x Select conversation. Necessary to apply labels, archive, or do other actions.
s Star the conversation.
! Mark as spam and move to Spam View.
r Resume writing email in spell checking

Labels instead of folders

Another innovation is a categorizing system, in which e-mails are given labels. An e-mail might have any number of labels, and all e-mails having a particular label can be displayed together. This allows for grouping of e-mails relating to a particular subject. Labels are a generalization of the "folder" concept typically used by mail programs; unlike folders, the email can be in multiple categories without duplication. Gmail also allows for the option of setting up filters to label incoming e-mail automatically.

Previous e-mail systems to use labels include Opera Software's OperaMail and Lotus Notes Mail, the latter of which uses both folders and labels.

Searching

Gmail has extended searching capabilities. The Search Options interface is a form that allows for searching by:

  • entering something in the fields From, To and Subject
  • limiting the searches to the locations All Mail, Inbox, Starred, Sent Mail, Spam, Trash, All & Spam & Trash, Read Mail, Unread Mail, or an individual label
  • searching the body text as limited by Has the words, or Doesn't have
  • limiting to mail with or without attachments
  • specifying the date range from 1 day to 1 year in various increments

Gmail also allows for advanced searching through the search box. For example a more complex search string could look like:

  • from:bob to:alex subject:(work OR school -friends) label:archive has:attachment filename:pdf in:unstarred cc:self after:2004/05/01 before:2004/06/01

The above search string would search for all mails from bob to alex with the subject field containing "work" or "school" but not "friend," labeled as archive, with a PDF attachment, in the Unstarred location, with a carbon copy to self, and limited to the date range between May 1, 2004 and June 1, 2004.

See also: How do I use advanced search?

Spam filtering

Gmail offers a spam filtering system, which independent tests in May 2004 have shown to be about 60% accurate for a wide variety of spam, significantly less than spam filtering accuracy of Yahoo! and Hotmail. More recent experiences suggest a much better catch rate as of December 2004. Messages marked as spam which are more than 30 days old are automatically deleted by the system. Also many user reports of software deal spam.

Email Signing

Gmail is the first major provider to sign outgoing mails with Yahoo!'s DomainKeys signatures.

Email Forwarding

This filtering system also applies to automatic email forwarding. Not only can you tell Gmail to forward your email to a specific address, you can have email that matches a filter be automatically forwarded. Multiple filters that point to different emails are supported. A copy of the forwarded email can optionally be left on Gmail.

POP3 Access

Gmail has finished rolling out POP3 access (over SSL) and authenticated SMTP support to all users. Gmail also now includes a setup assistant to further simplify the setup process for getting mail outside of Gmail.

Some users are having problems with authenticating to gain access to their accounts. Gmail's POP server intermittently rejects valid username/password combinations.

Username handling

Gmail allows usernames of between 6 and 30 characters. The only characters that can be used are letters, numbers, and periods (.). An unofficial feature of username handling seems to be that periods do not actually matter when resolving addresses. What this means is that signing up for the account google@gmail.com allows one to receive mail sent to the accounts: goo.gle@gmail.com, g.o.o.g.l.e@gmail.com, etc. Also, signing up with goo.gle@gmail.com allows one to receive mail sent to google@gmail.com.

Gmail also supports plus-addressing of emails. Messages can be sent to addresses in the form: gmail.user+extratext@gmail.com where extratext could be any string. This allows different aliases to be used when signing up for different services and then being able to easily filter them. It does not appear, however, that the +string feature works when sending email from a gmail account to itself.

Gmail Notifier

The Gmail Notifier, an official tool offered by Gmail, displays a small icon in the bottom right corner of the screen in Microsoft Windows (system tray area), indicating the presence of new mail in one's inbox. It also has a feature that makes Gmail the default mail client for mailto links. It does not, however, download new messages.

Limitations

The conversation view groups related messages in a linear stack, which can be expanded and collapsed. While this does provide an innovative view of an email thread, it does not provide any way to differentiate messages that branch off from the original thread. This can occur when mail is sent to multiple recipients who respond individually.

The following features are absent from Gmail, but are offered by Gmail's main competitors, Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail, some for a price:

  • The ability to display attached text inline.
  • The ability to search within text message attachments.
  • The ability to "right-click" on a message in the Inbox and open it in a new browser window or tab, although you can press shift and click to open it in a new window if you have key commands turned on.
  • The option of replacing the "From:" in outgoing e-mails with an alternate e-mail address.
  • WAP access.

Google Inc. is hesitant to release any upcoming plans for the implementation of any of these features. The Gmail Team has said in e-mails to questions that future features will include:

  • A plain HTML version of Gmail
  • The option to export contacts

Gmail is incompatible with versions of Opera prior to 7.60, which is currently still in beta, versions of Konqueror prior to 3.3.1, all HTML-only browsers and WebTV based browsers (which are not JavaScript compatible) and generates this message.

Beta testing phase

Google initially invited about 1,000 employees, friends and family members to become beta testers. The trials began on March 21, 2004. Since then, others have been randomly selected to test the service. On April 25, active users from the Blogger.com community were offered the chance to participate in the beta-testing. Since then, active members have periodically received "invites" which they can extend to their friends. One round was sent out on May 1, and another three invitations were given to all active members on June 1; in mid-June, the number of invitations has been increasing, with some users receiving between three and five invites daily.

During the initial months of the Gmail beta, Gmail's well-publicized feature set and the exclusive nature of the accounts caused the aftermarket price of Gmail invitations to skyrocket. According to PC World magazine, Gmail invitations were selling on eBay for as much as $150 USD, with some specific accounts being sold for several thousand dollars. After a new round of invitations in early June, the price for invitations fell down to between and $2 and $5 USD. Several philanthropic Gmail users have utilized services such as GmailSwap to donate invitations to people who want them. On June 28, Google amended its policy to forbid the selling of registered accounts [6].

Some beta-testers have put up an account of their experiences on the web; see [7] and [8].

Current status

In March 2004, Google said that Gmail would probably be publicly released after six months of testing, which would have placed their launch in September 2004. .But it was still in beta. Speculation also regarding the release date is rife after the New York Times said they had "credible sources" saying "Gmail will be released publicly by the end of the year".As of January 2005, however, an invitation from an existing user is still required in order to make a new account, and the site still says it is beta. But the account holder can now send just four invitations.

Competition

Due to the heavy media coverage of Gmail's initial announcement and development, many existing web mail services quickly increased their storage capacity. This was seen as a move to stop existing users from switching to Gmail, and to capitalize on the newly rekindled public interest in web mail services.

  • On April 5, 2004, Spymac became the first free email service to publicly offer a gigabyte of storage.
  • On May 29, 2004, the European edition of Lycos raised its paid storage allowance to 1 GB.
  • On June 15, 2004, popular web mail competitor Yahoo! Mail increased its free storage space to 100 MB and its paid storage space to 2 GB. Free storage space for Yahoo! Mail has since increased to 250MB on December 2, 2004.
  • On June 18, 2004, Rediff.com headquartered in Mumbai, India, increased the storage capacity of its free public Rediffmail service to one gigabyte.
  • On June 24, 2004, Microsoft's Hotmail announced an increase of storage space to 250 MB and 2 GB for its free and paid email services, respectively.
  • Throughout June, the Israeli search site Walla slowly upgraded their service to 1 GB of space and is also offering their service in English.
  • In July 2004, Yahoo! Mail acquired Oddpost which was the first service to perfect the instant response functionality of a desktop email client in the browser through JavaScript.
  • On July 29, 2004, Yahoo! Mail announced an increase of free storage space to 1 GB but only in China in hopes of getting a foot hold in their booming internet market.


Further followers of the big mailbox trend:

External links

Gmail tools

  • How to use Gmail as a second brain - Article on how to use Gmail for data and information storage and management.
  • Gmail Notifier - Official Gmail Notifier program. Sits in system tray and checks email, shows snippets, and associates mailto: links (BETA).
  • G-Mailto - Associate mailto: email links on the web with Gmail.
  • WebMailCompose - Mozilla Extension to associate mailto: email links with GMail (among other webmail services.)
  • Google Mail Loader - Import your existing email into Gmail.
  • gPopper - A replacement for PGtGM
    • PGtGM - (PopGoestheGmail) A POP3 server that retrieved Gmail for access with an external program, no longer works since a Gmail server change.
  • GTransfer - Service that transfers e-mails from other webmail services to Gmail
  • libgmail is a Python API for writing programs that use Gmail
  • GmailFS provides a mountable Linux filesystem using libgmail and FUSE
  • GmailFS provides a mountable Win32 filesystem using MS Windows
  • GTray - A simple Gmail notification tool.
  • Gmail Agent API - Mail Notifier & Address Importer.
  • GetMail - Forward your Hotmail or MSN emails to your Gmail account.
  • Mail::Webmail::Gmail - Perl module interface to Gmail.
  • GMNotifier - An unofficial Gmail Notifier program written in the .NET framework
  • GMail API for Java(g4j) - GMailer API for Java (g4j) is set of API that allows Java programmer to communicate to GMail. With G4J programmers can made Java based application that based on huge storage of GMail.
  • GmailStatus GMail Notifier program for Mac OS X 10.3.x
  • POP3 server for Gmail(Java) - Gavamail aims to implement a POP3/IMAP server for Gmail. Currently a POP3 server has been implemented.
  • Goollery - Goollery is a GMail based photo gallery. You can upload pictures from a website. The pictures will automatically be stored in your gmail account.

FAQs

Blogs

Forums

Invitations

  • Wiki gmail swap page A wiki page to post and recieve gmail invites
  • Spread Firefox GMail Project Get a GMail invite if you place or have placed a Firefox logo on your website or blog.
  • Gmail 4444 Get the number 4444 to instantly get a Gmail invite.
  • A PC World article on the sale of Gmail invitations in the first months of the Beta
  • GmailSwap - A website hosting forums offering goods and services for Gmail invitations
  • Gmail Invitation Giveaway Contest - A website with a contest for winning Gmail invitations
  • Gmail invite spooler is an automated service that collects and distributes Gmail invitations
  • Gmail alliance is a manual service were one applies, and if the second party agrees may issue an invite, in return you must give the first three invites you get. This service is commercial though, as per every three invites received one will be sold on eBay.
  • Auction site the online auction site has many Gmail invites up for sale.
  • Pentapenguin.com a discussion forum that provides invites for free.
  • Info Sharkz GMail Invite Service A waiting list for Gmail Invites.

Privacy concerns and legislation

Spam filter


References

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