The April 1st date might not be ideal to launch a new platform but 10 years ago, Google has chose this date to launch its email platform, Gmail, which was considered quite a risky move back when competition was rather larger.


In 2004, Google's Gmail was reserved for a chosen few and offered up to 1GB of storage, which was quite a lot considering that competition struggled to offer more than a few hundred megabytes. Back in the day, you had to be invited and emails like mail@gmail.com could be bought on Ebay. In 2007, resale of mail addresses have been condemned by Google and access to Gmail became much easier.

It was not until 2009 that the platform lost its title and became the email service we know today. In 2014, Gmail is 10 years old and is definitely one of the leaders on the email market.

Today when there is a lot of talk and hype regarding espionage and privacy issues, it is not certain if another player would be accepted and welcomed today as it was back in the day when Gmail was starting.

In any case, it has been good 10 years and we wish the Gmail a happy birthday.


Source: Time
via Le Comptoir du Hardware.