Gmail
The Gmail Inbox as seen in Safari on Mac OS X
Developed by	Google
Initial release	March 21, 2004 (2004-03-21)
OS	Cross-platform (web-based application)
Genre	POP3, IMAP, E-mail, webmail
Website	mail.google.com, or Gmail.com

Gmail, officially Google Mail in Germany and the United Kingdom, is a free Web-based email (webmail), POP3^[1] and IMAP^[2] e-mail service provided by Google. A software developer is a person or organization concerned with facets of the software development process wider than design and coding a somewhat broader scope of Google Inc is an American public corporation, earning revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, e-mail, online Events 630 - Byzantine emperor Heraclius restores the True Cross to Jerusalem. "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination In computing cross-platform (also known as multi-platform) is a term used to refer to Computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented Computer software can be organized into categories based on common function type or field of use In Computing, local E-mail clients use the Post Office Protocol version 3 ( POP3) an application-layer Internet standard protocol The Internet Message Access Protocol or IMAP is one of the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for E-mail retrieval the other being POP3 Electronic mail, often abbreviated to e-mail, email, or originally eMail, is a Store-and-forward method of writing sending receiving A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located In Computing, local E-mail clients use the Post Office Protocol version 3 ( POP3) an application-layer Internet standard protocol The Internet Message Access Protocol or IMAP is one of the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for E-mail retrieval the other being POP3 Google Inc is an American public corporation, earning revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, e-mail, online On April 1, 2004 the product began as an invitation-only beta release. Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " An invitation system (or invite system) is one method of Website registration A software release is the distribution whether public or private of an initial or new and upgraded version of a Computer software product On February 7, 2007 the beta version was opened to the general public. Events 457 - Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1074 - Battle of Montesarchio in which the Prince Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ^[3] With an initial storage capacity of 1 GB, it drastically increased the standard for free storage. A gigabyte (derived from the SI prefix Giga-) is a unit of Information or Computer ^[4]

Gmail currently offers over 6800 MB of free storage (increasing approximately 3. 348 MB daily),^[5] with additional storage ranging from 10 GB to 400 GB available for US$20 to $500 per year. A megabyte is a unit of Information or Computer storage equal to either 106 (1000000 Bytes or 220 (1048576 bytes depending on The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been ^[6] It has a search-oriented interface and a "conversation view" similar to an internet forum. An, or message board, is a Bulletin board system in the form of a discussion site Gmail is well-known for its use of the Ajax programming technique in its design,^[7] and has tens of millions of users. ^[8][9]

Contents 1 Features 1.1 Storage 1.2 Gmail Labs 2 Interface 2.1 Programming 2.2 Organization 2.3 Contacts 2.4 Composition 2.5 Security 2.6 Server 2.7 Addresses 2.8 Mail fetcher 2.9 Product integration 2.10 Browser support 2.11 Language support 2.12 Applications 2.13 Google Apps provider branding 3 Development history 3.1 Announcement 3.2 Registration 3.3 Domain name 4 Gmail hoaxes 4.1 Gmail Paper hoax 4.2 Gmail Custom Time hoax 5 Code changes 6 Criticisms 6.1 Privacy 6.2 Service issues 6.3 Web interface 7 Awards 8 Trademark disputes 8.1 Germany 8.2 Poland 8.3 United Kingdom 8.4 Mainland China 8.5 Russian Federation 9 Competition 10 See also 10.1 Gmail Add-Ins 11 References 12 External links

Features

Storage

The service currently provides more than 6800 MB of free storage^[10] and paid additional storage from 10 GB (US$20/year) up to 400 GB (US$500/year), shared over Picasa Web Albums and Gmail. A megabyte is a unit of Information or Computer storage equal to either 106 (1000000 Bytes or 220 (1048576 bytes depending on The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been Picasa is a Software application for organizing and editing digital photos originally created by Idealab and now owned by Google. ^[11] The increase from 1 GB was announced on April 1, 2005 and was made for the first anniversary of Gmail. Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. An anniversary (from the Latin anniversarius, from the words for year and to turn meaning (returning yearly known in English since c. The announcement was accompanied by a statement that Google would "keep giving people more space forever. "^[12] All Google says about this now is that it will keep increasing storage by the second as long as they have enough space on their servers. On October 12, 2007, Google ramped up the storage counter^[13] to 5. Events 539 BC - The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. 37 MB per hour. Approximately a week later, the counter went back down to 1. 12 MB per hour. From January 4, 2008, the counter went down to about 3. Events 46 BC - Titus Labienus defeats Julius Caesar in the Battle of Ruspina. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common 35 MB per day, or . 14 MB per hour.

On August 9, 2007, some users of Gmail reported that their storage capacity had been increased to 9030 MB (8. 8 GB). ^[14] The 9030 MB of space is an over-all total of all the users' storage space(s) within a Google Account, including Picasa Web Albums. Picasa is a Software application for organizing and editing digital photos originally created by Idealab and now owned by Google. This development seemed to occur about the same time that Google began allowing purchasable Picasa storage. In other words, Google has shared storage space, supporting both pictures and email.

Gmail Labs

Gmail Labs, introduced on June 5, 2008, is a feature of Gmail that allows users to test new or experimental features of Gmail, such as bookmarking of important email messages, custom keyboard shortcuts, and games. Events 70 - Titus and his Roman Legions breach the middle wall of Jerusalem in the Siege of Jerusalem 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common New features can be enabled and disabled selectively, and users can provide feedback about each of them. They allow Gmail engineers to get user input about new features to improve them, and popular ones might become a regular Gmail feature. All are experimental, and might stop working at any time. At present this feature is only available to residents of the United Kingdom and the United States.

Interface

Programming

Gmail makes use of Ajax (specifically, the AjaXSLT framework), employing modern browser features such as JavaScript, keyboard access keys and Web feed integration. A framework is a basic conceptual structure used to solve or address complex issues JavaScript is a Scripting language most often used for Client-side web development A web feed (or news feed) is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content

Organization

Advanced search strings can be constructed, using either the Advanced Search interface, or search operators in the search box. Search options include search for phrases, message sender, message location and message date. ^[15] There are also undocumented search operators like "language:russian" that can be helpful.

Filters can also be run by using an interface similar to the Search Options dialog (see searching below). Email filtering is the processing of E-mail to organize it according to specified criteria Gmail allows users to filter messages by their text; by their From, To, and Subject fields; and by whether or not the message has an attachment. Gmail can perform any combination of the following actions upon a message that meets a label's criteria: Archiving (i. e. removing the message from the Inbox), marking as "starred", applying a label, moving to the trash, and forwarding to another e-mail address.

Gmail recognizes related messages and groups them into "conversations" where associated messages are listed one after another, with the newest messages at the bottom. If a conversation has more than approximately 100 messages, it splits into separate sections. There have been reports of emails not from the same conversation being mistakenly joined into one conversation, and conversations splitting up.

To organize messages further, e-mails can be labeled. Labels give users a flexible method of categorizing e-mails since an e-mail may have any number of labels (in contrast to a system in which an e-mail may belong to only one folder). Users can display all e-mails having a particular label and can use labels as a search criterion. In addition, important e-mails can be flagged with a star (as mentioned earlier) so that a user may find an important e-mail more quickly than searching through the entire inbox.

Unlike other email Web clients, Gmail does not permit users to see the size of an email message or to sort email (for example, alphabetically by subject).

Contacts

Gmail automatically saves contact details when e-mails are sent to an unknown recipient. If the user changes, adds, or removes information near an e-mail such as the name while sending any e-mail, it also updates that in the contact list, unless the user is using basic HTML view, designed for people with slower internet connections or browsers that do not support AJAX. HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant Markup language for Web pages It provides a means to describe the structure When a user starts typing in the To, CC or BCC fields it brings up a list with the relevant contacts, with their name and primary e-mail address. More information, including alternate email addresses, can be added on the Contacts page. These contacts can also be added to a group, which makes sending multiple e-mails to related contacts easier. Images can be added to contacts, which will appear whenever the mouse is over the contact's name.

Contacts can be imported in several different ways, from Microsoft Office Outlook, Eudora, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, orkut, and any other contact list capable of being exported as a CSV file. Microsoft Outlook or Outlook (full name Microsoft Office Outlook since Outlook 2003 is a Personal information manager from Microsoft, and is Eudora is an E-mail client used on the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows Operating systems It also supports several palmtop computing Windows Live Hotmail, formerly known as MSN Hotmail and commonly referred to simply as Hotmail, is a free Webmail service of the Windows Live Yahoo! Mail is a Web-based email (webmail service from Yahoo!. orkut is a Social networking service which is run by Google and named after its creator an employee of Google - Orkut Büyükkökten. Gmail also allows a user to export their contacts to CSV. ^[16]

Composition

A year after Gmail was announced, Rich Text Formatting was introduced, which allows the font size, color and text-alignment to be customized, as well as the embedding of bullet points and numbered lists.

Autosave is another feature in Gmail—a system for avoiding loss of data in case of a browser crash or other error. Autosave is a function in many Computer applications or programs which saves an opened document automatically helping to reduce the risk or impact of data loss in While an e-mail is being composed, a draft copy of the message and any attachments are saved automatically. Although messages begin to be saved once a minute, saving times vary depending on the size of the message.

Gmail places the cursor above quoted text when replying, which encourages top-posting. When a message is replied to in E-mail, Internet forums or Usenet, the original can often be included or "quoted" in a variety of different Posting Regardless of how a received message is formatted, Gmail's conversation view defaults to showing only unique content, in chronological order, making posting style irrelevant to the Gmail user. When a message is replied to in E-mail, Internet forums or Usenet, the original can often be included or "quoted" in a variety of different Posting

Security

By default, Gmail uses an unencrypted connection to retrieve user data, encrypting only the connection used for the login page. However, by changing the URL from http://mail. google. com/mail/ to https://mail. google. com/mail/, Gmail can be told to use a secure connection, reducing the risk of third-party eavesdropping on users' information, such as emails and contacts, which are transmitted in plaintext as JavaScript data in the page source code. POP3 and IMAP access uses Transport Layer Security, or TLS. Transport Layer Security ( TLS) and its predecessor Secure Sockets Layer ( SSL) are Cryptographic protocols that provide secure

Although TLS is used when one sends email via an email client such as Mozilla Thunderbird, it is not used when the email is sent from the Gmail servers to the destination domain's mail exchangers, unless supported, so at some stage the user's email message may still be transmitted in unencrypted plain text. Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, Open source, Cross-platform e-mail and News client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. A mail transfer agent (MTA (also called a mail transport agent, message transfer agent, or smtpd (short for SMTP daemon) is a

Gmail offers a spam filtering system. E-mail spam, also known as "bulk e-mail" or "junk e-mail" is a subset of spam that involves nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by According to Gmail, messages marked as spam are automatically deleted after 30 days, but there have been reports on Gmail Help Discussion of spam mails staying in the spam folder for months. However, Gmail has now fixed this problem. The spam filtering system cannot be disabled. POP3 users need to check their Spam folder manually via the web interface as only emails sent to the Inbox can be retrieved via POP3.

IP addresses of Gmail users are disguised in order to protect security ^[17]. This is only the case for webmail users.

All incoming and outgoing e-mails are automatically scanned for viruses in e-mail attachments. If a virus is found on an attachment the reader is trying to open, Gmail will try to remove the virus and open the cleaned attachment. Gmail also scans all outgoing attachments and will prevent the message from being sent if a virus is found. Executable files are automatically blocked by the Anti-Virus system. However, some viruses have been known to hide from the scanner and have infiltrated many e-mails. Gmail also does not allow users to send or receive executable files or archives containing executable files. ^[18]

Gmail is also one of the first major e-mail providers to sign outgoing mails with Yahoo!'s DomainKeys signatures. DomainKeys is an E-mail authentication system designed to verify the DNS domain of an E-mail sender and the Message integrity.

In the past, Gmail has had severe trouble with security which allowed a full account compromise via Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities affecting the Google. com homepage or information disclosure through a file which was stored on Google's server and included all the Email contacts of the currently logged in user. ^[19] The vulnerability was quickly patched after the initial disclosures on the Internet. ^[20]

Server

Gmail runs on the Google GFE/1. Google Inc is an American public corporation, earning revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, e-mail, online 3 server, which is hosted on a Linux Operating System. Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination ^[21][22]

Addresses

Gmail supports plus-addressing of e-mails. An e-mail address identifies a location to which E-mail messages can be delivered Messages can be sent to addresses in the format username+extratext@gmail. com, where extratext can be any string, and will arrive in the inbox of username@gmail. com. This allows users to sign up for different services with different aliases and then easily filter all e-mails from those services. In addition, should users start to receive spam messages that are directed to their e-mail address with the extra text, they will know what services have leaked out their e-mail address to others. However, some websites do not accept email addresses containing plus signs, despite the '+' symbol being part of the mail address specification.

Gmail allows the user to add other email accounts to be used as optional sender addresses on outgoing email. ^[23] A verification process is performed to confirm the user's ownership of each email address before it is added. "Plus-addresses" can also be added as sender addresses in a similar way. Moreover, any of the additional addresses can be set as the default address.

When using this feature, the address chosen will appear in the "From:" field of the email. However, the Gmail account used to actually send the message is easily seen, as it either appears on a "Sender:" field in the email header, or in the message's subject field. Some mail clients will write "From: Sender@gmail. com [mailto:Sender@gmail. com] On Behalf Of. . . " upon reply, making it very obvious.

Optionally, a different "Reply-to:" address can be set for each "send as" address.

Gmail doesn't recognize dots as characters within a username. Instead, it will ignore all dots in a username. ^[24] For instance, the account google@gmail. com receives mail sent to goo. gle@gmail. com, g. o. o. g. l. e@gmail. com, etc. Likewise, the account goo. gle@gmail. com receives mail sent to google@gmail. com. This can be useful in setting filters for incoming mail. However, when signing in, it is necessary to include any dots used in the creation of the account. Also note that this does not work in Google Apps for Your Domain. Google Apps is a service from Google for using custom Domain names with several Google products ^[25] In Apps, each username variation must be entered as a nickname by the domain administrator.

Mail fetcher

In addition to adding extra email addresses, Gmail has a feature called "Mail Fetcher" that allows users to add up to five additional accounts to retrieve mail from via POP3. In Computing, local E-mail clients use the Post Office Protocol version 3 ( POP3) an application-layer Internet standard protocol Once accounts are added, the user is asked if they want to create a custom sender address (see above) automatically if they have not yet done so manually. This feature does not support retrieving mail from IMAP servers, nor does it support sending messages through an external SMTP server. The Internet Message Access Protocol or IMAP is one of the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for E-mail retrieval the other being POP3 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol ( SMTP) is a De facto standard for electronic mail (e-mail transmissions across the Internet.

Product integration

Google Talk, Google's service for instant messaging, can be accessed through a web based interface on Gmail's site. Google Talk ( GTalk) is a Windows and web-based application for voice over internet protocol (VOIP and Instant messaging, offered by Google. The web based interface is able to support voice calling and voice messages if the Google Talk client is running in the background. ^[26] All messages are archived to the Chats mailbox in Gmail unless 'Off the Record' is enabled in Google Talk. If the fellow chatter suddenly has to go offline, any and all further messages sent will be delivered to that person via e-mail, including in it the entire conversation had previously. Another Google Talk integration feature is voicemail, where the message is sent to the recipient's Gmail inbox; as well as synchronizing contact pictures. On December 4, 2007, the company announced integration with AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), allowing Gmail users to login to their AIM accounts and send instant messages to and see the online status of AIM users. "December 4th" redirects here For the song by Jay-Z, see December 4th (song. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ^[27][28]

Google Calendar offered Gmail integration soon after it was announced on April 13, 2006. Google Calendar, previously code-named "CL2" is a free contact- and time-management Web application offered by Google. Events 1111 - Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. 1204 - The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events can be added while writing a message that get stored on the main Calendar interface. Recipients who use Gmail will then receive an invitation to the event, which they can accept or decline. Furthermore, Gmail attempts to recognize event dates and locations within e-mails, and gives users the option to add the event to a calendar, similar to Microsoft's Exchange Server. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Microsoft Exchange Server is a Messaging and Collaborative software product developed by Microsoft.

Further integration is offered with some other Google products. Documents, spreadsheets and presentations can be opened using Google Docs, without downloading the file to a hard disk first. Google Docs is a free Web-based Word processor, Spreadsheet, and Presentation application offered by Google. Also, pictures can be sent directly from Picasa using a Gmail account. Picasa is a Software application for organizing and editing digital photos originally created by Idealab and now owned by Google.

Browser support

Gmail's old code will run on any computer with one of these supported browsers: Internet Explorer 5. Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer abbreviated MSIE) commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical 5+, Mozilla Application Suite 1. The Mozilla Application Suite (originally known as Mozilla, marketed as the Mozilla Suite, and Code named SeaMonkey) is a Cross-platform 4+, Firefox 0. 8+, Safari 1. Safari is a Web browser developed by Apple Inc and included in Mac OS X. 2. 1+, K-Meleon 0. K-Meleon is a Web browser for the Microsoft Windows platform Based on the same Gecko Layout engine as Mozilla Firefox, K-Meleon uses 9+, Netscape 7. Netscape Communications (formerly known as Netscape Communications Corporation and commonly known as Netscape) is an American computer services company 1+, Opera 9+. Opera is a Web browser and Internet suite developed by the Opera Software company It works well in the AOL 9. 0 browser, but may have problems with earlier AOL browser versions. Although officially unsupported, it also works in Konqueror when the browser identifies itself as Firefox 1. Konqueror is a Web browser, File manager and File viewer designed as a core part of the K Desktop Environment. 5+.

However, the new code has more stringent requirements; users must upgrade their browsers to Firefox 2. 0 or Internet Explorer 7. ^[29][30] This can be a minor issue for some users, as several new features are available only in Gmail's newer version. ^{[31][32][33][34]} Google has included a note at the top of several help pages, reiterating this differentiation between the two versions of the code:

AIM, colored labels, group chat, and rich emoticons only work in the latest version of Gmail, currently available for Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2. Please upgrade your browser to take advantage of these new features.

—Various Gmail Help Center articles^{[31][32][33][34]}

Gmail also offers "Basic HTML view" to allow users to access the Gmail messages from almost any computer running browsers that do not fully support the more advanced features, such as Internet Explorer 4. 0+, Netscape 4. 07+ or Opera 6. Opera is a Web browser and Internet suite developed by the Opera Software company 03+, or users with JavaScript disabled. JavaScript is a Scripting language most often used for Client-side web development Gmail's Help Center provides a list of fully supported browsers. Gmail has recently also become available as a downloadable application for mobile phones as well as WAP-enabled mobile phones. WAP is an open international Standard for Application layer network communications in a Wireless communication environment It also works on the PSP and PS3, Nintendo Wii's Internet Channel and Nintendo DS Browser web browsers but is not fully supported. The PlayStation Portable (officially abbreviated PSP) is a Handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. is a Multinational corporation headquartered in Kyoto Japan founded on The Internet Channel is a version of the Opera 9 Web browser for use on the Wii by Opera Software and Nintendo. The Nintendo DS Browser is a version of the Opera Web browser for use on the Nintendo DS, developed by Opera Software and Nintendo

Language support

The Gmail interface currently supports 43 languages, which include most of the US English features, including: Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (UK), English (US), Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Marathi, Norwegian (Bokmål), Oriya, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language Bulgarian (български език IPA: ɛzˈik is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official Croatian language ( hrvatski jezik) is a South Slavic language which is used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina in neighbouring Czech (ˈʧɛk čeština ˈʧɛʃcɪna in Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers it is the majority language in the Danish ( d̥ænsɡ̊ is one of the North Germanic languages (also called Scandinavian languages a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname British English or UK English ( BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the Phonology North American English regional phonology In many ways compared to English English, North American English is conservative in its Phonology. Estonian (; ˈeːsti ˈkeːl is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1 Filipino is the national and an Official language of the Philippines as designated in the 1987 Philippine Constitution. Finnish ( or suomen kieli) is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland (92% As of 2006) and by ethnic Finns outside French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Gujarati (ગુજરાતી Gujǎrātī ? Hindi ( Devanāgarī: hi [[wiktहिन्दी हिन्दी]] or hi [[wiktहिंदी हिंदी]] IAST:, IPA:) is Hungarian ( magyar nyelv) is a Uralic language (more specifically a Ugric language) unrelated to most other languages in Europe. Icelandic ( is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland. Indonesian or Bahasa Indonesia, based on the Riau version of Malay language, was declared the official language with the declaration of Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities Kannada (kn [[wiktಕನ್ನಡ ಕನ್ನಡ]] Kannaḍa) is one of the major Dravidian languages of India, spoken predominantly in the state This article is mainly about the spoken Korean language See Hangul for details on the native Korean writing system Latvian language (latviešu valoda is the official state language of Latvia. Lithuanian ( lietuvių kalba) is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognised as one of the official languages of the European Union. The Malay language ( ISO 639-1 code MS is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people and people of other ethnic groups who reside in the Marathi (mr मराठी Marāṭhī) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of what is considered western India. Bokmål (lit "book language" or Dano-Norwegian is the most commonly used of the two official Norwegian written Standard languages the other Oriya (ଓଡ଼ିଆ oṛiā) is one of the Indian Languages mainly spoken in the Indian state of Orissa. Polish ( język polski, polszczyzna) is the Official language of Poland. Brazilian Portuguese ( Language code pt-BR Portuguese: português brasileiro or português do Brasil) is a group of Portuguese Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. Romanian or Daco-Romanian ( dated: Rumanian or Roumanian; self designation limba română, ˈlimba roˈmɨnə is a Romance Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages Serbian (sr-Cyrl српски језик sr-Latn ''srpski jezik'' is a South Slavic language, The Slovak language ( slovenčina, slovenský jazyk, not to be confused with Slovenščina) sometimes referred to as "Slovakian" Slovene or Slovenian ( slovenski jezik or slovenščina, not to be confused with Slovenčina) is a South Slavic language Swedish ( is a North Germanic language spoken by more than nine million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the Tamil (ta தமிழ்; t̪əmɨɻ is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. Thai (th ภาษาไทย, transcription: phasa thai, transliteration:; pʰāːsǎːtʰāj is the national and Turkish ( tr Türkçe IPA) is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Ukrainian (in Ukrainian украї́нська мо́ва ukrayins'ka mova,) is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. Vietnamese ( tiếng Việt, or less commonly Việt ngữ) formerly known under French colonization as Annamese ( see Annam)

Applications

Google has developed several smaller applications, with attempts to increase user productivity, expand into business sectors and making Gmail available on mobile devices.

Gmail Notifier, an official tool offered by Google, displays a small icon in the notification area (see Taskbar) in Microsoft Windows and on the right-hand side of the menu bar in Mac OS X, indicating the presence of new mail in one's inbox. In Computing, the taskbar is a term for an application desktop bar which is used to launch and monitor applications Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Mac OS X (mæk oʊ ɛs tɛn is a line of computer Operating systems developed marketed and sold by Apple Inc, the latest of which is pre-loaded on all currently It also has a feature that makes Gmail the default mail client for mailto links. It does not, however, download new messages. For Linux, several unofficial notifiers are available. Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks It should be noted that currently the Gmail Notifier (v1. 0. 25. 0) does not work with Google Apps For Your Domain.

On February 10, 2006, Google introduced Gmail For Your Domain. Events 1355 - The St Scholastica's Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ^[35] All companies who participated in the beta testing were allowed to use Gmail through their own domain. Since then, Google has developed Google Apps, which includes customizable versions of Google Calendar, Google Page Creator and more. Google Apps is a service from Google for using custom Domain names with several Google products Google Calendar, previously code-named "CL2" is a free contact- and time-management Web application offered by Google. Google Page Creator is a Website creation and hosting service by Google. With various editions available, it targets enterprises as well as small businesses.

On November 2, 2006, Google began offering a mobile-application based version of its Gmail product for mobile phones capable of running Java applications. Events 1570 - A Tidal wave in the North Sea devastates the coast from Holland to Jutland, killing more than 1000 Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. In computing the Java Platform Micro Edition or Java ME (still commonly referred to by its previous name Java 2 Platform Micro Edition or J2ME) is a specification Those interested in using the application can download it from gmail.com/app directly from their mobile phone. In addition, Sprint Nextel announced separately that it would make the application available from its Vision and Power Vision homepages and which will be preloaded onto some new Sprint phones. Sprint Nextel Corporation ( is a Telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas. ^[36] The application gives Gmail its own custom menu system, which is much easier to navigate than a Web-based application would be on a cell phone. Gmail's message threading also shows up clearly, and the site displays attachments (like photos, Word documents) in the application. ^[37]

Google Apps provider branding

Google Apps Partner Edition is a service targeted at ISPs and portals that provides brand-customizable Gmail accounts, along with other Google services (such as Calendar and Docs). Google Apps is a service from Google for using custom Domain names with several Google products An Internet service provider ( ISP, also called Internet access provider or IAP) is a company which primarily offers their customers access to the Internet Google Calendar, previously code-named "CL2" is a free contact- and time-management Web application offered by Google. Google Docs is a free Web-based Word processor, Spreadsheet, and Presentation application offered by Google. ^[38] For example, users of Sky Broadband access their @sky. Sky Broadband is an internet service provider for Sky Digital customers com emails from a customized Gmail interface with 10 GB of storage space. ^[39]

Development history

Main article: History of Gmail

Announcement

Gmail was a project begun by Google developer Paul Buchheit years before it was ever announced to the public. Gmail ( Google Mail in Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom) was announced in 2004 amid a flurry of rumor Paul Buchheit is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur For several years, the software was available only internally, as an email client for Google employees. ^[40]

Gmail was finally announced to the public in 2004 amid a flurry of rumor. Owing to April Fool's Day, however, the company's press release^[41] was greeted with skepticism in the technology world, especially since Google already had been known to make April Fool's Jokes (such as PigeonRank). This article is about the informal holiday For other uses see April Fool. Google has a tradition of perpetrating April Fools' Day Hoaxes. ^[42] 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"^[43] on the Moon. Offshore may refer to oil and Natural gas production at sea see Oil platform. Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's vice-president of products, was quoted by BBC News^[44] as saying, "We are very serious about Gmail. "

Registration

When Gmail was first announced, access to the service was limited to those who had an invitation from an existing account holder, from Blogger, and later through their mobile phone. Blogger is a Blog publishing system. It was created by Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google in 2003 Additionally, a limited number of invitations were given out directly from Google to end users via a link on Google's home page. Creating a Gmail account without an invitation required a text messaging-enabled mobile phone. Text messaging, or texting is the common term for the sending of "short" (160 characters or fewer including spaces text messages from Mobile phones Initially however, account holders received their invitations after being on a waiting list previous to the launch. Google stated that the invitation system intended to initially reduce the amount of abuse, as spammers were unable to make a large number of accounts. ^[45] When the invitation system was in use, account holders were given up to 100 account invitations to send out to other e-mail addresses.

On August 9, 2006, Gmail registration was made available to anyone in Australia and New Zealand,^[46] in Japan since August 23, 2006 and in Egypt since December 3, 2006. Events 48 BC - Caesar's civil war: Battle of Pharsalus - Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. Events 79 - Mount Vesuvius begins stirring on the feast day of Vulcan the Roman god of fire Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. Events 1800 - War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Hohenlinden, French Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ^[47] On February 7, 2007, Gmail registration was made public in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Russia, Japan, and Hong Kong. Events 457 - Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1074 - Battle of Montesarchio in which the Prince Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders ^[48] On February 14, 2007, Gmail registration was made public globally, so anyone could register for a Gmail account. Events 842 - Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ^[49]

Sign up link: https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount

Domain name

Before being acquired by Google, the gmail. com domain name was used by a free e-mail service offered by Garfield. In Computer networking, a domain name is a name given to a collection of network devices that belong to a domain which is an administrative space managed according com, online home of the comic strip Garfield. A comic strip is a sequence of drawings that tells a story Currently in the Western world, most comic strips are written and drawn by a Comics artist Garfield is a daily-syndicated Comic strip created by Jim Davis. After moving to a different domain, the service has since been discontinued. ^[50] As of June 22, 2005, Gmail's canonical URI has been changed to http://mail.google.com/mail/ instead of http://gmail.google.com/gmail/. Events 217 BC - Battle of Raphia: Ptolemy IV of Egypt defeats Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid kingdom. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Canonical is an Adjective derived from canon. Canon comes from the Greek word kanon, "rule" (perhaps originally from ^[51]

Gmail hoaxes

Gmail Paper hoax

On April Fools' Day 2007, Google made fun of Gmail by introducing "Gmail Paper", where a user could click a button and Gmail would actually mail a hard copy. This article is about the informal holiday For other uses see April Fool. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Google has a tradition of perpetrating April Fools' Day Hoaxes. ^[52]

Gmail Custom Time hoax

On April Fools' Day 2008, Google introduced a fake service named Gmail Custom Time, which would allow a user to send up to ten emails per year with forged timestamps. This article is about the informal holiday For other uses see April Fool. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common By bending spacetime on the Google servers, the emails are actually routed through the 4th dimension of time itself prior to reaching their intended recipient. ^[53][54][55]

Code changes

Gmail's JavaScript front-end was rewritten in late summer and early fall of 2007,^[29] and started to be rolled out to users on October 29, 2007. ^[56] The new version had a revamped contacts section, a redesigned quick contacts box, and made-over chat popups, which were added to names in the message list as well as the contact list on the left. ^[56][57] The contacts application is integrated into other Google services, such as Google Docs. ^[58] Users granted access to the new version were given a link at the top-right corner which read "Newer Version". ^[57] This would give users the new interface. As of December 2007, most new registrations in English (US) are given the new interface by default (along with most pre-existing accounts) when supported, with the option to downgrade via a link in the top-right reading "Older Version". ^[57]

As of December 2007, the new code is available only to users of Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2. ^[29][30] In the week of January 18, 2008, the Gmail Team rolled out an update that changed the way Gmail's JavaScript was loaded,^[59] which broke a few third-party extensions—including Remember The Milk's Firefox extension for Gmail. Remember The Milk is a task- and time-management Web application. ^[60]

Criticisms

Privacy

Google automatically scans e-mails to add context-sensitive advertisements to them. Privacy advocates raised concerns that the plan involved scanning their personal, assumed private, e-mails, and that this was a security problem. ^[61] Allowing e-mail content to be read, even by a computer, raises the risk that the expectation of privacy in e-mail will be reduced. Expectation of privacy is a concept which is crucial in the defining of the scope of the applicability of Privacy laws A subjective expectation of privacy is an Furthermore, e-mail that non-subscribers choose to send to Gmail accounts is scanned by Gmail as well. These senders of e-mail did not agree to Gmail's terms of service or privacy policy. Google can change its privacy policy unilaterally, and Google is technically able to cross-reference cookies across its information-rich product line to make dossiers on individuals. However, most email systems make use of server-side content scanning in order to check for spam. E-mail spam, also known as "bulk e-mail" or "junk e-mail" is a subset of spam that involves nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by

What privacy advocates also consider problematic is the lack of disclosed data retention and correlation policies. It is possible for Google to combine information contained in a person's emails with information about their Internet searches. It is not known how long such information would be kept, and how it could be used. One of the concerns is that it could be of interest to law enforcement agencies. More than 30 privacy and civil liberties organizations have urged Google to suspend Gmail service until these issues are resolved. ^[62]

There has also been criticism regarding Gmail's privacy policy,^[63] which contains the clause, "Residual copies of deleted messages and accounts may take up to 60 days to be deleted from our active servers and may remain in our offline backup systems. " Google continues to reply to this criticism by pointing out that Gmail is using mostly industry-wide practices. Google later stated that they will "make reasonable efforts to remove deleted information from our systems as quickly as is practical. "^[64]

Further, URLs in emails are converted to a clickable hyperlink with a Google redirect prepended, so Google can track whether the link is clicked. Uniform Resource Locator is an URI which also specifies where the identified resource is available and the protocol for retrieving it

As part of Gmail's privacy policies, Google states that Gmail will refrain from displaying ads next to potentially sensitive messages. Content that will trigger the ad kill switch includes news about a tragedy, an email about catastrophic events, and death announcements. ^[65]

Service issues

Users have occasionally found their accounts temporarily unavailable. ^[66] Gmail does not allow users to send or receive executable files or archives containing executable files. ^[18] Tech-savvy users who are not prone to casual errors report loss of random messages in random amounts. ^[67]

Web interface

The conversation view groups related messages in a linear stack that can be expanded and collapsed. There is no option to differentiate messages that branch off from the original thread. This can occur when mail is sent to multiple recipients who respond individually. Labelling (tagging) is limited to message threads, while it would be also useful for contacts and individual messages too. A tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as an Internet bookmark, digital image or Computer file)

Support for entering bi-directional text is currently available only in the Arabic and Hebrew interfaces. Bi-directional text is used as some Writing systems of the world notably the Arabic (including variants such as Nasta'liq) and Hebrew scripts Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language

It can be difficult to submit e-mail addresses from the Gmail address book to the addressee line on the compose e-mail window. The "Autocomplete" feature is problematic and does not work under all browsers or operating systems. If an e-mail address begins with a different character than the first letter of the addressee's name, then a sender must try each alphanumeric character until the correct address is prompted. However, it is possible to open the composed message in a new window so the address book can be opened, or another instance of gmail can be opened in another window to access the address book. Gmail's current documented help on this issue states: "While Gmail doesn't currently support the functionality to open your Contacts list while composing a message, we're testing many new features to improve our service. "

Although Gmail's advertisements are often praised for being unobtrusive, they can actually take up more space than flash-based banners when up to six "sponsored links" are displayed next to an email. Additionally, opening emails makes the Web Clips RSS-feed bar (if activated) display another sponsored link. Often the amount of advertisements displayed in the Web Clips bar outnumbers the number of RSS feeds the user has requested. RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works – such as Blog entries news headlines audio and video – in a standardized However, when a Gmail message is sent to another email address of a different provider, there will be no advertisements in the message unlike most other webmail providers.

Unlike most other webmail services, Gmail's default mode does not allow for emails to be opened in a new tab or window. But this can be done if one switches to the "Basic HTML" mode or by opening the email and clicking the "new window" icon. ^[68]

When a Gmail mailbox is full, it's not possible to search for emails by size in order to delete the largest ones first. The best the web interface can do is to search for emails with attachments, but it does not indicate what the sizes of those attachments are.

Awards

Gmail was ranked second in PC World's "100 Best Products of 2005,"^[69] behind Mozilla Firefox. PC World is a global Computer magazine published monthly by IDG. Gmail also won 'Honorable Mention' in the Bottom Line Design Awards 2005. ^[70] Gmail has drawn many favorable reviews from users for generous space quotas and unique organization. ^[71]

Trademark disputes

Germany

On July 4, 2005, Google announced that Gmail Deutschland would be rebranded to Google Mail. Events 836 - Pactum Sicardi, peace between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. From that point forward, visitors originating from an IP address determined to be in Germany would be forwarded to googlemail. An Internet Protocol ( IP) address is a numerical identification ( Logical address) that is assigned to devices participating in a Computer network com where they could obtain an email address containing the new domain. An e-mail address identifies a location to which E-mail messages can be delivered Any German user who wants a gmail. com address must sign up for an account through a proxy. In Computer networks a proxy server is a server (a computer system or an application program which services the requests of its clients by forwarding German users who were already registered were allowed to keep their old addresses.

The German naming issue is due to a trademark dispute between Google and Daniel Giersch. Daniel Giersch owns a company called "G-mail" which provides the service of printing out emails from senders and sending the print-out via postal mail to the intended recipients. On 30 January 2007, Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market ruled in favor of Giersch. Events 1648 - Eighty Years' War: The Treaty of Münster is signed ending the conflict between the Netherlands and Spain Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. The Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs or OHIM (OAMI or es Oficina de Armonizacion del Mercado Interior HABM de Harmonisierungsamt ^[72] It seems Google isn't without a sense of humor as this is the same service Google "offered" in the Gmail Paper April Fool's Day joke in 2007.

Poland

In February 2007, Google filed legal action against the owners of gmail.pl, a poet group known in full as Grupa Młodych Artystów i Literatów abbreviated GMAiL (literally, "Group of Young Artists and Writers"). ^[73]

United Kingdom

On October 19, 2005, the United Kingdom version of Gmail was voluntarily converted to Google Mail,^[74] because of a dispute with another company, Independent International Investment Research, in the UK. Events 202 BCE - The Battle of Zama results in the defeat of Carthage and Hannibal. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located ^[75] Users who registered before the switch to Google Mail were able to keep their Gmail address, although the Gmail logo was replaced with a Google Mail logo. Users who signed up after the name change receive a googlemail. com address. However, mail sent to a user with a Google Mail account will still be received if it is addressed to the corresponding gmail. com address.

Mainland China

An IT company named gmail. cn supplies yourname@gmail. cn (Chinese: 爱思美） addresses in mainland China. ^[76]

Russian Federation

A Russian free webmail service called gmail. ru owns the "GMail" trademark in the Russian Federation. ^[77] The gmail. ru domain name was created January 27, 2003. ^[78]

Competition

See also: Comparison of webmail providers

After Gmail's initial announcement and development, many existing web mail services quickly increased their storage capacity. The following tables and gallery compare general and technical information for a number of webmail providers ^[79] For example, Hotmail went from giving some users 2 MB to 25 MB (250 MB after 30 days, and 2 GB for Hotmail Plus accounts), while Yahoo! Mail went from 4 MB to 100 MB (and 2 GB for Yahoo! Mail Plus accounts). Windows Live Hotmail, formerly known as MSN Hotmail and commonly referred to simply as Hotmail, is a free Webmail service of the Windows Live Yahoo! Mail is a Web-based email (webmail service from Yahoo!. Yahoo! Mail storage then proceeded to 250 MB and, in late April of 2005, to 1 GB. Yahoo! Mail announced that it would be providing "unlimited" storage to all its users in March 2007^[80] and began providing it in May 2007. These were all seen as moves to stop existing users from switching to Gmail and to capitalize on the newly rekindled public interest in web mail services. The desire to catch up was especially visible for MSN's Hotmail, which upgraded its e-mail storage erratically from 250 MB to the new Windows Live Hotmail which includes 5 GB of storage. Windows Live Hotmail, formerly known as MSN Hotmail and commonly referred to simply as Hotmail, is a free Webmail service of the Windows Live As of November 2006, MSN Hotmail upgraded all free accounts to have 1 GB of storage. ^[81] In August of 2005, AOL started providing all AIM screen names with their own e-mail accounts with 2 GB of storage. Another source of competition came from 30Gigs who were offering 30 gigabytes of storage, initially through invite only but now available publicly. 30Gigs was a free Webmail E-mail service from Thona Network offering 30 Gigabytes of storage An invitation system (or invite system) is one method of Website registration

Every Gmail account which is inactive for six months is labeled dormant and three months later (a total of nine months), may get deactivated by Gmail. All stored messages would be deleted if that were to happen. Other webmail services, like Yahoo! Mail and Windows Live Hotmail, have different, often shorter, times for marking an account as inactive; Yahoo! Mail deactivates dormant accounts after four months, and Windows Live Hotmail deactivates free accounts after two months (previously one). Yahoo! Mail is a Web-based email (webmail service from Yahoo!. Windows Live Hotmail, formerly known as MSN Hotmail and commonly referred to simply as Hotmail, is a free Webmail service of the Windows Live

Other than the general increase of storage limit, there has also been an improvement of the e-mail interfaces of Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail after the launch of Gmail. Gmail's ability to have an attachment size of 10 MB was also matched by Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail during 2005. Following the footsteps of Gmail, Yahoo! launched the Yahoo! Mail Beta service and Microsoft launched Windows Live Hotmail, both now incorporating Ajax interfaces. Google increased the maximum attachment size to 20 MB in May 2007. ^[82]

With Google Apps, a hosted package that includes Gmail, Google is competing with Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express and Exchange Server. Google Apps is a service from Google for using custom Domain names with several Google products Microsoft Outlook or Outlook (full name Microsoft Office Outlook since Outlook 2003 is a Personal information manager from Microsoft, and is Outlook Express is an e-mail / News client that was included with Internet Explorer versions Internet Explorer 4 Microsoft Exchange Server is a Messaging and Collaborative software product developed by Microsoft.

See also

• Comparison of webmail providers
• List of Google services and tools

Gmail Add-Ins

• PhpGmailDrive
• GMail Drive
• GmailFS

References

External links

• Gmail
• Official Gmail Blog
• Gmail: Behind the Scenes - Gmail fans video
• Gmail Logos

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