10 years old! Look at Gmail's past and present life

2004, April 1, Thursday, April Fool's Day. Google has announced that it will provide Gmail with a free email program that allows each user to enjoy 1GB of capacity. That's a big wave on the day, and most people think it's a hoax: Google's April Fools ' prank is already a tradition, and even the people who believe it, it's hard to understand: how can Gmail compete with the booming Hotmail and Yahoo mail? 1GB? bragging, right? This is 500 times times the size of Hotmail.

Until April 2, Google still did not withdraw the news, people are determined: Gmail is true. is really 1GB, is really built into the email search engine, is really free.

10 years later, Gmail is already the world's largest e-mail service provider, with huge storage space, lively interface, real-time search function, excellent cloud services, it is the top.

In fact, Gmail is not a project that Larry Page or Sergey Brin decided to do in 04 years. It had been brewing for 3 years before it was open to the public. During this time, even Google's in-house staff, few know it exists.

No search no Google

Google's "20% program" is to allow employees to take 20% of the work time to do outside the project, this is a way to motivate staff innovation, but also to achieve the success of Gmail's hero.

The father of Gmail, Paul Buchheit, joined Google in 1999 to become the company's 23rd employee. Initially, he just wanted to add a search function to his email, so he spent a day completing the code and installing it in his own computer. Soon after, other engineers learned of the program called Caribou, a story from the Dilber comics, demanding that they be used in their mailboxes as well. As more and more functions are added to this email system, the prototype of Gmail is now in its infancy.

Gmail's search function is one of the main reasons it left behind other e-mail systems. If its capacity is like Hotmail, just 2MB, then search what, just a few emails can fill the mailbox, what is at a glance.

So the powerful search function naturally requires an oversized capacity to match it. Gmail offers users the possibility that you'll never have to delete your email, and Gmail will keep it safe for you. I can also help you classify it automatically. So, Google finally decided to give users 1GB of space, so big, so that Google internal also aroused great doubt, this is not excessive, have the ability to be so generous?

"A lot of people think it's a very bad idea, whether it's from a product or a strategic point of view." ”

From Google's point of view, in its early days, the company has decided to focus on the search engine, and not to learn Yahoo, Excite, Lycos, to the "almighty" portal. "Many people think that Gmail is not a good idea, which has nothing to do with web search." "Luckily, Larry and Sergey don't think so, and they've been very supportive of Gmail from the start."

Head pressure, backed by power, Buchheit alone for Gmail and struggle, until 2 months later, another engineer joined him, Sanjeev Singh. The Gmail team grew so tepid that only 10 or so were in the 2004-year public.

The head includes Gmail's first product manager, Brian Rakowski,2002, who has just graduated from college, joined Google and worked for Mayer. "At school, I was taught a lot about the usability of products and the concept of potential users, I really don't think it will make Google engineers so like, I also suspect that the public will not accept this product." I was so hurt. ”

As a result, Gmail creators have been creating products that delight them, and they think the problems they face in their emails will ultimately be a problem for everyone. Like Rakowski's words: "Larry says the average user will be the same as we are now in 10 years." ”

By the way, Buchheit and Singh created FriendFeed after leaving Google in 2006 and are now being bought by Facebook. And Rakowski remains at Google, becoming VP of Android and Chrome.

Google-featured Gmail

1. Using the interface

August 2003, the team worked for more than 2 years, Gmail is still only the most basic front-end. Kevin Fox joins in and is responsible for designing its service interface. (Kevin Fox eventually went to FriendFeed). In addition to knowing that Gmail has Google features, he has no clue.

After constant exploration and experimentation, and more considering Gmail as an application rather than a simple Web page, Fox designed an unconventional appearance interface. Until today, Gmail's appearance still retains his original design style.

Gmail abandoned Hotmail and Yahoo, and instead of using HTML, it used the non-mainstream JavaScript for development. Their massive use of Ajax technology has become a mailbox standard today. At that time, even the name of Ajax is not yet.

2. Business model

In Buchheit and other people's efforts, Gmail in the form of free release. In this way, it is necessary to get revenue by loading ads. However, Gmail "from the outset, it is not intended to use the horizontal bar of the fixed ads," It scanned the text messages in the user's message, in order to put content on the right side of the page ads.

This approach necessarily allows the user to know that his message has been read, even if the other is a machine rather than a person. Will it involve privacy issues? There is also a lot of controversy at Google. Ultimately, Google has done so with no return.

Towards the public

Gmail started testing inside the company in March 2004 and decided to announce it to the public on April 1. April 1 is definitely a carefully chosen day, in line with the founder of Google's temper. "If you're leading so that people don't know if you're joking, that's what you're doing," he said.

In order to catch up with deadline, the team staff non-stop. The biggest problem is the storage space of the server: 1GB per user, this is no joke. It's like a dead loop: "We can't get so many computers because people think our products are out of the box and our products can't be launched because we can't get so many computers."

Finally, with 300 companies ready to scrap the Ben two computer, Gmail set up. This is enough, because the external people invited to participate in the test is relatively small, Google occasionally to send users the right to invite, new users need to provide the old user invitation code to register to join. In this way, Gmail control the number of users, but also maintain the mystery. At the time, without a Gmail account, the technology industry seemed to be in the mix. Even people on ebay are selling invitations for up to 150 dollars.

It wasn't until 2007 Valentine's Day that Gmail was open for global users, and the beta tag was 2009 years old.

The launch strategy of Gmail advertisement really caused many people's dissatisfaction. Critics argue that it invades privacy and that advertising, if improperly placed, can have dire consequences: for example, a drug advertisement next to a suicide-themed email. Even in California, where Google is home, a congressman Liz Figueroa is proposing to ban Gmail advertising. The proposal did not pass, but until today, the tide of opposition is still high. Rivals such as Microsoft have spared no effort to attack Google's behavior aggressively.

Google is surprised by the heated debate over Gmail. But also unwilling to change. As Gmail maintained its 10-year interface style, the topic lasted for 10 years.

Ten years later

Alex Gawley, the current product manager at Gmail, says it's our continuous focus on solving our customers ' problems and keeping our product progress. 2004, storage space is the biggest problem, users need to constantly delete the backup mail. Gmail gave them 1GB. Today, applications and features for mobile devices are being considered by Gmail for users.

Over the past decade, Gmail has been a special presence: it has been imitated and never transcended. But in the future, there must be newer challenges, just as Google did with Microsoft and Yahoo in 2004.