Initially launched as an invitation-only release on the 1st April 2004, GoogleMail offered one of the highest storage capacity of the time: 1GB, compared to the meager 2 to 4 MB of the competition. Gmail, which was and still is in the Beta status, features a search-oriented interface and does not allowed to send nor receive Windows executable files or archive files containing executables (an efficient remedy to virus spread on Microsoft Windows). It features spam filters that I consider amongst the most efficient.
Gmail opened registration to the public on the 7th of February 2007 and it recently became OpenID, which mean that the same account data can be used to log on a broad range of Web sites. On the other hand, more than 30 privacy and civil liberties organizations have always expressed concern about the lack of clarity in Gmail’s privacy policy and about Google scanning messages to display content-sensitive ads. Arguably however, no single email user has the guarantee that one’s correspondence will be eyesdropper-proof unless resorting to tedious encryption standards or setting up one’s very own email server.
Gmail’s user base has risen to tens of millions and as of last week, when accessing a Googlemail account from a Web browser, one can now choose amongst predefined graphical themes.
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