Google
plans to double Gmail capacity--at least
Published: March 31, 2005, 8:10 PM PST
By Evan Hansen
Staff Writer, CNET
News.com
Google says it will dramatically ramp
up the storage available with its Gmail Web-based
e-mail service, raising the bar for rivals in the
sharply competitive business for the second time
in a year.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based Web giant on Friday
plans to double the free storage on Gmail from 1GB
to 2GB, said Georges Harik, Gmail product management
director. After that, Google will add a yet-to-be-determined
amount of extra storage daily, with no plans to
stop.
The move highlights the seemingly inexhaustible
storage needs of a small group of heavy e-mail users,
and the sharply falling costs of online storage.
Lifting predefined storage caps for Web-based e-mail
could have broader ripple effects, Harik said, changing
the way people think about quotas from something
that is set in advance to something that grows with
the user.
"We wanted to make sure we have a plan in
place for when people reach their storage limit,"
he explained. "We don't want people to worry
that they might run out."
Google first broke the e-mail mold on April 1,
2004, with an announcement so bizarre that many
assumed it was an April Fools' Day joke. Gmail's
1GB of free storage at the time was widely thought
to exceed the lifetime needs of most e-mail users.
By contrast, rivals such as Yahoo and Microsoft
offered about 10MB of storage, seeking to charge
customers who wanted more.
A slew of imitators scrambled to match and even
exceed Google's free 1GB storage offer, transforming
the Web-based e-mail business.
In addition to its gargantuan storage capacity,
Gmail distinguished itself from rivals by scanning
the text of e-mail messages to serve up contextual
advertisements--a plan that raised a short-lived
furor over potential privacy violations.
In the first year of service, Gmail defied expectations,
Harik said. The privacy concerns have amounted to
little or nothing, he said, but the storage capacity
became a pressing concern when some heavy Gmail
users came close to using up their preset limit.
"One gigabyte did seem like a lot, but it
turns out there are a lot of heavy users of mail,"
he said. "They send attachments, share photos.
It all adds up." He said Google discourages
customers from using Gmail as a vast storage locker
for music and video files. He said Google does not
disclose the storage patterns of its users, but
said a small but not insignificant number of users
were close to exceeding the 1GB limit.
Gmail will remain in a beta, or public test phase,
for now, Harik added, putting to rest rumors that
the closely watched service might be released officially
in the near future. He said plans for new features
could hold back an official release but gave no
timeline.
»
Fusion Studios Search Engine Optimization
Packages
