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Google Doubles Gmail Capacity


youneverknow

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Google announced that it is doubling Gmail's storage capacity to a hefty 2 gigabytes

They also said that it could add more space daily!

I just checked my account and it said:

You are currently using 59 MB (5%) of your 1318 MB

They added 318 mb to my account, what about yours?

youneverknow

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I'm up to 1413 MB, but it is a number that is incresing gradually over the last hour that I've been watching. Maybe they are running some type of job that is slowly adding extra space to all of the accounts.

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If you go to gmail now they say UNLIMITED storage here is a quote:

G is for growth

Storage is an important part of email, but that doesn't mean you should have to worry about it. To celebrate our one-year birthday, we're giving everyone one more gigabyte. But why stop the party there? Our plan is to continue growing your storage beyond 2GBs by giving you more space as we are able. We know that email will only become more important in people's lives, and we want Gmail to keep up with our users and their needs. From Gmail, you can expect more.

If you go to the gmail homepage you will see a counter showing everyones upgrade

They have also now given colors and fonts for users. :clapping:

Sure enough compose a message and click rich format...colors...fonts!!!

It just gets better

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If you go to gmail now they say UNLIMITED storage here is a quote:

 

Well, the UNLIMITED part I think is an April Fools joke. At the very bottom of the page it says:

 

Gmail turns 1 today. And we've always loved a good joke. We know we won't reach infinity, but check out what we will do ...
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As quoted above they are not doubling it. They are gradually increasing it to 2GB and then further. But who the heck needs even 1Gb of space? In over 7 years of net using I have never even used 6 MB. I think their saying they offer X amount of email space is like hosts that say they offer unlimited space. If everyone actually tried to use it all I'm sure they would soon impose restrictions.

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In over 7 years of net using I have never even used 6 MB. I think their saying they offer X amount of email space is like hosts that say they offer unlimited space. If everyone actually tried to use it all I'm sure they would soon impose restrictions.

 

My Gmail box currently has more than 80 MB of mail being stored; I am probably an anomaly.

 

Is this a case of Google overselling their email (web) space? :clapping:

 

I wonder what would happen if everybody really did use their 1GB of storage. How much storage do you think Google has?

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Remember, though, GMail was originally announced one year ago today. At that time, everyone thought 1GB per user was an April Fool's joke, said it couldn't be done. Now everyone is matching it. Google does have some other good April Fools' jokes up today though.

 

In a way, they are overselling, just like banks "overlend" their money supply. If all depositors came at once to withdraw all their funds, the bank couldn't possibly handle it (see "It's a Wonderful Life" for Jimmy Stewart's explanation). In the same way, I'm sure Google doesn't have 1GB (or 2GB) of actual available space online for each GMail user. At the same time, with the prices of high-density storage and with modern compression techniques, it wouldn't be impossible.

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Obviously not an April fools then. I still use Yahoo as my main email provider due to the fact Gmail wont let you send not receive executables. I reckon we should have a fill your gmail day where everyone sends themselves loads of bulky emails to try and fill their inbox to see what happens :)

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If you go to the login page, you can see that they are continuing to increase the total capacity for everyone's accounts just like they were last Friday, just at a far slower rate. It looks like about 3-4MB/day or so, but I'm not sure if it's a constant rate. There's also no way to tell whether they'll continue this slow ratcheting-up process indefinitely.

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By my stopwatch, the counter seems to be going up .001 MB in 25 seconds, or 25,000sec/MB (almost 7hours/MB).

 

Again, though, not sure how long it's been at that specific rate or how long it will stay that way.

 

The announcement on April 1st definitely seemed to be saying that they wanted to slowly-but-surely increase the limit on a more or less continuous basis.

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Yahoo announced a few weeks ago that they are increasing their inbox size to 1GB. But as I said earlier who needs 1GB? I will always choose Yahoo over Gmail because

1 - I get instant notifications of new emails via Messenger.

2 - I can actually email executables which Gmail blocks.

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2 - I can actually email executables which Gmail blocks.

You may be able to send them but can the person you are sending them to receive them?

 

More and more services are blocking EXE files from being sent/received. I don't see this as a problem. I quit sending executables long ago. Easier to zip it and forget it.

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2 - I can actually email executables which Gmail blocks.

You may be able to send them but can the person you are sending them to receive them?

 

More and more services are blocking EXE files from being sent/received. I don't see this as a problem. I quit sending executables long ago. Easier to zip it and forget it.

Whilst scripting may be my main past time Ialso write software on occasions and like to email it to beta testers. Gmail wont let you send anything that could possibly be dangerous and even checks the contents of archives for these file types. Wouldn't be so bad if they gave you the option to turn this feature off. Yahoo will not let you download any attachment until it has scanned it with Norton.

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Whilst scripting may be my main past time Ialso write software on occasions and like to email it to beta testers. Gmail wont let you send anything that could possibly be dangerous and even checks the contents of archives for these file types. Wouldn't be so bad if they gave you the option to turn this feature off. Yahoo will not let you download any attachment until it has scanned it with Norton.

Well since you are writing software and it's an executable I will assume that it is for Windows. That said, Win2000/XP support ZIP files natively without the need to download and install another program.

 

And if they are beta testers you are sending to, I am sure they are smart enough to know how to unzip it to install.

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As I stated in my last post Gmail scans INSIDE ARCHIVES for file formats that it has blocked. And I quote

Most computer viruses are contained in executable files, so standard virus detectors scan messages for executable files that appear to be viruses. Gmail blocks viruses in the most direct possible way: by not allowing users to receive executable files (such as files ending in .exe) that could contain damaging executable code. This protects your computer and halts the spread of such viruses.

 

Gmail doesn't accept these types of files even if they are sent in a zipped (.zip, .tar, .tgz, .taz, .z, .gz) format. If executable files are sent to your Gmail account, the message is bounced back to the sender.

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Huh, never tried that before, but I just tested it and -- sure enough. Can't attach a .exe or a .zip file containing a .exe

 

It just does extension-checking, though, so adding ".jpg" to the end of the file name allows you to send it, if you like. Bit of a hassle, that.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I also noticed that on the login box it now says Login using your Google account. So what else will Google be adding ? I can see Google becoming like Yahoo/MSN with thisng like web space, profile, personal home page (like MSN spaces) as well as the browser and messenger they are apparently working on.

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Well, currently your google account is used for Google Groups (groups.google.com). I wouldn't be too suprized if Google created a web portal (like my.yahoo.com), etc. But currently you use your gmail login to access groups, and translation projects (if you are a part of that).

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I guess I'm just wierd, as I've never left mail on a server, I get it with my client, anything I want to keep I print out. Files I want to keep get put on USB HD.

 

2gb of email space is well, marketing hype to me, and is a classic example of overselling.

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When you don't do all of your computing in one place, leaving all of your email on the server becomes phenomenally useful. With GMail's powerful search capability, having years' worth of email available online from wherever is not only possible but truly useful.

 

As a long-time sysadmin, I can assure you that many, MANY people like to leave their mail on their server(s). Getting people to trim down their huge on-server mailboxes is a constant part of sysadmin life.

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