Google plans to double Gmail capacity

**ReuvenNY** · 1 Apr 2005, 01:40 PM

More hot news: Google plans to double Gmail capacity to 2 Gb...

http://news.com.com/Google+plans+to+...tag=html.alert

Excerpt:

Google plans to offer a bottomless cup of storage with its Gmail Web-based e-mail service, dramatically 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 pre-defined 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.

The Storm · 1 Apr 2005, 01:42 PM

Well, what on earth is going on in the free email world! Is there a method to this madness

lol

war17 · 1 Apr 2005, 02:31 PM

2 GB and then add to this amount daily? Wow!

The last paragraph in the referenced article from news.com states that Gmail will remain in beta for now with no timeline for release.

SAS · 1 Apr 2005, 02:47 PM

Mine is already increasing in size....slowly. Every time I check my account, it goes up a little more.

pyedka · 1 Apr 2005, 02:57 PM

really no need to throw anything away.

**ReuvenNY** · 1 Apr 2005, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SAS
Mine is already increasing in size....slowly. Every time I check my account, it goes up a little more.

You right, mine is up to 1057Mb...

photog · 1 Apr 2005, 03:34 PM

My storage limit has gone up 75MB so tonight. It seems to go
up 1 MB every few minutes or so. Anybody got any idea what's going on? As of now my limit is 1078 MB.

Charlie

***Edwin*** · 1 Apr 2005, 03:43 PM

Could be a joke... or a real-feature-masquerading-as-joke i.e. perhaps Google is moving to 1.5GB or 2GB, but is doing it in a "discussion-worthy" way. After all, they love creating a buzz!

***Edwin*** · 1 Apr 2005, 03:45 PM

I swear I guessed before checking, but here's the relevant info straight off Gmail:-

Quote:

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.

http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/about_whatsnew.html

war17 · 1 Apr 2005, 03:45 PM

My storage is going up also, maybe in proportion to the amount of usage. It could be part of the Google storage upgrade discussed here.

http://www.emaildiscussions.com/...threadid=34297

**ReuvenNY** · 1 Apr 2005, 03:46 PM

It seems real. See this thread:

http://www.emaildiscussions.com/...threadid=34297

***Edwin*** · 1 Apr 2005, 03:57 PM

Relevant aside: My sincere advice to Gmail competitors is to stop trying to compete on storage! I am sure this announcement is going to prompt new calls for storage quota hikes on this forum and elsewhere, but I honestly don't believe you can ever out-do Google on that front. Any knee-jerk attempt to catch up will only cost more money, while benefitting a tiny tiny fraction of your userbase.

Instead, you need to focus on all the other things your service offering can do that Gmail can't - and start coming up with more points of differentiation.

The Storm · 1 Apr 2005, 04:00 PM

Yahoo or Hotmail would have the capacity to do that. Tho I think that 2gb is just getting crazy - will it be 5? 10? no 50gb storage next?

***Edwin*** · 1 Apr 2005, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by The Storm
Yahoo or Hotmail would have the capacity to do that. Tho I think that 2gb is just getting crazy - will it be 5? 10? no 50gb storage next?

I doubt it, because Y! and H have somewhere between 10x and 50x more user accounts. Plus they were built on older technology - Gmail was engineered very recently so can take maximum advantage of the proprietary Google filesystem and the super-cheap redundant hardware configurations it supports.

Storage costs continue to drop about 50% a year, so presumably Google could keep doubling capacity each year basically forever, so long as it's willing to pump cash into infrastructure.

mindlean · 1 Apr 2005, 04:10 PM

i'm using gamil as one of my main email services. so i'm checking it several times in a day. i noticed that my gmail account is now offering 1097 mbytes. gmail also added rich formatting. it's getting better.

1 Apr 2005, 01:40 PM	#1
ReuvenNY Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: New York Posts: 4,259	Google plans to double Gmail capacity More hot news: Google plans to double Gmail capacity to 2 Gb... http://news.com.com/Google+plans+to+...tag=html.alert Excerpt: Google plans to offer a bottomless cup of storage with its Gmail Web-based e-mail service, dramatically 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 pre-defined 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.

1 Apr 2005, 03:34 PM	#7
photog Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Wichita, KS Posts: 140	Storage Going Up! My storage limit has gone up 75MB so tonight. It seems to go up 1 MB every few minutes or so. Anybody got any idea what's going on? As of now my limit is 1078 MB. Charlie

1 Apr 2005, 01:42 PM	#2
The Storm Essential Contributor Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: SE Queensland, Australia Posts: 314	Well, what on earth is going on in the free email world! Is there a method to this madness lol

1 Apr 2005, 02:31 PM	#3
war17 The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: California Posts: 3,452	2 GB and then add to this amount daily? Wow! The last paragraph in the referenced article from news.com states that Gmail will remain in beta for now with no timeline for release.

1 Apr 2005, 02:47 PM	#4
SAS Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: USA Posts: 736	Mine is already increasing in size....slowly. Every time I check my account, it goes up a little more.

1 Apr 2005, 02:57 PM	#5
pyedka Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Hong Kong Posts: 737	really no need to throw anything away.

1 Apr 2005, 03:43 PM	#8
*Edwin* Administrator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: UK Posts: 3,118	Could be a joke... or a real-feature-masquerading-as-joke i.e. perhaps Google is moving to 1.5GB or 2GB, but is doing it in a "discussion-worthy" way. After all, they love creating a buzz!

1 Apr 2005, 03:45 PM	#10
war17 The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: California Posts: 3,452	My storage is going up also, maybe in proportion to the amount of usage. It could be part of the Google storage upgrade discussed here. http://www.emaildiscussions.com/...threadid=34297

1 Apr 2005, 03:46 PM	#11
ReuvenNY Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: New York Posts: 4,259	It seems real. See this thread: http://www.emaildiscussions.com/...threadid=34297

1 Apr 2005, 03:57 PM	#12
*Edwin* Administrator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: UK Posts: 3,118	Relevant aside: My sincere advice to Gmail competitors is to stop trying to compete on storage! I am sure this announcement is going to prompt new calls for storage quota hikes on this forum and elsewhere, but I honestly don't believe you can ever out-do Google on that front. Any knee-jerk attempt to catch up will only cost more money, while benefitting a tiny tiny fraction of your userbase. Instead, you need to focus on all the other things your service offering can do that Gmail can't - and start coming up with more points of differentiation.

1 Apr 2005, 04:00 PM	#13
The Storm Essential Contributor Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: SE Queensland, Australia Posts: 314	Yahoo or Hotmail would have the capacity to do that. Tho I think that 2gb is just getting crazy - will it be 5? 10? no 50gb storage next?

1 Apr 2005, 04:10 PM	#15
mindlean Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 25	i'm using gamil as one of my main email services. so i'm checking it several times in a day. i noticed that my gmail account is now offering 1097 mbytes. gmail also added rich formatting. it's getting better.