I read recently that Google’s Gmail service will be doubling the capcity of its users mailboxes to 2 gigabytes. I’m not sure what the point is, other than pure marketing. As someone who has saved every email received since 1995*, my personal sum comes to 345 megabytes. I’m sure that few users have reached the 1 GB capacity, so doubling it must be a pretty cheap move..
*Not including spam or mailing list email, or email with large attachments
by Sunny » Apr 2, 2005 11:36 PM
Yeah. Its a bit gimmicky.
It reminded me of web hosts such as Dreamhost which provides 2.5 GB of storage and 120 GB of bandwith for $8 a month. Yeah right! As if they have that reserved for every account!
Google knows very well that 99% of folks won't get anywhere close and so can announce pretty much anything. Anyways, the differentiating factor is not storage. If you have used Gmail, you will not go back to another web-based email service.
Good to have you back.
by Jason » Apr 5, 2005 4:05 PM
Nice find, Scott. And not gimmicky at all if you think about it. I have a hunch about this 2GB issue. For one, they may be preparing to serve as a host or ISP, whereby users can have their very own name.google.com account. This would mimic what Apple offers by way of their .Mac package with photography, video, email, storage, and hosting space. The recent news about Google video blogging may have something to do with it too. Through that technology, users could archive their videos on the gmail system. We all know compressed video isn’t huge, but imagine every video comment or post archived in gmail the same way Scott keeps his emails. Over time, that’s a couple of gigs, easily. If any of my speculation proves accurate, I expect to see a bill from Google shortly that charges me to continue the service.