20 years ago, Gmail was mistaken for Google’s April Fool’s prank

Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were known for their love of pranks, often introducing outrageous concepts on April Fool’s Day. One such idea was the launch of Gmail, a free email service that offered one gigabyte of storage per account, a revolutionary amount at the time. This large storage capacity, along with Google’s search technology, allowed users to easily store and retrieve emails and other personal information.

Gmail was a groundbreaking concept that challenged people’s perceptions of what was possible in a web browser. It took three years to develop as part of a project called “Caribou”, with the aim of providing users with ample storage, efficient search capabilities, and fast speed. Despite initial skepticism, the unveiling of Gmail in 2004 captured the attention of users who were intrigued by its innovative features.

With an estimated 1.8 billion active accounts today, Gmail has become a staple in the digital world, offering users 15 gigabytes of free storage. The service’s success has led to a shift in the way people think about email storage, with digital hoarding becoming more common. Google and other companies now offer additional storage for a fee, reflecting the demand for more space to store emails and other content.

Gmail marked the beginning of Google’s expansion beyond its search engine, with the introduction of products like Google Maps, Google Docs, and the acquisition of YouTube. The service’s focus on scanning email content for targeted advertising signaled Google’s ambitions in digital surveillance and ad targeting. Despite its limited initial capacity, Gmail’s exclusivity and demand for invitations created a social currency around the service.

Over time, Gmail became more accessible to users as Google’s infrastructure expanded. The company opened the service to all users in 2007, ending the need for invitations. Google continued its tradition of April Fool’s pranks by announcing “Gmail Paper” in 2007, a feature that would print out users’ email archive on paper and send it by mail. This humorous gesture showed how far Gmail had come since its inception, solidifying its place as a revolutionary email service.