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Gmail is a free webmail service, currently in beta testing, run by Google. It was announced on March 31, 2004, but many became aware of it on April 1. There was speculation that this announcement was an April Fool's joke, because of the 1 gigabyte limit of storage space, which was unusually high at the time for a free web mail service.


1 Features

Gmail offers several features, some of which were previously not utilized by competing web mail systems before being proposed by Gmail.


1.1 Conversation views

The main innovation in Gmail is a new mode of categorizing e-mails, which Google calls Conversation view. In this view, Gmail will keep track of "conversations" (back and forth e-mail sending), displaying summaries of all previous mail correspondence when displaying a mail. Google argues that this makes it easier to look back to check what was being discussed in earlier e-mails. However, as Gmail must resolve how conversations fit together, conversations may be fragmented or unrelated conversations become attached together. One problem, which probably has no easy solution is the fact that a minor modification of the subject line by the sender will fragment a conversation.

1.2 Filtering

Filters can be set up on incoming mail. The interface to set up the criteria for a specific filter is similar to the Search Options (see searching below). It allows for specifying the From, To, or Subject fields, as well as looking at the body text through the options Has the words, Doesn't have, or specifying whether the mail has an attachment or not. After setting up the criteria for the filter, one can test to see which emails match it, and then go on to the next step to set up actions to be performed on incoming mails matching the criteria. The actions include archiving the mail (i.e. removing it from the Inbox), marking the mail as starred, applying a label to the mail, moving the mail to the trash, forwarding to another email address, or a combination of the aforementioned options.

1.3 Gigabyte of storage

Gmail offers 1 gigabyte (1024 megabytes) of email storage space, which was hundreds of times more than what the competition offered at the time of the announcement. The large capacity is intended to allow users to keep thousands of emails permanently, through their Archive system. The service also allows the searching of a user's emails with Google's searching technologies. Attachments of up to 10 MB each are allowed.

Both the number and percentage displayed in advertising and in the Gmail interface itself are sometimes abbreviated 1000MB, and the Gmail Help Center states that a user receives "About one thousand megabytes"[1], which is clarified with the statement "Gmail includes 1,024 megabytes"[2].

1.4 Improved interface

In the initial beta phase, Gmail makes heavy use of JavaScript for its user interface and tools.

1.4.1 Spellchecker

Gmail provides an interactive spell checker. In the Gmail spellchecker, one can select the spell check mode while composing a message. In the spell check mode misspelled words appear in place and can be replaced in any order. In this regard, the spell checker is different from a web-based iterative spell checker, which usually go through each spelling error one at a time, and different from a batch spell checker, which lists all misspelled words at once.


1.4.2 Address completion

An interactive address completion tool allows users to quickly fill in email addresses of friends while composing email. This feature allows you to click on the name of the contact after you've partially typed in his or her name or email. Gmail will then fill in the rest of the name and email address.

1.4.3 Keyboard shortcuts

An option to use keys like "c" to compose a message or "!" to mark something as spam, in addition to using the mouse to access these common functions. The shortcuts are not enabled by default.

Below is a quick list. Commas (",") below denote a key sequence. works with many actions to open a new window.


Writing and Sending Gmail

c Compose a new email.
r Reply to an email.
a Reply to all recipients of an email.
f Forward the current email.
, a Change a reply to a reply all.
, f Change a reply to a forward.
, r Change a reply to a reply to sender only.
, Tab to the send button and press it.

Navigating Gmail

Gmail has two sets of navigation keys (one for conversations and one

for messages).

k Move cursor to newer conversation.
j Move cursor to older conversation.
p Previous message in conversation.
n Next message in conversation.
o Open a conversation in message view (Expand/Collapse in conversation view)
Open a conversation in message view (Expand/Collapse in conversation view)
u Return to conversation view from message view (Refresh from conversation view)
g, a Go to All mail view.
g, x Go to Starred mail view.
g, i Go to Inbox mail view.
Removes the cursor from your current input field.

Acting on Email

y Remove from current view. In Star View, unstars. In Spam View, unspams and moves to Inbox. In Trash View, moves to Inbox. In Label View, unlabels.
/ Move cursor to search box.
x Select conversation. Necessary to apply labels, archive, or do other actions.
s Star the conversation.
! Mark as spam and move to Spam View.
r Resume writing email in spell checking


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GmailGmail is a free webmail service, currently in beta testing, run by Google. It was announced on March 31, 2004, but many became aware of it on April 1. There was speculation that this announcement was an April Fool's joke, because of the 1 gigabyte limit o  


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