Gmail

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(Redirected from Gmail.com)
This article is about Google's email service. For other uses, see Gmail (disambi
guation).
Gmail
Gmail Logo.png
Screenshot [show]
Web address
mail.google.com
Commercial?
Yes
Type of site
Webmail
Registration
Required
Available in
72 languages[1]
Users 425 million (June 2012)[2]
Content license
Proprietary
Written in
Java and JavaScript[3][4]
Owner Google
Created by
Paul Buchheit
Launched
April 1, 2004, 10 years, 287 days
Alexa rank
Increase 134 (October 2014)
Current status Online
Gmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google.[5] User
s may access Gmail as secure webmail,[6] as well as via POP3 or IMAP4 protocols.
[7][8] Gmail initially started as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 20
04[9] and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though
still in beta status at that time.[10] The service was upgraded from beta status
on July 7, 2009, along with the rest of the Google Apps suite.[11][12]
With an initial storage capacity offer of 1 GB per user, Gmail significantly inc
reased the webmail standard for free storage from the 2 to 4 MB its competitors
such as Hotmail offered at that time.[13] Individual Gmail messages, including a
ttachments, may be up to 25 MB.[14] Gmail has a search-oriented interface and a
"conversation view" similar to an Internet forum. Gmail is noted by web develope
rs for its pioneering use of Ajax.[15] Gmail runs on Google GFE/2.0 on Linux.[16
][17][18] As of June 2012, it was the most widely used web-based email provider
with over 425 million active users worldwide.[2][19] According to a 2014 estimat
e, 60% of mid-sized US companies were using Gmail.[20] In May 2014, Gmail became
the first app on the Google Play Store to hit one billion installations on Andr
oid devices.[21]
Contents
1 Features
1.1 Storage
1.2 Gmail Labs
1.3 Tabbed inbox
1.4 Spam filter
1.5 Gmail Mobile
1.6 Social network integration
1.7 Google Voice in Gmail chat
1.8 Gmail Search
1.9 Language input
1.10 Money transfer and payment options
2 Security
2.1 24-hour lockdowns
2.2 Child pornography on Gmail

3
4
5
6

Interface
History
Code changes
Browser support
6.1 Desktop
6.2 Mobile
7 Language support
8 Applications
9 Google Apps provider branding
10 Reception
10.1 Awards
11 Competition
12 Criticism
12.1 Privacy
12.1.1 Automated scanning of email content
12.1.2 Other privacy issues
12.2 Technical limitations
12.3 Outages
12.4 On behalf of
13 See also
13.1 Third party software
14 References
15 External links
Features
See also: Gmail interface
Storage
Gmail was originally launched with 1 GB of storage space.
On April 1, 2005, the first anniversary of Gmail, the limit was doubled to 2 GB.
Georges Harik, the product management director for Gmail, stated that Google wo
uld "keep giving people more space forever."[22]
On April 24, 2012, Google announced the increase of free storage in Gmail from 7
.5 GB to 10 GB ("and counting") as part of the launch of Google Drive.[23]
On May 13, 2013 Google announced the overall merge of storage across Gmail, Goog
le Drive, and Google+ Photos allowing users 15 GB of free storage among the thre
e services.[24][25]
Users can buy additional storage, shared among Gmail, Google Drive and Google+ P
hotos, through a monthly subscription plan. Storage of up to 15 GB is free, and
paid plans are available for up to 300 TB.
Gmail Labs
The Gmail Labs feature, introduced on June 5, 2008,[26] allows users to test new
or experimental features of Gmail, such as bookmarking of important email messa
ges or custom keyboard shortcuts. Users can enable or disable Labs features sele
ctively and provide feedback about each of them. This allows Gmail engineers to
obtain user input about new features to improve them and also to assess their po
pularity and whether they merit developing into regular Gmail features. All Labs
features are experimental and are subject to termination at any time.[27]
Tabbed inbox
In mid-2013, Google updated the Gmail inbox with tabs which allow the applicatio
n to categorize the user's emails. The five tabs are: Primary, Social, Promotion
s, Updates, and Forums. These tabs also appear in Gmail's mobile version. In add
ition to customization options, the entire update can be disabled, allowing user
s to return to the traditional inbox structure.[28][29]

Spam filter
Gmail's spam filtering features a community-driven system: when any user marks a
n email as spam, this provides information to help the system identify similar f
uture messages for all Gmail users.[30][31] Users may tune the system to allow m
ail marked as spam to be handled in particular ways.[30]
Gmail Mobile
Gmail Mobile is available in more than 40 languages.[32] It is a free service, d
eveloped to provide access to Gmail from mobile devices. Gmail Mobile offers man
y of the features[specify] as Gmail delivered effectively to smaller, mobile scr
eens.[33]
On September 22, 2009 Google added push support to Gmail using Google Sync for i
Phone and iPod Touch platforms.[34][35]
Social network integration
On February 9, 2010, Google commenced its new social networking tool, Google Buz
z, which integrated with Gmail allowing users to share links and media, as well
as status updates.[36] Buzz was launched with an automatic opt-in, causing an up
roar in the Gmail community which led Google to quickly undo its initial moves.[
37] Buzz was discontinued in December 2011 in favor of Google+.
As of January 2014, Gmail allows users to send emails to people who have Google+
accounts, even if they don't have each other's email addresses.[38]
Google Voice in Gmail chat
Main article: Google Voice
In August 2010, Google released a plugin that provides integrated telephone serv
ice within Gmail's Google Chat interface. This service initially lacked an offic
ial name, with Google referring to it as "Google Voice in Gmail chat" and also "
Call Phones in Gmail",[39][40][41] but is now called Google Video and Voice Chat
. The service allows people to make free calls from their Gmail account to U.S.
and Canada, at least through the end of 2012.[42] Gmail account users can also c
all other countries on a fee basis. The service logged over 1 million calls in 2
4 hours on 26 August 2010.[43]
Google Voice multi-way videoconferencing (with support for document sharing) is
now integrated with Google Hangouts.[44]
Gmail Search
Gmail incorporates a search bar for searching emails. The search bar can also se
arch contacts, files stored in Google Drive, events from Google Calendar, and Go
ogle Sites.[45] It can also make web searches via Google Search. On May 21, 2012
, Gmail improved the search functionality to include auto-complete predictions f
rom the user's emails.[46] As with a web search, Gmail's search functionality do
es not support searching for word fragments (also known as 'substring search'),
although it does perform partial-string stemming (e.g. searching for 'month' wil
l turn up an email that includes the term 'months').[47]
Language input
As of October 2013, Gmail supports handwriting input for 75 languages after Goog
le introduced the Transliteration, Input Method Editor (IME), and Virtual Keyboa
rd input tools to Gmail's settings. The update allows Gmail users to switch betw
een over 100 virtual keyboards and transliterations that support languages such
as Hebrew, Thai, and Arabic.[48][49][50]
On August 5, 2014, Gmail became the first major email provider to let users send
and receive email from addresses with accent marks and letters from outside the
Latin alphabet.[51]

Money transfer and payment options

At the Google I/O 2013 conference, held on May 15, 2013, Google announced a feat
ure that allows Gmail users to send money as email attachments via Google Wallet
.[52] Google then explained in a blog post:
Google Wallet is now integrated with Gmail, so you can quickly and securely
send money to friends and family directly within Gmail
even if they don't have a
Gmail address. It's free to send money if your bank account is linked to Google
Wallet or using your Google Wallet balance, and low fees apply to send money us
ing your linked credit or debit card.[53]
Google planned to roll out the feature "over the coming months" following the an
nouncement.[53]
Prior to the launch of the email attachment feature, the corporation's plan to i
ntroduce a physical Google Wallet card was publicized in 2012,[54] but the proje
ct was abandoned due to logistical problems and following the departure of the h
ead of the Wallet team in early May 2013.[55][56] Following the Google I/O annou
ncement, Google then reintroduced the card product in the US on November 21, 201
3 as a debit card for Wallet accounts (the initial concept was a unifying card t
hat could represent all of the user's credit cards) the Digital Trends website des
cribed it as "essentially a standard debit card that you can use to pay with thi
ngs using your Google balance." As of December 2013, the card was free to obtain
and the shipping period was around 14 days.[55]
Security
At one time Gmail used an unencrypted connection to retrieve user data, encrypti
ng only the connection used for the login page. However, by replacing the URL ht
tp://mail.google.com/mail/ with https://mail.google.com/mail/, users were able t
o force Gmail to use a secure connection, reducing the risk of third-party eaves
dropping on user information, such as emails and contacts, which are transmitted
in plaintext as JavaScript data in the page source code. Starting in July 2008,
it was possible to configure Gmail for HTTPS access only through the Settings this prevented any insecure access via HTTP. POP3 and IMAP access uses Transpor
t Layer Security, or TLS. At present Gmail now defaults to a secure HTTPS connec
tion.
Although email clients such as Mozilla Thunderbird use TLS when sending email, i
t is not used when the email is sent from the Gmail servers to the destination d
omain's mail exchangers, unless supported, so at some stage the user's email mes
sage may still be transmitted in unencrypted plain text.
On March 20, 2014, Google announced the implementation of an enhancement of the
overall security of Gmail in response to the Edward Snowden privacy revelations
in 2013. An encrypted HTTPS connection will be used for the sending and receipt
of all Gmail emails, and "every single email message you send or receive 100% of t
hem is encrypted while moving internally" through the corporation's systems.[57][5
8]
Around 2007, Gmail had severe security issues which allowed a full account compr
omise via Cross-site scripting vulnerabilities affecting the google.com homepage
or information disclosure through a file which was stored on Google's server an
d included all the Email contacts of the currently logged in user. The vulnerabi
lity was quickly patched after the initial disclosure on the Internet.[59][60]
Gmail offers spam filtering: the system automatically deletes messages marked as
spam after 30 days. Users can disable the spam-filtering system by creating a r
ule to make all messages skip the spam filter. POP3 users can only check the Spa
m folder manually via the web interface, as only emails sent to the Inbox can be

retrieved via POP3. This is a technical limitation of POP3. In 2008, about 75%
of email sent to Gmail accounts was filtered as spam.[61]
IP addresses of webmail Gmail users are disguised in order to protect security,
an early decision by Paul Buchheit.[62][63]
Gmail automatically scans all incoming and outgoing e-mails for viruses in e-mai
l attachments. If a virus is found on an attachment the reader is trying to open
, Gmail will try to remove the virus and open the cleaned attachment. Gmail also
scans all outgoing attachments and will prevent the message from being sent if
a virus is found. Gmail also does not allow users to send or receive executable
files or archives containing executable files.[64]
On June 5, 2012, a new security feature was introduced to protect users from sta
te-sponsored attacks. Whenever Google analysis indicate that a government has at
tempted to compromise an account, Gmail will display a notice that reads "Warnin
g: We believe state-sponsored attackers may be trying to compromise your account
or computer."[65][66]
Google may terminate a Gmail account after nine months of inactivity (as of 2008
).[67] Other webmail services have different, often shorter, times for marking a
n account as inactive. Yahoo! Mail deactivates dormant accounts after twelve mon
ths.[68][69]
24-hour lockdowns
If an algorithm detects what Google calls "abnormal usage that may indicate that
your account has been compromised", the account can be automatically locked dow
n for between one minute and 24 hours, depending on the type of activity detecte
d. Listed reasons for a lock-down include:[70]
"Receiving, deleting, or downloading large amounts of mail via POP or IMAP i
n a short period of time. If you're getting the error message, 'Lockdown in Sect
or 4,' you should be able to access Gmail again after waiting 24 hours."[70]
"Sending a large number of undeliverable messages (messages that bounce back
)."[70]
"Using file-sharing or file-storage software, browser extensions, or third p
arty software that automatically logs into your account."[70]
"Leaving multiple instances of Gmail open."[70]
"Browser-related issues. Please note that if you find your browser continual
ly reloading while attempting to access your Inbox, it's probably a browser issu
e, and it may be necessary to clear your browser's cache and cookies."[70]
Child pornography on Gmail
Google combats child pornography through Gmail's servers in conjunction with the
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to find children suffe
ring abuse around the world. In collaboration with the NCMEC, Google creates a d
atabase of child pornography pictures. Each one of the images is given a unique
numerical number known as a hash. Google then scans Gmail looking for the unique
hashes. When suspicious images are located Google reports to the authorities.[7
1]
Interface
Main article: Gmail interface
The Gmail user interface initially differed from other webmail systems with its
focus on search and conversation threading of emails, grouping several messages
between two or more people onto a single page, an approach that was later copied
by its competitors. Gmail's user interface designer, Kevin Fox, intended users
to feel as if they were always on one page and just changing things on that page
, rather than having to navigate to other places.[72] Gmail's interface also mak

es use of 'labels' (tags)

that replace the conventional folders and provide a mo
re flexible methods of organizing email, filters for automatically organizing, d
eleting or forwarding incoming emails to other addresses, and importance makers
for automatically marking messages as 'important'.
History
Main article: History of Gmail
The idea for Gmail was pitched by Rajen Sheth during an interview with Google,[7
3] and went on to be developed by Paul Buchheit several years before it was anno
unced to the public. The project was known by the code name Caribou.[74] Initial
ly the email client was available for use only by Google employees internally. G
mail was announced to the public by Google on April 1, 2004 as a limited beta re
lease[75] and was made publicly available on February 7, 2007.[10] Gmail exited
from the beta status on July 7, 2009.[12]
As of June 22, 2005, Gmail's canonical URI changed from http://gmail.google.com/
gmail/ to http://mail.google.com/mail/.[76] starting in December 2012, those who
typed in the former URI were redirected to the latter. Gmail added IMAP support
on October 24, 2007.[7]
Code changes
Gmail's interface was rewritten in the middle of 2007 and released to users star
ting on October 29, 2007. The new version had a redesigned contacts section, qui
ck contacts box and chat popups, which were added to names in the message list a
s well as the contact list. The contacts application is integrated into other Go
ogle services, such as Google Docs. Users granted access to the new version were
given a link at the top-right corner which read "Newer Version". As of December
2007, most new registrations in English (US) along with most pre-existing accou
nts are given the new interface by default when supported.[3][77][78][79]
These coding changes mean that only users of Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2, Goo
gle Chrome and Safari 3.0 (or more recent versions) are officially supported by
Gmail and can fully use the new code. Opera 9.5 and more recent versions are not
officially tested but are expected to "work with all of Gmail's features". Inte
rnet Explorer 5.5+, Netscape 7.1+, Mozilla 1.4+, Firefox 0.8, Safari 1.3 and som
e other browsers will give limited functionality. Other browsers may be redirect
ed to the basic-HTML-only version of Gmail.[3][80][81][82]
During the week of January 18, 2008, Google released an update that changed the
way Gmail loads JavaScript. This caused the failure of some third-party extensio
ns.[83]
On November 1, 2011, Google rolled out another redesign of its interface that "s
implified" the look of Gmail into a more minimalist design to provide a more con
sistent look throughout its products and services as part of an overall design c
hange.[84][85] Users were able to preview the new interface design and beta-test
for months prior to the official release as well as revert to the old interface
until 27 March 2012, when Google discontinued the ability to revert.[86]
On 14 September 2012, Google announced that it would discontinue Internet Explor
er 8 support for Gmail and other Google Apps on November 15, 2012, a few weeks a
fter the launch of Internet Explorer 10.[87]
Gmail was one of the first Google projects to begin using Closure Library, part
of Closure Tools, which were later open sourced. Much of the core library was de
veloped concurrently with the 2008 update.[88]
Browser support
Desktop
Gmail's "basic HTML" version will work on almost all browsers. The modern AJAX v

ersion is officially supported in the current and prior major releases of Google
Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari on a rolling basis.[89]
Over the years, many officially unsupported browsers were able to use the AJAX i
nterface using User agent spoofing or URL manipulation to trick Gmail into provi
ding them with the AJAX version of the site.[80][81][90][91][92][93][94] However
, as the Gmail interface has become more advanced, it has become much harder to
find alternatives that fully support the site's features.
Gmail also offers a "Basic HTML view" which allows users to access Gmail from al
most any computer running browsers that do not fully support the more advanced f
eatures (such as Internet Explorer 4.0+, Netscape 4.07+ or Opera 6.03+) or runni
ng browsers with JavaScript disabled.
Mobile
Gmail has native applications for Apple's iOS devices (including iPhone, iPad, a
nd iPod Touch) and for Google's Android devices. All other devices must use the
Gmail Mobile web interface or a different email technology such as POP3 or IMAP.
To access Gmail on mobile browsers, the browser must be XHTML compliant, have a
URL length of 2000 bytes and allow redirects of 10. Besides, the network must al
low cookies and secure SSL traffic.[95]
A number of third party client applications for Gmail on mobile devices are avai
lable from the App Store and Google Play Store.
In 2014, Google launched Inbox, an email application developed by the Gmail team
.
Version 5.0 of Gmail for Android, released in November 2014, added support for s
ending and receiving email from non-Gmail addresses (including Yahoo! Mail and O
utlook.com) through POP3 or IMAP.[96]
Language support
Gmail supports multiple languages, including the Japanese interface shown here
The Gmail interface currently supports 52 languages, which include most of the U
S English features, including: Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (simplified),
Chinese (traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (UK), English (U
S), Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian
, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian
, Malay, Malayalam, Marathi, Norwegian (Bokml), Oriya, Polish, Punjabi, Portugues
e (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak,
Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog (Filipino), Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, U
krainian, Urdu and Vietnamese.[97]
Applications
Google has developed several subsidiary applications for Gmail.
Gmail Notifier was an official tool offered by Google which displayed a small ic
on in the notification area (see taskbar) in Microsoft Windows and on the righthand side of the menu bar in Mac OS X, indicating the presence of new mail in th
e user's inbox. It also permitted Gmail to be designated as the default mail-cli
ent for mailto links. Linux users had a choice of several unofficial notifiers.
As of 30 January 2014, Google discontinued the notifier.
On 2 November 2006 Google began offering a mobile-application based version of G
mail for mobile phones capable of running Java applications. In addition, Sprint
Nextel announced separately that it would make the application available from i
ts Vision and Power Vision homepages and which it will preload onto some new Spr
int phones. The application gives Gmail its own custom menu system: one much eas

ier to navigate than a Web-based application running on a cell phone. Gmail's me

ssage threading also shows up clearly and the site displays attachments, such as
photos and documents, in the application.[98][99]
On August 31, 2011, Google introduced Gmail Offline, an HTML 5-powered app based
on the Gmail app for tablets, for providing access to the service while offline
. Gmail Offline runs on the Google Chrome browser and can be downloaded from the
Chrome Web Store.[100][101] On May 11, 2011, Google engineer Sundar Pichai had
revealed that Google had internally been using the offline versions of Gmail, Go
ogle Calendar and Google Docs for months and that they would be made available t
o users in the summer of 2011.[102]
In November 2014 Version 5 of the Android app was released, providing access to
other Email services besides Gmail and including those that use POP3. [103]
Google Apps provider branding
On 10 February 2006 Google introduced "Gmail For Your Domain". All companies who
participated in the beta testing gained permission to use Gmail throughout thei
r own domains. Since then, Google has developed Google Apps, which includes cust
omizable versions of Google Calendar, Google Page Creator and more. With various
editions available, it targets enterprises as well as small businesses.[104]
Google Apps Partner Edition, a service targeted at ISPs and portals, provides br
and-customizable Gmail accounts, along with other Google services (such as Calen
dar and Docs).[105]
Reception
[icon] This section requires expansion. (June 2014)
Awards
Gmail was ranked second in PC World's "100 Best Products of 2005", behind Mozill
a Firefox. Gmail also won 'Honorable Mention' in the Bottom Line Design Awards 2
005.[106][107] In September 2006, Forbes magazine declared Gmail to be the best
webmail application for small businesses.[108] In November 2006, Gmail received
PC World's 4 star rating.[109]
Competition
See also: Comparison of webmail providers
After Gmail's initial development and launch, many existing web mail services qu
ickly increased their storage capacity.[110]
For example, Hotmail increased space for some users from 2 MB to 25 MB, with 250
MB after 30 days, and 2 GB for Hotmail Plus accounts. Yahoo! Mail went from 4 M
B to 100 MB and 2 GB for Yahoo! Mail Plus accounts. Yahoo! Mail storage then inc
reased to 250 MB and in late April 2005 to 1 GB. Yahoo! Mail announced that it w
ould be providing "unlimited" storage to all its users in March 2007 and began p
roviding it in May 2007.[111]
These were all seen as moves to stop existing users from switching to Gmail and
to capitalize on the newly rekindled public interest in web mail services. The d
esire to catch up was especially noted in the case of MSN's Hotmail, which upgra
ded its email storage from 250 MB to the new Windows Live Hotmail which includes
5 GB of storage that expands if necessary. In November 2006, MSN Hotmail upgrad
ed all free accounts to 1 GB of storage.[112]
In June 2005, AOL started providing all AIM screen names with their own email ac
counts with 2 GB of storage.[113]
As well as increasing storage limits following the launch of Gmail, Yahoo! Mail
and Hotmail also enhanced their email interfaces. During 2005, Yahoo! Mail and H
otmail matched Gmail's attachment size of 10 MB. Following the footsteps of Gmai

l, Yahoo! launched the Yahoo! Mail Beta service and Microsoft launched Windows L
ive Hotmail, both incorporating Ajax interfaces. Google increased the maximum at
tachment size to 20 MB in May 2007[114] and to 25 MB in June 2009.[115]
Criticism
Main article: Criticism of Google
Privacy
Automated scanning of email content
Google automatically scans emails to add context-sensitive advertisements to the
m and to filter spam. Privacy advocates raised concerns that the plan involved s
canning their personal, private emails and that this was a security problem. All
owing email content to be read, even by a computer, raises the risk that the exp
ectation of privacy in email will be reduced. Furthermore, email that non-subscr
ibers choose to send to Gmail accounts is scanned by Gmail as well, even though
those senders never agreed to Gmail's terms of service or privacy policy. Google
can change its privacy policy unilaterally and Google is technically able to cr
oss-reference cookies across its information-rich product line to make dossiers
on individuals. However, most email systems make use of server-side content scan
ning in order to check for spam,[116][117][118] and of course any email system m
ust access email content merely to display it to the user.
Google defends its position by citing their use of email-scanning to the user's
benefit. Google states that Gmail refrains from displaying ads next to potential
ly sensitive messages such as those that mention tragedy, catastrophe, or death.
[119]
In March 2011 a former Gmail user in Texas sued Google, claiming that its Gmail
service violates users' privacy by scanning e-mail messages to serve relevant ad
s.[120]
In July 2012, some California residents filed two class action lawsuits against
Google and Yahoo! claiming that they illegally intercept emails sent by individu
al non-Gmail or non-Yahoo! subscribers to Gmail and Yahoo! subscribers without t
heir knowledge, consent or permission.[121] A motion filed by Google's attorneys
in the case concedes that Gmail users have "no legitimate expectation of privac
y".[122]
A court filing uncovered by advocacy group Consumer Watchdog in August 2013 reve
aled that Google stated in a court filing that no "reasonable expectation" exist
s among Gmail users in regard to the assured confidentiality of their emails.[12
3] In response to a lawsuit filed in May 2013, Google explained:
"... all users of email must necessarily expect that their emails will be su
bject to automated processing ... Just as a sender of a letter to a business col
league cannot be surprised that the recipient's assistant opens the letter, peop
le who use web-based email today cannot be surprised if their communications are
processed by the recipient's ECS [electronic communications service] provider i
n the course of delivery.[123]
A Google spokesperson stated to the media on August 15, 2013 that the corporatio
n takes the privacy and security concerns of Gmail users "very seriously."[123]
Google updated its terms of service for Gmail in April 2014 to create full trans
parency for its users in regard to the scanning of email content. The relevant r
evision states: "Our automated systems analyse your content (including emails) t
o provide you personally relevant product features, such as customised search re
sults, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection. This analysis occur
s as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored." A Google spokesperso
n explained that the corporation wishes for its policies "to be simple and easy
for users to understand." In response to the update, Jim Killock, executive dire

ctor of the Open Rights Group, stated: "The really dangerous things that Google
is doing are things like the information held in Analytics, cookies in advertisi
ng and the profiling that it is able to do on individual accounts".[124] In 2004
, privacy advocates also regarded the lack of disclosed data retention and corre
lation policies as problematic. Google has the ability to combine information co
ntained in a person's email messages with information from Internet searches. Go
ogle had not confirmed how long such information is kept or how it can be used.
One of the concerns was that it could be of interest to law enforcement agencies
. More than 30 privacy and civil liberties organizations urged Google to suspend
Gmail service until these issues would be resolved.[125]
Other privacy issues
Gmail's privacy policy used to contain the clause: "residual copies of deleted m
essages and accounts may take up to 60 days to be deleted from our active server
s and may remain in our offline backup systems". However, this statement does no
t appear in Gmail's current[when?] privacy policy. Less specifically, Google has
stated that in 2007 they will "make reasonable efforts to remove deleted inform
ation from our systems as quickly as is practical."[126][127]
Gmail accounts of human rights activists in China were in sophisticated attacks
thought to use phishing and exploit a vulnerability in Internet Explorer[128][12
9][130] in late 2009. Any (web mail or other) mail system which stores and retai
ns user's email contents is an attractive target for such attacks, but Gmail is
popular with security-conscious users because of its early HTTPS secure (encrypt
ed) connection support, and its more-recent HTTPS-only default setting.[6][131]
The launch of Google Buzz as an opt-out social networking service immediately dr
ew criticism for violating user privacy because it automatically allowed Gmail u
sers' contacts to view their other contacts. Buzz was discontinued in December 2
011.[132][133]
In December 2013, Gmail made changes in how images are displayed, to improve pro
tection against insecure content and (by default) remove the necessity for recip
ients to click the "display images" confirmation.[134] Gmail now serves all imag
es through Google's own secure proxy servers. It also removed the ability for em
ail marketers to track IP, user agent, if it was a mobile open or which mobile d
evice was used.[135] At the same time, the default behavior was changed to show
images without user confirmation, thereby enabling senders to track the time whe
n an email is first opened by the recipient, by inserting tracking pixels.[136]
While media such as Wired criticized the change as weakening user privacy, email
marketing service provider MailChimp welcomed the improved capability to track
previously invisible email subscribers.[136]
A new Gmail feature was launched in January 2014, whereby users can email people
with Google+ accounts even though they do not know the email address of the rec
ipient. Marc Rotenberg, President of the Electronic Privacy Information Center,
called the feature "troubling". The new feature is enabled by default but can be
disabled.[137]
Technical limitations
Gmail does not allow users to send or receive executable files or archives conta
ining executable files if it recognizes the file extension as one used for execu
table files or archives.[64][138]
By design, Gmail does not deliver all of a user's emails. When downloading mail
through POP or IMAP access, Gmail fails to deliver messages that users have sent
to themselves if the client has a copy of it already.[139] It also does not del
iver to a user's inbox (via any access interface) those messages that users have
sent to mailing lists and which they might expect to receive back via the maili
ng list.[140]

Gmail normally sorts email only by conversations (threads), which can be a probl
em for large conversations. For example, if a user sends a query to a large grou
p of people, all of the responses are stored in a single conversation that is im
possible to break apart. There is no way to search for responses from one user w
ithout getting the entire conversation. While deletion of individual emails is p
ossible, most operations, such as archiving and labeling, can be performed only
on whole conversations. Conversations cannot be split up or combined. As a resul
t of complaints from some users, Google made conversation view optional starting
September 29, 2010, but there is currently no method to split individual conver
sations.
Outages
Gmail has been unavailable on several occasions. On February 24, 2009, the Gmail
service was offline for 2 hours and 30 minutes, preventing millions of users fr
om accessing their accounts. People who rely entirely on Gmail for business purp
oses complained about these outages. [141][142] Another outage occurred on Septe
mber 1, 2009. Later that day, a Google vice president, Ben Treynor, explained th
at the problem, which ultimately resulted in about 100 minutes of outage, was ca
used by overloaded routers, triggered by a routine configuration change which ad
ded more router load than expected. Treynor wrote, "Gmail remains more than 99.9
% available to all users, and we're committed to keeping events like today's not
able for their rarity."[143][144]
In 2009, Google continued to experience outages across its network, leaving user
s without access to their email, calendars, and virtual files.[145]
Key outage dates include:
Date
Outage details Affected users
January 24, 2014
Gmail widespread outage.
Global outage that laste
d approximately 50 minutes for 10 percent of users. Google apologized for the ou
tage, which, it reported, lasted 25 to 55 minutes and affected as many as 10% of
users.[146][147][148]
September 23, 2013
Gmail outage[149]
"less than 50 percent"[150]
May 2, 8 and 13, 2013 Users in India, Middle East and South East Asia faced Gm
ail outage with an error 502[151][152][153]
April 17, 2012 Gmail outage[154]
5.25 million[155]
February 27/28, 2011
Gmail outage. Gmail users after signing in found their G
mail inbox, contact empty.[156]
1.5 million[157]
September 24, 2009
Gmail outage. Gmail accounts were unavailable, users cou
ld not access their accounts.[158]
Gmail did not mention exact number, in t
heir blog they posted a 'small subset of users' were affected with this outage.[
158]
September 1, 2009
Gmail outage[145]
May 14, 2009
Google network outage. For some users Gmail became extremely slo
w. In some cases, Google services were reported to have completely stopped worki
ng.[159]
March 9, 2009 Gmail outage[145]
August 7, 2008 Gmail and Google Apps outage. Accounts affected by a 502 error o
n login.[160]
On behalf of