Gmail is Google’s free e-mail service that was initially available only for Google employees for in-house communication. Later, in the year 2004, it was launched as an invitation-only beta release and was finally made open to the general public in 2007. Today, it proudly stands as one of the most popular online e-mail services. The reason behind its success is not just its comprehensive functionality, but also its ability to accept significant extension of its capabilities for future advancements while keeping a check on user impact.
The highly skilled engineers of Gmail keep evolving new and innovative attributes for a better user experience. Let’s look at some of these features:
Storage capacity
Gmail offers massive e-mail storage space of 1 Gigabyte (1000 Megabytes) per user. This means that you may keep all those messages containing food recipes, love notes, picture attachments, fun mails and all others from past dates. What’s more? You can buy additional space up to 20 Gigabytes for only $5 a year. This space is shared between your Gmail and Picasa Web Albums.
Priority Inbox
If you are overwhelmed with numerous e-mails that you get on a daily basis, this feature can prove to be handy for you. Using smart inbuilt criteria, Gmail can automatically prioritize and filter out your important messages so that you can concentrate on what really matters. You may make the best of this utility to keep those close-to-heart mails from your special someone on top of the list!
Spam filtering
This is a very smart community-driven feature. When any user marks an e-mail as spam, the information is utilized to tally similar future messages for the benefit of all Gmail users. Flexibility lies in the fact that users may even customize how spam mails should be handled.
Gmail themes
If you want to beautify your Gmail account, you can choose from the wide range of 30 vibrant themes available in Gmail that include subtle hues, cartoon characters, landscapes and many more. You can also customize by location. Some themes change during the day. Once you specify your location, Gmail times these changes with your local sunrise, sunset, and/or weather.
Multiple account access
Has it ever happened with you that you need to look for that one all so important e-mail but can’t remember which out of the three Gmail accounts you own is it stored in? And all this mess when you are already pressed for time just before you need to pick your child from school or have to go for shopping? Gmail eases out your problem by allowing you to sign in to multiple accounts in the same browser, that too simultaneously.
Many other features, like Offline Gmail for spotty Internet connections, wrong recipient detector, Gmail Labs to test a new feature, Google voice in Gmail chat, etc, make Gmail stand out in the crowd of free e-mail service providers.