Gmail - Google's Email Service

Gmail is a free email feature from Google. At press time, it boasted 7391 megabytes of space, and the total was growing. Moore's Law ensures that the total space available for Gmail is likely to continue growing. Gmail has been available since 2004.

Mobile access is available for Gmail.

Google advertises that its technology reduces spam; whether users receive less spam on Gmail than on other mail services is an open question. Sometimes legitimate emails go to the spam box.

Gmail includes a certain amount of storage space for free, and Google has been increasing the amount of free storage space that is included. Originally, Gmail included a gigabyte of storage space for free, and now that has been increased to seven gigabytes. As with other email systems, users can buy more storage on Gmail. As of November, 2009, users can buy 20 GB of storage for $5 per year. Up to 16 terabytes of storage can be purchased. Larger amounts of storage are good for storing photos.

Offline Gmail is available; this feature is useful when the user is on a flight or someplace like that where the web is unavailable.

Gmail users login with a password of their choosing. The password can be changed at any time. A strong password includes small and capital letters, as well as numbers. Longer passwords are better.

A shorter password is weaker than a longer password. Characters should never be repeated in a password. Use of words as opposed to random characters is not recommended, as the set of words is less than the set of random characters, and a database can potentially be used to decipher the password.

It is not advisable to place a lot of confidence in encryption. Historically, it's something that hasn't worked in the long run. It may work a few times, and it may work even more than that. The problem is that if someone cracks the code, they can breach the user's privacy without the user's knowledge.

Here are some other articles that may be helpful:

A Survey of Google

Choosing a Password for a Google Gmail Account

What's Up at Google

Getting the Most Out of Google Documents

An Excerpt From the GM Owner's Manual

A Humorous Day at the Big Burger Corporation

Google Documents: The Basics

Google and Photography - Picasa and Picasa Web Albums

Google Calendar