almostsmart.com — Last year, Gmail started increasing user's storage capacity at a constant rate. But in late 2005 the rate slowed. This graph shows when Gmail is expected to reach the 3 GB mark, which is sometime in April 2008!
Apr 17, 2006 View in Crawl 4
davidsweltApr 18, 2006
the marketing trick might not be that lame.. while it focuses on something people don't NEED, it does focus on something people WANT. And I reckon that's more important when marketing to consumers who make their choices based on a gut-feeling.
chad78Apr 18, 2006
For the longest time, my gmail account was holding steady at 10%. Then, about the same the article talks about, my percent started to climb to over 15%. I thought it was because I was getting more email. I feel better now. Thanks Digg!
teddziubaApr 18, 2006
GMail will probably never hit 3GB. Why can't anyone else see that it's approaching e*10^3 = 2718.28183...?
theone3Apr 19, 2006
Eheh. Newsflash. Planet = Blue.
onethirtyeightApr 27, 2006
...Why? The only use for that would be to show elitism and who was there first before it became the latest thing (Like MySpace?... Except GMail isn't the latest thing yet. But hey, just play along with it so I can make my point.)If someone heard of a 3GB email, and found out because they just started, they only get 2, they'd probably think "Well, I'm never gonna use that full 3GB.. 2 is just fine... But why does _______ get 3GB and I don't?" Yeah, the same reason why someone with a small bedroom feels that they could use that new 65 inch Sony LCoS TV... people want s**t that they don't need (No, really.. I can name at least 20... I'm a Panasonic rep at several stores.. people ask me why I tell them not to buy my 50 inch plasma for their kids bedroom... go figure.)Now... if someone REALLY wants that full 3GB...*coughwww.walla.comfree3gbemailbutwithunavoidableannoyingspamfilterthatyoucantremovecough* excuse me.
gylgameshJul 1, 2006
That growth rate has decreased and it will continue to decrease in the future as Gmail gets more and more users. Otherwise the expansion rate of server capacity would have to grow proportionaly to the total number of users and that would sooner or later bankrupt Google. The goal of unlimited storage space is even theoretically impossible. It has been assumed that there are about 10^80 particles in the whole universe and even if each of them would be a storage bit for Gmail that would still be limited. The storage capacity on earth alone is clearly much more limited. Even if at some point Gmail will compress older emails I don't think the capacity will ever exceed 10 GB.Here the facts:fromThu 2006.06.29 13:46:00 UTC toSat 2007.07.01 02:46:00 UTC = 37 hoursGMAIL capacity has increased from2739.249302 MB to2739.753487 MB resulting in acapacity growth of 0.504185 MB in 37 hours.that is 0.013627 MB increase per hour.I predict that one year from now the capacity increasy will be well below 0.01 MB/h.
gylgameshJul 31, 2006
I have to correct my post above! Of course it should read"Sat 2006.07.01 02:46:00 UTC"and NOT"Sat 2007.07.01 02:46:00 UTC" * * *Now a newer benchmark:fromThu 2006.06.29 13:46:00 UTC toMon 2006.07.31 02:46:00 UTC = 757 hours (32 days - 11 hours)GMAIL Mailbox capacity increased from2739.249302 MB to2749.564562 MB showing acapacity growth of 10.31526 MB in 757 hours.That is 0.0136264993 MB increase per hour, which is almost exactly what I measured before, only this time I submit all the digits.Using that figure GMAIL will have a 3000 MB Mailbox in 18,378.56 hours from today's measurement.That is 765 days, 18 hours, 33 minutes and 36,8 seconds making it Wednesday the 3rd of September 2008 21:19:37 if my calculations aren't wrong.If you have the time calculate the date when GMAIL will reach 3 GB (3072 MB) of storage.
sharkylOct 24, 2007
Looks like you were wrong. And it only took three months, not even a year. Ouch. That's what you get for predicting what Google will do I guess.