Gmail turned 20th on Monday. On April 1, Google announced Gmail which was initially thought to be an April Fools’ joke by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Gmail, used by millions of people across the globe celebrated its birthday but also enforced new security rules.
#Watch: Google India has shared a video with a funny caption on this occasion.
“PFA – Our thanks and regards,” the post shared by Google India’s X handle said.
PFA – Our thanks and regards ♥️ pic.twitter.com/XmWH7JMTSh
— Google India (@GoogleIndia) April 1, 2024
“Happy Birthday Gmail. Celebrating 20 years of attachment. PFA-Your gift,” the video shows. The video ends with a funny twist, “Forgot Attachment” highlighting the common ‘mistake’ that most Gmail users must have made at least once during their time with the service that now has several add on features, including Google Chat and Google Meet.
History of the 20 years old Gmail
On April 1st 2004, Google introduced the launching of this email service. At that time it was taken as a joke, as the press release stated that email and not search was the number one online activity, and Google was creating a search-based webmail service in response to a user complaint. With original Gmail press release quoted Sergey Brin saying,” If a Google user has a problem with email, well, so do we.”
Started with providing 1GB of storage per account, Gmail has upgraded it all by currently providing 15GB per account. At that time, this was one of the USPs of the new service as it was enough to store about 13,500 emails as compared to 30 to 60 email storage offered by Yahoo and Microsoft. Currently there are an estimated 1.8 billion active Gmail accounts.
Gmail also helped also helped Google expand its business by launching Google Maps, Google Docs and Google Chrome. Later the company also acquired YouTube and launched the Android operating system that powers most of the world’s smartphones.
With the recent developments and the AI world it is supercharged with AI features. It gives users the benefit of creating email drafts based on simple prompts with the “help me write” feature. There is a ‘smart reply” feature that automatically generates reply options.
Gmail in Recent terms
In 2024, perhaps the biggest problem that the users are facing with email right now is the number of unwanted messages that come their way. Be they marketing messages from otherwise long-forgotten mailing lists or newsletter subscriptions, to unadulterated span and even emails that come replete with malicious content designed to scam and steal. So it becomes the responsibility of the Google to address the problem. This is where the new security rules for bulk senders of emails to personal Gmail accounts will apply.
New Bulk Sender Security Rules starting from April 1st
According to Google, the bulk senders are those who have sent ‘close to 5,000 messages” to Gmail accounts in any 24-hour period. This definition holds a significant importance for the email marketers, as their messages will bounce back to them unless strict new authentication requirements are adhered to. If you fall under the bulk sender category once , you will be deemed as a bulk sender there forever.
You cannot play smart with Google if you think you can spam by sending mails from a multitude of nefarious subdomains. Google has this feature under its new rule that all the messages from the same primary domain are counted regardless of the multiple subdomains implemented.
The new authentication requirements that have been put in place with a purpose of establishing genuineness and professionality any marketer should be already knowing. This includes using Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance, Domain Keys Identified Mail and Sender Policy Framework to validate that their messages are originating from the source as claimed.
According to Gmail Group product manager, Neil Kumaran, this step will help eliminate the loopholes that attackers use to threaten everyone who uses email. Though we can’t guarantee this as a solution preventing spam and malicious content but still it goes a long way in making our inbox safer and very importantly less spammy.
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