Gmail: 9 years and memorable milestones

Google's webmail service has just celebrated its 9th birthday since its first beta launch on April 1, 2004.

Since being released for the first time on April 1, 2004, this web-based email service by software giant Google has gone a long way over nearly a decade. Currently, according to ComScore, Gmail has become one of the largest webmail services in the world, with more than 425 million users worldwide as of June 2012.

Here are the memorable landmarks in Gmail's 9-year development history:

Gmail development chart after 9 years of operation.

1. 1/4/2004: Gmail was officially released with a beta version only for invited users. As the first Ajax-based webmail service, Gmail at that time provided 1 GB of storage per user, 20 times more than standard email service providers.
2. 1/4/2005: Gmail celebrates its first birthday and raises its capacity to 2 GB.
3. February 7, 2006: Gmail provides a chat service.
4. February 10, 2006: Google introduces the ' Gmail for your domain' application (later available in Google Apps) to allow businesses and schools to use Gmail in their organization.
5. April 12, 2006: Google Calendar service was born.
6. May 1, 2006: Gmail supports more languages ​​like Hebrew and Arabic, bringing the total number of languages ​​to 40.
7. February 14, 2007: Gmail celebrates Valentine's Day by allowing open accounts for all users around the world.
8. October 31, 2007: Gmail became one of the first email services to offer a free IMAP protocol for all devices. Users can access Gmail anytime, anywhere.
9. September 15, 2008: Gmail has a ' Forgotten Attachment Detector' feature that will prompt notifications to send users an attachment.
10. October 22, 2008: Gmail released the first application for the Android operating system, launched on the T-Mobile G1.
11. 11/11/2008: Gmail users can video chat services right in their Inbox.
12. January 27, 2009: The Gmail Offline service launches, enabling users to access their inbox even when on the plane or in places where there is no network connection.
13. March 19, 2009: Google introduces ' Undo Send ' feature in Gmail, allowing users to retrieve email if they really do not want to send it.
14. 7/7/2009: Gmail is officially no longer in beta.
15. August 30, 2010: The 'Priority Inbox' feature makes it easier for users to manage email.
16. February 10, 2011: Gmail users are more secure thanks to the free ' 2-step verification ' feature.
17. November 1, 2011: Gmail and some other Google services were redesigned with a new interface.
18. November 16, 2011: Gmail released version for iOS operating system, helping iPhone and iPad users can check Gmail easily.
19. April 24, 2012: Gmail's storage capacity is raised to 10 GB.
20. June 28, 2012: The number of Gmail users worldwide reached 425 million.
21. June 30, 2012: Gmail's video chat feature has been upgraded to support up to 10 free chat users at the same time with the launch of Google Hangouts service.
22. November 19, 2012: Gmail supports a total of 57 languages.
23. November 27, 2012: Removing the attachment feature, Gmail now allows users to insert files into the Google Drive cloud service, supporting capacities up to 10 GB.
24. March 28, 2013: Gmail users experience new compose features on multitasking platforms.
25. 1/4/2013: Gmail is 9 years old.