[globular-toast]

Wasn't Gmail "unlimited" in the early days?

[gsharma]

Not initially. It started with 1 GB at the time the other popular services Yahoo and Hotmail provided 2-4 MB of storage.

Google later changed it to “unlimited” which increased daily by an MB or so. At some point settled at 15 GB.

[htrp]

When did it settle in at 15GB?

[Ekaros]

2013 it seems there is blog about combining 10 GB gmail to 5 GB drive and Google+ Photos...

https://gmail.googleblog.com/2013/05/bringing-it-all-togethe...

Not sure if it was unlimited actually before this point.

[brutal_chaos_]

Yes it was. It took years before I had a limit. I used to use gmail like google drive well before drive existed. There was even a tool called gmaildrive(0).

(0): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMail_Drive

Edit to Add: Apparently the storage wasn't unlimited? At least from a cursory look at Wikipedia. Huh. Memory is a funny thing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gmail

[globular-toast]

I'm surprised too, but the screenshot showing "You are are currently using ... of your 1000GB" brings back memories. Maybe it's because back then 1GB of email storage seemed essentially unlimited?

[wredue]

Gmail was unlimited space, and invite only in the early days.

The main reason for success was that Google was still generally seen as a not evil company, while other mail providers were garbage/evil.

[HNDen21]

I remember those, you got 5 of them... later Google Wave also had invites .. which was cool but ended up in the graveyard anyway... Lifehacker's Gina Trapani even wrote a guide to Google Wave but I believe Wave was killed right before after it was published

[gsharma]

Initially, people sold these beta invites on eBay!

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/gmail-accoun...

[toyg]

iirc it went from 1gb to 4 to 8, then "unlimited" for a period, then again limited once they started charging for GApps.