Google to increase Gmail's inbox to 2GB and more

Google on Friday plans to increase the in-box storage of its Gmail Web mail service from 1GB to 2GB, and it will continue to raise that ceiling in coming weeks and months, on a rolling basis, to unspecified heights, according to a Google executive.

"Since we introduced Gmail, people have had a lot of place to store e-mail, but some of our heavier users have been approaching their limits and have been wondering what's going to happen," said Georges Harik, Gmail's product management director. "So, starting Friday, we're going to give people more and more space continuously and indefinitely on Gmail, as we're able to technologically."

There are no current plans to increase Gmail's 10MB limit on attachment sizes, he said. There are also no plans to add capabilities to Gmail that would allow subscribers to turn the in-box storage into a full-featured virtual external hard disk, he said. However, Google is aware that some Gmail subscribers are using the service for this purpose, mailing files to themselves to have them stored in their Gmail inbox, he said.

The percentage of Gmail users approaching their in-box storage limit isn't large, but "they are a number that we care about," Harik said. "We want our users to understand that we have a plan and that we're anticipating their needs, and that there isn't something strange that's going to happen with Gmail down the line."

When it announced Gmail a year ago, Google rocked the Web mail market, whose main players generally offered minimal inbox storage for their free services. For example, at the time, Yahoo Inc. offered its free Web mail users 4MB and Microsoft offered MSN Hotmail users 2MB of in-box storage.

Since then, most major Web mail providers have reacted to Gmail's in-box offer and have increased their storage significantly. Microsoft and Yahoo now both offer 250MB for their free services, and Yahoo plans to begin offering 1GB starting in late April. Both Yahoo and Microsoft offer 2GB in-boxes with their fee-based Web mail services.

A caveat with Gmail is that it is still technically in a test, or beta, phase, and isn't generally available. To obtain a Gmail account, one has to receive an invitation from an existing user; each current user has 50 invitations to give. Google also randomly offers Gmail accounts via its main Google.com Web page.

Asked whether access to Gmail accounts would ever be totally open, Harik declined to answer. "We keep looking for ways to make it more broadly available to people who want to use it," he said.

While Gmail is free to use, it does feature text ads that are served up to users with each message they open; ads are based on each message's text. This feature caused an outcry from critics concerned about privacy, but Google responded by saying the text scanning is automated and without human intervention.