Gmail Marks 20th Anniversary With New Spam Rules

March 31, 2024 Business, Technology

The Associated Press reports:

Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin loved pulling pranks, so much so they began rolling outlandish ideas every April Fool’s Day not long after starting their company more than a quarter century ago. The jokes were so consistently over-the-top that people learned to laugh them off as another example of Google mischief. And that’s why Page and Brin decided to unveil something no one would believe was possible 20 years ago on April Fool’s Day.

It was Gmail, a free service boasting 1 gigabyte of storage per account, an amount that sounds almost pedestrian in an age of one-terabyte iPhones. But it sounded like a preposterous amount of email capacity back then, enough to store about 13,500 emails before running out of space compared to just 30 to 60 emails in the then-leading webmail services run by Yahoo and Microsoft. That translated into 250 to 500 times more email storage space.

Forbes reports:

Along with celebrating this significant milestone, Google is also initiating new security measures that will benefit Gmail users globally. However, marketers trying to reach Gmail users must take note of these changes, or they may face consequences that are no laughing matter.

Google defines bulk senders as those who have sent “close to 5,000 messages” to Gmail accounts in any 24-hour period.

Email marketers need to pay close attention to this definition, as their messages will be bounced right back to them unless strict new authentication requirements are adhered to. Not least as the bulk sender classification, once applied, is permanent. Hit the threshold just once, and you are deemed a bulk sender forever.

Gmail now boasts 1.8 billion active accounts and Google makes billions annually selling additional storage capacity.



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