Gmail is currently a very general term used for communication over the
Internet. It has revolutionized the way of communication with a wide range of
facilities and ease of access. Gmail enables users to remove the limits of
communication and exchange texts and media files digitally. However, the term
Gmail is an abbreviation and there is also a full form of Gmail.
In this article, we have briefly covered the most important topics of Gmail,
such as the Gmail full form, what is Gmail, a brief history of Gmail,
supported platforms, advantages, and more.
What You Will Learn
What is the full form of GMAIL?
The meaning or full form of GMAIL is "Google Mail". The term 'mail' indicates the digital messages (or files, or both)
composed through electronic devices.
Gmail can be seen on most electronic devices around the world. Since the
Android platform is also a product of Google, Gmail comes preinstalled in
Android devices. In addition, to access the Google Play Store and many other
Android-based services, a Gmail ID is mandatory. A single Gmail ID is referred
to as 'one for all' Google services.
The full form of Gmail can be explained as:
| G | |
Let us now talk about what is Gmail:
What is Gmail?
By the definition, “Gmail is defined as the most popular and widely used web-based free email
service launched by Google that helps users to exchange digital messages
(send and receive email) or media files over the Internet.”
Gmail is currently a fully-featured email service with all the necessary
services and products. It uses standard email protocols, namely
POP,
IMAP, and
SMTP. Email protocols mainly help users to fetch or download their emails from
different servers or clients on different devices and platforms.
Note: Each Gmail account has a unique email ID/address, which follows
the structure of 'username@gmail.com'. Here, 'username' denotes the name of the user along with some other
characters and 'gmail.com' is a domain name. Additionally, the '@' sign is
used to separate the username from the domain name.
Brief History of Gmail
Gmail is developed by Paul Buchheit. It was mainly developed to facilitate communication for those already
working at Google. However, it was later released for public use with many new
features and integrations over time. Gmail became available for public use on
1 April 2004.
Gmail became popular in a short time because it could store several megabytes
(specifically 1GB) of messages and data for as long as the user wanted.
Key Advantages of Gmail
Some of the essential advantages of Gmail are discussed below:
Storage
Gmail is the only free email service provider that gives 15 gigabytes (GB) of disk space to each account for personal use. Initially, it offered 1 GB
of disk space which was more than enough when compared to its competitors at
the time. Furthermore, users can also increase the disk space limit at a very
reasonable cost.
Interface
The user interface of Gmail is simple and easy to use. Users with minimal
technical knowledge can do basic email tasks on Gmail with ease. They can
easily manage their emails between different folders and categories.
Additionally, Google keeps rolling out new designs and features for Gmail to
simplify its interface to the maximum possible extent.
Security
Gmail has robust security features and filters each email before making it
accessible to users. Essential security features of Gmail include spam
filtering and virus protection.
Search
The search feature in Gmail is very handy to find any specific email easily.
Users don't have to scroll through hundreds or even thousands of emails.
Instead, they can enter any query related to the particular email on the
search box and find it instantly.
Language Support
Gmail is currently available in over 105 languages, making it accessible to
users of different languages across the world.
Multiple Accesses
Due to the support for multiple protocols, users can also access emails from
different clients or service providers directly in Gmail. In addition, one
Gmail ID is sufficient to access all the services or products offered by
Google. This includes Google Drive, Docs, YouTube, Google Play, etc.
There are many other benefits of using Gmail. It would not be wrong to say
that Gmail has almost innumerable advantages. In addition, new features are
also rolled out over time through constant development and upgrades by the
developers.
Supported Platforms
Gmail can simultaneously work on different platforms across different devices.
Users can access Gmail on the following two platforms:
Web Browsers
The web-based (based on native
HTML) version of Gmail is supported in almost all the latest web browsers. In
addition, Gmail's advanced interface is also available for use, which is based
on AJAX and is supported in most modern browsers.
Google launched an offline version of Gmail in August 2011. It was an HTML-5
powered application that could run through the Google Chrome browser when
there was no connectivity with the
Internet. The offline version of Gmail can be downloaded from the Chrome Web Store.
It saves user's actions while working offline in Gmail and syncs them with
Gmail when the system/ device is online.
Mobile
Gmail also has its own native application for various platforms of mobile and
smartphone. Users can directly install the Gmail application on
iOS
devices, Windows devices, and Android devices.
In addition to the native Gmail application, users can also access Gmail using
a web browser on their mobile devices.
Gmail Competitors
Nowadays, many email service providers have emerged. However, Gmail is the
most popular email provider amongst all others. It has more than 1.5 billion
active users. Gmail is so popular that most users even know the term
Email as Gmail. However, they are two different terms.
The following are some popular competitors of Gmail:
Yahoo! Mail
Yahoo! Mail was released in 1997 by Yahoo, a US-based web provider that was
founded in 1994. It was loved by the people and became an instant hit due to
its easy user interface and features. In addition, it was made available in
about 27 languages, more than its competitors at the time. This contributed in
part to the success of Yahoo's webmail service.
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook is a popular email client software system from Microsoft,
offered as a part of the Microsoft Office package. It originated under the
name Hotmail and was developed by
Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia in 1966. In 1996, it was made available for
commercial use.
In 1997, Microsoft acquired Hotmail and rebranded it as
MSN Hotmail, which was later renamed as Windows Live Hotmail before final
rebranding as Outlook.com in 2012. Outlook.com is a web-based version of
Microsoft Outlook with a similar interface.
AOL Mail
AOL Mail is another free web-based email client released in 1993 by AOL, a
division of Verizon Communications. The term AOL is stylized as Aol where ‘A’
stands for ‘America’ and ‘ol' stands for 'Online', making it 'America Online'. AOL has a variety of security features similar to Gmail and has support
for multiple protocols. The AOL Mail service is available in around 54
languages.
Apart from the above-mentioned email providers, Gmail has many more
competitors and even new ones are emerging over time.
Gmail vs Email
The primary
difference between Email and Gmail
is that Email is a communication method of exchanging electronic messages/data
whereas Gmail is the platform through which communication is established for
sending and receiving emails.
Few essential differences between Email and Gmail are tabulated below:
| Gmail | |
|---|---|
| Gmail is an Email client through which electronic communication is made and emails are sent or received. | Email is a means of electronic communication and may or may not consist of texts, documents, and media files. |
| It was first introduced in 2004. | It was introduced around 1965-1975 during the ARPANET project. |
| Gmail displays advertisements and earns profits. | Email does not display advertisements. |
| Gmail allows users to schedule emails. | Email does not offer email scheduling. |
Summary
Gmail (stands for 'Google Mail') is an email service provider/client that
enables users to easily exchange electronic mail with text and media files
across various electronic devices over the Internet. Users can access their
Gmail accounts with a password and manage them accordingly on different
platforms, such as Windows, Android, iOS, etc.
What others reading:
| • DESKTOP Full Form | • INTERNET Full Form |
| • GOOGLE Full Form | • ATM Full Form |
| • YAHOO Full Form | • MMS Full Form |
| • RDBMS Full Form | • FAX Full Form |
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