Happy Birthday! Gmail Turns 10

Gmail, the world's most popular email service, turns 10 years old today. To mark the anniversary, and the self-obsessed culture of selfies, Google has introduced the Gmail Shelfie. 

"Today, Gmail hits the double digits," wrote Google software engineer Greg Bullock on Google's blog. "Over the last 10 years, you—our users—have been our biggest inspiration. You've sent us ideas for features you want, and told us what you like (and didn't like...). So while it may be our birthday, we want to say thank you to you with a gift that is, well, all about you."

To celebrate the anniversary Google is promoting the "shelfie", which is a shareable selfie that users can set as their Gmail background image. Bullock explains:

"... we’re proud to free your selfies by launching Gmail Shelfie, the SHareable sELFIE," Bullock writes. "Gmail Shelfie is built on the idea that you shouldn’t be selfish with your selfie. With just a few clicks, your mom, your aunt, or that girl you have a crush on can set your Shelfie as their Gmail theme so they can enjoy checking, reading, and writing emails while seeing your friendly face in the background."

Ten years ago when Google announced the launch of Gmail, Google CEO Larry Page said the idea for Gmail came from a Google user frustrated with the existing email messaging services at the time. 

"She kvetched about spending all her time filing messages or trying to find them," Page said in a 2004 news release about the person who helped inspire Gmail. "And when she’s not doing that, she has to delete email like crazy to stay under the obligatory four megabyte limit. So she asked, ‘Can’t you people fix this?’"

Key features Gmail had on the competition at the time of its launch was an in-email search powered by Google search, a significant storage upgrade (1,000 megabytes) compared to the competition and its organization of conversations and folders.

"Gmail solves all of my communication needs," Page continued. "It’s fast and easy and has all the storage I need. And I can use it from anywhere. I love it!"

Tuesday, T-Mobile CEO John Legere even tweeted out a happy birthday to gmail. "Happy Birthday, @gmail! Remember when you didn’t even have a delete option!? #emailfordays."