Gmail

What is Gmail?

Gmail is Google's free webmail service. It comes with built-in Google search technology and over 2,600 megabytes of storage (and growing every day). You can keep all your important messages, files and pictures forever, use search to quickly and easily find anything you're looking for, and make sense of it all with a new way of viewing messages as part of conversations.

There are no pop-ups or untargeted banner ads in Gmail, only small text ads. Ads and related information are relevant to your messages, so instead of being obtrusive, they may even be useful for once.

Gmail also integrates instant messaging right into the email experience, so you can stay in even better touch with your friends when you're online. Easy, efficient and maybe even fun to use. It's a whole new way to think about email. It's Google's approach to email.

1. What makes Gmail different?

Yes, Gmail is another email service. But it's different in lots of ways, starting with a philosophy: that communications can be made simpler, more efficient and more fun. When building Gmail, we looked at the frustrations people were having with email, and started with our product from scratch. The result is something that's faster, cleaner, and more intuitive. For example, Gmail automatically groups an email and its replies into a conversation, so you can easily follow the back and forth of an email exchange. It's just like you were chatting. And now, you can chat in Gmail too.

There are no pop-ups or banner ads in Gmail, and very little spam. With Google search, it's easier for you to find the things that matter to you. And Gmail even has some personality. But don't take our word for it, try it yourself. Think of it as a fresh start.

2. How do I sign up?

You can get a Gmail account if you're invited by someone who already has one. Or, you can sign up for an account using your mobile phone. Sign Up now!

3. What about spam?

Innovative Google technology on the inside keeps spam messages on the outside. Lack of spam is one of our users' number one reasons for loving Gmail. And we keep improving our sophisticated spam filter every day. You can help by using the Report Spam button, which removes spam from your inbox and automatically improves spam filtering in the future.

4. I heard I can chat in Gmail too?

Yes, you can! Why should you always have to choose whether you want to email or chat with someone, and then go to a different program for each? Gmail integrates the two so you can see when your friends are online and get in touch with them however you want. Having email and chat in the same web browser means you can now chat with your friends wherever you have Internet access. Even save and search for your chat histories just as you would with email messages so you never lose important information again.

Gmail users are now part of the Google Talk network, and this feature is completely synchronized with our downloadable Google Talk client, which also enables free voice calls through your computer.

5. Can I get Gmail on my phone?

There are two ways you can access Gmail on your phone. You can download the Gmail for mobile devices application, by pointing your phone’s web browser to http://gmail.com/app or you can access Gmail directly over the web, by pointing your phone’s web browser to http://gmail.com. If your phone supports it, we recommend the downloadable application—it’s super-fast. You have no idea how fast email on your phone can be! Both mobile versions are optimized for the phone you’re using, make it easy for you to view the attachments you receive in email messages, and keep your Gmail account synchronized whether you’re accessing it from your phone or on your computer.

6. What does Gmail do to prevent viruses?

We take the security of our users very seriously. In addition to virus protection that automatically scans your attachments and tries to remove any viruses found in them, Gmail also doesn't send or receive any executable files since most computer viruses are contained in executable files.
7. Are there ads in Gmail?

Yes, there are small, unobtrusive, and relevant text ads alongside your Gmail messages, similar to those on the side of Google search results pages. The matching of ads to content is a completely automated process performed by computers. No humans read your email to target the ads, and no email content or other personally identifiable information is ever provided to advertisers.

Ads are never inserted into the body text of either incoming or outgoing Gmail messages and you won't see any pop-ups or untargeted banner ads in Gmail. In fact, Gmail users have even told us that they've found our ads to be interesting and even useful.

8. What about privacy?

Google respects our users' privacy. For details, please see the Gmail Privacy Policy. Google also take several steps to guard the confidentiality of users' information by offering a number of industry-leading protections. To learn more, please visit our section on Gmail and privacy.

9. Why is Google offering email and instant messaging? I thought you were a search company.

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally useful and accessible. We know that more and more of the information that's important to people is being exchanged and kept in email and chats. It can be overwhelming to keep track of this information, or to find later. We believe we can help with that.

Gmail helps users make sense of the information in their inboxes. There is less spam, things are easier to find, and you can keep the things that are important to you. Google's search technology is at the core of all of this. And now, we're using that technology to do for email what we did for search. Making it easier and more efficient than ever