The world's most utilized email provider turned 20 on Monday. Gmail was launched on the 1st of April 2004. At that time, it was revolutionary because it offered a huge amount of storage, and it was free. Some people thought it was a hoax because it was announced on April Fools' Day. However, it was no joke. Gmail offered an enormous 1 gigabyte of storage for free. Many other providers only provided 15 megabytes. At first, people could only sign up for Gmail after receiving an invitation. It became a "must-have" tool for technology fans. Another reason for Gmail's success is that it searched mails faster than any other email service at the time. It was also better at filtering spam.

Since 2004, Gmail has become the world's biggest email provider. More than 1.7 billion people use it. That's 20 per cent of the world population. Around 45 per cent of email users in the USA use it. Over the years, Google has increased its free storage to 15 gigabytes and has added many new features. One of these is a one-click unsubscribe button to keep unwanted mail away. Another feature is an "undo send" button. This allows users to stop a mail from being sent after clicking "send". The PC Mag website said Gmail is an important part of life today. It wrote: "Gmail is so embedded in so many people's lives that hardly anyone thinks much about it." It is likely people will use it forever.