passed the Gmail limit 

Well, there it is:



1GB of useless duplicate mp3s on Google's hard drive.
Take that, free service! :)

I managed to reach the limit rather easily by constantly forwarding messages to my account from within Gmail itself (saved quite a bit of time and bandwidth). It doesn't look like Gmail is smart enough to store the same attachment only once...

Small text-only email messages still get through, but anything with an attachment seems to get bounced now. Also, when I try to send something from within Gmail (of any size), I get an alertbox saying: "Your message could not be sent because you have exceeded your mail quota."

All in all, not as exciting a conclusion as I had hoped (in that nothing unexpected happened). But I have discovered Gmail makes a kick-ass mp3-tennis interface (whereby two players send interesting mp3s back and forth; been playing it with Ruben), so I'll probably delete the duplicates soon to make more room for that.

Update:
I just realized, the reason for the seemingly too large 1023MB is because Google is using an actual gigabyte (1024MB) as a limit, rather than the rounded off 1000MB figure shown.

comments

1. posted by absolut at 23:46 on July 11, 2004

Yeah, really nice experiment. It seems like gmail is the most advanced webmail service now.

2. posted by Morg at 16:03 on July 12, 2004

so... if small text-only messages get through... we might aswell cramp it up a bit more with a few gigs of small text-only messages :)

3. posted by milov at 16:17 on July 12, 2004

Actually I just deleted a bunch of stuff, so now I'm down to a paltry 644MB again. Send me some more of those interesting mp3s! :)

4. posted by yahoo.com,steven0440,Steven at 00:43 on July 13, 2004

cool thinking!

Anyone want to take pity & share a gmail invite? Heh I'm wishing I could try it out & see all the stuff people are talkin about.

5. posted by gmail.com,MadamM,margaret at 01:28 on July 13, 2004

sure, i'll help you out steven. i have like 6 invites hanging around, and i feel like i ought to help out seeing as that i was given an account by a friendly stranger.

6. posted by his.com,Mark,Mark Cameron at 06:13 on July 13, 2004

Margaret: if you are handing out the invites, could I ask for one too (since you are being nice to strangers...)? All I can promise is good karma for your generosity.
-Mark

7. posted by milov at 15:44 on July 13, 2004

Oops, I hope I didn't inspire a whole bunch of Gmail users to try this same trick, because I'm getting nothing but timeouts on Gmail right now :|

8. posted by Phillip Winn at 17:46 on July 13, 2004

My question is: Sure, Google chewed up your 1GB with those attachments, but <i>were they actually physically stored on disk more than once</i>? 'Twould be a very nice hack indeed to track the space but only physically store a pointer to the first instance of an attachment. Seems like it would save a *lot* of space.

Then again, I think the design of the Google filesystem makes space less important than speed. I'll have to go back and re-read that page...

9. posted by milov at 18:01 on July 13, 2004

> but only physically store a pointer to
> the first instance of an attachment

I thought about that too. Reasons for not bothering with it may simply be that attachments appearing more than once might not be all that common (except in my crazy experiment). But even so, why then present the user with a fake indication of used space?

10. posted by hotmail.com,rustybumpers,Brandon at 06:17 on July 14, 2004

You still got some love to share? I'd like to give my fiance a new gmail account with her soon-to-be new last name (mine). :-) Got any invites left to share?

11. posted by yahoo.com,kasra747,kasra at 06:43 on July 15, 2004

hi there
can you invite me to get gmail ? it's vital 4 me .
thanks

12. posted by rock.com,leodadominico,Leo Da Dominico at 09:49 on July 15, 2004

Hi, I would like to receive an invitation to Gmail please. Thanks

13. posted by hotmail.com,Crisdaman,Chris Logsdon at 07:00 on July 16, 2004

Hey i was just wondering if anyone had any extra gmail invites laying around. See everyone around me like my cousin and friends all dont have one and id appreciate to be invited myself so i can share gmail with them too...Id really appreciate it if i could receive just one invite. I know i sound like everyone else but i want to feel like the one needed around here for once lolol ....thank you all for ur time even if i dont get invited....cya

Email:Crisdaman@hotmail.com

14. posted by spence at 01:09 on July 17, 2004

hey there, it would be cool if i could get a gmail invite too... i wanna get a cool username, and check it all out - even though i will probably stay with hotmail because of all my newsgroups and stuff i wish i could forward all the e-mails from hotmail to gmail, that would be handy

-spence

15. posted by hotmail.com,tntoak,tntoak at 01:25 on July 18, 2004

I have also been trying to get a Gmail invite, but I keep coming up w/ nothing. If anyone can help, I'd GREATLY appreciate it.

16. posted by hotmail.com,conalbuckley,Conal Buckley at 06:24 on July 19, 2004

I think you may have stumbled across something a little more signifigant than just poor programming (or maybe just outside of the scope of design). There's all sorts of people screaming about privacy issues when it comes to gmail scanning your email as it goes through. But it didn't seem to scan your attachment at all (otherwise it would've noticed the same name, size, and parity check; much like when you try to save a file twice to the same directory). Maybe this is a bypass for having it read all of your emails? Just send everything in attachments. it may even be easy to write a program that'll interface with an addin would make the email send as an attchment without the end user seeing the process.

BTW, if you have an extra invite, I don't suppose you co8uld pass it my way.....I'm desprate to try to code around gmail and I don't know anyone with an extra invite.

17. posted by yahoo.com,lewisich,j00n at 10:46 on July 20, 2004

i'm partially interested in going through the coding, but also can't get that curiosity to boil down over it either. if anyone has a spare invite, toss one my way if it suits you.

18. posted by Rindu at 05:30 on July 22, 2004

Can somebody please send me a Gmail invite.. i'm very much in need of one.. My email is tharindu@elsteel.com

19. posted by hotmail.com,Nvoutt,Neil Voutt at 00:40 on July 23, 2004

An invite would help me alot, an spare invite would be a odsend i would thank anyone a million times.. please be a friendly person :)

20. posted by insightbb.com,hco87sp,Shaun at 02:38 on July 23, 2004

well, i dont want to sound repetitive like evryone else, but thers no harm in asking. An invite would be greatly appreciated on this end also. No one i know at all had gmail in this little hick indiana town, and i'd love to be able to share it with my friends as well. Thanks for your time.

21. posted by gmail.com,omarx8,omar at 21:51 on July 24, 2004

guys, ill really apreciate if you could mail me how to erase messages in gmail

22. posted by bigfoot.com,m.shadman,Mohammad S. at 13:12 on July 26, 2004

hi i want gmail

23. posted by yahoo.co.uk,nornish3,Chani at 06:54 on July 27, 2004

Conal Buckley: there's a very easy way to stop gmail from scanning your mail. it's called PGP :)

24. posted by Cheves at 11:10 on July 28, 2004

Hey can I have one Gmail invite I'm offering a link(banner) in my site to your site, email me to cheves@desiertoportal.com

25. posted by hotmail.com,filipepinheiro,Filipe at 16:27 on July 28, 2004

Hi, can any of you send me an envitation to a GMAIL account?

26. posted by hotmail.com,chinnet,chinnet at 19:59 on July 31, 2004

Any one can send me an invitation to GMAIL account as my birthday gift?

27. posted by ,arlat2003,balivash at 21:18 on August 08, 2004

please invait me to get gmail
tanks alot bye bye

28. posted by yahoo.com,arlat2003,balivash at 21:21 on August 08, 2004

oh sarry may email isnot true bye

29. posted by yahoo.com,kinkbike55, pablo at 20:05 on August 10, 2004

hey what sup ppl. well gee i been trying to get invited to get gmail and its so dam hard i wish it was just free like u can go to the website. but its hard i cant get it and if someone could invite me omg i will apriciate that sooooo much ok thanks alot.

30. posted by themaddhatter at 00:36 on August 15, 2004

Hey, its my birthday this month. A gmail invite would be a really nice present.

31. posted by coprophiliac at 11:17 on September 03, 2004

Hello there - really nice experiment.
Here is a gmail invite for anybody to use:
http://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-dfa924449f-0d44f3bb6d-136c35b889
Happy mailing!

32. posted by hotmail.com,junkeeper,andy at 06:34 on September 04, 2004

Hi, I've heard interesting news about gmail and was not able to experience the new 1Gb email a/c, is there anyone out here generous enough to invite me?

33. posted by rediffmail.com,kkvlmp,kapil verma at 10:07 on September 05, 2004

hello
i am verry keen to open anew emmail account at gmail please help me .
thanks

with regards
kapil

34. posted by yahoo.com,jv_gigantor,jv at 16:31 on September 06, 2004

i want a gmail. please, i need it so badly

35. posted by yahoo.com,mo2che,Mosche at 09:32 on September 13, 2004

Hi!

I would like to be considered for a GMAIL Invite please!

I will return a right back at ya fav!
THX,
Mow

36. posted by yahoo.com,ssalakass,Alex at 07:29 on September 15, 2004

Could somebody send me an invite?

37. posted by prasad kulkarni at 16:35 on September 26, 2004

hey gmail is nice, but they should continue with thjeir system of not being open to everyone ,as it degrades yhe value of gmail. if any1 wants a gmail id pls send a request mail to prasannadgir@gmail.com

38. posted by msn.com,tibaro,lex at 09:17 on September 29, 2004

i want a gmail account

39. posted by yahoo.com,prasadsk_hvr,pskgraduated,prasad at 09:09 on September 30, 2004

i'd like to try the things which milov tried. pls send me an invite to any1 of the following id's:
pskgraduated@yahoo.com,prasadsk_hvr@hotmail.com,psk05@indiatimes.com

40. posted by yahoo.com,nitin_revankar,nitin revankar at 09:41 on October 01, 2004

pls send me a gmail invite

41. posted by ehab helmy khaled at 00:27 on October 08, 2004

thank you for you invite ....

42. posted by phong at 07:18 on October 08, 2004

help me get a gmail ...thank`s!

43. posted by hotmail.com,nicocob2003,Nicolas at 00:18 on October 20, 2004

Necesito una invitacion para g-mail

44. posted by yahoo.com,cool_ibe,Cool at 11:44 on October 20, 2004

Could anyone send me a G-mail invite as well. I'll be greatly thankful. Yahoo's 100mb seem to be inadequate for me! Paryers in advance.

45. posted by ,rockman660,rockman at 07:14 on October 26, 2004

help me get a gmail ...thank`s!

46. posted by hotmail.com,jelena103,jeca at 23:26 on October 29, 2004

HELP ME PLEASE TO GET A GMAIL, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
THANKS IN ADVANCE

47. posted by pc4me.us,huukhanh,huu khanh at 07:56 on November 06, 2004

Please send invite gamail for me to :
huukhanh@pc4me.us
Thanks you very much!

48. posted by hotmail.com,unstable_flame,Unstable Flame at 04:55 on November 10, 2004

Please send me a Gmail invite I would apreciate it.

49. posted by hot.ee,nnn,AlNa at 21:16 on November 11, 2004

Please send me a Gmail invite too....

50. posted by Cl`i`nt at 00:12 on November 13, 2004

Email me; I have 12 invites available.

51. posted by wanadoo.nl,h.elp,® at 21:24 on November 13, 2004

HI,

If available i would appreciate an invite too gmail
h.elp@wanadoo.nl

thnx ®ob

52. posted by hotmail.com,robertrussell6333,bob at 18:41 on November 18, 2004

hi

i would be gobsmaced if you would be very kind and sent me a gmail invertation

thanks

bob

53. posted by yahoo.co.uk,neelaka_su,neelaka at 10:35 on November 27, 2004

I want a gmail account
neelaka

54. posted by yahoo.com,arash_2182000,arash at 08:21 on January 13, 2005

i want agmail account send me agmail invertation

55. posted by Fidel at 04:48 on January 18, 2005

I have two avail gmail accounts for visitors of my site.

56. posted by emal at 12:32 on January 21, 2005

Hello everyone I would appriecite If someone could give me a gmail invitation. My email address is emal33@yahoo.com Thank you for reading my post and I hope someone can help me out.

57. posted by hotmail.com,jmreceive,Henry at 09:00 on February 05, 2005

Hello,
It would be grateful if you could send me a gmail invitation at jmreceive@hotmail.com. Thank you in advance.

58. posted by bunnypox at 00:55 on February 15, 2005

I just passed my limit as well... purely by accident... bleh...

59. posted by yandex.ru,alviga,alviga at 13:05 on April 03, 2005

Hello !
Can anybody get me gmail invitation at alviga@yandex.ru

60. posted by hotmail.com,kirkirkiusthegreat,kirk at 03:16 on April 04, 2005

If anybody great guy or gal could send me an invite to gmail i will be very gratful
my email is kirkiusthegreat@hotmail.com

61. posted by bestmail.ru,photon,Photon at 11:28 on April 12, 2005

Mail me your e-mail address for Gmail invitation.

62. posted by Jan! at 18:39 on April 16, 2005

Bloody hell, if you search Google for "gmail", this page is one of the first results: http://isnoop.net/gmail/

Go there instead of whining everywhere.

63. posted by yahoo.com,dark_and_fair,Winner at 13:11 on April 29, 2005

send me the invitation please
to dark_and_fair@yahoo.com
Thanks !

64. posted by kansas at 10:27 on August 24, 2005

shut up dudes!
wtf?

65. posted by yahoo.com,dt_mold,Trung at 06:55 on September 22, 2005

Gmail

66. posted by sachleen at 04:11 on October 06, 2005

if anyone doesnt have a GMAIL account yet and wants one, I have over 300 invites. Email me if you dont already have one.

67. posted by sachleen at 04:11 on October 06, 2005

Oh, my email is sachleen@gmail.com

thought it woudld be included in the Posted by thing.

68. posted by hotmail.com,bernie-_-,bernie at 19:54 on January 03, 2006

plz send me a invite for gmail bernie-_-@hotmail.com

69. posted by hotmail.com,khatrizaid,mohammed at 08:43 on January 19, 2006

please give me an gmail invitation

70. posted by hotmail.com,khatrizaid,mohammed at 08:43 on January 19, 2006

send me invitation forkhatrizaid@hotmail.com