Gmail: An In-Depth Analysis of Executive and Mobile Computing

This report provides a detailed analysis of Gmail, focusing on its role in executive and mobile computing. It begins with an introduction to Gmail, highlighting its origins and evolution as a free, advertising-supported email service developed by Google. The report then delves into the history of Gmail, tracing its development from a limited beta release to a widely adopted platform with billions of users. Key architectural features are examined, including its web browser and mobile phone accessibility, along with the different platforms and applications. The report also discusses the impact and issues associated with Gmail, including security concerns and business process redevelopment. It explores the benefits Gmail offers, such as storage capacity, user-friendly interface, and integration with other Google services. The report concludes with a look at future developments, including the evolution of its features and its continued impact on the business landscape, including the growth of active users. The report also includes a reference list of the sources used in the research.

[Date]
RUNNINH HEAD: Executive and Mobile Computing
Executive and Mobile Computing
Gmail (Mobile app)
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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
History.........................................................................................................................................................2
Architectural Features.................................................................................................................................3
Impact and issues.........................................................................................................................................4
Benefits by Gmail........................................................................................................................................4
Business process redevelopment.................................................................................................................4
Future development.....................................................................................................................................5
Impact and concerns....................................................................................................................................6
References...................................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Gmail is a free service which is highly designed by Google which is considered to be advertising
sustained email service. Operators can easily access the Gmail on their web and by using third
party programs which aims at synchronizing the content of email via POP or any IMAP
protocols. It is available in 72 languages and it was created and developed by Paul Buchheit and
it has successfully created 1.4 billion users till the year 2018. Gmail began as a restricted beta
release in the year 2004 and it finished its whole process of testing period in the year 2009. In the
very initial stage, Gmail had only one gigabyte capacity that has been offered to the users but
however, it increased its amount of storage as the numbers of competitors began to rise. And
today, it has been successfully offering the capacity of 15 gigabytes of storage. Operators can
easily get emails that will lie approximately 50 megabytes which may include several
attachments. Similarly, operators can also send emails with attachments which is approximately
25 megabytes (Rushe, 2013). However, if the users wants to send a longer files, they cane easily
insert such files available from the Google Drive into the message box. Gmail has also developed
a examine leaning interface along with a chat view which is quite related to an internet forum.
The two basic features provided by the Gmail is the storage capacity and the interface which
majorly focuses on the conversation threads. Today, it was found that 60% of the US companies
and 92% of the startup companies use Gmail for their business operations. Google’s mail
server’s scans mails for several reasons such as filter spam or malware practices (Gaikar, 2013).
History
The main idea behind the development of Gmail was created by Paul Buchheit many years back.
It came into the mind of Paul many years before it was actually announced. It was kept secret
from many of the Google engineers and it was finally announced in 2004. And today nearly
everyone uses it in order to access the information from one to another. Gmail was found in 2004
and was represented as a limited beta release (Popp, 2011). Later in the year 2006, Google
started providing Java based application of Gmail basically for mobile phone applications.
Similarly, in 2007, Google started to rewrite many parts of the code which Gmail used that will
make it more faster and quicker and it also included some additional features as well such as
custom keyboard shortcuts and bookmark facility, searching options, IMAP support and many
more (Buchheit et al., 2010).

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Architectural Features
Basically it has two major platforms i.e. Web browsers and Mobile phones.
Web Browsers
Gmail’s basic HTML i.e. Hyper Text Markup Language version will be applied on nearly all the
available browsers. The updated and modern AJAX version is formally buttressed in the recent
and earlier major releases of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge
and Safari web browsers on a regular basis. In the year 2011, Google announced Gmail Offline
services. It is an HTML5 powered application which aims at providing access to the services
while being offline. It easily runs on the Google Chrome browser and can also be downloaded
from Chrome Web Store. Additionally, Gmail can also be easily accessed via web browser on a
mobile application as well (Holton and Hakim, 2012).
Mobile phones
Gmail now can easily be accessed on mobile phones and Android application as well. Gmail has
inborn applications for iOS devices that includes iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and for Android
devices as well. In the year 2014, Google announced functionality in the Gmail Android
application which aimed at sending and getting mails from non-Gmail addresses such as Yahoo,
outlook via POP or IMAP (Van Dijk, 2011).
Later in 2016, Google restructured its application basically for the iOS stage by passing the main
complete visual overhaul in “approximately four years”. The new updating included huge
number of color combination, more sleek transitions and extremely demanded features like undo
send, quicker search with quicker results and auto spelling correction options. The feature also
include swipe to Delete or Archive. Similarly in 2017, Google updated its Gmail majorly on the
Android application featuring additional protection that will protect from unnecessary attacks.
The updated protection was found in Gmail and Google’s Docs document services (Buchheit,
Chang, Lim and Singh, Google Inc, 2010). Again, Google developed the addition of “smart
reply” as an additional features to Gmail on Android and iOS as well. Smart Reply refers to a
feature which was initially announced by Google’s Inbox by Gmail services which helps in
scanning a message or any other information by using its machine intelligence and offers majorly
three responses which an operator can edit and send. This feature is limited to the English

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language at the very beginning stage however it was then supported by Spanish and many other
languages as well. Inbox options availability by Gmail, and other application from the Gmail
team is also easily available for iOS and Android devices. Apart from this, third party programs
can also be used to access the account of Gmail by using POP or any other IMAP protocols
(Fuchs, 2011).
Impact and problems
In addition to this, in 2008, it changed the elements of Gmail’s use of Java script which lead to in
the letdown of a third party script that few users had been using. Google accredited the major
issue and provided assistance to the users with workarounds. In 2009, Gmail exited beta status.
Subsequent to 2013, operators had to make an approval to view the images that are seen on mails
which was presented as a means of security. But it was later changed and no approval was
required. Images and attachments will automatically be routed via Google’s secure proxy servers
instead of the external host servers (Lane et al., 2010). In 2010, Google started developing out
HTTPS as the default for all the operators. In 2012, a security feature was developed that will
safeguard users from unnecessary cyber-attacks. Gmail will now automatically scan all the
viruses that are attached with the mails. By the end of 2017, Google made an announcement that
it started using machine learning technology in order to identify the spam mails by having 99.9%
detection security. The company has also started working on improving its algorithms (Rodden
and Leggett, 2010).
Benefits by Gmail
In the year 2014, Google announced inbox by Gmail on an invitation-only basis. It was initially
settled by the team of Gmail but it served as an entirely dissimilar type of inbox. This feature has
aimed at providing assistance to the operators by dealing and facing the obstacles and challenges
related to active emails. Finding out the problems that are buried under the messages, getting
huge number of emails than before, distractions, sorting mails automatically, setting reminders,
providing assistance and snooze options, highlighting the surface information are all well
managed by Gmail. Inbox available by Gmail was officially announced in the year 2015
(Buchheit and Singh, Google Inc, 2010).

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Business process redevelopment
In the year 2010, Google introduced a plugin which aimed at providing integrated telephone
services that exists within Gmail’s Google Chat interface. This feature was earlier lacking a
formal name with Google referring to it as combined "Google Voice in Gmail chat" and "Call
Phones in Gmail”. This service was logged and used by more than one million calls in only
24hours (Grevet et al., 2014). Later in 2014, Google voice was discontinued due to some issues
and it was replaced with Google Hangouts which created other communication areas from
Google. In 2010, Google started an innovative networking tool named Google Buzz which is
connected with Gmail. This tool helps in providing users to share Medias and links along with
the status updates. However, this tool was again discontinued in 2011 and it was again replaced
with new updated technology named Google+. Gmail was combined with Google+ in 2011 so
that all the necessary information can easily be accessed by single account i.e. Google account
with a central Google+ user profile. Later in 2015, it was again stepped back to remove due to
some privacy concerns. In 2013, Google introduced the combination of Google wallet and Gmail
(Buchheit and Singh, Google Inc, 2011). It aims at providing the facility to operators to send
money via attachment made in Gmail account. This created a restriction that the sender must
have a Gmail account in order to perform such transactions. In addition to this, there was no
transaction fee costed but the amount of money transferred has limitations. This feature was
extended to application in Android in the year 2017 for only those who are living in United
States. In 2016, it announced Google trips which will automatically create travel cards for the
users which will be based on the information in the Gmail messages (Anderson et al., 2011).
Future development
In the year 2012, Google declared that there are approximately 425 million of dynamic users of
Gmail across the entire globe. In 2015, Google it increased to 900 active users of Gmail out of
which 75% of the females category used to operate Gmail account on mobile phones. Later in
the year 2016, Google had successfully created 1billion active users of Gmail account. Similarly
in 2017, Google declared that it has reached 1.2 billion of active users of Gmail account. In the
business areas, Quartz stated that in the year 2014, nearly 150 companies have checked into three
majorly segments in the country United States. The companies include Fortune 50 largest
companies, mid-size tech and media companies and startup companies. 60% of the midsized

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companies as well as 92% of the startup companies used Gmail for any business activities. Later
in 2014, Gmail was announced as the first and foremost application which was available on the
Google play store which successfully hit nearly one billion connections majorly on Android
devices (Bik and Goldstein, 2013).
Impact and concerns
Google has only one privacy policy which has covered all of its necessary services. Google
privileges that Gmail abstains from presenting ads which are next to theoretically complex
messages. It includes messages related to race, religion, caste, sex, health or any other financial
statements.

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