Google have quietly (as ever) introduced a pay for extra storage facility on GMail.
I’ve come close to stop using Gmail over the last 6 months or so, after having heavily used it on a daily basis for over two years. It’s has all of my emails for my numerous accounts going through it.
What was getting me to change my dependency? A lack of storage – something unimaginable when it was first launched back in 2004 with a Gig of storage and the “Never Throw an email away again” line.
Despite a crank up to 2GB in April 2005, and a continued growth of storage, byte by byte during the day – it just hasn’t been enough.
I’ve been on 90%+ capacity for at least a year and finding it hard to keep it bumping at around the 98-99% level for ages.
Extra storage – For Cash
Today I noticed that Google have started offering additional storage on GMail – clearly welcome for my predicament, but I was rather surprised that they wanted money for it. Isn’t Google free?
The options initially being offered are
- 6 GB ($20.00 per year)
- 25 GB ($75.00 per year)
- 100 GB ($250.00 per year)
- 250 GB ($500.00 per year)
I’ve got to go for it, just to get rid of the stress of having to delete load of emails.
UPDATE: We spend our money pretty much straight after publishing this and six hours later it still hasn’t updated GMail, so don’t expect a quick reaction.
250gb of email storage? could google be looking at introducing a web based backup service on the sly? I can’t imagine anyone with that much email – and if they do, they need to seriously learn about email management practices!
delete everyonce in a while whydoncha!
Good points – and I’m in the middle of writing a piece about the change that Google is bringing about with this move.
The bought storage can also be used for the Google photo sharing service, picasa.
It does sound like a Google Storage move doesn’t it!