] Gmail was created by the web search company Google in ] April 2004 amid much excitement as every user is promised ] an unprecedented gigabyte of storage space for messages. ] Google encourages users to keep all their old messages ] and automatically searches these to determine what kind ] of web advertisements might interest users. ] ] But Gmail's copious storage space has inspired a number ] of programmers to come up with completely novel ways of ] using the service. ] ] These include a "weblog" or online message board that ] uses Gmail to store postings and a desktop file system ] that plugs straight into the Gmail system. |