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Email Turns 34

Posted by Zonk on from the venerable-old-coot dept.

34019 writes "The original Gmail engineer, Paul Buchheit, reminisces on the creation of email, and how he designed Gmail in hopes of it improving the way we communicate. From the article: 'Of course that wasn't the only reason why I wanted to build Gmail. I rely on email, a lot, but it just wasn't working for me. My email was a mess. Important messages were hopelessly buried, and conversations were a jumble; sometimes four different people would all reply to the same message with the same answer because they didn't notice the earlier replies. I couldn't always get to my email because it was stuck on one computer, and web interfaces were unbearably clunky. And I had spam. A lot of it. With Gmail I got the opportunity to change email - to build something that would work for me, not against me.'

20 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. It's true by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    We were plotting against Paul. We were trying to destroy his life, bit by bit.

    -- Paul's former email

  2. You're all invited! by QuantaStarFire · · Score: 5, Funny

    E-mail is throwing a birthday party! It's next week, the same day as Spam.

    Unfortunately, they agreed that Spam should send the invites. Expect them in your mailbox soon along with the free drugs and Nigerian relatives.

  3. Network email is not 34 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Acording to wikipedia, network email existed prior to 1971.

    The main contribution that happened in 1971 was the introduction of the "@" symbol and the use of email on ARPANET. But prior to 1971 there was email being sent between computers.

    From wikipedia:

    "The early history of network e-mail is also murky; the AUTODIN system may have been the first allowing electronic text messages to be transferred between users on different computers in 1966, but it is possible the SAGE system had something similar some time before."

    I don't wish to take away any from what Ray Tomlison acheived in 1971 which was a great contribution to introduce email to ARPA net and make it really convenient.

    1. Re:Network email is not 34 by commodoresloat · · Score: 5, Funny
      Acording to wikipedia, network email existed prior to 1971

      That's easily fixed; just edit Wikipedia.

  4. ook... by kuzb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The original Gmail engineer, Paul Buchheit, reminisces on the creation of email, and how he designed Gmail in hopes of it improving the way we communicate.

    Sorry, but I don't buy the google altruistic angle - they did this so they could better serve us ads. This is all about information, and who controls it. I doubt highly that it had anything at all to do with improving anyone's way of life. Google is a corporation, it's primary motive is, and always will be, profit.

    --
    BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
    1. Re:ook... by ShadeEagle · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Doesn't mean they can't make our lives easier while they're at it.

    2. Re:ook... by notthe9 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Sorry, but I don't buy the google altruistic angle - they did this so they could better serve us ads. This is all about information, and who controls it. I doubt highly that it had anything at all to do with improving anyone's way of life. Google is a corporation, it's primary motive is, and always will be, profit.

      I don't see how Mr. Buchheit's comment that he "designed Gmail in hopes of it improving the way we communicate" negates that Google does things with the intent of making profit. Just because you do something to make a profit, it doesn't mean that you do not have hopes it will accomplish good things.

      If I designed a bridge, I would hope it would help the way people transported. This does not mean that I am not doing it because I wanted to make money. It does not mean I am claiming some kind of altruism. If people didn't think gmail was improving their life in some way, there would be no one to advertise to.

    3. Re:ook... by Slashdiddly · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You mean in the sense pork industry makes life easier for hogs? I mean - yay, free food!

      I know the humanity is still trying to get out of an age where the struggle for physical survival leaves privacy concerns far behind. But that balance is changing. In 20-30 years, when early idealists within Google are long gone and beancounters have taken over, your data is still there. Near its sunset, Google has the potential of being 100x more evil than Microsoft could ever hope to be.

      Move from desktop apps to web services has many advantages that I won't bother repeating. A lot of those advantages are only possible because of shift of control from end user to the service provider. Like any new technology, this is a double-edged sword.

    4. Re:ook... by Damer+Face · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Three reasons to work hard at what you do:

      (i) because you enjoy it;
      (ii) to earn money and buy pretty things;
      (iii) to produce something of quality that other people will appreciate.

      I don't see that any of these are mutually exclusive; I don't see that number three has anything to do with altruism, and I don't see how anyone sensible would claim that it does.

      I think most of us who like gmail think that the engineers who designed did so with all three criteria in mind. Unlike some other software projects.

  5. Credit where credit is due by broothal · · Score: 4, Informative

    I appreciate all he's done for Gmail, but he can't take credit for their excellent spam filtering. That credit should go to Steve Linford and XBL from the Spamhaus project. As stated before, Gmail uses XBL to filter out spam. Needless to say - the XBL is pretty cool.

  6. World's oldest email address? by PapayaSF · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So, does anyone still have a working email address from 1971? If not, I wonder who has the world's oldest currently working email address?

    --
    Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
  7. Re:History of the term: Snail Mail? by esvoboda · · Score: 4, Informative

    You had me wondering about that so I did a search of Usenet posts on Google Groups. I see several references to "snail mail" in 1982 but the archive doesn't go back much further.

  8. Gmail MIME handling behind Yahoo/Hotmail/MS... by agulliford · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Maybe he could celebrate by unscrewing Gmail's MIME handling. That would
    improve the way we communicate. Gmail does not appear to handle recursive
    mime, such as a multipart/related inside a multipart/alternative. Yahoo,
    Hotmail, Thunderbird, Microsoft all seem to manage it ~ Why can't Gmail?

    Example:

    From: someone@domain
    Mime-Version: 1.0
    Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="[BOUNDRY]"

    This is a multi-part message in MIME format with text and recursed Mime alternative.

    --[BOUNDRY]
    Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; name="message.txt";
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

    This is the text message. Gmail does not even show this.

    --[BOUNDRY]
    Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="[BOUNDRY2]";

    --[BOUNDRY2]
    Content-Ty pe: text/html; charset=us-ascii
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
    Content-Disposition: inline;

    <HTML>This is the HTML message with pictures. <IMG SRC="cid:whatever"></HTML>

    --[BOUNDRY2]
    Conten t-Type: image/jpeg; name="file.jpg"
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
    Content-ID: <whatever>
    Content-Disposition: inline;

    /9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQEASABIAAD/4QAWRXhpetc

    --[BOUNDRY2]
    --[BOUNDRY]

  9. 100 oldest .com domains... by antdude · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, not e-mails but there is a list of 100 oldest .com domains.

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  10. Re:Gmail is to email as... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And no, archive isn't the same.

    Why not?
    The point of archiving is to make the inbox a real inbox - a place where all the email you currently need (e.g. new mail, things you still need to take care of). You should have very little mail in your inbox at any given time (I average at ~6). Everything else should be archived and accesed through labels or search. Try it out, it's great.

  11. It works for you ... by roubles · · Score: 5, Interesting
    '... With Gmail I got the opportunity to change email - to build something that would work for me, not against me.'
    It works for you ... but why are you pushing it on all gmail users ?

    Why does any message with the same subject get marked as part of the same conversation ? This is not always desired, and can cause a lot of confusion. This behavior should be configurable.

    I know the gmail has a "delete-nothing" philosophy, but can we still have a keyboard shortcut to move messages to trash ?

    I know google is all about searching ... but sometimes sorting is more intuitive and effecient - especially when there are a boatload of search results ... how about providing the ability to sort email based on certain fields?

    Don't get me wrong. I love gmail. It's right up there with pine and mutt as far as usability is concerned - and thanks to firefox/mozilla, I can use it seamlessly across platforms. I have learn't to live with it's quirks.

    But my point is gmail is still lacking in the area of customization. It's like we all share Paul's gmail.conf file. Just because it works for Paul, doesn't mean it works for everyone else.

  12. Nothing changes... by jpellino · · Score: 4, Funny

    Apple's # 64, in 1987.
    Microsoft as usual played catch up in 1991, according to WHOIS records...

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  13. Re:History of the term: Snail Mail? by tepples · · Score: 5, Informative

    As I understand it, "Snail Mail" originally dated to the introduction of ZIP codes. Mail without a ZIP code would be de-prioritized and stamped "Snail Mail".

  14. Samuel F. B. Morse invented email by davidwr · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's electronic. It's words. It counts.

    Heck you could even argue it's digital.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  15. Nice list, did a little more research. by burnttoy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    purely out of boredom I went through the top 10 and with a little help from the wayback machine (which doesn't go far enough back!) here's my results.

    SYMBOLICS.COM - dead, well... it's there but is not much more a place holder
    BBN.COM - blimey! it works!
    THINK.COM - 1/2 dead. links to the oracle "think" project but the original site would've been Thinking Machines Corp Lisp Boxen... miss you guys!
    MCC.COM - dead, 100% dead.
    DEC.COM - links to HP - effectively dead REALLY miss you guys!
    NORTHROP.COM - dead (merged with grumman)
    XEROX.COM - still going strong.
    SRI.COM - seems to still be going & the same org
    HP.COM - now part of the hp/compaq/dec mega corp
    BELLCORE.COM - dead, redirects to telcordia

    Well, 20 years is a long old time in .com land innit. 6 out of the top 10 have basically vanished and been replaced. hey hoe.

    The early bird may catch the first worm but he'll still be hungry by dinner time. or something...

    --
    Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.