<p>Ten years ago today on April Fool's Day 2004, Google launched Gmail, the game-changing email service that was anything but a joke. When Google launched Gmail, it revolutionized the way people use email. It launched with 1GB of free storage and encouraged people to archive e-mails instead of deleting them. This was a major improvement over the 2MB limit on Hotmail, which frequently forced people to decide which emails to delete when they hit their limit.</p><p>"[Google cofounder Sergey Brin] was most excited about it," said Brian Rakowski, Gmail's first product manager, in an interview with Time. "The ultimate April Fools' joke was to launch something kind of crazy on April 1st and have it still exist on April 2nd."</p><p>Over at Time, Harry McCracken has the inside story of how Gmail came together over 10 years ago. It began as early as 2001, when Gmail creator Paul Buchheit began working on an email web app after previous failed attempts within the company. Although it is often hailed as a product of Google's famed 20 percent time, Bucheit says that "it was an official charge. I was supposed to build an email thing."</p><p>Gmail began as a search engine for email. Buchheit borrowed code that was used by Google Groups to search Usenet groups and adapted it for his personal email. Eventually other Google engineers wanted to use this on their email, and as the service grew, Gmail's first product manager, Brian Rakowski, focused on the web app's user interface.</p><p><a href="http://bgr.com/2014/04/01/gmail-10-year-anniversary/">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/01/technology/gmail/">Gmail at 10: How Google dominated e-mail</a> (CNNMoney)</p><p><a href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/1/5570694/gmail-10-years-old-today">Gmail is 10 years old today</a> (The Verge)</p><p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/31/gmail-shelfie_n_5065457.html">Gmail&#039;s &#039;Shelfie&#039; Prank Mocks Selfie-Obsessed Culture</a> (Huffington Post)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=dXT-WafecB1M7GMp3oPW7jmXt1OmM&authuser=0&ned=us">233 additional articles.</a></p>