How Gmail Happened (2014)

I was just reading something about all the defunct and abandoned google projects. So now "How Gmail Happened" reads to me like gmail too is done and gone, something that happened in the past but is no longer happening. I guess that day will come eventually. Maybe tomorrow? I never know what google is thinking when it comes to cancellations.

Re: How Gmail Happened (2014)

#5

Post by smnrchrds » Wed, Apr 03, 2019, 6:47 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #2

Discussed at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7506270

The top comments on that thread discuss the importance of owning your email address by way of using a custom domain, so you can move to a new providers and not worry about losing contacts or missing emails. I fully agree with that.

Back in 2014, both Outlook and Gmail had free family plans with custom domain capability, but have since removed those options. Is there a good low-cost option for custom domain email in 2019? For people who use and rely on email a lot, Fastmail is definitely the best option, but it is too expensive for my use case. I would like to set up custom domains for my family (5-10 people in total) and I would like to know what is the cost-effective best practice to do so these days.

Re: How Gmail Happened (2014)

#6

Post by adzm » Wed, Apr 03, 2019, 6:48 PM UTC

Let's not forget the Outlook web team who pretty much started the whole ajax/web2.0 thing in the first place with IXMLHttpRequest.

Re: How Gmail Happened (2014)

#7

Post by telesilla » Wed, Apr 03, 2019, 6:56 PM UTC

adzm wrote: post #6

Let's not forget the Outlook web team who pretty much started the whole ajax/web2.0 thing in the first place with IXMLHttpRequest.

What was their initial impetus for this? I'm curious what functionality they were trying achieve.

Re: How Gmail Happened (2014)

#8

Post by tomcam » Wed, Apr 03, 2019, 7:00 PM UTC

telesilla wrote: post #7

adzm wrote: post #6

Let's not forget the Outlook web team who pretty much started the whole ajax/web2.0 thing in the first place with IXMLHttpRequest.

What was their initial impetus for this? I'm curious what functionality they were trying achieve.

Interactive web pages-exactly what it’s used for in GMail. It was given the name XMLHttpRequest because it was a last-minute addition and the only way to get a feature into Internet Explorer that late in the product cycle was to make it XML-related. Which it obviously wasn’t, but that was how to get it approved. Source: Was a Microsoft employee at the time, though not on the IE team.

Re: How Gmail Happened (2014)

#9

Post by tomcam » Wed, Apr 03, 2019, 7:01 PM UTC

sandworm101 wrote: post #4

I was just reading something about all the defunct and abandoned google projects. So now "How Gmail Happened" reads to me like gmail too is done and gone, something that happened in the past but is no longer happening. I guess that day will come eventually. Maybe tomorrow? I never know what google is thinking when it comes to cancellations.

Nope. It’s now also a paid enterprise product (at consumer prices) so it probably pays for itself. I’ve been a customer since day 1 and think the $7/month or so it costs is ridiculously low. Also see this critically important comment regarding use of your own domain: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19566056

Re: How Gmail Happened (2014)

#10

Post by lotsofpulp » Wed, Apr 03, 2019, 7:02 PM UTC

smnrchrds wrote: post #5

dang wrote: post #2

Discussed at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7506270

The top comments on that thread discuss the importance of owning your email address by way of using a custom domain, so you can move to a new providers and not worry about losing contacts or missing emails. I fully agree with that. Back in 2014, both Outlook and Gmail had free family plans with custom domain capability, but have since removed those options. Is there a good low-cost option for custom domain email in 2…

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