My gmail just popped up a notice that it's 15 years old, but my earliest gmail is 2001

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

Are they not counting the first three years for some reason?

Gmail was created on 1 April 2004.

Yes OP, how did you manage to get an account before it was even released?

Ah, they are hotmails, I obviously transferred over all my hotmail when I set up my gmail. As you were, I'm not a time traveller. My first actual gmail mail was early December 2004.

Only the original developers will have a 2001 account as that's when they started prototyping it. Gmail went public in 04.

Oops cross post! I remember as I was one of the first people in my class to get an invite to the beta release and I wish I'd had my sensible head on and got first [email protected] which isn't available now of course!

I gave my email to someone, someone very, very young compared to me, and he was impressed that I had [email protected]. He asked if I'd got it a really long time ago, like when he was in primary school.

I remember it launching, loads of people thought it was an April fools joke because of the massive amount of storage compared to Hotmail et al.

I just checked and the first email I sent from mine was 24th October 2004. I could have sworn I'd had it longer than that!

My gmail is [email protected]

I’ve had it since 2006. It never really occurred to me that people can’t really have those anymore unless they have an insanely unusual name. I feel all special now 😂

I have firstintial-lastname @gmail and every arse uses it as their spam filter.

I managed
[email protected]

Tangentially-related: The sent date/time on an email can be anything. Not uncommon to receive emails apparently from the future or the distant past.

I've just set up a new gmail account using [email protected], I could have had full name, shortened name (that I generally use) and initial. Comes of having an unusual surname, we're the only ones in the country (and world I think) with this surname.

I got my first gmail address during the beta rollout (a friend worked in tech at the time and sent lots of us invitations), but DD has a googlemail address from the intital non-beta rollout (IIRC someone else owned gmail so Google had googlemail for a while till they managed to buy the gmail domain).

I’ve got initial initial surname @ gmail .com

I have firstname.lastname @ gmail . com. Unfortunately I don't use that account much now as Gmail can't tell the difference between no space or . or _, so I get email for every other person with the same name email address.

I got mine on the beta roll out from a friend high up in IT. My then partner, who also worked in IT, was very jealous and could believe I had an invitation to join before him (I work in biological sciences). I liked him enough then to send him an invitation

I still have ‘googlemail.com’ on my address (so [email protected]). I joined in 2005.

I have a shortened version of my first name and often receive mails for a guy with the same name 😂

My DH was also early to gmail, and he got [email protected], with is both a good thing and a very, very, very bad thing. My DH is descended from St Thomas christians of Kerala (South India). They have quite an unusual naming convention as part of which you use your father's first name as your surname. Wiki link What it boils down to is that there are approximately 26 male names (plus Indian variants) and your first name is one of 26 and your surname is another of the 26. So there are literally thousands of people with his exact name. Many of them are on gmail but obviously since DH has the FirstnameLastname account they have to have some other variant of it, but the people emailing them usually assume that they are using DH's account name, or they just get the right account wrong or something. Anyway, DH gets a LOT of email that is not for him, especially lots that is meant for a very evangelical preacher.

I’m first name.surname, and it does sometimes feel like I’m unofficial secretary for a lot of people. Most of it I ignore, but some things, like invitations to job interviews and weddings, you kind of feel morally obliged to let them know!