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Google launched Gmail 20 years ago. Many thought it was an April Fools' prank

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Michel Martin.

When Google launched Gmail 20 years ago today, many people thought the whole thing was an April Fools' Day prank. Google advertised a whole gigabyte of email storage. That was a huge amount of space back then. The Associated Press reminds us that skeptics had their reasons. Google had previously proposed outlandish fake ideas on April 1, including a scratch-and-sniff feature on its search engine. Today, the email platform is no joke. It has well over a billion users.

It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Michel Martin is the weekend host of All Things Considered, where she draws on her deep reporting and interviewing experience to dig in to the week's news. Outside the studio, she has also hosted "Michel Martin: Going There," an ambitious live event series in collaboration with Member Stations.