Gmail’s Quotaand few in-jokes

Zvi Devir

History of Gmail’s quotaApril 1st, 2004 – Gmail is born…

Providing 1024 Mb of free storage!April 2nd, 2005 – Quota increased to 2050 Mb.

Following gradual growth of ~100Mb per month.October 1st, 2006 – Growth rate is slowed down

to ~10Mb per month.January-March 2007 – Growth rate of ~12Mb per month,

in the foreseeable future (until 2012).

Storage quota graph

04/04 04/05 04/06 04/07 04/08 04/09 04/101024

2000

2250

2500

2750

3000

3250

3500

Gm

ail s

tora

ge (M

b)

Date

As of 16/03/07

Gmail’s quota counter

var CP = [ [ 1167638400000, 2800 ], [ 1175414400000, 2835 ], [ 1207033200000, 2980 ], [ 1238569200000, 3125 ], [ 1270105200000, 3270 ], [ 1301641200000, 3415 ], [ 1333263600000, 3560 ]];

This is a code fragment from the “Welcome to Gmail” page:

Dates in serial form Storage quota in Mb

Gmail’s quota counter

var CP = [ [ 01/01/2007 08:00 -> 2800 Mb ], [ 01/04/2007 08:00 -> 2835 Mb ], [ 01/04/2008 07:00 -> 2980 Mb ], [ 01/04/2009 07:00 -> 3125 Mb ], [ 01/04/2010 07:00 -> 3270 Mb ], [ 01/04/2011 07:00 -> 3415 Mb ], [ 01/04/2012 07:00 -> 3560 Mb ]];

Gmail calculates the current quota using a linear interpolation between the date “points”.

The quota counter table in human readable form:

October 12th, 2007 – New quotaApril 1st, 2004 – Gmail is born…

with 1024 Mb of free storage!April 2nd, 2005 – Quota increased to 2050 Mb.

Following gradual growth of ~100Mb per month.October 1st, 2006 – Growth rate is slowed down

to ~10Mb per month.January-March 2007 – Growth rate of ~12Mb per month,

in the foreseeable future (until 2012).October 12th, 2007 – Another huge leap:

Gmail now gives more than 6Gb of storage, with monthly growth rate of ~100Mb.

October 12th, 2007 – New quota

04/04 04/05 04/06 04/07 04/08 04/09 04/101024

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

Gm

ail s

tora

ge (M

b)

Date

As of 12/10/07

New quota counter

// Estimates of nanite storage generation over time.var CP = [ [ 1175414400000, 2835 ], [ 1192176000000, 2912 ], [ 1193122800000, 4321 ], [ 1199433600000, 6283 ], [ 2147328000000, 43008 ], [ 46893711600000, Number.MAX_VALUE ]];

This is the new JavaScript counter:

What is this Number.MAX_VALUE? Google must be kidding…The serial dates look odd…And what is this nanite storage generation?

As Google’s storage capacity, which grows at similar rate…

Nanites are self-reproducing (Von Neumann) nano-robotic machines.

New quota counter

// Estimates of nanite storage generation over time.var CP = [ [ 01/04/2007 08:00 -> 2835 Mb ], [ 12/10/2007 08:00 -> 2912 Mb ], [ 23/10/2007 07:00 -> 4321 Mb ], [ 04/01/2008 08:00 -> 6283 Mb ], [ 17/01/2038 08:00 -> 42 Gb ], [ 02/01/3456 07:00 -> Infinite... ]];

The new counter in human readable format:

Well, 42 is a very special number.On January 2038 the Unix world will face the infamous Y2K38 bug..Google will hit infinity (and beyond) at a very special date – in American format, it will happen on 01-02-3456 at 07:00:00.

New quota counter

// Estimates of nanite storage generation over time.var CP = [ [ 01/04/2007 08:00 -> 2835 Mb ], [ 12/10/2007 08:00 -> 2912 Mb ], [ 23/10/2007 07:00 -> 4321 Mb ], [ 04/01/2008 08:00 -> 6283 Mb ], [ 17/01/2038 08:00 -> 42 Gb ], [ 02/01/3456 07:00 -> Infinite... ]];

19/01/2038 03:14:0802/01/3456 07:08:09

The new counter in human readable format:

Still, something is wrong…A better magic date is 01-02-3456 at 07:08:09.And the Y2K38 bug will occur on January 19th, 2038, at 03:14:08.

Anybody wants to fill a bug report?