On April 1st 2009, Gmail officially turned 5 years old! With its BETA tag still intact (for some unthinkable reasons) Gmail has transformed how webmail works. I still remember when about 5 years ago, I received an invitation to use Gmail from a friend. I was pessimistic at first as I thought it was going to be like any other webmail accounts that I had been using. I was proven wrong as within days, I started to enjoy its features. Now, all my other webmail accounts are forwarded to my Gmail account. Haha. That makes my life easy as I can access all my mails seamlessly. Here are some features that I enjoyed the most about Gmail:

• Grouping of mails as conversation threads: I love this the most. It saves me a lot of time tracing back sent mails and replies I recieved. All emails with the same subject are grouped together including my own replies. No more messy and disoriented inbox!
• Gmail Labs: Well,  with Gmail, you also get to try various experimental features from Gmail Labs from basic personalization to fun elements like games.
• Gmail Offline: Talk about email on the go!  Gmail Offline alows you to access your inbox through your browser and use Gmail’s familiar features even when you’re offline.
• Gmail Mobile: The mobile version of Gmail is super cool without really reduce its functionality. Even with slow speed like GPRS, you can read and check your mail via mobile!
• Multilingual Support:  Initially available only in English, it now comes in 52 language options available, including most European languages and many in non-Roman writing systems, such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
• It’s Super Fast: I don’t know about you, but I always gain access to my Gmail much much faster than other mails accounts.

I do hope Gmail will continue to offer more features to its users and of course drop the BETA tag as soon as possible. Hehe. And yeah, if you missed the Gmail April Fool’s day prank, go here. Can’t believe I actually fall into the trap! Hahaha. It’s by far the greatest prank ever!

Official announcement on Gmail Blog.