Who remembers when Gmail accounts were invite-only and you got a full gig of storage?

Posted by ansyhrrian@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 473 comments

Who remembers when Gmail accounts were invite-only and you got a full gig of storage?

I just found my welcome email from June 10, 2004. No one thought you’d ever need more than a gig for email storage when they launched.

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473 Comments

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bony-tony@reddit

Remember it well. I've got gmail addresses for both my first.last name and my college nickname. The whole free GB thing feels like a bit of a bait and switch now -- the idea was you never had to delete anything because it was a huge amount of storage, and they kept upping and upping the free amount. But then they stopped upping it, and smartphone pictures became a thing (and they go against the same quota), and eventually 15GB was nothing. And that was my essay on how Google got me to pay them $2.99/month.

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Funny_Obligation2412@reddit

Real question is do you remember hotmail before they were purchased by Microsoft?

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leodog13@reddit

Had them for YEARS! Does anyone remember chick mail? They were so cool. Their tag line was "for girls who just don't fake it."

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Funny_Obligation2412@reddit

I dont remember that email service sorry.

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BittenBeads@reddit

Bruh. I still have my og hotmail from \*cough\* 1997...

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christina311@reddit

I still see @hotmail on occasion. They should have changed it to @boomermail.com

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DontEatThatTaco@reddit

I'm only 46, please don't force me into that camp just because I held onto it all these years.

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Legitimate_Ocelot491@reddit

I had Hotmail in ‘98 or ‘99. Then it got wiped around 2005 when MS said I didn’t use it enough. Pissed me off that it just disappeared. I’d moved to Gmail by then but was late to the party with it early 2005. Wasn’t connected enough to get an early invite. Still use it but it’s mostly mailing lists and stuff I can take or leave.

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couchisland@reddit

Ugh yeah they did that to me as well, it was my first “real” email address, after college. Had it for years and used it as a back up and for junk.

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Turbulent_Tale6497@reddit

I remember, "Don't delete, archive!" Then a few years later, "You are out of storage space, delete some emails!"

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leodog13@reddit

Yes! Now you have to buy space.

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LongtimeLurker916@reddit

When you deleted they would actually say "Why delete when you have so much storage?" It really was a broken promise.

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ansyhrrian@reddit (OP)

Haha. A gig didn’t go that far.

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BoneDaddy1973@reddit

Yeah I got lucky early on and my Gmail addy is just my name. There’s a nice lady in Virginia who has my same name and her gmail address is just lastname.firstname and sometimes I get her emails by mistake and I forward them on to her. Thank god her emails are about quilting and grandchildren.

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putitontheunderhills@reddit

Got invited by a friend who was an SRE at Google. Happy to have firstlast at gmail dot com.

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Jld114@reddit

That’s when I got mine!

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NaturalSpecialist5@reddit

I was one of the first as well. I was also one of the firsts to Pinterest when it was invite only. It was very small for a while. I miss ad free everything.

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activelyresting@reddit

Omg. My Gmail account is old enough to buy alcohol in the US.

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Dana_W@reddit

My eBay account is 27. Tell me about it.

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Mr_Tort_Feasor@reddit

I got you beat by one year (registered in 1998). I also have had had a continuous Netflix subscription since 2000.

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activelyresting@reddit

I still have my old yahoo account active, now that I think about it. That's 26. It's where I got the invite to my Gmail to 😂

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SpikeDawgIII@reddit

I paid $5 on eBay for an invite.

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DefinitionCivil9421@reddit

I have my original first and last name in Gmail, I'll pass it along to my children

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nemme99@reddit

I offered a VHS copy of Happy Gilmore to someone on the internet for a beta code. Got the code but he never sent an address to send the tape. Now I have a first name+first letter of last name Gmail address!

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ahamasmi@reddit

I got first initial last name, and I traded by mail a live Phish show burned on CD!

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OnMyPorcelainThrone@reddit

Instill have mine from then.sucj a different world...Don't be evil.

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pir8salt@reddit

Fought so hard to get my friend to invite me, and glad I did. I got a sweet ass name, and I got invites to give early engough I also got my real name, no number. l33t mofo over here

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tinoj3@reddit

I got mine from a Russian guy, j\*\*\*\*2 and j\*\*\*\*3. still use them

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Signal-Session-6637@reddit

Mine is from an invite too.

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OliJalapeno@reddit

My Gmail filled itself with various types of spam email and is now demanding I pay for additional storage space. I've deleted everything, because I never use that account for anything, but it doesn't recognize all the mail boxes are now empty. Gmail is weird.

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Krimreaper1@reddit

Go,to Google drive, and you c find out where the storage is. Or you can go a search for large attachments in Gmail and delete those.

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AffectionateSun5776@reddit

Thanks

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toTheNewLife@reddit

I was part of the initial rollout too. Mine is my last name. I still use it, and will pass it onto my kid.

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AffectionateSun5776@reddit

Mine is 6 letters at...

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AffectionateSun5776@reddit

They have been terrible letting junk through. Seriously may need another address.

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pnjtony@reddit

I got my invite and registered firstlast@gmail.com it's pretty great.

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Zombie-MountedArcher@reddit

Hahaha I bought my invite for $5 off eBay!

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ansyhrrian@reddit (OP)

I did get a pretty cool username, too.

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Malapple@reddit

Just looked, mine is from Oct 2004. Can't believe that account is old enough to drink. Also got a good email address; just my name, which is short. No numbers, dashes, or anything extra.

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monkeyboy808@reddit

how did you check?

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ansyhrrian@reddit (OP)

Search for: “Gmail is different. Here's what you need to know.”

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monkeyboy808@reddit

Thx

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Fuddle@reddit

Same and omg do I get all the spam

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ansyhrrian@reddit (OP)

Yeah no joke. Like, mine is first initial last name - and I get SO MUCH email from people that apparently have no idea what their own email address is.

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ihatecleaningtoilets@reddit

Definitely remember

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spider_speller@reddit

I do, and I still have mine! And now I have a bunch of people with my first initial and last name who apparently think that's their email address because I get all kinds of shit for them. Hopefully Carla's email from her kid's school wasn't important and Chris didn't need the receipt for his new rims.

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Dana_W@reddit

Glad my mail isn't a persons name.

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spider_speller@reddit

I did it that way so it would look reasonable on things like resumes. I'm still glad to have it, but I'm just puzzled by the number of people who apparently don't know their own email addresses.

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Dana_W@reddit

Yeah I can see that being a plus, I had a silly cartoon email and my whole life is hooked to it now, and I've had to explain it a million times.

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jujufruit420@reddit

They didn’t see me coming… I don’t delete any email ever 😭

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Candid_Rise5153@reddit

I got mine in 2009 when a friend invited me. In searching for my "welcome" email, I found a few invitations I sent out later that year- apparently storage was increased to two gigs by then....now it'll take a Godly intervention to ever get out of their monthly paid cloud storage.

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Hoon0967@reddit

Not me. I’ve had hotmail since the 90’s. I do have Gmail now though but still use hotmail as my primary.

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Familiar_Asparagus14@reddit

https://i.redd.it/9dn1sj80cxrg1.gif

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lonseidman@reddit

I was able to get in around the middle of April in '04, very early on. I was the most popular guy in town when I had invites!

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biffNicholson@reddit

Haaa my dad had to get me the invite. I was definitely an adult when Gmail was released and pretty tech savvy, but apparently my father was far ahead of me.

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STLHDslime@reddit

Yes. I was a beta user and made myself and my then finance our firstnamelastname@gmail email accounts. I still use mine as my primary email but it’s so full of spam after 22 years.

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Beegkitty@reddit

Same. But not just the spam, I keep getting emails for every other woman IN THE WORLD, that has the same first name last name. I am so tired of it. It used to not be that common. I knew NO ONE with my name. Now there are four that are complete and utter twats that keep signing up with my email. Job applications. Rental applications. Actual jobs they get. One is a hooker in London and puts up adverts with the email address for her hookups.

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liog2step@reddit

I have a Gmail doppelgänger in Australia and one somewhere in the Midwest that I get emails for fairly regularly.

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STLHDslime@reddit

Oh that isn’t cool! There is one dude in Australia with the same name as me and he has a period between his first and last in his email and occasionally I’ll get his emails by accident. We forward them to one another if it happens and get a kick out of having the same name which is rare. Your situation is scary though and I’d be worried about identity theft! Be careful and pay close attention to your credit.

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LoserZombie@reddit

Gmail doesn’t recognize dots as being unique characters in email addresses. There must be some other character difference between your email addresses.

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biffbobfred@reddit

I personally know “kindaCommonLastName” at gmail. He gets so much shit Mine is “first initial” “very Czech last name”. There’s a cluster of Czech folks in Nebraska I get email for.

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aumiket@reddit

I was so happy when a friend sent me an invite. Now I don’t use Gmail due to privacy.

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thatsmilingface@reddit

What's better to use?

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aumiket@reddit

There is a subreddit called /degoogle.

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aumiket@reddit

Lots of folks use Proton Mail.

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Bendr_@reddit

You were 9 days before me :)

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ChaosTheoryGirl@reddit

Yep, I got my firstname@gmail.com using an invitation. Gen Z is always impressed I have that. I am still using it.

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Bendr_@reddit

Mine is first name at gmail too. My name is only 5 characters long and the google minimum was 6 so I had to add a number. Still in use today!

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Bendr_@reddit

22 years this June. My gmail email address is my 5 letter name and a number (minimum was 6 characters). Got about 15 GB of stuff in those emails that I still use to this day.

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BizarroMax@reddit

I had a beta account and ten referrals. Used one on a girl I was dating. This year is our 20th wedding anniversary. I also got on Facebook when you had to have a university email address.

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SuspiciousChicken@reddit

Ha ha me too! I sent my wife-to-be a referral. We both have our own names, no numbers.

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BizarroMax@reddit

Same!

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systris@reddit

I got my Gmail address from an event ZDNet had in NYC, they had a booth and I got one without a code..it was neat...

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Due_Force_9816@reddit

Got it in beta in early 04 I think, my storage capacity didn’t budge and I was never near it, fast forward to today and I still delete most emails but every week and I’ve got an email telling me I’m at 90% storage capacity and I can buy extra storage.

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plasteroid@reddit

Got accounts for myself, my ex and even the kids. FirstLast@gmail. Kinda crazy it’s still going strong. Most of the others from that era are dead. Yahoo MSN What were some others?

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ObviousOrca@reddit

I remember yahoo did an offshoot called rocket mail or something? Is that even still a thing? A family member still used AOL until recently, but now can’t use a computer anymore so there’s that, but I think AOL is still going?

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zombie_overlord@reddit

Mine is first initial last name. I bought a beta invite off ebay for $2

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briank3387@reddit

I got my Gmail account through a friend who worked at Google at the time. Even before the wider public beta invites went out.

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ObviousOrca@reddit

oooh…check out the big brain on Brian!!! haha, nice one, that’s awesome!

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agoodspace@reddit

you could get your name in 2010. depending on your name.

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SidewaysButtCheeks@reddit

You can get your name in 2026, depending on your name.

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ObviousOrca@reddit

Thanks so much for this! My name is EveryWhichWayButtCheeks and it’s so good to have my real name and meet someone with the same surname as me on Reddit :-)

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Ok_Entrepreneur_8509@reddit

Facebook was invite-only for several years, too.

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biffbobfred@reddit

They wanted to make sure they could solve the scaling issues.

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biffbobfred@reddit

I think I was just out of beta but you still needed invites

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The_Three_Meow-igos@reddit

Who remembers when cars cost a nickel and cocaine was served instead of salt????

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New_Succotash2500@reddit

Yep. I was an early beta invite, a friend was friend with a google employee. I remember how much I loved the interface compared to msn and Yahoo Mail. It’s still my primary email.

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fsckitnet@reddit

Beat you by a couple of weeks. :) 6 chars first initial last name. The number of people who think their email address is mine is staggering. Best thing I’ve gotten by mistake was an invitation to a formal state dinner in the Obama White House. https://preview.redd.it/5ixy7hxmrtrg1.jpeg?width=1320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=afa5e8eedf608cf9471cdf8d1d62cc0cc2349ded

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_thekev@reddit

I have my last name because the first name was too short (probably taken). I get so many emails from idiots who bumped the comma instead of the period.

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RDUBiker@reddit

Exactly mirrors my situation, minus Obama invite. Thanks, OBAMA! 🤣

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SaintPismyG@reddit

Yep. Got my invite from someone on FARK.

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Quaranj@reddit

There's a site that disappeared into obscurity for me by not having a mobile app.

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SaintPismyG@reddit

Just found it last night after I posted. Even able to log in to my original account - since May 7, 2002!

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Quaranj@reddit

>There’s even a mobile app…but it kind of sucks. Eh. That's a relatively recent development. If Fark had gone mobile properly, it would arguably still be very relevant.

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MCSSavvy@reddit

Yes, it's my primary email address. As soon as a friend of mine was invited and joined, he sent me an invite. If I remember correctly, they did something similar when they first offered Google Voice.

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basahahn1@reddit

I have never felt so in the now with something before or since.

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BIIIIIID-@reddit

I bought an invitation off ebay. Still use that address too.

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rogun64@reddit

I remember. I was a big Google user from the start and signed up for Gmail even though I didn't need it. I still have that account, even though I no longer like Google.

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Seattle7@reddit

I bought an invite off eBay for like a quarter, and then received 10 to give out to friends and family.

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Admirable-Currency89@reddit

Still using that account.

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OutdoorRaleigh@reddit

Got an invite, email is my name, no numbers

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Nicole_Bitchie@reddit

Got my first initial, middle initial, (very common) last name. I was pretty stoked.

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OutdoorRaleigh@reddit

I've been giggling about your user name for days, well played

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Nicole_Bitchie@reddit

So way way back when Perez Hilton was a thing, I needed a user name for a pop culture snark website and my name is Nicole so it kinda fit. Been using it other places ever since b

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Rogerdodger1946@reddit

Yup, wife and I are both invitees from back then. I got my name as my address and so did my wife. I have a few other addresses now for different purposes.

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InvertedInsideWinger@reddit

Yup. Was one of the beta testers. Still have the address based on my name and doesn’t include any numbers or weird symbols.

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Avg_Sun_Enjoyer69@reddit

Yep! A friend of mine sent me an invite in the early Gmail days.

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p2ii5150@reddit

Oh yeah, got an invite from a buddy in aug. or sept. of 2004 if memory serves. Still going strong!

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Donkey-Hodey@reddit

I got my current Gmail account via a shared invite in around 2004.

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davidsinnergeek@reddit

I got a beta invite from a co-worker at the telco/ISP I was working for at the time. Still use that address as my primary.

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BasicTelevision5@reddit

I always felt like a Yahoo email address was a little more GenX just because Yahoo was peaking in the mid- and late- 90s. Or maybe I just choose to believe that since my Yahoo email remains my primary email to this day. 😂

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Next_Possibility_01@reddit

I still use my hotmail address

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Pink-socks@reddit

Remember when gmail was googlemail?

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lazygerm@reddit

Yup! I was excited. The great migration from Yahoo Mail and Excite Mail!

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bernardfarquart@reddit

I have my firstname.lastname @gmail.com email address that I did need an invite for.

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Paingodruss@reddit

That’s exactly how long ago I got my Gmail account. My kids used to be so impressed that I got my actual name for my Gmail account.

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BattleSwallow@reddit

I have first name middle name @ Gmail - thought it was awesome. I still regularly get aaaaall kinds of emails for at least 10 other people who think my email address is their email address.

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bernardfarquart@reddit

Yes! I get that too and I don’t understand why there are people who think they magically have an email address just because they write it down.

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tandem_kayak@reddit

I didn't need another email address, so I used it as a throwaway and gave it a bullshit name, and it soon became the primary identity for my entire Google life, and apparently it can't be changed.

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Dana_W@reddit

I used a the popular cartoon character and a number. I still have to explain it and spell it out every time.

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OminOus_PancakeS@reddit

Related I guess: I remember when free Hotmail accounts wouldn't store your Sent messages for longer than a month; you had to pay if you wanted them kept long-term.

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Dana_W@reddit

My Gmail was a beta invite.

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Krimreaper1@reddit

I got mine at launch. So I guess these invites were pre launch? But I was a very early adapter.

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Weekly_Leg_2457@reddit

Yup. I was an employee at the time. We launched it on April 1, 2004 and lots of people thought it was a joke.

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Loras-@reddit

Yup! I worked for an ISP at the time and it blew our minds. It took me a year to get an invite!

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pistafox@reddit

I still get asked how my Gmail address is my last name. My answer: I’m old.

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KISSALIVE1975@reddit

That Was In 2004, During Beta Testing… I Was An Original Beta Tester… I Can Tell You That Gmail Abandoned Everything That They Promised Gmail To Be, And Was Very Short Lived…

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Timely-Tourist4109@reddit

Yeah I was too and totally agree.

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KISSALIVE1975@reddit

Remember When They Had Set Out To Beat Hotmail And Yahoo On Every Level??? 1. Never Delete Another Email Again, Email With Each Recipient Is Set Up Like A Continuous Conversation… 2. Send And Receive Bigger Files 3. Our Servers And Hard Space Is Constantly Growing… First Thing I Noticed Was The Amount Of Photos We Can Send In One Email Was Drastically Changing, Not Even Close To What It Was In 2004… The Conversation Format Went Away I Had My Original Email That I Started With As A Beta Tester In 2004, Then In 2024 I Got An Email From Gmail Telling Me They Have Permanently Shut Down My Email For Too Many Emails In My Inbox… 130,000+ Thinking They Would Reinstate If I Got It Below 100,000, Nope… Below 30,000, Not A Chance In Hell… I Had To Create New Gmail… I Can Still Access My Original Gmail, I Just Cannot Send Or Receive…

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Cr0wl3yman@reddit

Yup-and it’s still my primary email. It was great because I could use my name, without numbers. I was the first “me” on Gmail lol. Thought I was smart using a period between my first and last name-turns out Gmail doesn’t recognize punctuation, so now I get a lot of random junk for accounts with my name minus the period.

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Lampwick@reddit

Yeah, I got in early and was able to snag (first initial)(last name)@gmail.com as my email address. Turns out that kind of backfired. My last name isn't very common, but every dingbat with my last name and a first name starting with the same letter has at some point given someone *my* email address instead of whatever theirs is. There's an elderly woman in Cincinnati who has been giving my email as hers for everything from her Toyota dealer to her church to every political cause she wants to be in on. I obviously don't know her real email address, but I did discover her street address. I've considered sending a paper letter via USPS to explain what she's doing, but I don't think she'd understand it.

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Rare_Cauliflower_330@reddit

My husband shares a name with a female race car driver. He gets stuff from all sorts of clothing stores, church newsletters and a few realtors.

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PlatypusImpersonator@reddit

Same. Now I recently started getting email for another me in the UK.

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JelloProfessional747@reddit

same! I have a half dozen mes all over North America. ended up on a big family email chain for one of them: potlucks, prayers for ankles, the works. once I was asked to be in their wedding (wish I were kidding) I fessed up.

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Cr0wl3yman@reddit

It seems there’s a me in Florida who likes medical equipment and “stuff”, a me in Texas whose child is playing youth baseball, and a me in Cali who REALLY likes staying at the four seasons hotel

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thegreatgatsB70@reddit

I was able to use my name without having to add numbers and I still use it.

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MovingTarget-@reddit

One of the biggest benefits of being Gen-X. There at the right time and place to get your own name gmail account. lol The only downside is that I get all the messages that were meant for people with my same name.

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papachon@reddit

People still get amazed when I give my gmail account, “how did you get that?”

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woofiegrrl@reddit

First initial last name here, which unfortunately gets me a fair bit of other people's mail. Not something I ever considered in 2004, but here we are. Still use it though, for this same reason.

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Som12H8@reddit

(Firstname)(FirstInitialLastname) here. I get way too much mistaken mail.

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Nausicaaah@reddit

Same! I used to get weekly offers from various Italian dudes to buy it from me.

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couchisland@reddit

First name last name gang! Was able to get invites for my brother and my mother, and they are in the same club!

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ripsfo@reddit

Same! I get so many messages for people that seem to have no idea how email works. Poor dude looking for work in NJ is having a hell of a time. Meanwhile my wife has an even better one: first name, last initial address. She gets tons of Neiman-Marcus receipts for crazy expensive clothes. It’s wild.

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theotherdude@reddit

Same here dude, I even get to use the invite to open a couple of other accounts with only my aliases, and also for work only email.

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Mysterions@reddit

First name last name and a duplicate last name first name.

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christina311@reddit

Same!

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wallix@reddit

Along those lines, who fleeced Dropbox for up to 20gb of free space with fake email addresses? I got up to 15GB before I got bored with it. If only I would've pushed a little further...

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Sassca@reddit

I have a Hotmail, but people always know I’m old because it’s a really short email address & very simple.

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fifikinz@reddit

And because it’s Hotmail

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Sassca@reddit

Well yeah that too.

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hells_cowbells@reddit

I got an invite from a friend, and that account is still my primary email address. They launched on April 1, and had a history of doing April Fools pranks back then, so I thought it was a joke. I mean, come on. 1 GB of storage? There's no way any company would give you that much!

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NocturnalPermission@reddit

Colleague of mine sent me an invite and it seemed too good to be true!

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kingpcgeek@reddit

I bought an invite on eBay.

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Sore_Wa_Himitsu_Desu@reddit

It’s the reason I have my firstname.lastname@gmail.com address.

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JasterMereel42@reddit

I have firstnamelastname@gmail.com which annoys me. Yes, I know that Gmail ignores any . in it but the default being this has been annoying. I have switched everything over to firstname.lastname but sometimes the default goes back to firstnamelastname and it is annoying.

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Sore_Wa_Himitsu_Desu@reddit

Yeah Gmail ignores the . So it’s just a label.

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bornincali65@reddit

Got mine in 2005. Once I had that email address for a couple of years I shut down my Yahoo and Hotmail accounts.

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Melodic-Comb9076@reddit

well who remembers the 496….and flexing with the math co processor option?

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MyyWifeRocks@reddit

486..

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annaane@reddit

It pops in my mind every so often. I remember, as a full grown adult, freaking out because I didn’t receive an invite.

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jjmenace@reddit

I got my full name, wife's, kid's, dog's all right away. It's nice to say to people on the phone, "my email is my full name like you have in your records @gmail.com". Instead of having to spell it out with numbers and other bs.

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zaxo666@reddit

Same here. I was in the first batch. It's great. Just telling people it's my name at gmail.com. You can put the period between the first and the last name where you can leave it out. It works either way.

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jjmenace@reddit

Now that my kids are older and see the emails their friends have to use they actually thanked me!

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smhealey@reddit

Ditto but I get all kinds of email from people with dots or spaces with similar to my simple first initial last name email.

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jjmenace@reddit

Yeah, that's the worst part but thankfully my last name isn't too common.

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Initial-Relation-696@reddit

That is still basically my only email. Sister sent the invite. Did not really know what it was.

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kissys_grits@reddit

Yasss! I got my name exactly as it is. No periods, no weird numbers. Perf

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VerbosePlantain@reddit

Same - that’s how we know it’s an OG account.

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Grand-Bag6722@reddit

Completely forgot about this! I got my account around the same time as you because my partner at the time insisted it was better than Lycos (so true!). That relationship ended but I still have my account - first and last name with no numbers, symbols or other weirdness.

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kissys_grits@reddit

OR got fb when it was only for college students? I might be the only one as a Gen Xer, but to be fair, I was still in college because I was working on my doctorate.

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mrkurt426@reddit

I got my account by September 2004. The oldest message is from a Linux user group that disbanded before the pandemic.

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CML72@reddit

Its also how i ended up with a google voice number that was a local call for my family, so they wouldnt be charged for long distance.

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planenut767@reddit

Remember it well. Honestly I'm not overly fond of it. Only reason I have it is for my Play Store account and some of my junk mail.

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Bassmasta76@reddit

Found my letter... 11/3/2004. Wow, it has been a while🤣

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Max_Sandpit@reddit

Me with my [firstnamelastname@gmail.com](mailto:firstnamelastname@gmail.com) and 17 GB of storage for free. I remember.

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MahonriWY@reddit

I have the best gmail address with no numbers on the end!

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zombie_overlord@reddit

Same - mine is first initial last name. I get a lot of wrong people's email who I guess just forget the numbers. One person in particular - she just uses my email address for stuff. Her name is very similar to mine.

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sdenike@reddit

I was able to get just my lastname@gmail … I have since found that over the last decade that some variation of my last name has become what seems to be a popular first name in Nigeria … so I get random emails in waves every so often and I have to let the person know that this is my email address and not theirs.

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baulsaak@reddit

Not to brag, but I'm friends with a Nigerian prince. Just happened to send me an e-mail a while ago and we've been conversing ever since. Even gave him my bank account info so that he can transfer funds for safe-keeping from time to time as his nation is in the midst of some turmoil. Nice guy... pretty down-to-earth. Quite the terrible speller, which is surprising, but I suppose English is not his first language.

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sdenike@reddit

You got a good one then! The one I most recently dealt with moved to the states and I get her Nigerian bank statements and also order confirmations from her online JCPenny orders lol

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gameraturtle@reddit

Same here. Daily emails for people whose names begin with the same letter as mine. It’s not a very common last name, so maybe distant relatives who cant be bothered to type the numbers at the end of their email.

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MahonriWY@reddit

My first one was dorkville@gmail.com but I immediately forgot the password word, and it wasn’t like there was a password recovery system in 1999. So I apologize for removing that one existence.

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Round-Place548@reddit

Same. Mine is an old nickname

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TrailerTrashQueen@reddit

i cant remember when i set mine up. anyone else miss Google Reader? 2005-2013 RIP.

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xenomachina@reddit

I worked on Google Reader. Always nice to see a fan in the wild. Kind of crazy that people still mention it over a decade later.

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TrailerTrashQueen@reddit

thank you for your service. never understood why it went to the Google Graveyard. Feedly can go to hell.

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iammacman@reddit

I got in early on an invite from a techie friend of mine. My Gmail address is my last name @gmail.com. I love that.

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m0rris0n_hotel@reddit

Same. I had someone years ago who wanted to buy my gmail off me. Wasn't even close to a tempting offer.

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TC_Stock@reddit

Yep, I created a gmail address that was the name of a local sports team. Every time I have to give it to someone they first ask me if there are any numbers at the end. When I tell them no they ask how I got it. The downside is that strangers try to take over the account or sign up for things using my email.

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atomxv@reddit

It's been my main account since june of 2004.

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Quaranj@reddit

There were a lot of promotions for extra space, too. I wish I had done more because some of them got clawed back later.

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JustChemist8556@reddit

I just watched a whole deep dive on how we’re living in the land of paid subscriptions now. They give us something and then after they reel us in, they charge us. I think I paid 1.99 a month for my Gmail now. Silly

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btc6000@reddit

Pfffft…@googlemail precedes @gmail

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still-at-the-beach@reddit

That was certain countries like the UK, gmail was out the same time.

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justacheesyguy@reddit

Only in United Kingdom, the Russian Federation, Poland and Germany. They launched at the same time everywhere else.

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Elses_pels@reddit

I have one

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Comet_Empire@reddit

That's how I got mine.

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still-at-the-beach@reddit

Yep, how I got mine. And the storage increased every day … ended up with 18GB free storage.

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ionchannels@reddit

I bought an invite on eBay for $2 in 2003 I believe. Still have the same email address.

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smhealey@reddit

Ditto

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threedogdad@reddit

of course, very smart marketing at the time. I've lost count over the years, but I probably have at least 5 email addresses at all og services, plus more on my own domains.

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NegScenePts@reddit

I never took them up on an invite, although I did get one. I joined up a little bit after they stopped and it's why my main email now isn't something stupid like 'monkeybusinessbanana69', like all the suckers have, heh. My three current addys (although one is Hotmail...which I don't use anymore) all have the same name, which is great.

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Redman_Goldblend@reddit

I was at Stanford in the 90s. I remember Yahoo and then Google. I still have some boxers with the early Google logo on them somewhere. They would pass them out to the students in the quad. I've had Gmail since I can't remember.

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rm78noir@reddit

Still have it. Still using it. Got the invite a couple of weeks into it.

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Best-Broccoli5386@reddit

Same here.

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I_am___The_Botman@reddit

Yeah, it was absolutely revolutionary at the time. What did competing services have at the time? It was something rediculous, 2MB? I wanna say that, but maybe it's too low, 10MB? And the invite only thing was a genius marketing move.

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Flat-Ad6208@reddit

I had a bunch of invites to give away I tried to give them to my coworkers, who frequently looked at me like "I have AOL?" Still have mine

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AVLThumper@reddit

I remember this too. A friend gave me an invite, and then I had like 10 to give out. My wife and I are still on those original Gmail addresses.

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ApprehensiveSmell995@reddit

I felt so honored getting a couple of invites!

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acanis73@reddit

Yup. And still got it. I was able to get an mail address which is just my first name@gmail. Will keep it till im gone i guess

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Daylyn33@reddit

Me too!! And I was so excited to get that invite, lol!

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slowtreme@reddit

how many gb do you get now? I looked at my OG invite account and it's 15gb. I don't use it anymore but it's still there.

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siberianmi@reddit

My OG account I downloaded the takeout file just for the email the other day and it was 19GB. Email only. I’m not paying for it and have never received a stage warning.

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zaxo666@reddit

I was in the first batch and you know what the weird side effect is? My account is my name which is semi sort of common. I get a ton of personal emails from all of the other people with my name all over the world. Motorcycle registration renewals Australia, choir practice in Ireland, historical society payments in England, real estate ventures in Wyoming, accidental deposits from New York, I mean I can literally go on and on for the past what 20 years? I actually spent the time to hunt down a few people with my name because the documents seemed important, like the motorcycle registration guy in Australia. And I was getting all these payments to this historical society in England. I had to quit after a while though because it's just too much.

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reddaddiction@reddit

Same same

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rainbikr@reddit

Fantastic.

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spikerlj@reddit

I remember contacting every tech savvy friend asking for an invite. Finally got an invite 2 weeks before it went public.

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DoookieMaxx@reddit

I’ve had the same GMail account from when they were offering beta access to IT techs. You would get like 5 invites every few days to share it with other people. For years it felt like a really cool status symbol …. Not so much anymore.

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newaccountzuerich@reddit

Same. It was always nice to have my name as an email in the days of random word and number at aol..

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ripsfo@reddit

I got my invite from a buddy working at Google at the time. April 2004. Easy to search for. I couldn’t remember when, so started Dec 1. before:2004-12-1

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ZeroCalorieCoffee@reddit

I am an early adopter of Google Hosted which eventually turned into Google Workspace. A few things: * it’s funny looking at a distro list of say school parents - you can almost age each one of them with the email address they’re using. Hotmail/Yahoo is almost guaranteed to be GenX or older. Gmail will be someone younger than 43. You see very very few geeks like myself using their own domain. * I was an early adopter of Google Hosted. They basically said “let us host your email for free” - and in return I get enterprise level email. Prior to this, I was hosting email on janky servers using SquirrelMail. Oh god, that was a nightmare. Plus, I don’t see any ads across any Google products * about 3 years ago, somebody at Google got a bug up their arse that they wanted to charge for us original free users. I can’t recall the details, but I was going to end up paying like $140-240/year. I was pissed, but was busy at work and a few other things and didn’t look into this. Luckily, Google reversed course and decided to not charge. They now call my plan the “Google Legacy” account or something like that.

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eggy_wegs@reddit

That's how I got mine, I was friends with the IT guys in my company.

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7d8GCVKru@reddit

I felt like a king getting that invite.

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joelav@reddit

I got an invite to Google voice and Google wave too.

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FrustratedPassenger@reddit

I was on google wave lol

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Objective-Bug-1941@reddit

My 2004 account is at 98% full and always will be.

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omegamence@reddit

still have my 2004 account its like 97% full on storage

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StickyMcStickface@reddit

clean short own name @gmail.com is an underrated flex – or giveaway that you‘re getting old…sigh

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tastyreg@reddit

I do, but do you remember the pre-MS HoTMaiL days?

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Elmundopalladio@reddit

I still use my Hotmail address - my name without any number embellishments - proper early/mid 90’s old skool!

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issafly@reddit

I do, because I have my name @gmail.com. 🤘

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ggoptimus@reddit

Ditto. Screw you other people with my same name.

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Z_Opinionator@reddit

I have been a total dick with people who think they are Z_Opinionator@gmail. I’ve cancelled the car service appointment for a lady in NM; told a family planning a big reunion that I didn’t like any of them and that I wasn’t coming; cancelled a order of building materials. My family jokingly tells everyone these stories and no one believes the nice guy does these things. Fuck em. They need to get their own shitty Gmail account name. I’ve been here since early 2004.

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CoolDragon@reddit

I once had to CALL A GUY IN MINNESOTA to stop ordering pizza using my gmail (I’m in Mexico), dude got REALLY freaked out when I told him his order and his name. Few months later he did it again for a car mechanic service so I went ahead and canceled the appointment from the email address. It never happened again. I explained the situation to him and asked him to stop using my address for his things, we shared the same name but his email had numbers and “got lazy”. Same with a guy in South America, also had to stop him from signing up with a local telephone service using my email. OG invite gang as well!

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justacheesyguy@reddit

I wish I only had one guy ordering pizza off my email. I was also one of the first to sign up for gmail and after getting my first initial and last name I used the first invite to register a very common food related phrase as my second email which I still use as my primary email to this day. I’d say I get 3-4 emails per month from dominos and other pizza places with orders from all over the country. For a while there they actually allowed me to collect the points for whatever rewards program they have so I probably got 2-3 free pizzas a month just because everyone used my email, but they eventually canceled that program or figured out that it wasn’t one person that was doing all the ordering from all over. Still, it was nice not having to pay for pizza for a year or two.

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willfull@reddit

and screw the guy who doesn't know to spell "willful" correctly and keeps sending all of his shit to my account. Be sure to answer your phone at 10 on Monday because all seven used car salesmen are eager to speak with you about that white Toyota SUV you've been searching for.

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TP_Crisis_2020@reddit

I got my invite in I think 2005, and some dickwad with the same name as me already snagged it. 😤

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reddog323@reddit

Me too. Strictly my last name. People question me sometimes when I give it out, and I told them I was an early adopter.

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defStef@reddit

Same

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Alkash@reddit

Absolutely had to check, and yes, I still have my welcome message from early 2005! "Gmail is different. Here's what you need to know." Damn, 21 years have passed.

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Der_fluter_mouse@reddit

Still have mine!

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mfhandy5319@reddit

People can tell I'm old because my address doesn't have any capitals, numbers, or special characters.

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FrozenLogger@reddit

I hosted my own email long before gmail came around. I thought (same with hotmail) why would anyone want this? But then I thought, hey why not. I just hardly ever manage it, or delete anything. I still have my welcome email from 2004 in it, lol.

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xenomachina@reddit

> only got a full gig of storage At the time, 1GB of storage was considered an *insanely" huge amount for a free email service. The competition offered something like 50MB. Coupled with the fact that it launched on April 1, many thought that it must be a joke. "No one would really give away 1GB of storage for free, right!?"

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Original_Mix9255@reddit

Wow I wasn’t that early but early enough to score a first.last email lol

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realdawnerd@reddit

I remember being able to make a few bucks selling them too.

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Khryen@reddit

9/13/04 here.

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tadees@reddit

Barely beat ya (and dammit Demonoid!) https://imgur.com/a/bt0hIG4

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Captain_of_Gravyboat@reddit

My gmail turned 20 last month! I remember the invites.

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tadees@reddit

22, maybe 23, here. Too old too remember.

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tadees@reddit

Was in on the beta as well. Just off Active Duty USN, seem to recall having to send an email "essay"/message about how I might use/why would such a massive amount of storage be useful in the future (or some such).

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Mallthus2@reddit

My Gmail account dates to that era. I got mine in 2004 as well. It’s funny now, because I frequently get people asking how I managed to get such a “simple” gmail address (it’s first initial and last name at Gmail) and I can really only quip “It’s good to be an early adopter sometimes.”

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jp112078@reddit

Same. I have first initial and last name. But I always say I could have got just my first name @ gmail.com. But I would bet the level of spam would be insane.

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Capable-Historian392@reddit

Yes, I got an invite the first month, have had the same email since then.

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radabadest@reddit

Oh yeah! I could have gotten my actual name. But instead I went with something kind of stupid, but I use it for everything anyway

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BillMaleficent9400@reddit

Yep, got an invite. Did firstlast@gmail. About 10 years ago I started getting a flurry of government documents, medical appointments/records, job interview requests… from Ireland buuut I live in Utah. His was first.last@gmail. So I forwarded them to the right address, with the message “I think you need to be a little more specific about the period between your name In your email address.” Never got a reply.

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u9Nails@reddit

Dots don't matter in your Gmail address. (Unless you have a Gmail for Work address.) https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en&sjid=4380023078631482061-NC

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oldschool_potato@reddit

This is a major TIL moment for me. I had to test it because I didn’t believe it. Yep, it works. I could have saved decades of annoyances of having to erase the extra space that my keyboard automatically puts in after a . Thank you!

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wesweslaco@reddit

Yeah, I also got firstnamelastname@gmail.com around 2004 and still get email for people who mistakenly use firstname.lastname@gmail.com. Nothing exciting so far.

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killervirgo@reddit

Yep. https://preview.redd.it/fbt7x03l1qrg1.jpeg?width=1320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=265d56d444705095189b0822ce4e1739b5f564ed

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CoolDragon@reddit

Google Plus was also good. A weird “sharepointy” groups site where you could share and create private circles.

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HeyMissMurderMittens@reddit

I do!! One of my kids email is just her first name at gmail.com I think that’s pretty awesome! I got in when Pinterest was still in testing too.

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GoslingIchi@reddit

I do, and Google is telling me to verify my age.

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shawncollins512@reddit

I got my name on Gmail at the beginning and so many idiots with my name think they have my email address and use it for all sorts of important things like National Guard orders and tax returns.

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One_Barnacle2699@reddit

I keep getting information on cruise trips some family takes together every year. I wonder if anyone is concerned why that one family member (who has the same name as me) never shows up!

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shawncollins512@reddit

Do they go to cool places? Maybe join them this year.

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MoistBaguetteLawyer@reddit

I keep getting photos from some goddamn Mormon on a mission in Utah.

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WizrdOfSpeedAndTime@reddit

Same. People from around world. Sometimes it is a look into alternative versions of myself.

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755goodmorning@reddit

I sent out the first 20 invites. AMA.

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cascadianpatriot@reddit

Why?

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755goodmorning@reddit

Why what

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cascadianpatriot@reddit

Why were you the one to give out the first 20?

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755goodmorning@reddit

I used to work at Google and I was on the team to help launch Gmail. Crazy time.

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cascadianpatriot@reddit

So how did you choose? Best friends? Folks for your career? Family?

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755goodmorning@reddit

Tons of friends. People I know who were social and would use the product. Also - my 5 year old daughter got a fantastic address :)

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755goodmorning@reddit

Fun fact. Gmail actually got its official name 3 nights prior to launch - there was a good chance it was going to be called “Googlemail” or just Google.com or an internal code name, but Gmail was the compromise position which stuck.

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apc961@reddit

You had to find a friend who had Gmail, then hope they still had invites available as I believe they were limited.

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BittenBeads@reddit

Yes! Invites were released in batches, I think. I had a buddy who invited me in summer of 2004. I didn't even know what gmail was, but he told me he was going to send me an invite for a new email service, so I joined. I only had two invites when I signed up. I remember getting more later on.

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Cirrus-Stratus@reddit

Only 20

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eggy_wegs@reddit

It was only 5 invites when I started

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Cirrus-Stratus@reddit

You’re earlier than me then.

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eggy_wegs@reddit

How do you see when you signed up?

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Cirrus-Stratus@reddit

I just opened Gmail on a PC and filtered to messages in 2004.

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eggy_wegs@reddit

Ah... I had to start deleting old emails a long time ago.

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Cirrus-Stratus@reddit

That’s too bad. I never hit or got close to the limit so was not forced to purge.

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pumkinut@reddit

When I got my invite, it came with 3 that I could give out.

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monkeyboy808@reddit

I had to mow Paul Buchheit's yard 5 times, then I got my invite.

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Mwvnova@reddit

I think it was 10

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Cirrus-Stratus@reddit

I think you’re right. Seemed like it was 10 or 20 - wasn’t sure.

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venicerocco@reddit

Bought mine on eBay for $20. Still use it as main email

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travelinmatt76@reddit

I got an invite from a friend in 2005, and then I gave one to my wife and a couple friends at work. At first they only gave you 5 invites, then they upped it to 10.

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jcpham@reddit

Me! I still have a free Google app domain. IDK what I’ll do when they eventually start charging but yep got my Gmail invite through IRC on DALnet

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Hilsam_Adent@reddit

My girlfriend at the time was a very well-connected IRC mod. Her invite came from a low-level Google exec, mine came from her. She also had a four digit ICQ ID. Kick-ass chick and mother of my two youngest crotchgoblins.

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positivepinetree@reddit

Yep, I still have the same gmail account a coworker invited me to join in 2005. I rarely use it, though. Privacy is a main concern of mine, so I use Proton mail and Tutamail instead. Google is terrible from a privacy standpoint.

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FeffJoxworthy@reddit

I tell people not infrequently that I worked in tech in Austin, knew someone at Google and got an invite...and that months later everyone who had Gmail was allowed to invite 5 friends a while before it went public and during that period people WERE selling and trading invites...people more than ten years younger are almost always blown away or think I'm full of cyber caca.

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filledoux@reddit

Yes and I still have mine! I remember Sean Penn losing his shit over not getting his gmail address lol

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Bossthree02@reddit

I paid $5 on ebay for an invite

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Optimal-Ad-7074@reddit

yup. I'm an og. got the half dozen emails a day meant for NOT me to prove it too.

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sebastianrileyt2@reddit

Am I that old? I remember telling a friends kid that we were older than google... the look on their face. Then they asked how we figured things out if we could not google it - like homework and that. I had to explain encyclopedia's to them.

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charliefoxtrot9@reddit

I was an invitee

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Funnyface92@reddit

I remember being on waiting list and constantly checking where I was in line. Still got my name. :-)

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leodog13@reddit

I got paid by someone via Paypal because of one of my gmail accounts. I have a couple.

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blunttrauma99@reddit

My email is my name. No numbers on the end. The amusing thing is I occasionally get mail for other people with my name that forget the numbers when typing the address. Judge in Texas, Yacht Captain in Spain, lawyer in San Diego, and some dude in Arizona that I don’t know whet he does.

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Realistic_Sand921@reddit

Omg I thought I was the only one. I had an invite OG account first.last, I get emails from a Formula1 racer’s family and a guy with my name that plays guitar in Australia, he also likes some pretty sketchy adult friend finder type sites

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blunttrauma99@reddit

The Yacht Captain one was funny. It was an email from a crew recruiter looking for a reference for someone who had worked on his boat. They sent like 30 questions about this guy they wanted answers so they could find him a job. I generally email back letting them know the address is wrong.

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mrsockburgler@reddit

I got first initial, last name @ gmail.com. It was a great idea at the time. Now I share it with 25 other people. I get car stuff, church stuff, business quotes, some people want to rent my jet, one guy is an international DJ, a few retired guys. My email is the recovery email for 2 different people because they won’t change it because I think I’m spamming them. One person registered his Experian account with my email. I can’t fix it without corresponding with them by snail mail.

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DokZayas@reddit

Somewhere out there is some uber cybersleth that could dox you with just that information.

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leodog13@reddit

That's how I got my gmail.

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Working_Group955@reddit

This guy emails

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Snugrilla@reddit

Still using mine. It does not have any numbers in it.

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GBi10ba@reddit

Do you get the emails of people with numbers in their Gmail addresses too? My name starts with an “s” and my email is s.lastname I get emails for Sarah, Sylvia, Sean, Steve and others. I keep thinking how do you put your own email address in wrong?

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Snugrilla@reddit

Very rarely.

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gravitydefiant@reddit

I get emails for a woman who, as far as I can tell, never set up an email and just assumed she could give everyone firstname.lastname@gmail. I guess she never looks for these messages? One time I got a series of messages from a help desk about how she couldn't pick up a package because she wasn't receiving the code she needed to open the locker, so they resent the code (to me) a dozen times. I finally found her on Facebook and sent screenshots and a message to the effect of, "of course you're not getting the code, you're telling them to send it to me!" But obviously she never read the message. Wonder if she ever got the damn package?

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borisdidnothingwrong@reddit

A high school buddy of mine was working for Microsoft when Gmail was in the invite only beta, and one of his computer science buddies was on the Gmail dev team. He sent a blast to about 25 people asking if they wanted to join up, and I jumped on it. Got my full name, and was often asked for feedback from the devs.

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DidelphisGinny@reddit

That’s how I joined.

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Rooooben@reddit

Yup June 2004. I was able to snag my first name at gmail.com.

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Every-Cook5084@reddit

Get ready for some spam, Ben! 😜

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Mike_Honcho_Summer@reddit

Reuben?

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Every-Cook5084@reddit

That’s probably more accurate

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oldschool_potato@reddit

I never realized how rare it is to have your actual name author numbers. Just never thought about it really. I did have to go lastname.Firstname because both are very common.

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wetwater@reddit

By the time I got my invite I wasn't able to get myfirstname.mylastname@gmail :(

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Feminist_Hugh_Hefner@reddit

I did and my name is pretty unusual, but I've found at least six more of us out there... one is an actor in NYC and I used to get his audition sides by mistake all the time. After years of pleasantries when I would forward a message that had missed the middle initial he had to include because he was slow, we actually got to meet up and have a coffee in Bryant Park. He's a cool guy and it was a good hang. life is weird.

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Shopworn_Soul@reddit

To this day I regret losing track of my firstname.lastname@gmail.com account. Can't believe I didn't bother to keep up with it.

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AKABrokenArrow@reddit

firstname.lastname here since 03-04?

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chasingjulian@reddit

I had to wait until December 2004 before I could get an invite.

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Burn_Corpo_Stuff@reddit

Shoulda bought one on ebay for $2.50 like some of us.

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agoodspace@reddit

earliest email I still have was Nov 2005 and it was from Itunes forwarded from a private domain I bought.

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agoodspace@reddit

I was so excited when someone referred me. Gmail sounded like such a short name.

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TravellinJ@reddit

My friend invited me. My email is my name. No numbers. I’ll keep it till I die.

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atomicbunny@reddit

My last name is not very common even among my dad’s country of origin. But between having my numberless email and a cellphone that is (area code) and 3 unique digits from one column arranged in an easy to remember 7 digit sequence, I’m hanging onto both forever.

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ButterflyStill6730@reddit

OG flex right there

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anarchikos@reddit

I got my name too and forgot that its not normal until someone mentioned it to me recently and didn't even know about the invites back in the day.

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SidewaysSynapses@reddit

Yup got an invite

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Rare_Magazine_5362@reddit

Bro, I was early invite Google 1G and also on the The Facebook when you still had to have an EDU email. I’m not cool, I’m just old.

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Conscious_Quality803@reddit

I was given an invite by a kind Japanese stranger seated next to me while hanging out in an internet cafe in Narita airport. I felt so cool.

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jonlevine@reddit

I bought an invite off of eBay so I could get my name as my email. Funny enough, I barely use that email address anymore.

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nuttypoolog@reddit

I got firstname.lastname@gmail.com from an early wave of invites....and its still my main account. Crikey time flies.

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Maleficent-Leek2943@reddit

I still have my firstname.lastname@gmail.com address. I changed my name when I got married, used one of my Gmail invites to set up a new email address, and was pissed that firstname.newlastname was taken. UNACCEPTABLE.

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Maleficent-Leek2943@reddit

And anytime you had invites to give out, they’d get claimed in seconds with people who’ll weren’t quick enough being all sad they missed out.

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FlyinRyan123456@reddit

Me

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Kickingandscreaming@reddit

I pre-registered and got the invite

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arianrhodd@reddit

I also remember when you had to have an edu email to sign up for Facebook.

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Mysterions@reddit

Yes, and not only is this still my main account, but I also still have my OG Hotmail accound which I still use.

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RebelStrategist@reddit

Wow. 2004. I remember getting my invite. A whole gigabyte of storage!! I can finally save … my one text file.

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Irisgrower2@reddit

3 months after OP got that email Google went public as a corporation. I bought a bunch of their stock due to the "no evil" clause in their mission.

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You-Asked-Me@reddit

This is what my email address is literally my name.

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whitebean@reddit

Same. Young people are baffled at the lack of numbers and other crud. Just my actual name at gmail dot com.

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Impressive-Yak-7449@reddit

Got mine via TotalFark!

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Every-Cook5084@reddit

Ah Fark. The good old days of the internet

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Sad_Independent9520@reddit

Gmailswap.com was a thing

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Dropadoodiepie@reddit

Living in the Bay Area during this time, it was easier to get into beta and invites. I got my first name and people are always like “how did you get just your first name?” I always respond with “I’m old.” 😂

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toopc@reddit

You should tell them you went to high school with Larry Page and he owed you a favor because you helped him pass Calculus.

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Camulius73@reddit

I got in on the Beta. I was lurking Fark.com and one of the guys I interacted with offered access. I got my name @gmail.com

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taggat@reddit

That and being an old school Apple user I still have my @mac.com so people think I work at Google or Apple.

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ninde_inglorion@reddit

Me too!

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PanicAtTheShiteShow@reddit

I also scored an invite from a friend in Amsterdam while chatting on mIRC. I too was able to use my name. I am showing my age!

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RavioliContingency@reddit

And I’ve had it since! And boy do I need to delete some shit.

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jnyrdr@reddit

hell i’m old enough to remember being in the first incoming class at the university of oregon to get email addresses. had to go to the computer lab to check it, too.

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TP_Crisis_2020@reddit

I got a .edu email my first semester of college, and then switched schools after that first semester. For some reason the first school kept my .edu email active for a very long time, like over a year after I had left the school. It's the e-mail that I used whenever Facebook launched and you had to have a .edu email. Shortly after using it to sign up for Facebook, the school finally cut off that e-mail and locked me out of my first OG FB account. 🧐

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reddog323@reddit

Jesus. Now I’m feeling old. I got my first email address in the early 90s at a management information systems class in grad school.

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film_jedi@reddit

Simmons’s invited in!

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Pinkfatrat@reddit

I made coffee money selling invites on eBay

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sylvar@reddit

And their signoff was “Speedy Delivery, The Gmail Team”. I wonder if Joanne Rogers got an early invite.

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qwerty8675309Z@reddit

Ugh I sure do. Around ‘05 I learned that a coworker had a Gmail address so of course I asked if he would send me an invite. Pretty please! I wasn’t early enough so had to add a suffix to my name

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daisy0808@reddit

I had just had my son, and got him his own account with his name. He appreciates it now.

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drifter3026@reddit

Bought my invite off of eBay.

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cpl1355@reddit

I got 2.5 GB of storage when I opened my account in 2006, then when I signed up in 2006, then got upgraded to 1 Tb of storage when I signed up for Google Fiber in 2015

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Prestigious-Newt-110@reddit

I got mine through a Usenet Newsgroup. People there who had invites offered them to anyone who wanted to propose an exchange of something. I offered to send a guy 2 full bags of Jolly Ranchers in the mail and got my account that way. Others offered cash or trades of items they owned.

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Designer-Travel4785@reddit

Yep. Found some person on a forum that sent me an invite. I don't even remember what forum it was. I still use it. I think i have 15GB of free storage under my account now. Me accounts are old enough that gmail, yahoo, Hotmail, and apple all have the same user name.

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Subject-Chart7371@reddit

My original account which I was able to get pretty early on, has 17GB space. The rest of my accounts have 15GB, even the one I gave myself by using one of my invites.

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zoot_boy@reddit

Ha, yes.

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jtsa5@reddit

The good ol' days of simpler times...

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ScienceWasLove@reddit

I do. I paid $5 for a Gmail invite on eBay. Lastname@gmail.com

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tonesloe@reddit

First initial, last name. My sister swears I stole it from her. Uhhh, that's not how emails work.

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texan01@reddit

Mine is one of the OG invite accounts.

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Number174631503@reddit

Same. And grandfathered yt account.

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No_Opinion_8464@reddit

One of mine is still one of those as well.....I was there...3000 years ago lol

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ZeroCalorieCoffee@reddit

I was an early hoTMaiL user

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rawesome99@reddit

I still am using Hotmail as my primary, more as a point of pride. Gets about 20 junk mails a day.

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ZeroCalorieCoffee@reddit

I wish I kept my Hotmail account. People forget that they were a startup that eventually got acquired by Microsoft

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ronnie-james-dior@reddit

The human-written introduction is so quaint

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CharateKopU@reddit

Yuuuuup

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North_Signature9297@reddit

I got my last name @ gmail.com 🤪

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gravitydefiant@reddit

I've got both first.last and first.middle.last. No numbers or anything!

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GoalMammoth4656@reddit

Same: I got firstname.lastname and sometimes get amazed reactions when I give it to people.

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LibraGeminiPisces@reddit

Same, and I still get random emails for every person with my last name. Medical records, legal documents, golf tee reservations, you name it. Like they just forget to put the first initial. It's actually kinda fun, l

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North_Signature9297@reddit

Me too!

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grandmoo@reddit

I still have my original account as well.

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KimBrrr1975@reddit

Yes, still have mine. The best thing is I was the first one in my family that was on top of the google empire, so it's just Lastname@gmail.com. I even beat out my dad, who has never let me forget it 😂 "Gmail is still in an early stage of development. But If you set up an account, you'll be able to keep it even after we make Gmail more widely available." I also found the email from when I joined GameFly in 2006. It was mind-boggling to me. I had the 3-dvds-at-a-time Netflix plan and then GameFly I think was 2 games at a time.

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Far-Squash7512@reddit

I remember having a second/seasonal job at Best Buy and having to ask people if they'd be interested in signing up for a free Netflix DVD trial. Hardly anyone ever was. I thought they wouldn't last, then tried the DVD plan quite a while later. They were surprisingly good about mailing the discs out fast, making it easy to ship them back, etc. I was just watching Netflix the other day and thinking about how far they'd come.

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KimBrrr1975@reddit

I loved it because you could watch almost anything you could think of and never had to worry about going to the video store only to find all the copies were gone or they didn't have it anymore 😂 I re-watched SO many movies I grew up with thanks to Netflix.

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Far-Squash7512@reddit

That's how they got me, too!!!! 😊

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pumkinut@reddit

I got in early in the beta and was able to use just my name. Until then, I had my Juno email account for years.

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slade797@reddit

My ex brother-in-law was a tech guy with a multinational corporation, got me in early. Plot twist: after my sister divorced him, he starting using meth, killed his girlfriend and then committed suicide.

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ansyhrrian@reddit (OP)

![gif](giphy|MOGh8XBqmSds9TnZz3|downsized)

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slade797@reddit

Wild ride, wasn’t it?

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AlfredRWallace@reddit

Big deal since Hotmail only gave 100M.

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MarcusAurelius68@reddit

2005 for me…replacing my Hotmail that was pre-Microsoft.

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BurnesWhenIP@reddit

I still have my Alpha test Gmail account, it's 24 years old.b it's still my primary personal email address

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ForwardSlash813@reddit

I started Gmail with an invite.

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Rhombicman@reddit

I got my kids firstname.initial.lastname when they were toddlers. My daughter, now 27, uses it as her main email.

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i-am-jjm@reddit

Yep, that’s went I got my first one. First rocket mail the Gmail.

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mawreddit@reddit

My original from those days comes with a touch of sadness now. I named it after my only child, whose name is jimbillybob for our purposes and my privacy. I made my address jimbillybobspop. About 15 years later jimbillybob became jillmarysue. So, I’m effectively dead-naming my child by still using that address. She said she understands. Losing that address wouldn’t affect me at all. Maybe I needed to type that out loud just now to realize that my hesitation to create a new Gmail address with a number on it is pretty lame.

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revolutionoverdue@reddit

I felt pretty important when I got an invite. Also, I have my first name last name @gmail.com. Not many people nowadays can claim that.

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dgodwin1@reddit

I have first initial last name too. I get so much email that wasn’t meant for me.

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i_m_sugarcat@reddit

YES. the worst.

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pickleperfect@reddit

My nerd claim to fame (first initial) (last name) total of 6 characters.

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Medical-Resolve-4872@reddit

I felt so special.

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Oceanbreeze871@reddit

“You’ll never have to delete anything ever again” as a selling point

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Snugrilla@reddit

I'm still mad they reneged on that. Now every week it's "Hey your Gmail account is almost fullll!"

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Oceanbreeze871@reddit

With spam.

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JJD8705@reddit

Still use mine!

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ledlin99@reddit

Got an invite from a friend in the early 2000's. Still have it as my only email.

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this_is_your_dad@reddit

I sold a couple of invites. It was cool at the time

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Peas22@reddit

Ebaying invites was a little bonus.

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lumbee01@reddit

A coworker sent me an invite and I still use it as my primary.

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revdon@reddit

I still have mine. I even got my real name w/no numbers!

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Confident-Dot5878@reddit

Same. The only downside is stray emails for other people with my same first initial and last name. I also got an early AOL address. Five letters of my name. Made for easy typing before AOL became passé.

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SimpleVegetable5715@reddit

I still use mine.

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CowTipper383@reddit

Yup. Still have mine from mid 2004. My boss invited me.

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AZWildcatMom@reddit

Yes me! I think I got it in September-ish of 2004.

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ShoppingNo7369@reddit

I was so excited to get an invite!

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srelysian@reddit

That's how I got my current Gmail account. A friend gave me one of his 5 codes early on.

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moxiemoon@reddit

I do! Still have the address I started via invite too.

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Salty-Pack-4165@reddit

I got my gmail like this.

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SergeantBeavis@reddit

I don’t remember when I got mine, but it was sometime in the 2nd half of 2004. Old enough to not need any numbers in the address.

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kobuta99@reddit

I still have my original account.

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Unlikely-Ad2660@reddit

Same. Bought on invite for Gmail on ebay!

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Bridget_the_Head@reddit

I moved to Proton last year, and last month I finally deleted all emails in my Gmail account...except for my June 2004 welcome email. Gotta save that one.

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ACorania@reddit

Yep. Also with my pixel 2 I was supposed to get free unlimited storage for Life, it changed.

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Misunderstood_Wolf@reddit

I do remember those days. Why I have email addresses that don't have numbers or weird spellings or underscores.

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Aggravating_Cable_32@reddit

I got an invite while I was in Iraq, through a friend who ran the USO internet tent; he worked for Google back in the world. No numbers, all name. I kept using it because I hated hotmail lol.

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longipetiolata@reddit

Don’t have my invite any longer but I do have email from July 2004 still saved because the other person has passed way

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marklar7@reddit

So fomo I was kinda miffed I didn't join when it was Garfield mail.

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sbfb1@reddit

This guy! With his first and last name for an email. My son ask me how I got that and I said, you had to be there when email was created 😂

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macphile@reddit

I'm glad you shared this email screenshot so I could find mine. Mine is from October 1, 2004.

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furie1335@reddit

Act now to enjoy a false sense of urgency

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tired_but_trying42@reddit

I remember selling invites for $25 at my college. All the nerds wanted an early Gmail account.

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skronk14@reddit

A lot of people comment on how simple my email address is. Invites have their benefits.

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rawesome99@reddit

Your email address is older than half of Gen Z

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gaarkat@reddit

I had forgotten, but I do now.

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Zealousideal_Ad642@reddit

Yeah, i got an invite from a friend of mine. I think you got 5 invites? I still have it, firstname.lastname

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Mwvnova@reddit

9/3/04 OG.

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blueblocker2000@reddit

I got an invite from someone on a tech forum. Crazy the stuff we get nostalgic over now. Wish I hadn't converted my Hotmail address to .live.com one. Then there was the Power Together campaign for Windows Vista where you watched some vids and got a free copy of Vista. Such good times for computing back then. It was actually fun and not this corpo crap situation we have now.

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tiny_bamboo@reddit

I remember I was excited to get a Gmail address with just my (very common) name.

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seven-cents@reddit

Yep. I still have my original account from 2004. It was still @googlemail^dot^com in the UK in those days.

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No-Guard-7003@reddit

Even e-mail lists for school alumni were invitation-only in the mid-2000s.

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servetarider@reddit

Wow, my Gmail account is now 22 years old. My best friend worked for Google at the time so I got the beta invite. Got my first initial and my last name as my email address without having to stick a number on it too. I used it for over 15 years as my work email because the storage on my work email sucked and would bounce back large files I needed for my job. When my job demanded that I use my work email, I told them “OK” and didn’t.

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Imabasicbetty@reddit

Pepperidge Farm?

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Imabasicbetty@reddit

Pepperidge Farm?

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christina311@reddit

You can tell a person is old if their gmail email address is their name without any random numbers. It shows that I'm old, but I'm proud of not being first_initial/last_name2943772@gmail.com

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Zen-Ism99@reddit

Been my secondary email since 2004…

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Grobbekee@reddit

Me. And it was like 2 gigs

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ansyhrrian@reddit (OP)

When it launched it was just a gig.

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monkeyboy808@reddit

mine was 3 MBs

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upotheke@reddit

Damn, what will I do with a gig of storage. Ill never fill that in the next like, 100 minutes.

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StrangeAssonance@reddit

I have mine but it isn’t my main email box. Main shifted to iCloud.

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Jack_Scrambles@reddit

Yep. Still my primary.

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eggy_wegs@reddit

Heck yeah. I was so stoked when I finally got the invite. I had coworkers who got it months before me and seeing it all the time only fed my jealousy. 😄 It's still my main email address to this day.

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nativecheese@reddit

That's how I got mine. Granted it gets so much spam because its my name but still nice to have. And a gig was sooo nice. I think I had 50 MB on my Yahoo account.

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dizzyflores@reddit

Still use my og invite Gmail account. A mmo guildy sent me the invite.

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Mr-and-Mrs@reddit

Still use my original: SeanPenn@gmail.com

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SwiftTayTay@reddit

Rip your inbox

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monkeyboy808@reddit

Or whoever that email belongs to lol

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monkeyboy808@reddit

My Gmail I still use came from an invite.

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Disastrous_Ad_5574@reddit

Me. Going on 20 years.

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Overall_Lobster823@reddit

I remember that Google. Very different.

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SwiftTayTay@reddit

I still use my of account from 2007

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NWPatriot71@reddit

My original Gmail account that I still use, was invite only. My coworker sent me the invite.

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ftsapr@reddit

Shoot, I remember practically begging a friend for an invite, for whatever reason he was super hesitant to hand them out

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Ammortalz@reddit

That’s how I got the one I use to this very day.

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TheRogueBehindYou@reddit

i still have my email address from gmail beta and my twitter beta invite in that mailbox

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og-lollercopter@reddit

Did you try google wave? Remember that. Hah.

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