California, April 2 : Your favourite webmail service Gmail has turned 10. Launched April 1, 2004, Google’s simple, user-friendly inbox today is an undisputed leader in email and related services.

In 2004, Gmail arrived as an invitation-only product on beta platform.

After several design changes, it finally dropped the beta label in 2009.

In Gmail, Microsoft offered a spam-free inbox with integrated search tool and loads of storage capacity that was enough to beat the rivals.

It was Gmail that gave webmail a slick snappiness more akin to a desktop application.

“It left clunky old Hotmail in the dust. New messages just appeared, chat windows popped up instantly - all without a browser refresh. Today, we all expect websites to behave like real applications,” a report in wired. com said.

No special software was required. You never had to worry about storage. It was always there.

There were no messy connections, just a simple password login.(IANS)