Does Gmail show real storage size data or is it fake/prediction? [closed]

Question

Gmail is built on the idea that email can be more intuitive, efficient, and useful. And maybe even fun. After all, Gmail has: Lots of space Over 7542.217837 megabytes (and counting) of free storage.

Gmail shows this when you enter the GMail.

Does it show real data or is it fake or prediction?

How to implement that feature in a web-app?

Answer 1

According to the javascript code they do some prediction with interpolation:

function updateQuota() {
   if (!quota_elem) {
       return;
   }
   var now = (new Date()).getTime();
   var i;
   for (i = 0; i < CP.length; i++) {
       if (now < CP[i][0]) {
           break;
       }
   }
   if (i == 0) {
       setTimeout(updateQuota, 1000);
   } else if (i == CP.length) {
       quota_elem.innerHTML = CP[i - 1][1];
   } else {
       var ts = CP[i - 1][0];
       var bs = CP[i - 1][1];
       quota_elem.innerHTML = format(((now-ts) / (CP[i][0]-ts) * (CP[i][1]-bs)) + bs);
       setTimeout(updateQuota, 1000);
   }

}

where

CP = [[1199433600000, 6283], [1224486000000, 7254], [2144908800000, 10996], [2147328000000, 43008], [46893711600000, 1.7976931348623157e+308]]

So they expect to have 10996 Mb in 2037, 43008 Mb in 2038 and zillions in 2137 :)

Answer 2

Google know that they had 6283 MB of storage per user 2008-01-04. They also know that they had 7254 per user at 2008-10-20. They assume that they will have 10996 MB of storage per user at 2037-12-20.

Then they use this formula to calculate the storage:

prevms = milliseconds from 1970, 01, 01 to the previous point (ATM it is 2008-10-20, which is 1224486000000 milliseconds from 1970, 01, 01

prevmb = the space at the previous point, 7254 at this moment

currentms = milliseconds from 1970, 01, 01 to the storage estimate date (ATM it is 2037-12-20, which is 2144908800000 milliseconds from 1970, 01, 01

currentmb = the estimated space at that time, 10966 at this moment

now = milliseconds from 1970, 01, 01 we are at now

This is the formula:

((now-prevms) / currentms - prevms) * (currentmb-prevmb) + prevmb)

Answer 3

it is only an estimate.

You can write your own javascript which, as gmail's does, increases the counter by 40 bytes per second.

You can also use that space as your personal drive.

http://www.sizlopedia.com/2007/08/11/utilities-to-use-gmail-space-as-google-drive/