Sign up for Gmail, No Invite needed

From today onwards, Google's free email service, Gmail, to become truly open to people world-wide. No invitation required.

This marks a first since the launch of Gmail on April 1, 2004. As such, in the US, Canada, Mexico, and large parts of Asia and South America, invitations will no longer are needed in order to sign-up for Gmail.

Google's move implies that the company now believes they have adequate computing capacity to accommodate a generous amount of free storage via email.

As it is, each Gmail account gets at least 2.8 gigabytes of storage -enough to fill nearly 1.4 million pages.

However, Gmail will continue to retain its 'beta' or test status.

And, while it is certain that Google will now start selling additional storage capacity to email users with extraordinary needs, the specifics still need to be worked out.

(An Associated Press (AP) report)