Gmail grows up (a bit)

Google is giving more people the chance to sign up for Gmail, but insists the move does not signify an impending full-scale launch of the free email service, which has been in beta since it launched on 1 April last year.

To date, Google has been relying on social networking to roll out Gmail, initially inviting some 2,000 people who were then able to invite a limited number of others themselves. This week though, Google started sending invitations directly to those who have signed up to be kept abreast of updates at the service.

A Google spokeswoman said: "We're sending invitations to those who supported us during the launch." But, she said, "this does not mean that we're out of beta [or] offering open subscriptions to the world".

Interest in the service has been high. It made a stir both because it kicked off the move toward bundling significant amounts of storage with free email accounts - 1GB in this case - and because of the revenue model, which relies on context-sensitive adverts placed alongside emails as they are read.

Matt Loney writes for ZDNet UK.