Mountain View, Calif. - Google has made its Gmail Web-based e-mail service available to all users, following a three-year stint where new users had to be invited to join by an existing user, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

Despite the announcement, Gmail will remain in "beta" mode, indicating that it is still not considered a fully-functional Google service.

Google does, however, now believe it has the capacity to offer anyone and everyone at least 2.8GB of storage for their e-mail and whatever is attached to them.

The launch of the Gmail service with its massive storage limits prompted rivals Yahoo and Microsoft Hotmail to increase their storage limits for users.

"We have already made e-mail better for everyone in the world," Keith Coleman, Google's Gmail product manager, told AP.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said the company plans to introduce subscription options for heavy users later this year; the company's photo-hosting service charges $25 per year for 6.25GB of storage and $500 for 250GB.

"We can't afford to give away everything for free," Brin told AP.

Related Links:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070214/ap_on_hi_te/google_mail_1 (AP)

http://gmail.google.com