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February 7, 2007

Earlier today, Google said its free email service is now open to anyone who wants an account. Google's Gmail service was offered previously by invitation only.

So far, Google's service has proved popular. When it was originally launched, Google raised eyebrows with its practice of indexing the content of emails so that the company could place contextual advertisements in them.

However, Google still managed to get hundreds of reader responses from people looking for free email accounts.

Google ceded rights to the Gmail name in the U.K., following a court order with Independent International Investment Research, which registered the trademark Gmail at the time between Google's Web-based email launch and the search firm's own attempt to trademark the Gmail name.

But Google's problems don't end there. Across western Europe, a quiet battle rages on between Google and Daniel Giersch, a German-born venture capitalist who insists he'll never relinquish his 6-year-old trademark registration of "G-mail...und die Post geht richtig ab" (translation: Gmail...and the mail goes right off).

Overall, Google also said it has also launched an application to let U.K. users access Gmail or Google Mail on their mobile phones.

Google's new application, which will run on any Java-based phone with data services, synchronizes Gmail on the phone with the user's Web-based account.

This enables email attachments such as photos, PDF and text documents to be viewed from mobile devices, said Google.

Google says the application is free of charge.

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Source: C-Net News