Gmail is opened up to nearly everyone, which means that Google trusts its capability to handle enormous amounts of data.

AP reports that Google now has opened up its online email service to all potential users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Brazil.

Countries like Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and Egypt were opened up last year.

What this means is that Internet users in these countries no more have to wait for a personal invitation from another Gmail user to open up a Gmail account.

North America, Asia and most parts of the South America remain, though, although Google says that it is only a matter of time before Gmail becomes available to everyone. Still, Google being Google the “beta” tag remains.

Gmail as a honey trap

Each Gmail user now get more than 2.6 GB of email storage space. Google’ strategy is to use Gmail to lure Internet users into opening an account with Google.

As soon as you are a registered users, Google may convince you to make use of other services as well, including the Google Web feed reader and Google Docs and Spreadsheets, an online word processor and number cruncher. (See our article On the way to Google world domination for more on this strategy.)

Why wait so long?

But why has Google waited so long before making Gmail freely available?

There may have been technical reasons for this. Giving away 2.6 GB of storage to millions of users costs money. Google must also be sure that they have a server park, the bandwidth and the software needed to handle this enormous amount of information.

Still, the exclusivity of having a Gmail account may also have added to the reputation of Google being a destination for Internet connoisseurs, in spite of the fact that Google is now one of the most famous trademarks in the world.

The next step: the Gdrive

The fact that Google now thinks that it is able to handle the amount of data world wide Gmail requires may indicate that the next step is close at hand, namely the Google Platypus Gdrive.

The Gdrive is not public and you cannot use it yet. But the Google staff can. They can use Platypus as an online disk drive, saving not only email and documents, but any types of files. Welcome to the world of online computing!