Internet giant Google Inc. announced last week that it will no longer require users of its popular free e-mail service to be invited to join the network. Google removed the “invitation only” restriction on Gmail service in parts of the world where the company previously enforced the limitations. The invitation-only restriction has been lifted in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Brazil and will be removed in North America, Asia and most of South America in the near future. Gmail, which will celebrate its three-year anniversary April 1, offers 2.8 gigabytes of free storage for each account – enough to fill 1.4 million pages. Google will have an option for members to purchase more storage, but company officials said the price has yet to be determined. “It’s a pretty momentous time for Gmail,” Keith Coleman, Google’s product manager for the service, told the Associated Press, Despite the changes to features during the last several months, the price of Google stock fell below $500 per share to under $460 and is currently above $470. Mihaela Craioveanu, University economics professor, said Google’s previous policy as “invitation only” was mostly an advertising tool rather than a barrier to access, and the change in the policy should not affect the stock price. “The only way the change in Google’s policy would affect the stock price is if the change would have a significant effect on Google membership,” Craioveanu said. “It’s not been empirically shown that Google’s previous policy restricted membership significantly.” Craioveanu said even Google’s acquisition of YouTube, a popular video sharing Web site, did not cause much change to Google’s stock price. “The acquisition of YouTube was far enough in the past that the market had already processed any effects of the transaction on Google stock price,” Craioveanu said. “So the recent decline in Google’s stock has more to do with other developments than either of these two issues.” Google officials said Gmail is keeping its “beta status” because the company still considers it a work in progress. Ryan Goitia, mechanical engineering junior, said he think Google made a wise decision by allowing everyone to access Gmail without an invitation. “I think it opens up the amount of people that Google is going to get to through Gmail,” Goitia said. “For the company I think it’s better, and for the people I think it’s pretty good.” Goitia said he uses Gmail for work and finds the calendar feature very helpful. “You can put all your events in the [calendar], and if somebody shares their [calendar] with you or you share your [calendar] with them, you can see each others events,” he said.
—–Contact Nathan Trifone at ntrifone@lsureveille.com