Anyone can now sign up for Googlemail, reversing Google's previous stance of insisting that new accounts could only be set up if invited to do so by an existing Gmail user.

Invitations have already been scrapped in a handful of countries across the globe, most notably Australia, but this is the first time Googlemail becomes freely available in the UK and USA.

Despite the service opening up, a Google spokesperson told PCW it will remain labeled as beta until the company has finished its development. Google products typically spend a long time with the beta tag until they are finally released as full products.

Gmail, renamed Googlemail in Europe after a trademark dispute, was launched in 2004 and caused a big stir by offering users 1GB of storage (2.8GB today) - then much bigger than its competitors.

Until now the webmail service has been a restricted beta and Google relied on a viral system to spread its use. Each new user was allocated a handful of invites to pass on to other new users and so on.

Demand was so great to get desirable Gmail addresses some people spent hundreds of pounds buying other users' invites.

Google has also made its Java client for mobile phones available to UK users.

Launched in the US in November last year, the software automatically syncronises with a user's web-based Googlemail account. As well as traditional email features such as reading, replying and searching, the application can also view photos, pdfs and text documents.