Earlier this week Google announced they have opened their Gmail e-mail service to all. In the past you either had to know someone who could send you an invitation or more recently be able to receive a confirmation /activation registration code via a cell phone text message.
This announcement spawned an interesting discussion on the CyberNet Forums, Gmail finally really open to everyone!!!!. It is noteworthy to point out that many people say Gmail has the best spam filter of most web based e-mail services, but now that it is open to all what is to stop spammers from creating multiple accounts? I’ve seen this happen on Hotmail, Lycos and Yahoo. I was looking over the sign-up form and noticed a field for secondary e-mail. I was thinking this would be used to send an activation/confirmation e-mail, but unfortunately this field is optional. Per the help screen the secondary e-mail is used for log-in problems or for Google to contact you in the event of unusual activity.
So, should we start taking bets as to when Gmail will become over-run with spam accounts? Or how long will it remain open to all?
