Today when I about to log in to my GMail account, I noticed that it is now accepting new user by signing-up through its homepage, as shown on the screenshot below:

But when I tried to sign-up an account, Gmail told me this:

 To sign up, enter your mobile phone number below. We’ll send you a text message with an invitation code to create your account. If you’ve already received a code, skip to step two!

It seems, that it is still in invite-only mode.  So, if the new user didn’t receive any invitation code, does it mean he’s not welcome to GMail? But I understand that it is just Google’s way of securing its GMail services from any abuses because Google immediately sent me the invitation code, and then finally created an account: sustineslaplana [at] gmail.com.

And I am right about it. Gmail said this on its help center:

One of the reasons we are offering this new way to sign up for Gmail is to help protect our users and combat abuse.  …

We take many measures to ensure that spammers have a difficult time sending their spam messages, getting these messages delivered, or even obtaining a Gmail account (spammers will often use many different accounts to send spam). Sending invitation codes to mobile phones via SMS is one way to address this, as the number of accounts per phone number can be limited.

Note:

• GMail is also part of the Google Apps for Your domain.

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