Gmail, officially Google Mail in Germany an the United Kingdom, is a free Web-based email (webmail), POP3 and IMAP e-mail service provided by Google. On April 1, 2004 the product began as an invitation-only beta release. On February 7, 2007 the beta version was opened to the general public. With an initial storage capacity of 1 GB, it drastically increased the standard for free storage.