it seems a lot of people wanting gmail blindly. Is it simply because of it 1 gb space? gmail offer has its policy, i.e. the user will allow gmail tracking their email contents and be used for targeted ad delivery. the tracking can be very invasive. of course, its combination of embedded search engine is easy to do online search but every search is recorded on you. from users point of view and for their own privacy this kind of tracking is the least the better. So, if you simply want a big mail box, there are other providers that may not be so invasive. sina and yahoo.cn offer 1-2 gb mail box, but there are some regional issue, many users have difficulty to get or send mail. in fact, yahoo is implicitly tracking contents too. for our fellows here some other providers may be a choice other than gmail etc.
There are 2 true free gb webmail providers: spymac and walla and you don't need invitation!
spymac offer 2 gb space and is geared to mac user, but since it is web mail it can be used for any other os only some of the mac features can not be used if you are not using mac. in addition it has forum and online chat fucntion and its 100 mb webpage space is very useful for anyone want to set up their own website for free.
walla is simple and clean 1 gb mail box. looks like no string attached. google for the sites.