Odd......
i have a "googlemail.com" addess and have always abbreviated it to @gmail.com without issue!
Google is to offer @gmail.com webmail addresses to British users again, after resolving a long-running branding dispute. The dominant search engine was forced to switch to the domain @googlemail.com in 2005. It declined to pay Independent International Investment Research £25m to use the gmail brand, describing the cost as " …
Where it says "Those with an @googlemail.com address will be offered the chance to switch if the equivalent @gmail.com address is available.", I'm guessing that will be everyone. Emailing user @gmail.com or user @googlemail.com both end up at the same place - I've tested this with my UK gmail account (from before googlemail.com came along), and also my wife's googlemail.com account.
I have a googlemail address and a separate gmail address both with the same prefix. I had already registered the gmail address years ago in the US well before googlemail was available. As far as google is concerned these are registered to two different people. I don't expect to be offered the gmail.com address to go with my googlemail address.
My Account was set up before all this happened so I had been using gmail.com well, always. My Wife's account that was set up after the settlement (so she has googlemail.com) can still and has always been able to receive mail addressed to @gmail.com.
Is there something I was missing or was it google just trying to look good by accepting both domains?
Somehow I don't believe the DNS servers give a gnats arse about the politics of copyright. Given the apolitical nature of DNS servers gmail.com here will point to the same place as gmail.com somewhere else. That is unless someone manages to inject a domain redirection somewhere along the pipe. That said... see title.
Hey,
I expect the change is more that now you can actually "be" xxx@gmail.com. Where as before when ever you said you were xxx@gmail.com you were infact xxx@googlemail.com pretending to be xxx@gmail.com.
So no more mx's in the mix when an email is sent to xxx@gmail.com it actually goes there, and when you send an email it is sent from xxx@gmail.com not from xxx@googlemail.com.
Grenade?? Why because someone will shout me down and I will need it to fend them off!!!
jamesakadamingo @ http://www.onlyidiotsassume.co.uk
"instead offering some unnecessary drivel about the amount of energy that will be saved by users typing fewer characters."
In a world with Twitter, spam botnets, and vast quantities of Google-supported advertising, are you trying to tell me anybody actually gives a damn about the energy savings of not typing "oogle"? Do you have any idea how much stuff goes on between lifting your finger off one key and pressing the next? How much stuff is silently ticking away doings its job peacefully? Satellite receivers, PVRs, routers, WiFi transceivers, LCD controllers, ADSL boxes, VCRs, digital radio, and four billion processes hosted under SvcHost... and NOT typing "oogle" will save the world? Come on Google, it takes me longer than that to think of an appropriate subject!
A lot of comments about "I've got a gmail address already"
1) you can always receive @gmail or @googlemail
2)There were some UK accounts created with a @gmail address before google stopped allow this
3) accounts that are restricted to "googlemail" cannot (or could not) send as "gmail" from the gmail web page or via (Google's) SMTP.
Sending via Google's SMTP servers, the "From" and "reply-to" fields are overridden according to your gmail settings, the "from" field specified by your e-mail client is completely ignored. If you want to send from a different address you can set gmail up to do that, provided you prove you own that address. But it doesn't (or didn't) let you switch your from address from "googlemail" to "gmail". Of course, you may be able to use a non google SMTP server that lets you specify any "from" address you like.
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...because my main account is pre 2005 (IIRC change was made late 2005). I just checked an account I set up this year and yes, the default sender was @googlemail (though recipient @gmail.com worked OK).
Now not only is it offering (in Settings>Accounts>Send Mail as) "Switch to @gmail.com" but also they'll send the first 10,000 users a set of address change labels (wow).
After the switch, as before, incoming to @gmail or @googlemail works but default sender is now changed to @gmail
I also rather wonder how Google decided whether you were a UK user when setting up the account - if on geolocated IP address might it have been possible for it to be misled?
BTW, I don't think Google really thought anyone would be naieve enough to think the "energy saved by not typing oogle" calculation was anything other than a humorous aside. Surely the result of the calculation "about 20 bonbons a day" made that clear enough.