back to article Google brings @gmail.com back to Blighty

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 " …

COMMENTS

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  1. Geeks and Lies
    WTF?

    Odd......

    i have a "googlemail.com" addess and have always abbreviated it to @gmail.com without issue!

  2. Sampler

    been using @gmail.com for years

    Yes it displays as googlemail.com but you can still receive mail sent to @gmail.com

  3. R.Moore
    Stop

    Did I fall asleep?

    I'm in the UK and I get emails that are sent to xxx@googlemail.com and xxx@gmail.com and as far as I can tell I always have.

    Did I miss something?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm sure this will be pointed out by hundreds of others, but...

    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.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      No not everyone

      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.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Never went away?

    Well, I have been using a mixture of both @googlemail.com and @gmail.com for my address as the fancy takes me, all along.

    Plus ça change.

    Paris, because...hang on...er...oh yeah...gottit...her box receives regular inbounds @ many addresses.

  6. Marcus Aurelius
    Go

    gmail working all the time?

    As this was not a domain name dispuite, but a branding dispute, I think you would find that even if you registered with a googlemail address, you could log in and send with a gmail.com address by changing a few setup parameters.

  7. lIsRT
    Thumb Up

    Hooray!

    No more faffing about with proxies whenever someone asks if I can set them up with a gmail address instead of googlemail.

  8. Tim Hall

    Germany?

    Wasn't this originally because of an issue in Germany, not UK?

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/24/no_access_to_gmail_in_germany/

    I've been able to access my account using either "gmail.com" or "googlemail.com" since the issue occurred, so it would seem a conversion is unnecessary.

  9. Anonymous John

    Obligatory title

    "if the equivalent @gmail.com address is available."?

    I thought that only one name was allowed regardless of whether it was gmail or googlemail. Email sent to me at xxx@gmail.com is received at xxx@googlemail.com

  10. Ritesh Tendulkar

    Title

    Of course, everyone knew that if your address was abc [at] googlemail.com and you were sent a mail to abc [at] gmail.com you would still receive it. Right?

  11. Beaviz
    WTF?

    Er, am I missing somefink?

    I always use gmail.com rather than googlemail.com and I have done, quite literally, for years.

    The legal snafu may all be cleared up but to say we couldn't do this before now is just plain wrong, as far as I can tell.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Odd..

    @gmail.com has always worked for me as an alias anyway.

    Not going to make much difference.

  13. Ragarath
    WTF?

    Always used gmail.com anyway

    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?

  14. Stone Fox
    Coat

    thank god

    they didn't call it "imail"!

  15. jaduncan
    Pint

    Android issues

    @googlemail.com addresses caused sync issues with Picasa on the Android 2.0 gallery, and the Nexus One was just launched to retail here on Vodaphone. Some may draw a link.

    I'm just happy my phone will start working properly.

  16. Eddy Ito

    All in the advertising

    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.

  17. Fuzz

    @pretty much anything above

    I believe what you are missing is that when you send an email from your gmail account the email comes from @googlemail.com after the change it will come from @gmail.com, incoming mail has always and will continue to always work with both addresses.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sending!

    I think the point is you can now send from @gmail.com as well...

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    But...

    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

  20. heyrick Silver badge

    The time to press five keys...

    "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!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Data Miners

      Yeah but will save the data miners a few quid in storage :)

  21. daveflossie

    To all those saying "I'm already using a gmail name"

    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.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  22. JetSetJim
    Go

    The change is now in the Account Settings area

    There's a handy "Switch to @gmail.com?" in the "Send mail as" bit.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Never been a problem

    ...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.

  24. Martyn 4
    Happy

    what problems?

    been sending and reciveing from @gmail since 2006 now and not had any problems with it at all.

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