Googlemail to become Gmail in UK
Good news for UK users of google mail!
British e-mail users with Google accounts are now able to change the end of their addresses from @googlemail.com to @gmail.com.
A five year trademark dispute meant that Google was not allowed to use the name Gmail in the UK.
In 2005 a company called Independent International Investment Research claimed it had used “Gmail” first.
Google claimed at the time that the settlement IIR asked for was “exorbitant” and dropped the name.
Within a year of launching the free e-mail service in the UK, Gmail became Google Mail.
While early adopters received a gmail.com address, all subsequent new accounts were given the suffix googlemail.com.
“Since ‘gmail’ is 50% fewer characters than ‘googlemail’ we estimate this name change will save approximately 60 million keystrokes a day,” wrote software engineer Greg Bullock on Google’s Gmail blog.
British users with Googlemail addresses will be asked whether they wish to change their address. It will not affect the settings or functionality of the accounts, Google said.
The firm is not releasing the details of the new settlement but states that the matter is “happily resolved”
BBC News 5 May 2010
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Tagged with: gmail • Google • googlemail • uk
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Finally, I have a buch of friends with gmails, and when I finally succumbed to googlemail I found I had to settle for for the 95% less cool sounding googlemail. Wasn’t happy, gmail just has a better ring to it.
Anyway, I’m now a happy man, I don’t suppose they’re given a date, I’ve checked my googlemail but nothing to suggest the name change yet.
Thanks Dave
.-= Anthony Murphy´s last blog ..Let’s have a giggle ! =-.
Hi Anthony,
Thanks for the comment and welcome to Alex Jeffreys coaching.
Yes, googlemail is really clumsy isn’t it.
I actually got some of my family to sign up to gmail when they were here (Sweden) so that they got gmail instead of googlemail.
I understand that “gmail” will be offered to UK users “soon”. Hmm.
Good luck with MWA 3.0.
BTW left a comment on your blog
Regards,
Dave
Hey Dave, thanks for posting this, I hate having to type out the big long googlemail.com, gmail is so much better and leaves me less chance of a typo! Don’t you just love stats, how they worked out the % of less keystrokes is just crazy! Speak soon, Sally
.-= Sally´s last blog ..Internet Marketing The Crying Game =-.
“we estimate this name change will save approximately 60 million keystrokes a day”
the big G saving the planet 1 keystroke at a time LOL
Thanks for sharing the info Dave – Haven’t got a gmail account yet myself because a bunch of people already have the addresses I’d want (the curse of a fairly common name!!)
Rob
(** RJB **)
.-= ** RJB **´s last blog ..The Super Sneaky “How To Get Over 1.3 Million Safelist Credits In 3 Days” System =-.