Stupid question for people Who Know Stuff:

[raven]

A Gmail question, in fact. Simply, this: is an email address that takes the form x@googlemail.com the same as one that is x@gmail.com? Or can they be held distinctly?

(And if they are distinct, could someone who isn't in the UK create an address for me...?)

Comments

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

The domain gmail.com is unavailable in certain countries, in which cases users are able to use the domain googlemail.com. The Gmail service does not discriminate between these two domains for incoming e-mails, therefore a user with the address "john.doe@googlemail.com" will receive mail sent to "john.doe@gmail.com", and vice-versa. Accordingly, users obliged to use the googlemail.com domain are unable to select addresses already chosen by gmail.com users.
From Wikipedia

[that_mireille]

I think they're the same. (I tested, by sending e-mail to my gmail address, but with "@googlemail.com" instead of "@gmail.com," and it came to me. I know I only have signed up for a gmail.com address.)

[clarithmetic.livejournal.com]

They are the same. There was some crap about a law suit and stuff, and in the UK it legally has to be user@googlemail.com, but anything sent to user@gmail.com just gets automatically redirected. I always give out me@gmail.com as my address, and have never had any troubles.

[cedara]

Same here, after the lawsuit any German Gmail addresses had to be googlemail. Only if you were one of those who came before that you still have gmail.com.

[cedara]

There's an entry in wiki about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gmail

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Mine is automatically @gmail.com as it was created before the court case...

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

As people have said, but when I changed name I faffed around with proxies to get a gmail one, because I'm slightly wary that it might not continue to work like this for ever....