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Gmail Now Google Mail in UK  (View post)

James Cridland [PersonRank 1]

Wednesday, October 19, 2005
18 years ago

I’ve investigated who the trademarks are being contested by in my own little blog...
http://james.cridland.net/blog/2005/10/gmail-is-now-google-mail.html

Looks like it’s not just ONE person claiming the Gmail trademark belongs to them, but actually TWO.

bx [PersonRank 1]

18 years ago #

I don't understand those people having trademarks of GMail in other countries like the GMail.co.uk and suing Google – it's them, who would win some visitors due to popularity of Google, not the other way round. Or I don't understand the situation itself?

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

I would say that this doesn't only worry UK Gmail users, but all users of Gmail worldwide. Surely UK Gmail addresses would only have to change if they no longer owned the Gmail domain.

At this point in time, Google obviously have no idea whether they'll have to hand over the Gmail domain to another company or not. (I would've thought they'd have been aware of that possibility back when they changed Gmail to Google Mail in Germany too; it certainly crossed my mind!)

What's surely more likely to happen is that they won't be allowed to call their service "Gmail" or advertise it as such, but the domain will probably still be theirs. It would be extremely petty for another company using the "Gmail" name to even ask for the domain when they've been surviving for so long without it.

Having said all that, I think its worth reminding people that Gmail is still only a beta service. Some beta services go through some drastic changes before final release – and some never even make it that far!

Whilst a change in email address would anger a lot of people, I really don't think you can complain about a free service that's still in beta...

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Tony, at least I'm sure that's why Google sticks a Beta on everything... so they have an argument for defending themselves. But does it really change much in terms of what users expect, and how they build trust? If Google would not manage to allow me to keep my email, maybe in their next service that would mean I don't subscribe (or wait until they're out of beta, which takes nearly forever). They'd lose people's trust.

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

You're right Philipp. I don't think that having a "beta" service does change people's expectations, although it should do really.

Many people won't even notice that Google have "Beta" tagged on to all their new services – and that's partially because Google make such a big deal when a new service is released (even though they're *always* beta releases). Gmail (and some other Google services) should obviously have been taken out of beta a long time ago.

Google have changed people's perception of the word "beta". In fact, they've almost made it synonymous with the word "new". Once upon a time, if you were using something in beta, you were part of a small – and sometimes privileged – beta testing team, but Google have almost single-handedly changed all that.

Chris C [PersonRank 1]

18 years ago #

Is it possible to get a Google Mail UK account if you live in the U.S.?

Thanks,
Chris

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