Google Blogoscoped

Forum

Google vs Gmail.pl  (View post)

MJ Rich [PersonRank 6]

Wednesday, February 21, 2007
17 years ago7,305 views

If this was a movie, this is the part where the best friend would tell the estranged delirious protagonist "Drop the gun, man! Just look at yourself! I barely recognize you anymore. Drop the gun."

Rohit Srivastwa [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Checkout gmail.in
seems like sedo is going to earn a lot from this

coba [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

I will go on this gmail.in name, let see!

bartheq [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

The problem with Gmail in Poland is that thinking-challenged people /and we have many of them when it comes to using the internet/ sometimes forget the address ends with ".com" and put ".pl" instead. They even put "www." at the beginnig, but that's another story (:
  
Now, when someone who owns gmail.pl turns on catch-all, they can intercept registration passwords and other fun stuff.
The mistakes were so frequent that I had to modify all registration and newsletter scripts to notify the user about incorrect domain.

Anyway... I hope Google will win with these poets. With 12 different domains they clearly have too much free time and imagination (:

Ludwik Trammer [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

> The mistakes were so frequent that I had to modify all registration and
> newsletter scripts to notify the user about incorrect domain.

That's strange. I have Polish newsletter with db of about 1 000 e-mail addresses, 60 of them @gmail.com and NOBODY EVER tried to add @gmail.pl address. And no – there are not geeks, this newsletter is about education, not technology.

Mati [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

[put at-character here]Ludwik Trammer
Look here: http://www.futrega.org/stek/2006/12/28/konta_email_statystyki.html ;)

Ludwik Trammer [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

> Look here

Thanks. In kurnik.pl 0,02% of mails provided during registration has "gmail.pl" domain. 0,02% is obviously too small number for me to experience in with my database of 1000.

TOMHTML [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Good article Ludwik! :-)

Andy Beard [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

You missed out one very significant angle on your report, the upcoming change to NASK rules for domain name disputes.
Even the Polish forum discussion doesn't mention it, which I find very strange.

I referred to it a few days ago
http://andybeard.eu/2007/02/polish-gmail-vs-google-gmail-the-poets-vs-the-court-jester.html

bartheq [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

> That's strange. I have Polish newsletter with db of about 1 000 e-mail addresses, 60 of them @gmail.com and NOBODY EVER tried to add @gmail.pl address.

Lucky you (:

Bajo.pl has over 30 000 users and there are currently 60 inactive accounts with gmail.pl address /and 330 with "www." (:/.

> In kurnik.pl 0,02% of mails provided during registration has "gmail.pl" domain. 0,02% is obviously too small number for me to experience in with my database of 1000.

And that was BEFORE Gmail was opened to everyone. I bet we'll be seeing more of "www.login[put at-character here]gmail.pl" soon (:

Tadeusz Szewczyk [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Great overview about the case with a little pro-Google bias! Ludwik, you antiliterary traitor!

Basically what the case is coming down to is a person buying a domain legally before Google is about to use it and then an international conglomerate that Google is, is appearing afterwards and attempting to snatch it away from them for free.

Imagine how many Gwhatever or Ianything (Apple) products might appear in the future and then imagine Google, Apple or any other company coming to you give it to me for free "I'm the bigger figure".

Back in Web 1.0 a similar case made the whole netizenship fight the company behind the lawsuit. It was Etoys vs etoy.

hotjug [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

Technically Google can get it. Practically what Google will do:
- talks politely – polish poets reject politely

And the solution will be
a) Google will acquire the title for the domain but the domain will be put to the hands of an escrow
b) will grant a perpetual right to use the domain for the particular purpose it is currently with NO changes to the purpose + no advertising revenue
c) has a gmail.com reference on every page displayed

Want to bet?

Dan Tobias [PersonRank 6]

17 years ago #

The "etoy" case wasn't exactly parallel, since in that case an art group had registered the domain etoy.com long before Etoys was even in business; in the Polish case, the group came up with the name after Google was already using "Gmail" elsewhere (though not actually in Poland).

Stephan Locher [PersonRank 9]

17 years ago #

Remember the Internet in the late 1990ies: In such a case the whole community was on the side of the David(gmail.pl) and not Goliath(in this case google, in the last century any profit organisation).

And of course if someone back then used www.login[put at-character here]example.com they where reffered to the netiquette and after a couple of weeks they understand the fault. Has anyone who started to used the internet in the last years ever heard of something? It's sad that alot of the space of the free and brave has become some kind of ghetto...

But enough sentimentality: I think in this case it would be the best if google asks them politely to set the MX record to a google server and pay the cost for the DNS change.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I don't think it's a true David vs Goliath situation because it looks too much like domainsquatters, and David isn't supposed to be a domainsquatter...

Andy Beard [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

Philipp I don't think it is quite so simple

Google didn't register gmail.pl
Google didn't register gmail.com.pl

It seems Google DID register www.googlemail.pl in May 2005

(based on the info I just read on the gmail.pl site)

That could be looked on as an indicator that they didn't intend to use Gmail as a Trademark in Poland

In some ways Google is looking like the trademark squatter or domain kidnapper

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

<< That could be looked on as an indicator that they didn't intend to use Gmail as a Trademark in Poland >>

Let's not forget that you don't *need* to buy a domain just to show you own a trademark. The fact that you own the trademark should be enough to claim to domain from anyone who already owns it (without a trademark or other genuine reason to own it) at a later date. However, *where* you own the trademark is another matter altogether.

Personally, I would never be so stupid to use the same name and domain as such a large global company – mainly because I wouldn't want to confuse my users/members and wouldn't want the hassle at a later date. If they really knew about Gmail when they picked their name and domain, I think they're fools...

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

:Cough:

<<Google Inc., fighting to consolidate its trademark globally, faces an obstacle in the world's second largest Web market – China's www.Gmail.cn, which is refusing to sell its Internet address to the U.S. giant.>>

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2007-02-26T155827Z_01_SHA220476_RTRUKOC_0_US-GOOGLE-CHINA-GMAIL.xml

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

On this note:
<<No, we're not going to offer some Google products, such as Gmail or Blogger, on Google.cn until we're comfortable that we can do so in a manner that respects our users' interests in the privacy of their personal communications.>>
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/google-in-china.html

Of course, they may want to get hold of gmail.cn for more reasons than just feeling comfortable to launch a local Gmail – they may simply want to stop the current rip-off (if it's a rip-off?).

http://blogoscoped.com/files/gmail-cn.png

Forum home

Advertisement

 
Blog  |  Forum     more >> Archive | Feed | Google's blogs | About
Advertisement

 

This site unofficially covers Google™ and more with some rights reserved. Join our forum!