Why am I sending from a googlemail.com account?
QI recently found out from a friend that my Gmail messages arrive in his inbox with @googlemail.com at the end of the address. However, I always tell people that my email address ends with @gmail.com, and people have for years successfully emailed me this way. I also log in with @gmail.com as part of the address. I’m really not sure what’s going on here. Is the fault at my end or his? Simon Simpson
AThe problem lies with a littleknown option in your Gmail account’s settings. From the late 2005 until early 2010 Google was caught up in a trademark spat with a UK company that had a prior claim over the ‘Gmail’ name. It meant that any UK user signing up for a Gmail account during that period was saddled with an @googlemail.com address.
It does not make any difference because Google’s servers handle emails sent to either domain, so to both you and your contacts youremailaddress@gmail.com and youremailaddress@googlemail.com are one and the same.
The case was settled in 2010, with all new UK sign-ups duly issued @gmail.com addresses. At the same time, existing users with @googlemail.com accounts were invited to switch to an @gmail.com address.
A notification to this effect will sometimes pop up in the Gmail window, with a quick link to make the change – but we’re guessing you’ve never noticed it. Fortunately, it’s easy to do manually. First, log into Gmail as normal, then click the Settings cog at the top right and choose Settings. Now click the ‘Accounts and Import’ tab and, in the ‘Send mail as’ section, click the ‘Switch to @gmail.com’ link (see screenshot). Cick the ‘Brilliant! Make me youremailaddress@gmail.com’ to confirm and your emails will no longer appear to come from @googlemail.com.