Google mail users in UK will now be able to convert their @googlemail.com accounts to @gmail.com accounts, according to the official release from Google. The move is probably aimed at unifying the Gmail brand name. For those who do not remember, Gmail actually started off as Google Mail before switching to Gmail but it did not happen in UK up until now.

New signups to Gmail will have @gmail.com extension and old @googlemail.com users can now switch to the new extension. None of the mail settings will change for those who decide to switch except the extension and mails that you get on your old email will be forwarded to the new one. For those who are using an offline Gmail client would need to re-sync their Gmail account after switching.

Consider, for example, that you had xxx@googlemail.com and now you decided to switch to xxx@gmail.com,  all you have to do is click the “switch to @gmail.com” in the Accounts tab under the Gmail settings.

Google estimates that 12 million emails are sent and received every day through Google Mail in UK alone and this move to cut down the length of extension from 10 characters to 5 would save them 60 million key stokes each day and that would save a lot of energy each day!

There are a few changes though if you want to switch and these include:

You have to re register with your new email to the groups you have previously registered with old email.

Third party chat clients would require that you invite your friends again through the new email address. [via Google]