It wasn't always that way on gmail. I have a long-lived account and someone else has in the past had a working address of the same words without the dot but always used the @googlemail.com address.
Note: my bit of research into this taught me that the googlemail.com domain is used by Gmail users in Germany, Russia, and Poland where the Gmail trademark was already taken 1. In each case, Google was forced to use “googlemail” and therefore googlemail.com instead. As of 2012, the situation with Germany was straightened out and new users to Gmail there get assigned a gmail.com domain.
Re:*@gmail.com
by InsomniacL on Thursday August 31, 2023 @09:05AM
(#37336541)
Gmail addresses ending in @gmail.com and @googlemail.com are the same e-mail address and do not represent two different accounts.
If you don't want to use the feature, you don't have to. Lots of people find it extremely useful.
https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en#zippy=%...
> if your email is [email protected], you own all dotted versions of your address
> If anyone tries to create a Gmail account with a dotted version of your username, they'll get an error saying the username is already taken.
> Your account is still private and secure. Emails sent to any dotted version of your address will only go to you.