Google is reportedly working on offering Gmail users a way to customize their email address and turn it into the personalized handle they’ve always wanted. The service could cost as little as $2 per month for personal accounts, or $5 per users for businesses.
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Instead of the usual Gmail ID you expect to receive when signing up for the service, something along the lines of jon.snow@gmail.com, you’d be able to choose a personalized domain, as long as it’s not registered to anyone else — that means tcook@apple.com (Apple CEO Tim Cook’s actual email address) won’t be among the available choices.
So, for example, you’d be able to turn the previous email handle into something like jon.snow@thenightswatch.com, without losing any of the features that come with a Gmail email.
Previously, only Google Apps users had access to customized domains, and they had to register them outside of Google.
“We know that your first choice of username probably wasn’t yourname345666@gmail.com which is why we’re experimenting with scalable ways to provide other options. This is just a test, though, and we haven’t made any decisions for the long term,” a Google spokesperson told ZDNet.
The customizable Gmail account would still offer users the same perks they get from any regular Gmail account, including 15GB of storage. Business users would get 30GB of storage, 24/7 support and other business tools for the extra $3/month they’d pay.
A third plan of $10 per month gives users unlimited online storage (or 1TB per user if there are fewer than five users), as well as archiving and Google eDiscovery support. Google did not offer any additional details, so it’s not clear when the service will be made available to customers.
