When Gmail got going, they allowed people to setup email with custom domains, so naturally all of you did.

Then they took that feature away and said if you want that, you have to pay, but legacy accounts were grandfathered.  For a while, there was a lively market of people selling Gmail domains that were “legacy-enabled”.  Because Gmail legacy came in different sizes, some allowed 25 accounts, some 100, and some really valuable ones 1,000.  Of course, once you got the domain, you probably didn’t want to use joe@healingsoups.info or whatever goofy domain, but for a while there were a seemingly endless number of tricks that could be used to add domain, alias a domain, or otherwise manipulate a complex series of APIs, web pages, and forms to either add or switch the domain so you could once again be joe@sadisticdeathmissile.com or whatever you prefer.  According to one study I just made up, had all of this brainpower been harnessed for the greater good, both cancer and tooth decay would have been cured by now.

One by one, Google closed these holes.

And then finally the big bomb was dropped: Google announced they were cancelling legacy accounts.  There were pumped fists and even lawsuits discussed.  This was all rather silly and a bit of spoiled brat/foot stomping because Google never promised you a free rose garden and it was actually pretty nice of them to provide free service for 14-odd years (admittedly, they’re making money on ad revenue).

But then Google relented!  Sort of.  If your account is purely for personal use, you’re golden.  If you’re using it for business, you need to pay.  My private theory is that Google’s own employees had flocked to Gmail and had put all their family on it and were now grousing about having to hand over $5/head.

So now it’s time to actually make the move!  And it’s ridiculously easy.  I expected forms and dire oaths and probably a credit card number and maybe a DNA swab, but it’s four clicks.  Let’s walk through it.  Estimate time: 30 seconds, if you’re slow.

Step 1: Login to your Gmail.  You’ll see this banner, which you’ve probably been visually ignoring for months:

Click Choose now.  You’ll then be presented with two options.

Step Two: You want the bottom option.  Click “Personal use”.

Step Three: That first check box is the one we want to see.  Click “Confirm for personal use”.

Step Four: There is no step four.  You’re done!

• Author
• Recent Posts

raindog308

Dread Lord of LowEnd Content at LowEndBox

I'm raindog308, techno polymath and long-time LowEndTalk community Administrator. My technical interests include all things Unix, perl, python, golang, shell scripting, vintage operating systems such as MVS, and relational database systems such as Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

I also enjoy using LEBs! I have an empire of little guys for VPNs, larger guys for apps, and big guys for databases and storage. When I'm not in front a screen I'm into German Shepherd dogs, quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop roleplaying games, and forest hiking.

I enjoy writing technical articles here on LowEndBox to help people get more out of their systems. You can find me on LowEndTalk @raindog308

Latest posts by raindog308 (see all)

• The Awesome Curated Universe - December 17, 2024
• Win Authority: Cheap VPS Offers in Seattle ! - December 16, 2024
• I Don’t Have Time to Win the Hutter Prize, So Maybe You’d Like to Snag 500’000€ With My Idea - December 15, 2024