As I reported a few days ago, Google encounters several problems with the Chinese domain for its email service after the company was informed that Gmail.cn is already owned by another company. Yesterday, the search giant tried to make a partnership with Internet Technology Development Co. Ltd. (ISM), an agreement that looked like a new Google attempt to expand its products onto the Asian market. Although this was the official goal presented by the search giant, it seems like the partnership is a new Google attempt to lure the owner of Gmail.cn to sell the domain name.

One of the most interesting aspects of the matter is that Gmail.cn is currently owned by ISM, the company that was announced as the latest Google acquisition. It seems like the search giant tried to buy ISM some time ago in the year 2004 but the Chinese company didn't agree and they canceled the transaction. Just after a few months since the Gmail first launch date in April 1, 2004, ISM revealed its own e-mail solution entitled Gmail.cn that presented almost the same logo and design as the product owned by the search giant.

"ISM said it had registered its own service eight months before Google's Gmail. The two services have many things in common besides the domain name: the choice of colors in the logo are strikingly similar; even the sign-in page is similarly uncluttered. Gmail is a free email service and the technology behind it was developed at a cost of $2.5mn. ISM had planned to charge for the service, later, when user numbers had grown, but after Google began to offer its Gmail service free the plans had to be shelve," Earthtimes.org reported.

Recently, Google made Gmail free for every user in the entire world, upgrading the mail service to a public beta without an invitation-based registration. After the announcement, the company tried to promote the product onto the Asian market but encountered ISM's refusal of selling the Gmail.cn domain.