less than 6 characters for Gmail username?

[Shak]

at present you have to have a user name at least 6 characters >>>

why not lower?

just curious

Shak

[eaden]

I was told it was an effort to prevent spammers guessing the email addersses, and statistically shorter usernames got more spam. Of course I would have prefered a shorter username too.

[ThomasB]

eaden, right.

Why can't I have a shorter username?

Answer

Studies have shown that short usernames at popular domains receive significantly more spam due to automatic address generation. Gmail’s requirement that all usernames be at least six characters in length is meant to keep spam out of your inbox.

[gmail.google.com...]

[chicagohh]

I wonder if they will ever sell shorter usernames...?