The link agrees - it's a feature not a bug and one that considered security: > As it turns out, even though Gmail will act as if there is no period in a userna

The link agrees - it's a feature not a bug and one that considered security: > As it turns out, even though Gmail will act as if there is no period in a username when delivering mail, it will not permit users to register accounts whose only difference to other account is a period. That is, if bob.jones is registered, bobjones cannot get an account (he could get bobjones2, obviously).