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January 22, 2010

Unlimited Gmail accounts

Need more email accounts? Well yes, it's a great idea and everything, but I don't have time to simply check the one(s) I already have. Ah well you see, this is where there are solutions. Gmail is either very flexible or very stupid, depending on your viewpoint. It doesn't recognise full stops in gmail accounts. So philipbradley@gmail (dot com) is exactly the same as philip.bradley@gmail etc. All of the email comes into the same account. This means that you can sign up for a number of different accounts with the same provider (such as Twitter for example) and have all the content coming into the one place.

But wait! There's more. You can also use the + sign. So, if I want to get all my work emails sent to one place I could tell people to email me at philipbradley+work@gmail (dot com). Then I can go to my filters and set up a filter to label it and get it all popped into one single neat place.

But wait! There's more. This little wrinkle takes into account the fact that as well as the @gmail.com address, there's also the @googlemail.com address as well. Both of these work as one - if you've got fredsmith [at] gmail [dot] com">fredsmith [at] gmail [dot] com you've also got fredsmith [at] googlemail [dot] com">fredsmith [at] googlemail [dot] com too. So if you need even more addresses, start using the alternative address as well.

But wait! There's more. The full stop wheeze works there as well, so you can start using that option as well.

Of course, another use for all of this is to sign up to various different things and by using the splendid Gmail filtering system have emails popping off into lots of places in the same account.

Nice and neat!

January 22, 2010 in Google specific | Permalink

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Comments

Nice post. I knew about the gmail variation aspect, but never thought to use them in the ways you mentioned. Very good thinking!

Posted by: Patrick DiDomenico | January 22, 2010 at 11:08 PM

I'm slowly being drawn in by the Googletron. I can feel it's pull. Since I switched my email to Gmail and started using it in anger, I'm finding more and more features that surprise and delight.

This is a particularly useful one. Add a +word after your email address and create new email addresses, which are a doddle to filter. Useful for keeping newsletters or discussion lists headed to the right folders, and keeping tabs on over enthusiastic (I'm being kind) email marketers.

Love this chart from email and digital marketing expert, Dave Chaffey, who consistently writes great posts and books about email marketing.

If nothing else, printing this out and sticking it on the wall next to your desk is a great reminder of how to evolve email marketing campaigns.

Now this is clever, although the precision required disturbs me a bit. Still the combination of sanitation and fertiliser has to be a winning formula for developing countries.

And, I wonder if it's something festival organisers could make use of. Although the prospect of an unhappy crowd heckling performers with their own style of dirty protest might make them think twice.