A Little Known Trick about G-Mail

jedediahd

14 years ago

This is a good tip, been using this for a couple years for various reasons. Thanks for bringing it up!

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D_M_S

14 years ago

Thats simply not true. In order for this to be true, google would need to ban new users from creating accounts with a "." in them and that's currently not the case. Otherwise, you could be joe@gmail.com and I could sign up with j.oe@gmail.com and get your mail!

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E. Brian Rose

14 years ago

Originally Posted by D_M_S

Thats simply not true.

It most certainly is true, but thanks for the uninformed reply.

From Receiving someone else's mail - Gmail Help (top option)...

Gmail doesn't recognize dots as characters within usernames, you can add or remove the dots from a Gmail address without changing the actual destination address; they'll all go to your inbox, and only yours. In short:

homerjsimpson@gmail.com = hom.er.j.sim.ps.on@gmail.com
homerjsimpson@gmail.com = HOMERJSIMPSON@gmail.com
homerjsimpson@gmail.com = Homer.J.Simpson@gmail.com

All these addresses belong to the same person. You can see this if you try to sign in with your username, but adding or removing a dot from it. You'll still go to your account.
If you get mail that seems to be intended for someone else, it's likely that the sender entered the wrong address, just like if you've ever dialed a wrong phone number for someone. In these cases, we suggest contacting the original sender or website when possible to alert them to the mistake.
One last thing: Google Apps does recognize dots. If you'd like to have a dot in your username, please ask your domain administrator to add your preferred username as a nickname.

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Tina Golden 14 years ago

Originally Posted by D_M_S

I guess the self-proclaimed "gurus" can be a-holes too . . .

And you don't think your response was rude to begin with?

I've been using this trick for years and it works just as good today as it did when I started using it.

Tina
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petevamp

13 years ago

Originally Posted by E. Brian Rose

It most certainly is true, but thanks for the uninformed reply.

From Receiving someone else's mail - Gmail Help (top option)...

Gmail doesn't recognize dots as characters within usernames, you can add or remove the dots from a Gmail address without changing the actual destination address; they'll all go to your inbox, and only yours. In short:

homerjsimpson@gmail.com = hom.er.j.sim.ps.on@gmail.com
homerjsimpson@gmail.com = HOMERJSIMPSON@gmail.com
homerjsimpson@gmail.com = Homer.J.Simpson@gmail.com

All these addresses belong to the same person. You can see this if you try to sign in with your username, but adding or removing a dot from it. You'll still go to your account.
If you get mail that seems to be intended for someone else, it's likely that the sender entered the wrong address, just like if you've ever dialed a wrong phone number for someone. In these cases, we suggest contacting the original sender or website when possible to alert them to the mistake.
One last thing: Google Apps does recognize dots. If you'd like to have a dot in your username, please ask your domain administrator to add your preferred username as a nickname.

I have never tried anything like this myself. However I understand that you can also just add numbers or something as an extension to your main account and it would allow you to type in the number while in your gmail account and delete all those emails you do not care about. Now I have not tried this my self for I use self hosted emails for many of my promotions so I do not have to worry about spam to my main mail accounts. Take my solar site for instance. I set up a self hosted email advert@gardensolar.net which I will use when ever I know I am going to get bombarded with a ton of junk emails. For various promotions like search engine submissions, link submissions and other marketing solutions.

Now the beauty of this is the email box empties it self of mail older then 45 days old and if I signed up for something just to get something I do not get bombarded with all the junk mail they are going to send. If it was a double opt series to get a free book or software then I just log into the account after and double opt then let it collect the junk once again and let it empty itself out as messages reach the 45 days old mark.

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Janice Sperry

14 years ago

They go to the same account? Why then would I not be able to register joeblow because someone else is already using it but I can register joe.blow? I must be missing something....

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Jack Duncan

14 years ago

I had heard this worked as well...from somewhere, but I have never tried it...may need to give it a shot.

Seems like it would be good to create a Gmail account with a longer name (as in above example) so that you have more places to put your .

Now, wonder if Gmail will allow you to filter based on the . location?

Best,
Jack Duncan

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Sammy McClane

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Jack Duncan

I had heard this worked as well...from somewhere, but I have never tried it...may need to give it a shot.

Seems like it would be good to create a Gmail account with a longer name (as in above example) so that you have more places to put your .

Now, wonder if Gmail will allow you to filter based on the . location?

Best,
Jack Duncan

I don't know about that, but you can also add a "+" and additional text just before the "@" sign - as far as G-Mail is concerned, it's still your address but you can filter based on the post "+" text.

E.g. joeblow @ gmail.com,
joeblow+jackslist @ gmail.com,
joeblow+sammyslist @ gmail.com

will all reach your inbox, but you can filter them separately.

Obviously better suited to autoresponders than real people...

- Sammy

[Edit: @Tom Goodwin - sorry, didn't see you'd already posted...]

Thanks
1 reply

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ijohnson

13 years ago

Thanks for the tip! I like the variation on it by using the "+" with additional text so you can categorize things better, i.e., article marketing, traffic, backlinking, SEO, mobile, War Room, Offline consulting, Tim Castleman, Jason Fladlien, Kieran McDonogh, auto-blogging, Kevin Riley, affiliate marketing, etc. -- labeling it however it best suits you.

Iris
@@@@@@@@@@@@

Originally Posted by Sammy McClane

I don't know about that, but you can also add a "+" and additional text just before the "@" sign - as far as G-Mail is concerned, it's still your address but you can filter based on the post "+" text.

E.g. joeblow @ gmail.com,
joeblow+jackslist @ gmail.com,
joeblow+sammyslist @ gmail.com

will all reach your inbox, but you can filter them separately.

Obviously better suited to autoresponders than real people...

- Sammy

[Edit: @Tom Goodwin - sorry, didn't see you'd already posted...]

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Tom Goodwin

14 years ago

There are probably over 100 threads with that "tip" in the SEO subforum. Just saying

Along with using things like email+1@gmail.com, email+2@gmail.com, etc. Every 2 weeks or so someone posts this miraculous tip like they figured out the secret to the universe.

That's probably why I delete any signups for my forums with plus or periods in their gmail ;-)

Originally Posted by E. Brian Rose

I learned this trick a few months ago from somebody, somewhere and have been using it quite frequently. I don't think that I learned it here, but if I did, then kudos to the person that posted it.

Have you ever been a member of a site, but wanted to sign up for another account for whatever reason? Maybe you already signed up for some freebie, but lost the downloadable file. You want to re-sign up to get it again, but it tells you that your email address is already registered.

It can be a pain to juggle multiple email accounts sometimes, so use this trick to avoid the juggling act...

Gmail allows you to place a dot (period) anywhere within your nickname, thus creating a unique email address... but all of the emails still go to your main account.

For example, if your Gmail address is joeblow@gmail.com, then you can use any of these variations...

joe.blow@gmail.com
j.oeblow@gmail.com
jo.eblow@gmail.com
...and so on and so on

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bretski 14 years ago

My gmail address has a period between my first name and last name and I will tell you that I do get emails intended for someone with my same name who lives in California. He uses firstnamelastname@gmail.com without the dot.

Yep, he moved recently and I got the billing information and receipt for his Uhaul and also a couple of job offers and some stuff for a project that he was working on. I have had my account for years...back when you needed someone to invite you to get a gmail account. I don't know if anyone else gets my emails but I know for sure that I do get stuff intended for other folks.

Yes, I tried letting people know that his emails were going to my account and to contact him and let him know yet the stuff still comes.
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Scott Ames

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Tom Goodwin

Every 2 weeks or so someone posts this miraculous tip like they figured out the secret to the universe.

That's probably why I delete any signups for my forums with plus or periods in their gmail ;-)

You delete them because they figured something out? How is that useful?

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bretski

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Scott Ames

You delete them because they figured something out? How is that useful?

AND if they put a period in their gmail address....and you know that nobody ever uses a period in an email address. Well, other than network administrators or anyone that is used to using that format for their work email address.

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Scott Ames

14 years ago

Originally Posted by bretski

AND if they put a period in their gmail address....and you know that nobody ever uses a period in an email address. Well, other than network administrators or anyone that is used to using that format for their work email address.

I don't follow.

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bretski 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Scott Ames

I don't follow.

I do desktop support and network administration and it is almost industry standard to format email addresses as firstname.lastname@domain. The poster that you replied to said that deleted accounts of anyone that puts a period in their gmail address. There are many people who format their email addresses and gmail addresses with the same format of firstname.lastname@domain or gmail.com ... It was more sarcasm than anything else...and probably a lack of sleep on my part if I was unclear. That's all.
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jacquis

14 years ago

THANKS! What a great tip! I use Mailplane on my Mac and can easily access all my accounts, but I'm going to use this one as well!

)

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Pradeep Bhagwat

14 years ago

Hi, It is very claver and useful tip.

- Pradeep

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1 reply

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Kamran 14 years ago

I saw this first in war room. It is a cool tip and I can confirm that it works.
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evanlambda

14 years ago

The + trick is really great for categorizing mail.

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ThunderingHerd 14 years ago

Thanks for the tip - I did not know that I have now put it in my notebook.
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- Jay Es 14 years ago
  
  the plus sign is a great trick, when the sites allow it. and if you use filters with the word after the plus sign as a strategy it helps filter your email. then you don't have to worry about when companies change email providers etc.
  
  e.g. i used email+newsletter when signing up for newsletters, then i know all the company emails from amazon, gap, etc. will all end up in that folder.
  
  also see the better gmail addons/plugins for chrome and firefox browsers. you can create subfolders and do a lot of other things that have a major impact on the look and feel of gmail from the standard one....
  
  Thanks
  
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Mr Money Maker

14 years ago

First I've heard of this..thanks so much..GW Williams

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John Callaghan 14 years ago

I was skeptical so I did a quick test.....it works perfectly

Thanks! I'll add the . and + trick to my toolbox
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Sam1985

14 years ago

This is very useful for all.
Thanks for sharing

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Randy Daugherty

13 years ago

Great tips...I actually did it and it really works...

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paulie888

13 years ago

Originally Posted by E. Brian Rose

I learned this trick a few months ago from somebody, somewhere and have been using it quite frequently. I don't think that I learned it here, but if I did, then kudos to the person that posted it.

Have you ever been a member of a site, but wanted to sign up for another account for whatever reason? Maybe you already signed up for some freebie, but lost the downloadable file. You want to re-sign up to get it again, but it tells you that your email address is already registered.

It can be a pain to juggle multiple email accounts sometimes, so use this trick to avoid the juggling act...

Gmail allows you to place a dot (period) anywhere within your nickname, thus creating a unique email address... but all of the emails still go to your main account.

For example, if your Gmail address is joeblow@gmail.com, then you can use any of these variations...

joe.blow@gmail.com
j.oeblow@gmail.com
jo.eblow@gmail.com
...and so on and so on

A variation on this is appending a number to the end of the email ID, i.e.

joeblow+1@gmail.com
joeblow+2@gmail.com
joeblow+3@gmail.com
joeblow+4@gmail.com
joeblow+5@gmail.com

The above email addresses are all the same, and the root email in this case is just joeblow@gmail.com

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dirtyroger

13 years ago

I tested this and it work! Brilliant thanks for this

Thanks

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theoneinventor

13 years ago

So the uses of this trick:
for filtering purposes, when using "+keyword"
for signing up for multiple accounts on a website by using periods to appear as a unique e-mail address.

Ya'll seem pretty excited about this, does this trick have other uses that I'm missing?

Thanks

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oinky222

13 years ago

wow i never knew you could do that. thank you for the great tip! that could be quite valuable

Thanks

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misterhu

13 years ago

Wow. This is an interesting post. Will sure try it and see how it works. Thanks for sharing.

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Wayne-JJ

13 years ago

Nice tip, was not aware of this. Many thanks TS!

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amoro

13 years ago

Wow! I tried it dude and it works. I really need this one to segregate my emails. Thanks you so much it really helps me a lot

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Mark Jordan

13 years ago

Just tried it and it worked. I also tried removing the dot and it also worked. Will try putting the dots in differently if it still works. Thanks for this post.

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ellush

13 years ago

Yep, it works. Love this tip!
Just to confirm - when I set up a filter I can just add the email (with the dot or +1, +2 etc) in the To field and then set the destination folder? That'll automatically shift the specific incoming mails to that folder?

Thanks

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A Little Known Trick about G-Mail

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