google gmail is a very nifty free email product. One feature of Gmail you may not know about is that multiple Google email addresses can be created from one Gmail account. these additional email addresses are easy to create and manage and can take a few different forms.
multiple google email addresses from one gmail account
Having multiple gmail addresses can provide a variety of uses, including easily separating personal and business email and tracking incoming email from specific mailing lists and subscriptions. There are three main methods to expand the number of usable google email addresses you can have from a single gmail account:
- using the domain @googlemail.com.
- using the “dot” or dot in your email name.
- using the plus sign “+” at the end of its name and adding additional characters.
Using the domain name “@googlemail.com” Let’s start with the use of the domain name @googlemail.com. With every gmail account you get a second email address: one is the normal @gmail.com address while the second address has @googlemail.com as its domain. so gmail will actually see myname@gmail.com as the same as myname@googlemail.com. all emails sent to myname@googlemail.com will be sent to your
using a dot or dot in the email name
Another interesting facet of gmail addresses is what is sometimes called “dot blindness”. In an interesting twist, gmail doesn’t recognize dots, ”.”, or dots as characters in Google email address usernames. this means that gmail “sees” my.name@gmail.com or myna.me@gmail.com as the same address as myname@gmail.com. you can also use multiple “dots” in the username, like my.na.me@gmail.com.
The same “blind spot” also applies to email addresses using the domain name @googlemail.com with my.name@googlemail.com or my.na.me@googlemail.com being routed to the same inbox as myname@gmail. .com.
using the plus sign and additional characters the third trick to extend the use of your gmail account is the ability to add additional characters to the end of your username by inserting a plus sign, “+ ” after your name. google doesn’t recognize these characters, but gmail’s search filters do. the characters after the plus sign can be letters or numbers. so myname+abcde@gmail.com or myname+abcde@googlemail.com will end up in the same inbox as myname@gmail.com.
Try them out for yourself and see what works best for you. all variations below are from the same google email account and will all end up in the gmail inbox myname@gmail.com:
myname@gmail.com
myname@googlemail.com
my.name@gmail.com
my.name@googlemail.com
my.na.me@gmail.com
my.na.me@googlemail.com
myname+abcde@gmail.com
myname+123abc@gmail.com
my.name+abcdefg78@gmail.com
my.name+abcdefg78@googlemail.com
benefits of multiple google email addresses from one gmail account
So you say, “well, these google email address tips are interesting, but what would I use all these variations for?” one use is to track where mail came from. When you sign up for a newsletter or mailing list subscription, you can create a specific email address using the plus sign and some specific characters or a “dot” pattern. then you can track the incoming email based on the specific email name you created.
For example, you sign up for a newsletter using my.name+456news@gmail.com and then, in addition to the newsletter you signed up for, you start receiving emails from sources other than that specific information. address. this could indicate that the specific mailing list could have been compromised or even sold.
Another use of these address variations is to classify spam or junk email from a specific google email address. By using gmail filters, you can automatically direct mail to a specific address, such as myname+666@gmail.com, to your spam folder.
Your address variations can also be used to separate personal and business messages and automatically identify each with a different label and sorted into a different folder.
google email address management made simple
having multiple google email addresses is a useful tool for addressing various email needs. The benefits of having a centralized email account that can easily process multiple different email addresses without having to go out and set up numerous new accounts with additional usernames and passwords can be a real bonus. and they are all managed from a single gmail account. reminds a little of j.r.r. tolkien verse: “one ring to rule them all, one ring to find them.”