Make Several Gmail Addresses Out of One

Thanks to the way Google processes your mail, you can modify part of your address for different situations and still get all your messages.

I found this recent tech tip from the New York times interesting and if you use google mail, I think its a pretty neat feature. 

Google mail ignores dots before the @.  So you will get email addressed to FirstNameLastName@gmail.com or FirstName.LastName@Gmail.com.  It's handy if people mistype your email, it will still get to you.

Gmail also ignores anything after a plus sign.  So you can sign up for newsletters and use Name+News@gmail.com and you'll receive the emails and be able to sort them.

"Gmail also ignores characters after a plus sign (+) in the first part of the address. If you want a variant to use for online shopping or to see who’s selling your address to mailing lists, you can also use a technique called “plus addressing” to add a word or a few characters after the name part of your address — and then create a label and filter in the Gmail settings to sort messages sent there. For example, when you sign up for email newsletters, use the address firstnamelastname+news@gmail.com to sort the incoming messages sent to that variation of your address. If spam or newsletters you never signed up for begin to appear in your inbox, you’ll have an idea where the sender got your modified address."

Another clever feature of gmail is that in the web version you can report a suspicious message by clicking the More triangle in the upper-right corner of the message next to the Reply arrow and choosing Report Phishing from the menu.

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