nifty feature of Gmail

Found this on http://lists.gpick.com/



Written by: Jim Rossman
"I found out about a little known but nifty feature of Gmail, and I want to pass it along here.
"How would you like to have unlimited mail aliases that all funnel into your Gmail inbox? Wouldn't it be nice to to know who sold your e-mail address or who is spamming you?
Here's the tip. You can personalize the e-mail addresses you give out so you can know the source of the spam that comes in. You simply add a + and an identifier after your Gmail user name.
"Let's say my Gmail address is jim@gmail.com and I want to sign up for breaking news alerts from CNN. I sign up as usual, but I give them jim+CNN@gmail.com as my address. This works because Gmail ignores the +CNN and delivers the alerts to my inbox. The cool part is that the +CNN still stays in the message, so I can see it. So if I start getting Viagra offers for that address, I know the origin.
"So every time I hand out my Gmail address, I can add a + and the name of the Web site or company. This trick may work with other e-mail systems. Feel free to try it. You won't hurt anything.

 

Bt have recently introduced a similar thing, however i believe it will be a little mroe advanced than this.

Jimbob

 

gerardwil, wow,
This is very nice!

I just wonder though what takes them so long........are they ever opening up to where everyone can sign up for an e-mail account there ?
I remember early last year there was talk of offering this service at about the end of the year.
It's still in Beta.

 

I think it has to be more advanced than this to be worth anything. If the system is constant and obvious for all users, spammers can easily get around this. Eg in gmail's case, removing everything in bewteen + (inclusive) and @ (exclusive)

Spamgourmet is probably the leader in this area, with user configurable prefixes and watch words. Extremely difficult to guess.

 

the paid version of Yahoo has it too and it is called Addressguard. very nice feature if you ask me. you can add whatever extension you want...personalise it.

 

BT and yahoo are working together so we are probably thinking of the same thing.

Jimbob

 

Yes I think we are at least I think that is, how do we know for sure?

Inf.