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*@gmail.com

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Re: *@gmail.com

#3

Post by rcarmo »

This is a great reminder that Gmail ignores dots on the left side of the @ symbol, which means I am constantly getting e-mail for other people.

The “+” tagging was a great idea, but the fact that incorrect address matching has become a “feature” (and not fixed over decades) plus constant spates of spam has made me believe there’s nobody left at the helm who actually understands e-mail.

I’ve kept my Gmail addresses for some mailing-lists, but moved everything of consequence to better providers.

Re: *@gmail.com

#4

Post by laurentlb »

rcarmo wrote: post #3

This is a great reminder that Gmail ignores dots on the left side of the @ symbol, which means I am constantly getting e-mail for other people. The “+” tagging was a great idea, but the fact that incorrect address matching has become a “feature” (and not fixed over decades) plus constant spates of spam has made me believe there’s nobody left at the helm who actually understands e-mail. I’ve kept my Gmail addresses fo…

Can you clarify how ignoring the dots is a problem?

Re: *@gmail.com

#5

Post by franze » 

    Address not found
    Your message wasn't delivered to \*@gmail.com because the address couldn't be found, or is unable to receive mail.
    LEARN MORE
    The response was:
    550 5.1.1 The email account that you tried to reach does not exist. Please try double-checking the recipient's email address for typos or unnecessary spaces.   
     Learn more at https://support.google.com/mail/?p=NoSuchUser f15-20020a05651201cf00b00500994b137asor390839lfp.19 - gsmtp

Re: *@gmail.com

#6

Post by beardyw »

rcarmo wrote: post #3

This is a great reminder that Gmail ignores dots on the left side of the @ symbol, which means I am constantly getting e-mail for other people. The “+” tagging was a great idea, but the fact that incorrect address matching has become a “feature” (and not fixed over decades) plus constant spates of spam has made me believe there’s nobody left at the helm who actually understands e-mail. I’ve kept my Gmail addresses fo…

> This is a great reminder that Gmail ignores dots on the left side of the @ symbol

But sometimes handy to fool sign ups and use it twice (or more depending on length). I wonder if you can use multiple dots?

Re: *@gmail.com

#7

Post by adrianmsmith »

laurentlb wrote: post #4
rcarmo wrote: post #3

This is a great reminder that Gmail ignores dots on the left side of the @ symbol, which means I am constantly getting e-mail for other people. The “+” tagging was a great idea, but the fact that incorrect address matching has become a “feature” (and not fixed over decades) plus constant spates of spam has made me believe there’s nobody left at the helm who actually understands e-mail. I’ve kept my Gmail addresses fo…

Can you clarify how ignoring the dots is a problem?

One problem I've encountered is that usually sites won't allow you to register an account if the email address is already registered at that site. So if I register foo@gmail.com then someone else can't accidentally register foo@gmail.com. But they can register f.o.o@gmail.com just fine.

So I mean at my Gmail I have all manner of different Facebook accounts with various misspelling of my email address notifying me of stuff, none of them are mine. I'm sure they entered my email address (with dots) by accident, not on purpose.

I appreciate that sites not allowing you to register the same email address twice hardly solves everything, as I absolutely get email to my actual correct Gmail address from random sites I've never signed up for. But at least it would help in certain cases like Facebook where I do have an account.

Re: *@gmail.com

#8

Post by dredmorbius »

laurentlb wrote: post #4
rcarmo wrote: post #3

This is a great reminder that Gmail ignores dots on the left side of the @ symbol, which means I am constantly getting e-mail for other people. The “+” tagging was a great idea, but the fact that incorrect address matching has become a “feature” (and not fixed over decades) plus constant spates of spam has made me believe there’s nobody left at the helm who actually understands e-mail. I’ve kept my Gmail addresses fo…

Can you clarify how ignoring the dots is a problem?

To borrow an example from Internet domain names, consider:

  experts.exchang@gmail.com

  expert.sexchange@gmail.com
Those addresses would be identical by Gmail's parsing conventions.

Re: *@gmail.com

#9

Post by adrianmsmith »

beardyw wrote: post #6
rcarmo wrote: post #3

This is a great reminder that Gmail ignores dots on the left side of the @ symbol, which means I am constantly getting e-mail for other people. The “+” tagging was a great idea, but the fact that incorrect address matching has become a “feature” (and not fixed over decades) plus constant spates of spam has made me believe there’s nobody left at the helm who actually understands e-mail. I’ve kept my Gmail addresses fo…

> This is a great reminder that Gmail ignores dots on the left side of the @ symbol But sometimes handy to fool sign ups and use it twice (or more depending on length). I wonder if you can use multiple dots?

I'm not sure if you can use f..oo@gmail.com but if your email address is longer than a few characters then there are definitely a large number of combinations you can use if you want to register multiple accounts at one service, foo@, f.oo@, fo.o@, f.o.o@ etc.

You can also use foo+extra@gmail.com and the +extra will be ignored, so you can give each service a separate email address like foo+hn@gmail.com.

Beware, as I found out the hard way, this makes account recovery more difficult. To reset your password you need to enter your email address usually. But if you used +foo stuff then you might not be able to remember what email address you used.

Re: *@gmail.com

#10

Post by londons_explore »

adrianmsmith wrote: post #7
laurentlb wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you clarify how ignoring the dots is a problem?

One problem I've encountered is that usually sites won't allow you to register an account if the email address is already registered at that site. So if I register foo@gmail.com then someone else can't accidentally register foo@gmail.com. But they can register f.o.o@gmail.com just fine. So I mean at my Gmail I have all manner of different Facebook accounts with various misspelling of my email address notifying me of…

I think you just chose an insufficiently unique email address.

I never get any of these problems.

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