Gmail : Email Galore

Recently while logging in to my gmail account I accidentally put an extra dot in my username. I was about to hit the stop button to rectify the typing error but I realized that even with “ the error” my gmail page loaded. Later I tried the same trick, putting the dot elsewhere in the username string; it worked still. I repeated the exercise several times, placing as many dots as I wanted and at random positions in the username string. It worked each time. Next I sent myself an email from my yahoo account to my gmail account, putting extra dots in the recipient gmail id. As expected, the mail was received.

Apparently the gmail server neglected any dots in the usernames. This was news. That meant any gmail user had infinite number of email ids, all sharing the same alphabetical substring. I searched on google to find out if it was aware of the 'bug'. I found out it was no bug, rather a policy. Further, I learnt about a similar policy called the + addressing. This allows emails to be sent to UserName+ExtraText@gmail.com where the actual email id is UserName@gmail.com . “ExtraText” refers to any random string. For instance you could send me a mail on robinchandra19+gotohell@gmail.com in place of the plain robinchandra19@gmail.com. I would receive the mail and you would have your fun. But before you try this with your Boss's mail id, know about the catch. The catch is: by reading the details of the email, the recipient can know the exact username string the mail was addressed to. Even the best of rogues leave trails!! Jokes apart, this can be used as a means of filtering mails into appropriate folders. Say, tomorrow is 14th February. I send mails to 100 hot girls and ask them to mail their rendezvous times to robinchandra19+exquisitedinnerfortwo@gmail.com . I can now filter all mails addressed to robinchandra19+exquisitedinnerfortwo@gmail.com and label them accordingly. Sounds great, isn't it?

Try these tricks.