Too Many Email Addresses
on 03.06.08, 07:52am in computers • comments (2)
I have too many email addresses:
- A work email address.
- A semi-private email address that I give out to ‘everyone’. It’s linked to at the bottom of the blog, I use it for ordering online, etc.
- A private email address that I give out to people that I know.
- A gmail address, which I never use, but hey - it was free and keeps growing. Plus, I think I have some google stuff linked to it.
- A hotmail address that I used to use, and still is somewhat active.
- A Comcast provided email address that I have for ‘billing’ that was provided to me when I started the service - which I haven’t looked at in 5 years.
- A Facebook inbox, that’s been quiet since I ranted about it.
- And on and on….
My identity feels fragmented over countless services - It’s just way too much. Heck, the web-hosting provider that I use, dreamhost.com, allows me to make an unlimited number of email addresses for my hosted domains. It’s just crazy!
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been trying to consolidate down to only having 2 or 3 addresses, and I’m finding the whole process just maddening. There is no good way to move email between systems (especially web-based ones) without resorting to signing up for “plus” services.
Is there no good way to just consolidate into a few locations?
Frank McPherson (March 6, 2008 @ 9:09 am)
The email I address I have been using the most actually forwards to my hosted Exchange service. By using an email configured to forward I can always change the back end and not affect how people send me email.
I have a Gmail address that I have found I use more and more as my personal email address and recently I configured my old email address so that it forwards to both Exchange (which I want to keep for working with Windows Mobile push) and Gmail. Gmail has become my email repository because search works so well and I like labeling.
My suggestion is to configure all your email addresses to forward to one server, whether that be Gmail or whatever you select. Obvoiusly, storing it on Gmail means you are at Google’s mercy, but I somewhat mitigate that by having Mail.app configured for Gmail via IMAP and since it caches locally that pretty much gives me a local backup.
Mike Moore (March 6, 2008 @ 12:23 pm)
I feel your pain. I have a few email accounts as well. I have a number of domains, so what I do is host them all on one Google for Applications instance. So mike@blowmage.com is the same as mike@rubiverse.com. And I can create aliases, so podcast@rubiverse.com also goes to mike@rubiverse.com. Multiple email addresses, one inbox.
Now if I could just get my hotmail.com and live.com email forwarded without having to pay…