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Gmail accepts multiple forms of email addresses for a single account. first.last@gmail.com is identical to firstlast@gmail.com. I often get subscribed to email

Gmail accepts multiple forms of email addresses for a single account. first.last@gmail.com is identical to firstlast@gmail.com. I often get subscribed to email lists I don't want using a variant of Gmail address that I never use. Also, plenty of people using forwarding addresses; it may not be clear which address was the target.

bad_user 14y ago
What you're saying is odd, because I own a first.last@gmail.com email address and I know the person that owns the equivalent firstlast@gmail.com email address. Also, the email address to which the message was sent appears clearly in the "To:" header.
- grandpoobah 14y ago
  You can put periods inside the username part of a gmail address and it still gets through. I'm not sure how what you're saying could be true? Maybe it wasn't always this way.
- autoreverse 14y ago
  Not always. Google's own google-content-api-for-shopping@googlegroups.com mailing list has this as the "To:" field: google-content-api-for-shopping@googlegroups.com And at the bottom of the message: To unsubscribe from this group, send an empty message. I had to ctrl-u and check the "Delivered-To:" and "X-Forwarded-For:" headers before I could unsubscribe. (I'd tried to unsubscribe previously but the subscribed email account forwards to my main account so replying with an empty message didn't work. This thread prompted me to dig a little deeper and finally get one less piece of email per day - thanks HN!)
- davewasthere 14y ago
  funny. Because if you own the address halfarsed@gmail.com, I thought you also own half.arsed@gmail.com. The dots are for you to play around with, but the mail all goes to one account. Or, at least, that's how it works with my account.
- thwest 14y ago
  Early first.last@gmail accounts had firstlast@gmail reserved for them. Google stopped doing that a few years after launch.
  - llimllib 14y ago
    I had no idea they stopped doing that! That seems a pretty serious change of model, I'm glad I know it now.
    - akldfgj 14y ago
      They didn't stop.
  - awakeasleep 14y ago
    Are you certain? Im under the impression periods in email addresses, anywhere, do not affect delivery http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/1-awesome-gmail-tip-you-dont-know-about-seriously/ http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/1-awesome-gmail-tip-you-dont-kn...
    - akldfgj 14y ago
      Periods in gmail addresses to not affect delivery. other mail servers may behave differently.
  - taejo 14y ago
    I thought it was the other way around: mail to firstlast@gmail.com will be delivered to first.last@gmail.com unless firstlast@gmail.com was registered early on.
- akldfgj 14y ago
  This is not Gmail's designed or advertised behavior. http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=10313 http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answe... Either you or your friend is misspelling their address (more common than you might think, I get opt-in mailing-list mail for myaddress@gmail.com, intended for myaddress@ymail.com), or you've encountered a bug.

bad_user 14y ago

What you're saying is odd, because I own a first.last@gmail.com email address and I know the person that owns the equivalent firstlast@gmail.com email address. Also, the email address to which the message was sent appears clearly in the "To:" header.

grandpoobah 14y ago
You can put periods inside the username part of a gmail address and it still gets through. I'm not sure how what you're saying could be true? Maybe it wasn't always this way.
autoreverse 14y ago
Not always. Google's own google-content-api-for-shopping@googlegroups.com mailing list has this as the "To:" field: google-content-api-for-shopping@googlegroups.com And at the bottom of the message: To unsubscribe from this group, send an empty message. I had to ctrl-u and check the "Delivered-To:" and "X-Forwarded-For:" headers before I could unsubscribe. (I'd tried to unsubscribe previously but the subscribed email account forwards to my main account so replying with an empty message didn't work. This thread prompted me to dig a little deeper and finally get one less piece of email per day - thanks HN!)
davewasthere 14y ago
funny. Because if you own the address halfarsed@gmail.com, I thought you also own half.arsed@gmail.com. The dots are for you to play around with, but the mail all goes to one account. Or, at least, that's how it works with my account.
thwest 14y ago
Early first.last@gmail accounts had firstlast@gmail reserved for them. Google stopped doing that a few years after launch.
- llimllib 14y ago
  I had no idea they stopped doing that! That seems a pretty serious change of model, I'm glad I know it now.
  - akldfgj 14y ago
    They didn't stop.
- awakeasleep 14y ago
  Are you certain? Im under the impression periods in email addresses, anywhere, do not affect delivery http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/1-awesome-gmail-tip-you-dont-know-about-seriously/ http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/1-awesome-gmail-tip-you-dont-kn...
  - akldfgj 14y ago
    Periods in gmail addresses to not affect delivery. other mail servers may behave differently.
- taejo 14y ago
  I thought it was the other way around: mail to firstlast@gmail.com will be delivered to first.last@gmail.com unless firstlast@gmail.com was registered early on.
akldfgj 14y ago
This is not Gmail's designed or advertised behavior. http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=10313 http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answe... Either you or your friend is misspelling their address (more common than you might think, I get opt-in mailing-list mail for myaddress@gmail.com, intended for myaddress@ymail.com), or you've encountered a bug.