# How do I select something other than my GMail account as my primary address for Google websites? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 30, 2011, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-select-something-other-than-my-gmail-account-as-my-primary-address-for-google-websites/598129 "2011-09-30T08:33:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-select-something-other-than-my-gmail-account-as-my-primary-address-for-google-websites/598129/1 "2011-09-30T08:33:29Z")
I don’t use GMail for e-mail. The only reason I signed up for an account was because it was necessary for some of Google Talk’s features. Since signing up, however, Google now considers the GMail account to be my “primary email” and all other Google services I use (YouTube, Google Code, etc.) send their notifications to the GMail account only. How do I set one of my (currently) “alternate” email addresses as my primary email address, or alternatively, how do I tell Google to send its notifications to one of my alternate email addresses instead of the “primary” GMail address? I understand one way of doing this would be to delete my GMail account, but I would prefer not to do that if possible so that I can continue to use it for Google Talk. I tried posting this on Google’s help forums, but they’re segregated by product, and this question relates to Google accounts in general. I didn’t get any response in the GMail forum so I thought Dopers might now. ---
**Author:** ![Brandon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f08c70/32.png) [@Brandon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brandon)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-select-something-other-than-my-gmail-account-as-my-primary-address-for-google-websites/598129/2 "2011-09-30T12:36:40Z")
Couldn’t you set it up to forward to your other accounts? > **[Automatically forward Gmail messages to another account - Gmail Help](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/10957)** > > You can choose to forward all of your new messages to another email address, or only forward certain types of messages. > Set up automatic forwarding > You can automatically forward your messages to ano ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-select-something-other-than-my-gmail-account-as-my-primary-address-for-google-websites/598129/3 "2011-09-30T13:21:47Z")
> [@Brandon](#): > > Couldn’t you set it up to forward to your other accounts? > > [Automatically forward Gmail messages to another account - Gmail Help](http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=10957) Thanks, this seems like a good workaround. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-select-something-other-than-my-gmail-account-as-my-primary-address-for-google-websites/598129/4 "2011-09-30T14:53:12Z")
There is no way to actually do what you want, and is the problem many people have with Google+, since it connects your online life with your real life. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-select-something-other-than-my-gmail-account-as-my-primary-address-for-google-websites/598129/5 "2011-09-30T15:18:51Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > There is no way to actually do what you want, and is the problem many people have with Google+, since it connects your online life with your real life. Sorry, but I don’t quite understand the connection here. I know that Google+ requires you to use your real name, but I don’t see what this has to do with setting your preferred e-mail address for notifications. What am I missing?