Too many email addresses

I started out with one email address. Then I changed ISPs, got a new address, and found that my original one still works. So that’s two. I then got an Android phone, and found that to use the android marketplace, I had to have a gmail address. That’s three. I have my own website, and although it’s not compulsory, it gives me the option to create a new email address. So that’s now four. I’ve just bought a Kindle, which come with an @kindle address. I’m now up to five. Somehow, I don’t see it stopping there.

I know I don’t have to use more than one of them, but I feel like a kid in a sweet shop. Which to use? How to decide? It’s all too much.

Use one and have all the others forward to it.

Not only can you set everything to forward to your Gmail address (the only true e-mail provider out there), but you can set Gmail up so that you can send mail as any of your accounts, all while logged into the one Gmail account. I do this all the time at work - where I’ll be logged in to my personal e-mail but if I need to send anything official out, I can do it as if I were on my work e-mail without changing logins. It’s pretty damn slick.

I have my “home” email from my ISP, which is the one I give out to most people and businesses. I have a yahoo address, which I use for freecycle and a few other things. I’ve got two gmail addresses, one of which I set up for a convention I work at, so I can access it when I’m not home, and the other I set up for OKCupid and Facebook, except that both of those accounts are closed at the moment, so I hardly ever check it. Then there’s my hotmail account, which I had to set up for an IM account years ago, but which I no longer use, so I check the account once a month or so just to clear out the junk mail and in case a voice from the grave surfaces.

  1. Work e-mail. I don’t give this out to anyone that isn’t work-related.
  2. Personal gmail.
  3. Spam/anonymous gmail. I have/had a blog, and set this up to filter/direct e-mail to my main gmail account. I don’t like using my main for spam-like things, since it’s fullname@gmail.com. Spam is nickname@gmail.com

Did you know that you can use your primary gmail address as a spam filter? If Spammy, Inc. needs an e-mail address, but for some reason need to give it your regular e-mail address, you can give it as fullname+SpammyInc@gmail.com and it’ll get to you. Then set up a filter that sends all mail sent to “fullname+SpammyInc@gmail.com” to the junk pile. The problem is that many online forms don’t let you input a “+” in them.

Also, gmail doesn’t reserve the period. So if you signed up for fullname@gmail.com, you also have full.name@gmail.com. As well as f.u.l.l.n.a.m.e@gmail.com. (And if you signed up for “full.name@gmail.com” you actually signed up for “fullname@gmail.com”.)

Hell I have more than 5 gmail accounts alone, in addition to various other addresses. Most things forward into one gmail account, however.