3 ms·

GMail Can't Read a Period

10 points by mlaccetti 17y ago

shrike 17y ago
Not a bug. Feature. GMail ignores periods in email addresses. 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... It isn't possible for the accounts michael.laccetti@gma.. and michaellaccetti@gma.. to belong to different users, as far as Google is concerned it's the same user.
- haseman 17y ago
  Yup. Feature. Allows you to do all sorts of fun things...like signing up for many twitter accounts on one gmail address.
  - mustpax 17y ago
    You can also use the +subscript feature for that. youremail+twitter1@gmail.com youremail+twitter2@gmail.com. Allows you to filter based on account as well.
    - Poiesis 17y ago
      Except it's still distressingly common for braindead email address validation scripts to not accept the plus character. So, I'll use the plus to sign up for something that may produce junk (to differentiate it), and then attempt to unsubscribe--producing an error as the web form email validation to unsubscribe doesn't accept the plus. Doh!
terrellm 17y ago
My wife has firstnamelastname@gmail.com and she is constantly getting emails to firstname.lastname@gmail.com intended for someone in another state. According to http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=10313# http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answe... : "Gmail doesn't recognize dots as characters within usernames, you can add or remove the dots from a Gmail address without changing the actual destination address; they'll all go to your inbox, and only yours"
sganesh 17y ago
I have the same issue with gmail. I have fn.ln@gmail and all of the emails for fnln@gmail shows up in my inbox. Oh, the info that shows up are his pay information, job offers ... I don't use this address often, but when i do log in, hilarity ensues :)
vgoel 17y ago
It is a feature of Gmail and I think that it is great. Person_A registers franz.josef@gmail.com. All mail sent to franzjosef@, franz.josef@, franzjos.ef@, fra.nzjosef@ will end up in person A's Gmail account. Now someone wishing to send an e-mail to another Franz Josef (Person_B) but not being sure of his Gmail address guesses and sends it to Person A's Gmail address. Not Google's fault. Google will not let let another person register franzjosef@ with or without a period in any location. All periods are ignored.
Timothee 17y ago
As said by others, this is a feature. I remember that this problem really happened at the very beginning of Gmail (2004) but it was quickly sorted out once they realized that some people had managed to sign up with different accounts that were actually the same.
eli 17y ago
I think the other michael doesn't know his own email address.
- buugs 17y ago
  Most definitely, or it is indeed spam as spammers seem to be getting really tricky these days.
weeksie 17y ago
Because of this little feature I've ended up on several ultra right wing mailing lists (subscriptions that were meant for someone who shares my name, obviously). It's horrifying and hilarious at the same time.
- JacobAldridge 17y ago
  Hilarious, until you think it's possibly also happening in reverse. The weeksie doppleganger is probably over on a fox news forum talking about how the communists at Google are pumping him with their liberal agenda, sending through masses of material about 'brainwashing' and 'criminal gangs' (I mean 'programming' and 'Hacker News').
  - weeksie 17y ago
    Oh, I think that makes it even more hilarious.
martingordon 17y ago
For a while I was getting emails that were sent to <me>@googlemail.com (I have <me>@gmail.com) destined for someone in the UK, including flight confirmations and subway card top up reminders. Either that guy didn't know his email address when he booked his flight and registered for a few other things, or something was up with Google's handling of GMail/Google Mail addresses.
djehuty 17y ago
To all the commenters here saying "it's not a bug it's a feature": Ok, but how did the other michael sign up with the non-period name? That's the bug, surely?
- callahad 17y ago
  He probably didn't. He probably meant @ymail, or firstlast3@gmail or some other permutation. At least, that's been the case for most of the misdirected email I've received.
sankara 17y ago
Just a theory. Could it be that google allowed dot as legitimate characters (ie. i.rock and irock are completely different) during the initial launch of Gmail and then moved to the present setting of ignoring dots? [Just tried creating a new account very similar to my existing one and I couldn't do that. This suggests this is not an existing bug for sure.]

10 points by mlaccetti 17y ago

Not a bug. Feature. GMail ignores periods in email addresses. 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... It isn't possible for the accounts michael.laccetti@gma.. and michaellaccetti@gma.. to belong to different users, as far as Google is concerned it's the same user.

haseman 17y ago
Yup. Feature. Allows you to do all sorts of fun things...like signing up for many twitter accounts on one gmail address.
- mustpax 17y ago
  You can also use the +subscript feature for that. youremail+twitter1@gmail.com youremail+twitter2@gmail.com. Allows you to filter based on account as well.
  - Poiesis 17y ago
    Except it's still distressingly common for braindead email address validation scripts to not accept the plus character. So, I'll use the plus to sign up for something that may produce junk (to differentiate it), and then attempt to unsubscribe--producing an error as the web form email validation to unsubscribe doesn't accept the plus. Doh!

terrellm 17y ago

My wife has firstnamelastname@gmail.com and she is constantly getting emails to firstname.lastname@gmail.com intended for someone in another state. According to http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=10313# http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answe... : "Gmail doesn't recognize dots as characters within usernames, you can add or remove the dots from a Gmail address without changing the actual destination address; they'll all go to your inbox, and only yours"

sganesh 17y ago

I have the same issue with gmail. I have fn.ln@gmail and all of the emails for fnln@gmail shows up in my inbox. Oh, the info that shows up are his pay information, job offers ... I don't use this address often, but when i do log in, hilarity ensues :)

vgoel 17y ago

It is a feature of Gmail and I think that it is great. Person_A registers franz.josef@gmail.com. All mail sent to franzjosef@, franz.josef@, franzjos.ef@, fra.nzjosef@ will end up in person A's Gmail account. Now someone wishing to send an e-mail to another Franz Josef (Person_B) but not being sure of his Gmail address guesses and sends it to Person A's Gmail address. Not Google's fault. Google will not let let another person register franzjosef@ with or without a period in any location. All periods are ignored.

Timothee 17y ago

As said by others, this is a feature. I remember that this problem really happened at the very beginning of Gmail (2004) but it was quickly sorted out once they realized that some people had managed to sign up with different accounts that were actually the same.

eli 17y ago

I think the other michael doesn't know his own email address.

buugs 17y ago
Most definitely, or it is indeed spam as spammers seem to be getting really tricky these days.

weeksie 17y ago

Because of this little feature I've ended up on several ultra right wing mailing lists (subscriptions that were meant for someone who shares my name, obviously). It's horrifying and hilarious at the same time.

JacobAldridge 17y ago
Hilarious, until you think it's possibly also happening in reverse. The weeksie doppleganger is probably over on a fox news forum talking about how the communists at Google are pumping him with their liberal agenda, sending through masses of material about 'brainwashing' and 'criminal gangs' (I mean 'programming' and 'Hacker News').
- weeksie 17y ago
  Oh, I think that makes it even more hilarious.

martingordon 17y ago

For a while I was getting emails that were sent to <me>@googlemail.com (I have <me>@gmail.com) destined for someone in the UK, including flight confirmations and subway card top up reminders. Either that guy didn't know his email address when he booked his flight and registered for a few other things, or something was up with Google's handling of GMail/Google Mail addresses.

djehuty 17y ago

To all the commenters here saying "it's not a bug it's a feature": Ok, but how did the other michael sign up with the non-period name? That's the bug, surely?

callahad 17y ago
He probably didn't. He probably meant @ymail, or firstlast3@gmail or some other permutation. At least, that's been the case for most of the misdirected email I've received.

sankara 17y ago

Just a theory. Could it be that google allowed dot as legitimate characters (ie. i.rock and irock are completely different) during the initial launch of Gmail and then moved to the present setting of ignoring dots? [Just tried creating a new account very similar to my existing one and I couldn't do that. This suggests this is not an existing bug for sure.]