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I use Mailinator[1] for these purposes (which has hundreds of domains to generate emails for), and I have not been convinced to switch. After going to this site

I use Mailinator[1] for these purposes (which has hundreds of domains to generate emails for), and I have not been convinced to switch. After going to this site, I have to press a button before an email is generated for me. This doesn't optimize my use of a similar service (in fact, it is slower): I come across some site that needs an email where I prefer not to divulge mine, and I put in something like "signmeup@mailinator.com". I then go to Mailinator and do email confirmation, if necessary, with this open inbox. Some sites don't even require email confirmation to make an account, so I don't even have to deal with Mailinator! How great! In the case of this website, I have to open up a new tab and go here first, note the random email name generated to me, put it in the signup box, and maybe tab back and click a confirmation link mailed to the inbox. Sure, it's a bit nitpicky, but I see no direct improvement made on existing services for my particular use case. If I need a "private inbox" for a website signup, I probably care enough to use my own personal email. [1] http://mailinator.com/ http://mailinator.com/

joosters 12y ago
I can also vouch for mailinator, it's a brilliant service. Also, if you just need quick access to a site, you probably don't even need to make an account. Just go to the 'forgot my password' page and put in sitename@mailinator.com - someone may have previously created an account through mailinator, you can just grab the new password in the email and sign in :)
- nirvdrum 12y ago
  Rampant abuse from Mailinator users is one reason we started requiring credit cards for trials at my last startup.
  - Aldo_MX 12y ago
    Rampant abuse from companies is one reason I started using Mailinator. See the vicious circle here? If companies didn't use dark patterns (such as subscribing you automatically to newsletters when you purchase something), people wouldn't need to use disposable email addresses.
    - nirvdrum 12y ago
      Fully 100% of the Mailinator users that used our service were doing it to try to take advantage of a generous trial system. That says nothing of those that were trying to DoS the service. And the parent was essentially advocating for hijacking an existing account to avoid going through legitimate channels. If you don't want to abide by the ToS, then take the principled stand and don't use the service. Maybe even let the company know about it. Plus addressing and filters are free and every email provider I'm aware of has them. If newsletters bother you that much, there are options other than a service designed for abuse. Doing MX lookups was annoying so we solved our problem another way. We managed to cut out virtually all abuse without appreciably affecting conversion. It just sucks we had to leave behind the few that legitimately wanted to trial without a CC on file (although if they contacted us, we were happy to oblige). And it sucks we had to spend engineering effort trying to deal with abuse, almost all of it originating from a single, well-known provider (Mailinator) -- not the best use of time for a bootstrapped company. I guess the next stage in this vicious cycle is a service that gives out free credit card numbers that can authorize but can't be charged (or maybe just a stolen CC database). edit - Clarified some points due to inadvertently submitting early.
      - Aldo_MX 12y ago
        There is a service which gives you unlimited disposable credit card numbers, just ask your bank for it. You can't stop abuse against a time-based trial, so why use a time-based trial? I don't know your business, but you should consider designing an unlimited trial instead, if your service is good most people will eventually pay for it, or even better, someone else will pay on behalf of them. A prime example is Dropbox, when you purchase specific phone models you get extra storage, the user didn't pay for that storage, but someone else did (most likely the company who is selling the phone).
        oneeyedpigeon 12y ago
        Totally depends on your service. Some services easily lend themselves to some sort of 'unlimited free/paid improved' model - e.g. GitHub's number of repos. Others, however, are really difficult to shoehorn into that model, and a time-based trial is the best option - a 'content centric' service, for example.
eli 12y ago
They have a neat "registered" tier now which lets you use your own domain with mailinator but restricts it so that only you can see the mail: http://mailinator.com/featurematrix.jsp http://mailinator.com/featurematrix.jsp It's got some limits, but I've never hit them.
- jklein11 12y ago
  How is the registered tier any different from a gmail account?
  - eli 12y ago
    Well, you can use any username and its at your domain. So it's kind of like wildcard forwarding to a gmail account, but the workflow is very different: it's pull vs push. When you're "done" with an account you don't have to turn it off, you just don't check it again.
8ig8 12y ago
Mailinator also added the Private Domains feature back in October: http://mailinator.blogspot.com/2014/10/mailinator-launches-private-domains_25.html http://mailinator.blogspot.com/2014/10/mailinator-launches-p...
ikeboy 12y ago
Blur (from abine.com) is easier than mailinator. You don't have to open another tab after it's set up, it all works with the extension.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
aidos 12y ago
Also, for us geeks, mailinator are awesome on a technical level. http://mailinator.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/how-mailinator-compresses-email-by-90.html http://mailinator.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/how-mailinator-comp...

joosters 12y ago

I can also vouch for mailinator, it's a brilliant service. Also, if you just need quick access to a site, you probably don't even need to make an account. Just go to the 'forgot my password' page and put in sitename@mailinator.com - someone may have previously created an account through mailinator, you can just grab the new password in the email and sign in :)

nirvdrum 12y ago
Rampant abuse from Mailinator users is one reason we started requiring credit cards for trials at my last startup.
- Aldo_MX 12y ago
  Rampant abuse from companies is one reason I started using Mailinator. See the vicious circle here? If companies didn't use dark patterns (such as subscribing you automatically to newsletters when you purchase something), people wouldn't need to use disposable email addresses.
  - nirvdrum 12y ago
    Fully 100% of the Mailinator users that used our service were doing it to try to take advantage of a generous trial system. That says nothing of those that were trying to DoS the service. And the parent was essentially advocating for hijacking an existing account to avoid going through legitimate channels. If you don't want to abide by the ToS, then take the principled stand and don't use the service. Maybe even let the company know about it. Plus addressing and filters are free and every email provider I'm aware of has them. If newsletters bother you that much, there are options other than a service designed for abuse. Doing MX lookups was annoying so we solved our problem another way. We managed to cut out virtually all abuse without appreciably affecting conversion. It just sucks we had to leave behind the few that legitimately wanted to trial without a CC on file (although if they contacted us, we were happy to oblige). And it sucks we had to spend engineering effort trying to deal with abuse, almost all of it originating from a single, well-known provider (Mailinator) -- not the best use of time for a bootstrapped company. I guess the next stage in this vicious cycle is a service that gives out free credit card numbers that can authorize but can't be charged (or maybe just a stolen CC database). edit - Clarified some points due to inadvertently submitting early.
    - Aldo_MX 12y ago
      There is a service which gives you unlimited disposable credit card numbers, just ask your bank for it. You can't stop abuse against a time-based trial, so why use a time-based trial? I don't know your business, but you should consider designing an unlimited trial instead, if your service is good most people will eventually pay for it, or even better, someone else will pay on behalf of them. A prime example is Dropbox, when you purchase specific phone models you get extra storage, the user didn't pay for that storage, but someone else did (most likely the company who is selling the phone).
      - oneeyedpigeon 12y ago
        Totally depends on your service. Some services easily lend themselves to some sort of 'unlimited free/paid improved' model - e.g. GitHub's number of repos. Others, however, are really difficult to shoehorn into that model, and a time-based trial is the best option - a 'content centric' service, for example.

eli 12y ago

They have a neat "registered" tier now which lets you use your own domain with mailinator but restricts it so that only you can see the mail: http://mailinator.com/featurematrix.jsp http://mailinator.com/featurematrix.jsp It's got some limits, but I've never hit them.

jklein11 12y ago
How is the registered tier any different from a gmail account?
- eli 12y ago
  Well, you can use any username and its at your domain. So it's kind of like wildcard forwarding to a gmail account, but the workflow is very different: it's pull vs push. When you're "done" with an account you don't have to turn it off, you just don't check it again.

8ig8 12y ago

Mailinator also added the Private Domains feature back in October: http://mailinator.blogspot.com/2014/10/mailinator-launches-private-domains_25.html http://mailinator.blogspot.com/2014/10/mailinator-launches-p...

ikeboy 12y ago

Blur (from abine.com) is easier than mailinator. You don't have to open another tab after it's set up, it all works with the extension.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

aidos 12y ago

Also, for us geeks, mailinator are awesome on a technical level. http://mailinator.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/how-mailinator-compresses-email-by-90.html http://mailinator.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/how-mailinator-comp...