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Gmail Mis.delivered?
An anonymous reader writes "Google doesn't make many mistakes but when it does, boy, are they doozies! The latest is that Gmail doesn't care about periods in usernames. So mail sent to anonymous.coward@gmail.com is also delivered to anonymouscoward@gmail.com, even though these are two separate mail accounts. Google admits Gmail doesn't see periods, but no word on a fix yet." Update: As may users have pointed out Ars has since corrected the story, stating that the original submitter was mistaken and the email was just improperly addressed.
I can't believe Google is disrespecting users with periods.
Since there is no word on a fix yet, it would be interesting if Microsoft rolls out a 3rd party patch which warns Gmail users when the recipient email address has periods in it.
Virtual Betting on Facebook for non-geeks.
From what I understand, it's not two seperate accounts (i.e. ab@gmail.com and a.b@gmail.com are only one account and you can't register both, and you get mail that comes to either).
In addition, you can use it as a feature to filter mail. (i.e. if I'm abcdefg@gmail.com I can give out abcd.efg@gmail.com to friends and abc.defg@gmail.com to random websites, then filter the incoming mail automatically).
Feature, not a bug, in my opinion.
-Ryan
AUWYHSTOT (Acronyms are Useless When You Have to Spell Them Out Too)
I don't see the problem with that, I thought it was common knowledge. The way I see it, how often is a period essential, or dangerous? I don't think there are many domains with say, joesmith@domain.com and joe.smith@domain.com pointing to different people. I see the period as a way of reducing typing errors.
Also, you can do things like this:
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answI don't want to sound trollish, but this hardly sounds like story material to me.
njord
The CB App. What's your 20?
The person made a mistake. He was getting someone elses mail for a different reason. You cannot make two account that are the same.
- found-in-my-inbox-odd.html
Here is his blog post saying he made the mistake.
http://fitrans.blogspot.com/2006/01/oops-formerly
Never Smoke A Banana.
Uhm... I just tried this. It doesn't work - you can't register username if user.name is taken, nor can you register user.name if username is taken.
The down-side is he subscribed to XM ENTERTAINMENT's porn newsletter.
Don't worry, I just got him back big time! I subscribed you to about a dozen porn newsletters. He'll be completely inundated with porn spam in no time! No need to thank me, helping other people is its own reward.
Headline here should be corrected; this isn't a huge gmail flaw; seasoned users know it as a feature.
Secret gmail feature #1: you can add and remove periods from your username with no change in mail routing. There is no collision with other accounts since only one account (stripped of periods) is allowed to exist.
Scret gmail feature #2: you can append a plus and any string to your account name and it will still be routed to you. Try creating filters by giving out your address this way: eg example+spam@gmail.com will be delivered to username 'example'
This is absolutely not mis-delivery or a mistake on Google's part!
e r=10313&query=dot&topic=0&type=f
See Gmail's Help page on this at:
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answ
(You may need to be logged into Gmail account to see this.)
Simply put, the period only matters when logging in. Gmail considers some.user@gmail.com and somuser@gmail.com as the same when delivering email, but if the account was oopened as some.user, then you have to use some.user as the login--someuser will not work. Send an email to some.user@gmail.com, somuser@gmail.com, or so.me.us.er@gmail.com, and it'll get delivered to the same account, but you will only be able to login as some.user@gmail.com
Google's intent was to cut down on addressing mistakes as well as spam.
From the user's perspective, actually a good thing because it means that you "lock in" similar addresses so some.user and someuser aren't two different accounts. It also means that the actual number of accounts is less because of this.
-Jim
http://gmailtips.com/
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
You get mail? I've signed up for tons of stuff and nobody sends anything to my $sys$@gmail.com account.
For the life of me, I can't figure out why.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
What I said above is a complete and total lie. Instead of going by what other slashdot posters had posted (lies as well, apparently - who would've guessed?), I actually tried it out and it didn't work. The grandparent was correct. I couldn't register firstnamelastname@gmail.com when firstname.lastname@gmail.com was already registered.
:)
I guess I should actually put a little effort in research before spouting unsubstantiated bullshit. Or I can just take note from the editors of a certain tech-oriented website and continue on my merry, non-reaserching way
Someone must have a version of my G-Mail account with a period in it. Apparently, they're very into penis enlargement...
It is a G spot.
"No fear. No envy. No meanness." Liam Clancy
Why is this article being left on the front page? It has been seen to be completely invalid, and is giving people the wrong idea. Great, you put a correction up, but the correction negates everything the article contains. Get rid of it.
In other news, a gentleman by the name of Due Diligence was found dead on a downtown street, apparently trampled to death.
When asked about it Angry Mob (currently confined at digg.com) replied "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story".
Seriously, this was a pretty big fuckup regurgitating some random assholes blog entry without checking *anything*. I expect this at digg.com where inflamitory and baseless rule the day. Slashdot can claim to merely be a discussion of "news" and not necessarily journalism itself. Ars, I expected more.
Platform advocacy is like choosing a favorite severely developmentally disabled child.