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Google Tests Multiple Account Login
tekgoblin noted joyous rumors for anyone forced to use multiple Google accounts "Wouldn't it be great if you could log into all of your Google accounts at the same time if you have multiple? Well it seems that Google may be implementing a way to do this in the near future. Right now it can be done with scripts such as a Greasemonkey script, but that isn't as easy as
Google doing it for us.
The people over at Google Operating System have had users submit a screenshot of what looks like a beta test for multiple account login. It appears that it will be available for Calendar, Code, Docs, Gmail, Reader, and Sites for the test but surely it will be across all Google apps when it's released."
Get all accounts pwned at the same time too?
Being able to link all your accounts to one person (you) is fully in the interest of Google.
Please mod parent up. One of the primary reasons for having multiple email addresses in the first place is to compartmentalize your online activities. This isn't innovation, just a way for Google to add more granularity to their dbs.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
And when Hotmail offers more than 10MB in attachments (I'm guessing 2012-2013) and Drag-and-Drop attachment functionality, it will also make news, despite Google having had the features "for years". A greater proportion of geeks use Gmail over Hotmail, and a lot of geeks (see the above posts) have more than one Gmail address (to keep parts of our digital lives separate). Just because this doesn't affect you, doesn't mean it's not relevant news for the rest of us, Mr. Ballmer.
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
Google sometimes 'locks down' your account for up to 24 hours, due to various criteria that aren't very well specified - e.g. http://www.google.co.uk/support/forum/p/gmail/thread?tid=7226841f0bdafc8d&hl=en - hence it's a good idea not to have all your eggs in one basket.
It has also been known for Google to disable accounts - http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-has-disabled-my-gmail-account/7871/ - for no clear reason. Of course, if you pay for Google Apps premier edition, you do get a support phone line for this sort of thing.
First, linking YouTube and Google accounts probably has nothing to do with this specifically, rather, getting rid of the seperate login database for YouTube.
Second, that's not what I meant. I am looking forward to this feature. You are not me, and if you want security, don't link your Google accounts together, end of story.
The problem is: those (good) solutions will not work for business situations where people just need to get work done, but have no clue about computers and browsers... At one of my jobs there are multiple secretaries working on different days, and they need access to each others and some general email addresses all hosted on Google Apps... Until now there was no good non-technical solution (aliases and mailing lists also were no option since you get mail double, and you can't see which has been answered by the other). With this new feature they can sign in to multiple mailboxes from one single browser, and answer and process all incoming mail with more ease.
Maybe the reason why I own multiple accounts is that I don't want them connected, either for security or privacy reasons.
So yeah, I'll pass on this.