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."

Comments

Get all pwned at the same time too?

[TheLink]

Get all accounts pwned at the same time too?

Not for me

[Monkeedude1212]

Wouldn't it be great if you could log into all of your Google accounts at the same time if you have multiple?

Who has multiple google accounts, and for what?

I mean, don't get me wrong, I have lots of email addresses, but I be sure to spread them around. Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo are the ones I check frequently.

I wouldn't want to put all my eggs in one basket, you know?

Re:Not for me

[telekon]

Who has multiple google accounts, and for what?

I have multiple google accounts, one for personal, one for business, one for activism. Even just pertaining to Gmail, it's useful, because let's face it, the Gmail filter/label system is useful, but it's no procmail. This would be great, especially since I've just out of habit tended to use one account more than the others, so most of my contacts have that listed as my google talk address, plus that's the account Google Voice is tied to, so when I log out to check my Gmail or Docs in another account, I'm logged out of Voice, Docs, Talk, etc.... So, yeah, multiple log-ins would be SWEET!

Re:Not for me

[TechnoFrood]

I have a personal account and a work account.

The work account is mostly used for Analytics, but I do occasionally use docs (mostly for collaborative work on a spreadsheet).

I prefer to keep the two separate, one reason being I don't want coworkers/bosses having my home email address(es).

Only sensible

[joh]

Being able to link all your accounts to one person (you) is fully in the interest of Google.

Re:Only sensible

[Pollardito]

They already can do a good job of that by monitoring cookies (i.e. they see the cookie from the previous account you were logged into when you login as the other), and they could probably get close with only IP and User-Agent. Ok, so that wouldn't differentiate two people sharing the same PC but with separate accounts (like husband/wife or siblings), but it would narrow it down that far.

Incognito mode works for me...

[Kernel Corndog]

I have two accounts: 1 personal, 1 business -- I just launch an incognito mode window in Chromium and everything has worked fine so far. Definitely a reason I love the Chromium-style ease of incognito mode windows versus Firefox's either-or style.

Re:FIRST

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

This. I keep separate Google accounts for different purposes because I don't want activities from one part of my life into another. I have different reputations and almost different personalities in each: dealing with co-workers occasionally on a personal level and dealing with friends, always on a personal basis, are two different things, and I don't want group (a) to get into my Picasa photos, Calendar, and YouTube comments relating to group (b). So, I have different "personal" accounts that I give out to groups (a) and (b). Each of these is separate from a third account that I use with some friends who live abroad. I don't want any bleeding across of these groups, so I've even created separate Firefox profiles for each one.

Single-signon isn't what I'm looking for.

You can already do this.

[dicobalt]

Use Firefox and create multiple profiles. You will have a window for each of your Gmail accounts. http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Managing+profiles

Re:FIRST

[dancingmilk]

News flash: If you don't want it, you don't have to use it.

Re:FIRST

[AndrewNeo]

What. Did anyone say Google was forcing you to use this feature? Just because I might want to compartmentalize my emails doesn't mean I want to have to log out and log back in every time.

Re:Finally!!!

[netsharc]

Several alternatives are there:
1. Use different browsers: Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari
2. Use different Firefox profiles ( http://lifehacker.com/231646/geek-to-live--manage-multiple-firefox-profiles )
3. Use the "private browsing" mode in browsers that provide them

Re:Yikes - this makes news on Slashdot?

[Arthur Grumbine]

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.

Splitting accounts is a good idea

[Cato]

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.

Re:FIRST

[AndrewNeo]

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.

Re:Finally!!!

[thijsh]

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.

Re:FIRST

[Dishevel]

He did not see anything like that. He was just typing random shit into his browser window then clicking on buttons.

Many people on the internet do this all the time. Sites like /., reddit, all the chans, and youtube make much more sense once you realize this.

Maybe...

[Arancaytar]

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.