I don’t know if I’m alone here but I have 5 email addresses that I care to admit to and probably 3 others that I check from time to time also.
This for me is a problem but how do I let go of them all?
I could keep all the addresses alive and just feed them all into one main address but this issue isn’t about filling up my inbox, it’s about having just one contact gateway.
Can it be done?
Here’s how I got into this mess:
- Hotmail – This was my first ever email, created in 1999. I still use it and until recently have been giving it to people as my social email as it’s connected with MSN messenger.
- Yahoo – I have two of these. One was to create a yahoo group for an assignment at uni and the other one was to communicate with my girlfriend.
- Gmail – I’ve recently created a gmail account to take advantage of their software products such as picasa, docs, calendar, reader, wave etc.
- Uni email – I’ve always needed a uni email. This year we will use Micrsoft’s Outlook lite which is basically a neat and tidy version of hotmail with extra features.
- Mail.com – This is probably my most professional of email addresses. I started using this address around 3 years ago when applying for jobs. There was no way I was going to put a hotmail address on my resume. Mail.com started putting ads on the bottom of my messages so I paid for premium services. I’m happy with this account
- RBravo.NET – Due to having this website hosted privately, I’m entitled to 100 or so email addresses. I originally created a couple but have since realised I don’t need them. Our internet service provider doesn’t allow me to send out emails from a server that’s not theirs.
My ideal scenario would be to have one professional and one social email and to not receive subscription emails – just personal messages. I want to get rid of my hotmail email but something tells me I should just hang onto it for now. I don’t see the point of keeping my yahoo mail though. I don’t need my rbravo.net domain emails either.
I want to take the leap but I feel like I’m running a risk. Please share how many email addresses you maintain. 8 is currently too many for me.
Know what you mean! I have five emails (one Gmail, one Yahoo, one uni address, one address from IEEE, and one address for work). You should try checking them all through your Gmail account, that’s what I do. I used to prefer Yahoo (and still think it has a nicer interface) but Gmail is fast and reliable and works well on mobile phones. My uni mail auto-forwards to my Gmail and so does the IEEE (although I never actually use it). Yahoo gives you POP access so it’s easy to check it through Gmail (I have gradually stopped using Yahoo altough people still send me mail on that address so it’s handy I can check it from Gmail). Also Gmail lets you compose mail from any account (which is good cause uni professors don’t normally reply to messages from non-uni emails), and you can also set up multiple inboxes if you wanna keep the messages from different accounts seperate.
The only thing is I don’t think hotmail makes it easy to import old messages to another account – so you might be stuck there! Luckily I never used it, but have known friends who wanted to switch to google/yahoo and had to leave all their old hotmail messages behind.
I think in the long run, gmail and mail.com will be the two providers for me. I like using email client software like evolution mail and thunderbird but composing messages online is more reliable.
I’ll take your advice and hang on to Microsoft hotmail because like gmail, they will offer important services for free through their accounts like online office.
I will slowly start to kill off my two yahoo accounts and hope that I never need to become part of a yahoo group for uni or work. Maybe I should leave one address for sending resumes and another for all other communication.
This is really annoying and not an easy decision. Thanks for the advice. Oh yeah, it’s great that gmail lets you send mail as another sender. I can receive and send emails from other accounts without even logging into them.
Know what you mean! I have five emails (one Gmail, one Yahoo, one uni address, one address from IEEE, and one address for work). You should try checking them all through your Gmail account, that’s what I do. I used to prefer Yahoo (and still think it has a nicer interface) but Gmail is fast and reliable and works well on mobile phones. My uni mail auto-forwards to my Gmail and so does the IEEE (although I never actually use it). Yahoo gives you POP access so it’s easy to check it through Gmail (I have gradually stopped using Yahoo altough people still send me mail on that address so it’s handy I can check it from Gmail). Also Gmail lets you compose mail from any account (which is good cause uni professors don’t normally reply to messages from non-uni emails), and you can also set up multiple inboxes if you wanna keep the messages from different accounts seperate.
The only thing is I don’t think hotmail makes it easy to import old messages to another account – so you might be stuck there! Luckily I never used it, but have known friends who wanted to switch to google/yahoo and had to leave all their old hotmail messages behind.
I think in the long run, gmail and mail.com will be the two providers for me. I like using email client software like evolution mail and thunderbird but composing messages online is more reliable.
I’ll take your advice and hang on to Microsoft hotmail because like gmail, they will offer important services for free through their accounts like online office.
I will slowly start to kill off my two yahoo accounts and hope that I never need to become part of a yahoo group for uni or work. Maybe I should leave one address for sending resumes and another for all other communication.
This is really annoying and not an easy decision. Thanks for the advice. Oh yeah, it’s great that gmail lets you send mail as another sender. I can receive and send emails from other accounts without even logging into them.