Comments on: The power of email squatters

By: Harbeer

Harbeer — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 22:36:32 +0000

8 Â· Jay said

My address is "jay.kumar" while his is "jaykumar," but I get a lot of resumes, biodata, billing statements, social networking invites, and plenty of other crap I have no interest in.

This sounds like a fib. You can put a "." anywhere before the "@" in a gmail address and it will go to the same place, i.e. I could send emails to "jay.kumar[at]gmail.com," "j.aykumar[at]gmail.com," and even "j.a.y.k.u.m.a.r[at]gmail.com" and they'd all land in the same inbox. Try it.

In other news...

By: Jay

Jay — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:03:53 +0000

Abhi,

I totally feel your pain. I've been using Gmail since '04 and love it, but I've been getting someone else's messages fairly regularly. My address is "jay.kumar" while his is "jaykumar," but I get a lot of resumes, biodata, billing statements, social networking invites, and plenty of other crap I have no interest in. I wonder if he's getting mail meant for me, too. I've tried contacting Gmail to point out the mixup to them, but I've never heard back. I also sent the other dude an email forwarding something that seemed important, but never heard from him, either. At this point, I've been using the address too long to change to something else. I keep hoping the other guy switches to a new address.

As for the Obama address, I would think it'd be a hassle just getting all that mail.

By: Curiousgeorge

Curiousgeorge — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:59:32 +0000

I am wondering if any one offered to buy the address anytime from the present owner. If Mr. Obama becomes the President, the address could be more valuble as a collector’s item or the secret service may decide to confiscate it for national security reasons.

By: khoofia

khoofia — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:03:27 +0000

For example, I get at least two marriage-related biodata emails (complete with pictures) each week.

that’s pretty interesting and i can some creepy advantages to this. for instance, the olys are sure to send up some new celebrities. one just has to squat on their names now, and wait till they bring in the gold. for example – who’dathunk saniamirza or sania_mirza or sania.mirza would be getting as much bandwidth as she is. someone really weird could use this to be all he/she can be on the internet. and pretty much that’s all that matters, no? ferinstance, one looks at the movie celebrities and they are accorded as much respect and news covereage for their views on climate change, genome splicing etc as some poor duck with a floofy ass cleavage who’s basically spent half the life draining rat blood down a sink or the equivalent thereof but has a publication list longer than ganesha’s mahabharat scrolls. so one could be next_supastar@gmail.com/ymail.com/hotmail.com/doodie.com and you live your life in a fantasy world – handing out decrees to the unwashed plebes.

By: skp

skp — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:58:16 +0000

Is it doing any harm, though? He isn't masquerading as Obama, and he isn't replying to e-mails pretending to be Obama. It's just a Gmail account. Now that the secret's out, that may change things, but it certainly isn't "dirty" or malicious.

Besides, if he deletes the account, someone else less pragmatic may snatch it up. He at least is being responsible.

By: Pagla

Pagla — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:48:46 +0000

So he tried the name of the young senator from Illinois who was giving the Democratic keynote address on TV. To his surprise, it worked, and, moments later, barackobama@gmail.com was quietly born.

No matter how young or not so well known a he is, I wouldn’t consider creating an email account in a US senator’s name as cute. It’s squatting and it’s intentional and it’s dirty

By: ritu

ritu — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:43:26 +0000

i think this raj dude should stop using this account as it might get him into trouble. it’s a bit silly.

By: Keralite

Keralite — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:39:14 +0000

Reminds me of the first e-mail I ever sent, back in the days when I lived in Kerala – to give the good news of getting an internet connection to my husband, who was abroad. Well, I hadn’t paid much attention to the order of the names in my husband’s e-mail address – so I sent the mail to George Thomas (not the real name,it is so much rarer than that) and promptly received a flirtatious reply from a Thomas George. After receiving three mails from that person, sent a strongly worded demand to stop pestering (Instead of hitting the reply button, had typed the address) and received a shocked and hurt response from another Thomas George, who had no clue what was going on. This time I had put a – instead of an _ between the names!

By: grammarmaestro

grammarmaestro — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:55:43 +0000

“bare witness”? I hope you don’t mean that literally.