Managing Multiple Gmail Accounts
Posted on November 25, 2006
18 Comments
In yesterday’s article, I mentioned that not only is my email hosted by Google Apps For Your Domain, but that I also read and manage all my email online now. No more Outlook or other local email clients. In general, this has been working great — anywhere I have a browser, I have access to my email. And heck, I always have a browser with me these days thanks to my USB Key.
However, initially I had some challenges. You see, up until very recently I’ve never used Gmail for more than one account. Now I have at least 3 that I want to monitor. Have you ever tried to be logged into multiple Gmail accounts in one browser at the same time? Didn’t work out so well for me! So, my initial plan of “Gee, I’ll just open more tabs and have a browser tab for each account” didn’t quite get the job done.
To be clear: checking email one account at a time was working fine. Just cumbersome. I wanted a way to be notified without have to go look. Something like Google’s Notifier (or the FF extension I used to use) that would handle multiple accounts.
Last week, Rich mentioned Netvibes and some updates. Long time readers know that I’ve always been a fan of Netvibes, but haven’t used (nor mentioned) them much lately. His article inspired me to drop by and see what has changed recently. Once there, I remembered their little Gmail notifier widget. After some experimentation, I was pleased to discover that I could add three of those to a Netvibes tab all pointed to different accounts with no problems.
The same evening, I found the Gmail Manager Firefox extension. It handles multiple accounts with no difficulties and not only lets me know when I have mail, but for which account. It’s really very slick and has made this “migration” much easier.
So I have two options for Gmail notification/management. The Netvibes one works great when I’m spending time in any browser besides Firefox. The Gmail Manager extensions works great all other times. Happiness is achieved.
Tags: email, firefox, gmail, google, hosting, usb
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18 Responses to “Managing Multiple Gmail Accounts”
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Thank-you-so-much!!!
…!!
Another possibility is to use one gmail account as a ‘primary’ and have all the others auto-forward everything to that address.
Set up labels to indicate which e-mail address is responsible for each piece of mail.
You can then configure gmail to use the appropriate reply-to address in your own replies.
This allows you to access all your mail from a single login, while maintaining separate identities, without having to find specialized tools for the job.
Hi ZB - thats a thought that I should definitely look into.
Can things be “auto-labeled” based on source address when forwarded?
Yes, under settings > filters (for your “primary”, or aggregating account).
Create a new filter. Click in the “to” field and fill in the e-mail address (this is whatever your “secondary”, or forwarding address, is), then add a description to the new filter.
Whenever you receive mail that was originally sent to that address, it will be labeled in your inbox with the description you gave, giving you an easy visual representation of which box the mail came from.
Bonus points to google for allowing you to setup up alternate sender profiles, and associating them with the “to:” field of the mail.
This may sound complex, but it’s a lot harder to describe than it is to actually do. I’ll write up a full blog post with screenshots later, and give you a link to it.
How painfully obvious, in retrospect!
Thanks for that tap to the head with a clue-stick, I think that you just provided the answer I’ve been seeking.
Hope you got it figured out - if not, hit my blog (just started it, so this tut is the only content). I’ve just written this up with pictures and steps and everything :).
Thanks for the link. Glad I could inspire that first blog post.
Looks pretty straight-forward.
Has anyone found a way to synch gmail contacts between multiple gmail accounts?
I’ve got my business email hosted by google apps and my personal email in gmail. I open my business email in one firefox tab and my personal email in another. It works great except that each account uses its own contacts database and contacts cannot be shared…
That is pretty neat stuff Chris! I actually have justed used the ability of gmail to have all my ‘multiple email addresses’ from gmail and the google aps into my main account and then use the filters as suggested above! This is currently handling about 10 email accounts on 4 domains! I will be looking at the firefox app though! Great stuff!
Trent
@Jay - Have to confess that’s not something I’ve looked into. Can’t say I’ve seen much, but I vaguely recall seeing some “web 2.0″ contact manager site that would sync with just about anything. If I recall the name, I’ll drop a link.
@Trent - Heyas. Glad you liked it.
http://gmailnotifier.alexeyev.org/ - now supports multiple accounts.
Hey Max, that’s great to hear! Thanks for the note, much appreciated.
Finally! I’ve set up several emails for different projects and they were getting out of control - not to mention the cumbersomeness (is that a word?) of going from one email acct. to another. Thanks.
Hi,
You have solved a big problem of mine,thanks for this information.
Hey MorganLighter and Makarand - so glad to hear what you read here was helpful.
Thanks for dropping by.
Just want to thank you for your words. It’s good feeling someone found it helpful.