Ask HN: Why can't gmail distinguish properly between dot/no dot email addresses

2 points by ethnologica 9 years ago | 4 comments

Any suggestions how to file a bug report?

It is a feature not a bug.

Similar to how you can do username+randomstring@gmail.com and still receive the email.

smt88 9 years ago |

Gmail doesn't treat dots as significant. This is considered a "feature," not a bug. I do think it probably cuts down on people sending emails to the wrong person or creating confusing email addresses in order to commit fraud.

novalis78 9 years ago | |

What if two people have the same name but their email address is different JUST by the dot in between their first and last names? In this case they'd be sending personal privacy related information to each other. Sounds to me like the very opposite of cutting down on fraud. I could go in and set up a dot/non dot email address to people I know and just wait until I receive an email that was supposed to be for them but now goes to my email account.

jerryszczerry 9 years ago | | |

> I could go in and set up a dot/non dot email address to people I know and just wait until I receive an email that was supposed to be for them but now goes to my email account.

Err, you can't do that?

The fact that somebody's email address is johndoe at gmail.com, and the fact that Gmail strips all the dots from the username, imply that john.doe and john.d.oe and so on… are taken as well.

You just can't register as e.g. john.doe and get johndoe's mail redirected because for Google, these two aliases are the exact same username!

(An exercise for the reader: if you have a Google account, try to log in by putting random dots in your username. Then, try to create a new account by putting random dots in your login.)