

Ask HN: How to manage multiple email addresses with Google+ - techiferous

Pardon me if this is a dumb question.  But I have friendsandfamily@gmail.com, onlinehackerpersona@gmail.com, and contractor@myfreelancecompany.com.  I obviously have intentionally structured my email addresses by the circles I want to communicate with.<p>So Google+ has come out with Circles, which solves this problem in a different way:  manage your circles with just one email address (identity).  But I've got multiple gmail addresses.  What do I do now?  What are other people doing?  Am I misunderstanding something?
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cmelbye
Out of curiosity, why did you structure your emails like that?

Personally, I used to have multiple addresses for different purposes but
realized I didn't have a reason for doing it. I created a new address using
myfirstname.mylastname@gmail.com and I use that for everything now (including
Google+).

~~~
techiferous
> Out of curiosity, why did you structure your emails like that?

About ten years ago I had a junk email I used for web sites, separate from the
one I used for friends and family. So as an anti-spam measure.

A couple of years ago when I started my online programmer persona, I used
persona@gmail.com for continuity.

The system has actually worked pretty well for me, apart from having to manage
lots of accounts in my mail client.

> but realized I didn't have a reason for doing it.

That step didn't happen to me until now. Now what?

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gregpilling
>Now what?

Select your favorite email address, and forward the others to it. If your
favorite is your gmail, then have the incoming emails automatically tagged
with a label appropriate for where it is coming from (you may wish to use
"family", "hacking" "work" etc).

~~~
techiferous
This is an option I'll definitely consider.

Is Google+ designed to actually work seamlessly this way? In other words, will
people interacting with my Google+ presence through my
friendsandfamily@gmail.com have the same experience as those interacting with
my Google+ presence through my onlinehackerpersona@gmail.com?

Also, I've got two invites: one for onlinehackerpersona@gmail.com and one for
friendsandfamily@gmail.com. Which one do I take? If I choose one, do I lose
the connection with the other person and have to re-invite them?

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damoncali
I don't know, but this is a big problem for me as well. I have several gmail
based email, analytics, adwords, adsense, etc. accounts and use them all. I
keep Chrome Safari and Firefox running so I can be logged into a different
account on each browser at the same time, but I'm running out of browsers.

~~~
danoprey
You may already know this, but you can double your amount of sign ins by
opening an incognito window in each browser.

~~~
tbh2347
\+ chrome canary build!

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gnubardt
You can enable multiple sign in in your account settings page. It lets you
switch between accounts very quickly and doesn't require re-authenticating
each time.

<https://www.google.com/accounts/b/0/MultipleSessions>

~~~
techiferous
This means I would manage several different Google+ accounts, right? I would
have to set up my circles on each one. At first that sounds redundant to the
purpose of Google+, but maybe that's okay? Maybe the Circles are really the
subcircles of my individual accounts?

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spooneybarger
I'm in the same boat. My solution has been to only use G+ for one of those
purposes.

