Most people do not know of this feature that exists with quite a few implementations of the standard e-mail system. It’s called Subaddressing/tagging, which vaguely allows the user to customize their everyday email address to almost brand new without creating another account.
How does this work?
Let us use example@gmail.com and formulate a new one for Facebook, Twitter, and Guild Wars 2:
- example+facebook@gmail.com
- example+twitter@gmail.com
- example+guildwars@gmail.com
- example+whateveriwanttoputhere@gmail.com
- example-yahoovariant@yahoo.com
Most e-mail variants using qmail utilize the hyphen (-), versus the plus (+) sign, but provide the same functionality.
All of those emails will be sent to example@gmail.com, but it also provides another layer of security to an extent. Sure, all anyone has to do is obtain that string of text and they have your username. But its effective.
What e-mail services provide this feature, and what character do they use?
- G-Mail – plus sign (+)
- Yahoo! Mail – hyphen sign (-)
- iCloud – plus sign (+)