Submitted by If you only have one e-mail account with Google you may not realize how annoying it can be for those of us who have multiple accounts to have to constantly sign in and out of Google services to check e-mail or information. There are ways around it (extensions, Greasemonkey scripts, using separate browsers for each account, etc), but why shouldn’t Google support multiple user logins? In fact, if screenshots posted on the Google Operating System blog are to be believed (and they have been in the past), Google is currently testing a new feature which will lets users easily switch between multiple accounts easily. The feature isn’t available to the public yet, but we can’t wait to test it out.
I have several gmail accounts, and one ‘master’ gmail account. I have all the extra accounts forward and mark as read. My master account receives the messages and automatically tags them with a label saying which account they belong to. It is configured to automatically reply through the account it was received on, but I can change it if I want. I also have it check a few POP accounts, and send out through SMTP on those accounts.
It all works perfectly. I only have to use one login/UI, people can send to any of my accounts, I can respond from any of them, my mail is nice and organized in the UI I actually use, and all incoming/outgoing mail that belongs to each account is archived there (but unorganized…the one problem with my system…which isn’t really a problem for me). Because of this setup, I can use the single gmail account on my Android phone to manage them all as well.
It just works. I manage 6 accounts from one location, my customers/friends/family see everything transparently, and I can do it all from my phone or browser. And I can go months at a time only using the ‘master account’, without having to go log into the others individually.
It’s really not that hard. Not that there aren’t other advantages to this multiple login thing.
I haven’t seen that much point in having multiple browsers. Some people install Firefox, Chrome, Opera and whatnot on top of already having IE or Safari.
Well, this is one practical use. Log in to more than one account by using different browsers for different accounts.
I think Google will sort out a fix, but in the meantime, there’s a workaround.
Private tab?
It’s not just for porn. You can have two gmails logins on one browser by doing so. Works fine.
I thought that one was only allowed to have one gmail account per their usage policy.
I’ve been a Yahoo Mail user since 2000 or maybe even before. In the recent years, they’ve introduced what was dubbed in French as “adresses secondaires” (secondary addresses) and has been renamed a couple of weeks ago to “adresses mail jetables” (disposable email addresses?).
The principle is to attach secondary email accounts to a principal email account so that when the secondary account starts to receive spams, the user can delete it. Since around two months ago I can do whatever I usually do with my main account with any of these: filter incoming mails, reply, send an email by impersonating the identity I attached to one of the “virtual accounts”. No more need for multiple accounts. I have one account, one main email addresses and, to this date, something like 150 secondary addresses for forums, blogs, etc.
Of course, that concerns only the email service and no other but I’ve always wondered why GMail didn’t shamelessly copy this brilliant idea (patent issue?). Cause I hate spams as much as I hate the ebola virus and, let’s face it, those spam filters are just not perfect. Coupled with the threaded view of emails and the rest of GMail as it is now, it would have made the perfect web-based email service. Even Hotmail allowed me to “associate/link” several accounts so as to switch from one to another with only one sign-in procedure.