DLS Tip: Google Apps does Gmail aliases right

Savvy Gmail users have known for a while that adding +anything to an address will create an instant, though dirty, email alias/nickname (example: downloadsquad+spam@gmail). Email sent to these addresses still arrives in your main inbox, but this method allows for all sorts of organization tricks that make email easier to manage (such as applying a label and/or archiving all of these messages). While this works decently enough, it isn't a true alias in the sense that spam bots and alert individuals can easily spot this trick and still scrape out your real email address. Google's hosted Apps for Your Domain service, however, handles this whole alias issue in a much more efficient and useful way.

Under each user in Google Apps's management panel (in both Standard and Premium versions), is a section for creating what is referred to as a Nickname. Why Google chose to call these by a different name, however, is beyond us, and even their own documentation on the matter uses conflicting terminology. Nevertheless, as you can see, this system allows Google Apps users to create true-blue nicknames at which each user can receive email, and Google's standard instructions for sending email from a different address work perfectly for setting up full sending and receiving with these nicknames from your primary email address.

Tags: aliases, email, google apps, GoogleApps, nicknames