Multiple Contacts with same email address

[geraldcor]

Hello all,

I use google apps for your domain standard version. My boss wants to
be able to have multiple contacts with the same email address. Don't
ask why, he just does and that's how I have to do it. We have a
database that I use to export email addresses and import into the
contact manager. Gmail does some automatic cleaning of the contacts
which includes merging contacts that have the same email address. I
understand this functionality, but is there a way around it?

Thanks,

Greg

[Ryan Morehart]

Some systems (ie, Gmail) let you do add "+description" to an address
(so I could send to moreha...@gmail.com) or change where periods
are in the username section of the address. Obviously that's less than
ideal most of the time, but it might be one solution.

Ryan

[geraldcor]

So the actual email address that is sent out is morehart
+sp...@gmail.com and there would also be the normal "Morehart Spam"
name associated with that address? Seems to cause a failure that way.
Not sure I understand completely. Sorry.

Greg

On Sep 28, 1:45 pm, Ryan Morehart <moreh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Some systems (ie, Gmail) let you do add "+description" to an address

> (so I could send to morehart+s...@gmail.com) or change where periods

> are in the username section of the address. Obviously that's less than
> ideal most of the time, but it might be one solution.
>
> Ryan
>

[JohnW]

Greg,
You'll be aware that you already own gre...@gmail.com, and all the
dotted variations of that name (gre...@gmail.com): well, Gmail also
allow you to use the alias of gregc...@gmail.com. This is only an
example, but you can tell various parties (that you perhaps want to
identify) that your e-mail address is gregco+abc@... so that you
know if those people pass on your e-mail address (you've given only
one company/person the +abc alias). You DON'T send out using that
alias - you only receive using it.
I myself have 5 or 6 aliases that I've told companies of, so I know
that if I start receiving mail from companies other than abc or BigMac
using those aliases, then I know where to go to tell them I didn't
want them sharing my address!!

On Oct 1, 4:47 pm, geraldcor <gregco...@gmail.com> wrote:
> So the actual email address that is sent out is morehart

> +s...@gmail.com and there would also be the normal "Morehart Spam"

[Sean Murphy]

    The only way that I am aware of to accomplish what you describe, is to set up a mailing list (x...@yahoogroups.com or x...@googlegroups.com or some other mailing list provider) and save that as the email address that the multiple contacts have. Of course, you need to get those contacts to subscribe to the group for emails sent to them to be received at their actual email addresses.

    Unless I am misunderstanding. Does your boss want to be able to send one email to one email address and have it reach multiple contacts, or is he looking for something else, maybe being able to type in different names on different occasions and have those always populate with the same email address?

    In that case, hmm, the closest I can think of that it could be done would be by setting up separate contacts that display different names but only differ by an add-on to the email address. Say, you ahve three contacts that your boss wants to have the same email address - Fred, Ralph, and Sam. you could set up their email addresses as:

"Fred" <xyz+...@gmail.com>

"Ralph" <xyz+...@gmail.com>

"Sam" <xyz...@gmail.com>

    These would be considered the same email address by Gmail, x...@gmail.com, but the contact Manager might recognize them as different enough to allow them to co-exist in Contacts. I am not positive. Otherwise, you might have to use a POP/IMAP program like Thunderbird (that will allow multiple contacts with the same email address) to access your Gmail.

-0 1 - just my two bits

[geraldcor]

Sean,

The second option is what my boss is looking for. I will try your
suggestion once I have a moment to fool around with our export script.
Thanks for the replies. I will let you know how it goes.

Greg

On Oct 6, 9:34 am, Sean Murphy <smpara...@gmail.com> wrote:
>     The only way that I am aware of to accomplish what you describe, is to
> set up a mailing list (x...@yahoogroups.com or x...@googlegroups.com or some
> other mailing list provider) and save that as the email address that the
> multiple contacts have. Of course, you need to get those contacts to
> subscribe to the group for emails sent to them to be received at their
> actual email addresses.     Unless I am misunderstanding. Does your boss
> want to be able to send one email to one email address and have it reach
> multiple contacts, or is he looking for something else, maybe being able to
> type in different names on different occasions and have those always
> populate with the same email address?
>     In that case, hmm, the closest I can think of that it could be done
> would be by setting up separate contacts that display different names but
> only differ by an add-on to the email address. Say, you ahve three contacts
> that your boss wants to have the same email address - Fred, Ralph, and Sam.
> you could set up their email addresses as:

> "Fred" <xyz+f...@gmail.com <xyz%2Bf...@gmail.com>>
> "Ralph" <xyz+ra...@gmail.com <xyz%2Bra...@gmail.com>>
> "Sam" <xyz+...@gmail.com <xyz%2B...@gmail.com>>

>     These would be considered the same email address by Gmail, x...@gmail.com,
> but the contact Manager might recognize them as different enough to allow
> them to co-exist in Contacts. I am not positive. Otherwise, you might have
> to use a POP/IMAP program like Thunderbird (that will allow multiple
> contacts with the same email address) to access your Gmail.
>
> -0 1 - just my two bits
>