No. Gmail's behavior is not RFC compliant.
They started out using the '+'s for "throw-away" addresses, but apparently websites caught onto that pretty quick so they expanded into full-stops. Regards, Michael B. Smith Consultant and Exchange MVP http://TheEssentialExchange.com From: Carl Houseman [mailto:c.house...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 4:44 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: OT: Google Username Assistance - huh? Oh brother . I guess a mail server can do whatever it wants regarding matching addresses to mailboxes for delivery and no RFC cares? Thanks for clearing up the mystery. Carl From: Andrew Levicki [mailto:and...@levicki.me.uk] Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 4:36 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: OT: Google Username Assistance - huh? Hi Carl, I believe that gmail ignores periods in the left hand side of the address, so in fact those two email addresses are the same account, i.e. not forwarding. You could equally say the same about c.h.o.u.s.e.m....@gmail.com<mailto:c.h.o.u.s.e.m....@gmail.com>, c........h.o........u.s.......e.m.........@gmail.com<mailto:c........h.o........u.s.......e.m.........@gmail.com>, you get the idea. They also ignore anything after a plus symbol [ "+" ], therefore c.h.o.u.s.e.m.a.n+anything_you_like_in_h...@gmail.com<mailto:c.h.o.u.s.e.m.a.n%2banything_you_like_in_h...@gmail.com> equally goes the same way. Feel free to try the above and see if it works. I hope this helps. Andrew On 11 February 2010 06:25, Carl Houseman <c.house...@gmail.com<mailto:c.house...@gmail.com>> wrote: OK, this seems very weird to me. For some time, mail addressed to chouse...@gmail.com<mailto:chouse...@gmail.com> has been delivered to my c.house...@gmail.com<mailto:c.house...@gmail.com> mailbox. I thought, at some point, I created the chouseman mailbox and configured forwarding. But I couldn't sign in to Google with the chouseman address and no attempts to use their automatic password reset worked. About 3 months ago I went the distance trying to reset the password, using the last resort method several times. Each time I received an automatic message telling me I should be able to access the account, but of course, I never could. And then today this comes in: ---------------------------- From: accounts-nore...@google.com<mailto:accounts-nore...@google.com> [mailto:accounts-nore...@google.com<mailto:accounts-nore...@google.com>] Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 3:55 PM To: chouse...@gmail.com<mailto:chouse...@gmail.com> Subject: Google Username Assistance We searched our database but we were unable to find any usernames associated with your email address chouse...@gmail.com<mailto:chouse...@gmail.com>. <snipped instructions for accessing my account, which apparently doesn't exist> ---------------------------- So the takeaway from that message is what, exactly? There's no username, therefore there is no account associated with chouse...@gmail.com<mailto:chouse...@gmail.com>? And nonetheless, I have to keep receiving e-mail for that address? I don't see where a Google account can have multiple e-mail addresses tied to it as Exchange can, but apparently that's what has happened? It's crap like this that will keep me from ever recommending cloud services from Google. Carl ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ -- Kind regards, Andrew Levicki MCITP MCSE CCNA and...@levicki.me.uk<mailto:and...@levicki.me.uk> www.andrewlevicki.eu<http://www.andrewlevicki.eu> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
