You’re surfing the Internet and something catches your eye. Perhaps it’s a product about which you’d like more information. Maybe you’ve just read an Op-Ed piece on your favorite news site and feel like submitting your own comments. Or you’ve finally decided to take the plunge and fill out that on-line survey to win a free iPod (by the way, if the company actually sends you one, please let me know so I can go sign up for mine!). The problem is giving out your email address. You don’t know what these companies will do with your email address once they get it, and you don’t like the idea of receiving spam for the rest of your life. You don’t want to have to sign up through Hotmail or Yahoo for a free account. And many of these sites have to reply to you via email, so putting in a fake email address won’t work. What do you do? Simple: Use the Mailinator!
No, seriously. Mailinator is a site where you can make up your own email on the spot. It’s not necessary to sign up ahead of time – in fact, you don’t sign up at all. You can give an email address of, say, woolylamb@mailinator.com, or whatever else you want, as long as the part before the @ sign doesn’t exceed 15 characters. Later, you can visit the site at www.mailinator.com, enter your made-up email name (in this case, woolylamb), and if anyone has sent email to that address in the past few hours, it’ll show up.
There are a few things to keep in mind. The name you choose may not be unique. Other people may be using the same name, so if you see email in the account from folks that you don’t recognize, it’s a good bet other people are using the same name you selected. Mail is automatically deleted from the account a few hours after it’s received. You can’t forward the email to another address, save it, or reply to it, so if you need that capability, you’re going to have to sign up with another service.
If you have questions about the service and what is involved, you can go to the company’s Web site at www.mailinator.com and check out the FAQ link.
About the author: Danny Davids has over 25 years of experience in computer support, network administration, and computer consulting.
tweet this!