Setup Gmail Aliases To Easily Filter and Organize Incoming Email

I discovered something really cool tonight to help organize my default Gmail account. You can use an unlimited number of aliases which in return will allow you to easily filter or organize incoming email based on numerous factors. By default Gmail will deliver any mail with your username+anystringhere@gmail.com to your Gmail inbox. This not only works with @gmail.com email addresses but it will also work with any domains you have hosted via Google apps.

Google Hosted Domain Mail Alias Example:
So if Question-Defense.com was hosted at google and there was a support@question-defense.com address I could setup the address support+webcontactform@question-defense.com which would still be delivered into the support@question-defense.com Google apps hosted inbox.

Gmail Spam Catcher Alias Example:
This is really beneficial because it provides you an unlimited number of email aliases. So if you had to sign up for something that you really didn’t want to receive email for because you knew they were going to spam your inbox you could simply input youraddress+spam@gmail.com. Now if you had to initially verify the email address was legit you would do so but then after doing so you would set up a filter in the Gmail interface to forward all incoming mail to youraddress+spam@gmail.com to the Spam folder or to Trash.

All of these aliases require no special configuration. You can send to youraddress+anything@gmail.com at any time and it will be delivered to youraddress@gmail.com’s Gmail inbox. You can literally setup a different alias for every web store you sign up for so if you ever want to stop receving email from that store and you have tried to unsubscribe but they continue to send email then you would simply create a filter to send that email to the Spam folder or the Trash folder.

Setting up filters is easy. Follow the simple steps below to do so.

1. Open Gmail: First login to your Gmail account.
2. Gmail Settings: Click the Settings link located in the top right corner of your Gmail interface.
3. Gmail Filters: Now click the Filters link which is located in the Settings sub navigation.
4. Create a Gmail Filter: Now click the “create new filter” link located at the bottom of the Gmail Filter Settings configuration window.
5. To Field Filter: In the “To” field enter the alias address you want to filter and click the Next Step button.
6. Choose Action: Select the action you want to happen when mail is delivered to the alias address you specified in step 5. This action could be deleting the email, skipping the Inbox to be archived in All Mail, moving to the Spam folder, moving to the Trash folder, or moving to a custom folder you have set up.
7. Apply to Conversations: If you already have mail in your Inbox delivered to this address and you want the filter your setting up to apply to this email make sure to check the “Apply filter to X conversations below” check box.
8. Create Filter: Last click the Create Filter button to save the new filter.

You are now filtering mail for the Gmail alias you set up. If for any reason you need to delete or modify the Gmail alias you have just set up all you will need to do is go back to the Filter Settings configuration window, locate the filter in the filter list, and click the “edit” link next to the filter.

If you spend a little time setting up Gmail aliases and filters you will end up saving a lot of time in the future by having your Gmail Inbox much more organized.

For information on more Google applications that can make your life easier check out the book below.