I have been noticing lately a large number of people who like to use special characters in their emails. While I can remember people used to like _ - . I now see a lot of + and even ^ they are perfectly fine, not disputing that.
I've also seen addresses accepted at a company/server like google where it is going to another @ address, and is refused.
Does anyone know of a list where it states what characters will be accepted and which ones wont when communicating either to or through their servers.
i.e. yahoo, google, hotmail, hushmail
The " " and it's rules has always surprised me and you get some teens who put weird things inside the "", (which would fall outside the shift 1-9 rule) but they usually get bounced.
There is a whole bunch of RFC's (
I don't know a list of the specifics for the services that you mention but I would assume there has to be something out there.
[edit]replaced obsolete version[/edit]
Greetings,
RFC 2822 specifies what is legal in email address fields. (It replaced 822.)
Here's the RFC http//
And here is some additional information http//
If you really want to know, you could go read a sendmail.cf file…
-David
Note that, in gmail, the + sign is supported but it has a special meaning what follows is a tag.
Thus, "fubar@gmail.com" and "fubar+foo@gmail.com" are the same mailbox. This is a feature that makes it possible for gmail users to identify the source of spam or easily filter their inbox.
/scott
Scott,
I find it amazing. It seems like every day there is some new app, new software or new something which requires people working in this industry to constantly educate themselves on an ongoing basis. Information that is sometimes six months old can be obsolete today.
Is there a place online to learn more about or confirm what you said about the +tag?
Thanks!
Is there a place online to learn more about or confirm what you said about the +tag?
Sure.
And this Lifehacker post is 5 years old!
[edit]btw, I just tested it and the tag works with Google apps hosted email, too.[/edit]
/scott
Scott,
I find it amazing. It seems like every day there is some new app, new software or new something which requires people working in this industry to constantly educate themselves on an ongoing basis. Information that is sometimes six months old can be obsolete today.Is there a place online to learn more about or confirm what you said about the +tag?
Thanks!
You are right about keeping current on the technology.
+tag Is actually called "plus-addressing" and several email providers are using this feature.
Note that, in gmail, the + sign is supported but it has a special meaning what follows is a tag.
Thus, "fubar@gmail.com" and "fubar+foo@gmail.com" are the same mailbox. This is a feature that makes it possible for gmail users to identify the source of spam or easily filter their inbox.
/scott
cant believe i never know this!! fantastic feature!!
Thanks Scott
Yeah, the gmail + thing works really well - used it for a long time. I know if any company has sold my information because the spam comes to the +companyname part of the gmail address I use for them.
Couple problems I have had in the past
- the website or form does not accept the +<whatever> and so then I have to use the regular email
- FTD did this They accepted the email and even though I said not to email me with their unsolicited crap, I got one every day! Every *&%%$ day! When I went to the Unsub website (link on the UCE) - it would not accept the email with the +ftd so I could not unsub myself. Aargh twisted Ended up creating a filter to delete all FTD messages and will never buy from them again.
Other than that it's a great gmail feature )