WOF: How many email accounts do you use?

[Matthew DeCarlo]

[Weekend Open Forum] According to recent stats (PDF) published by The Radicati Group, the number of worldwide email accounts is expected to increase from 2.9 billion in 2010 to over 3.8 billion by 2014, with around 75% belonging to consumers and 25% being corporate. Unsurprisingly, the report also suggests that the average user has about two addresses. While that's entirely plausible, we have a hunch you aren't the "average user" – right?

I regularly use four separate accounts. Besides the standard personal and work addresses, I have an ancient account that's dedicated to things like registrations, purchases and subscriptions, while another is solely for times when I'm not comfortable giving out the others. All of them are funneled through a single Gmail inbox, which makes it easy to keep tabs on everything.

What about you? How many accounts are you actively using and do you prefer checking them through a Web interface or a desktop client like Outlook? There's a poll eagerly awaiting your mouse click after the break, but don't be afraid to leave a comment, too.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/39593-wof-how-many-email-accounts-do-you-use.html

 

[JMMD]

I have 8 active addresses at the moment.

 

[madboyv1]

Hmm, I have 3 daily active addresses, one is web interface, and the other is through an email client. If you count emails for instant messaging that aren't used on a regular basis (or at all), it comes to a total of 8 addresses... I think.

 

[Tekkaraiden]

Currently I have 3 active addresses and probably another 7 that I haven't used in a long time.

 

[ET3D]

On a regular basis I use just one account (on gmail) and one address (on one of my domains) which forwards into my gmail account. I have defined or between 10 and 20 e-mail addresses and more than 5 accounts (finding the actual number will be a bit of work), but I don't use most of them at all.

 

[Clrabbit]

Wow... that's a hard Question..

I have around 20+ or so that i know are active most are FWD to different places but I keep every thing pretty much in 4 places to keep it simple.
Sense most are web master accounts for different places I do use them all and Gmail has been pretty sweet as a routing hub for every thing. i've been a huge Gmail fan sense Day one of the Beta.

I would shutter to think about the number of accounts I have opened and then abandoned for random reasons and projects sense I started using computers back in the early 90's

 

[dividebyzero]

Seventy-nine (79) active.
Four for business, three for personal correspondance, and I use a seperate email for every subscription site (including hardware vendors and tech sites/forums).
Possibly could be viewed as excessive, but it allows me to monitor which sites/vendors are less than scrupulous in how they handle personal information, and has proved it's worth since two of the accounts have been spammed and generally inundated with junk mailers...one, linked to a local etailer, and the other, linked to a supposed "tech enthusiasts" site that got spammed about a week after I contacted the admins requesting my forum account to be nullified (mainly to notify members when they attempted to PM me for discussion/advice since messages to visitors can often be overlooked and remain unread).

 

[Julio Franco]

79?? Wow... and I bet you use unique passwords for all of those?

In my case, I keep three emails of which I mostly use two and then I have a third legacy Hotmail account which I use for Messenger access. Gmail is wonderful for combining them all and to use as an archive and for remote access.

 

[Davidoff]

2
one for social networking sites
the other for everything else

 

[dividebyzero]

79?? Wow... and I bet you use unique passwords for all of those?

Oh yes. Totally random, as for ebanking, gaming and any other online password usage.
My previous system was to combine/intersperse an automotive part number with it's associated tolerances (i.e. Chrysler differential pinion yoke p/n with backlash/spacer thickness for preload spacer selection) -for all intents and purposes completely random-especially with the upper/lowercase mix (unless you meet a password cracker with a passion for automotive restoration) but fairly easy to remember a wide range of seemingly unrelated number/letter strings.

 

[treeski]

I think I have 5 active e-mail address. Two for personal stuff, one for school, one for online accounts (such as this site, amazon, newegg, other forums, etc), and another for microsoft live accounts that I'm dying to get rid of, but can't figure out how.

 

[UglyChild]

I have three (3).

One hotmail account that i had for the last 12 or so years mainly for junk. And a Gmail account for friends and work.

Yahoo account i dont use anymore, simply because their junk filter is terrible. All junk goes directly in to my inbox. I log in to it once every 6 month just to empty all the junk.

 

[TomSEA]

Same as Matthew who wrote the article. One that I've had forever for correspondence with family who don't know how to use e-mail (routinely forward chain e-mails and e-mails suspected of carrying a virus), one for ordering items, one for people who know how to use e-mail and the last for whatever doesn't fall into the other categories (Facebook, news and sports website registrations so I can ***** on their forums, etc.). Oh yeah - my work e-mail. Don't think that counts though.

 

[Decimae]

2, 1 gmail and 1 from my ISP
But I have 4+9 e-mail addresses that forward to my ISP's e-mail box but which aren't really used but 1, and I have 2 other gmail addresses which I don't use.

 

[Adhmuz]

3, 2 gmail accounts, 1 for my steam and the other for everything else and a hotmail for junk that I don't trust.

 

[mailpup]

I have 8 active email accounts. 7 are web based. I only actively use 2 of them. The rest just sporadically.

 

[Gars]

2
1 gamail
1 business

dont see any demand for more

 

[gobbybobby]

I have 3 emails, public, private and spam. I also have a college email but never use it outside of college,

 

[Kibaruk]

I use 4, one is personal usage, another is for web hosting related, college, and a Yahoo account I can't seem to find a reason to close it nor to keep it open debating since forever.

All of them integrated into gmail, using filters and labels to keep it all well organized (You just have to love gmail ).

 

[matrix86]

I have 4.

1 - Gmail for personal use (forums, friends, family, subscriptions [newegg, tigerdirect, fastweb, so on and so on])

2 - Gmail for school/work

3 - Gmail for the email program I made in Visual Basic (this was for testing purposes for a community. I'm not sure yet how to create a login for different accounts. So for the time being i can only use one account and use that account as a dummy account so the other developers can test what I have worked out in the program). Not sure if I should include this account or not, but figured "eh...why not?"

4 - Yahoo for facebook and the 4 PTC sites i'm a member of. This is the account that got so much spam a few years back that I pretty much abandoned it for the first two gmail accounts. I check it every week or so.

I did have a hotmail account at one time (back in high school 6 or so years ago), but it got EXTREMELY spammed up and I completely abandoned it for Yahoo (which later got spammed up) and now mainly use the first 2 Gmail accounts (which don't get spammed up).

 

[JDoors]

I have eight; one multi-purpose, one for important communications, two for when I'm not comfortable using the previous two, and four "anonymous" addresses for those times someone insists you give them an address but in fact there is absolutely no good reason they need one.

 

[Technochicken]

I have four, but I only use two of them frequently. I use mostly my gmail, which also pulls messages from my school address. Then I have another gmail for things I think might be spam, or don't want to use my main address for, and lastly a Hotmail, which I only have used to get some Microsoft software.

 

[Per Hansson]

I use 3, one is only for Microsoft stuff plus messenger
The other is a Yahoo address that I have had for a very very long time, it gets allot of SPAM but I'd say the catch rate is above 99% so I am happy with it
Third is my Techspot address of course...

I guess lastly there is also my business address, but that feels like it does not count

 

[SNGX1275]

2 that I use regularly.

5 total.

 

[Archean]

I use five different addresses:

2 hotmail, one for personal uses, one for subscriptions
1 yahoo, for personal use
1 pop3 account with local isp, for personal email; i used it in the past to send large attachments which the web base email wouldn't allow in the past, but frankly it has become bit redundant now, and i rarely use it.
1 business