As most of you know for quite some time I have been looking for a way to consolidate multiple email accounts in one nice interface. I run a small business and have many email accounts that go directly to me. It would be nice if I were able to log into one web based email service and be able to read/respond the emails from these accounts in one centralized location. Every service I tried there was a downfall of some kind. I really liked Google’s email solutions but they had one draw back; the on behalf of annoyance that has bugged many Google mail users since they started to allow users to send email from a different email address.I got an early Christmas present in July when someone pointed me to this blog post on Google Apps blog. FINALLY they have setup a work around for the “on behalf of” problem. I immediately started to go through in my head how this was all going to work. I did a Google Search on setting up Google Apps to see what other users were doing and I found an article about a completely different approach to managing emails. Users are setting up a domain on Google Apps and setting their main email as the catchall for the domain. Brilliant! Now, when I sign up on a website I use thewebsitename@mydomainname.com and can have my filters automatically tag the emails coming in. Also, if the website sells my information or gets hacked and I start getting spam I can blackhole the email account and decrease the amount of spam I receive on a daily basis to almost nothing.
Catchalls have been around for sometime and I am surprised over time other users haven’t figured out the benefits of using a catchall email account with a domain like I have setup in this situation. This is a great setup for any user or a small business who wants to look like more than a one man shop.