How to use vMailias to generate unique email addresses for easy sorting and filtering

vMailias is a small OS X app that helps you create unique redundant email addresses for web site registrations. Tracking which email address was used for which web site also makes it easy to set up rules to guide email from different web sites into their own folders, and to easily identify the source of spam to filter it out. Combined with gmail, and this becomes a very helpful application.

Gmail allows you to create disposable/sortable email addresses by simply adding a + (plus sign) to the end of your user name. vMailias takes advantage of this feature and adds to it by helping you auto-generate disposable and easily filtered addresses. Note: vMailias also works if you own a domain and have the ability to create a “catch-all” email account.

1. Start by downloading and installing vMailias (just unpack the .zip file and drag it to your Applications folder).
2. The first thing you’ll want to do is set the vMailias preferences. To do so, select vMailias from your menu, then Preferences… from the drop down list.

   

3. Enter your email address prefix (everything before the @ sign in your gmail address) and add a + (plus sign) to the end. For the email address domain enter gmail.com. The resulting New address format should be something along the lines of user_name+101@gmail.com.

   Place a check in the boxes Copy the new email address to the clipboard and Copy the current website address and then select your browser from the drop down list. When you’re done, click Close.



4. In the main vMailias window, click the Add button in the bottom right corner. A new email address will be automatically generated for you, the web site you’re currently viewing will be entered into the Web Address column, and you can add notes about that address. Assuming you are about to sign up for a mailing list, web site newsletter etc, you can return to your browser and paste your clipboard contents into the email address field - vMailias automatically adds your newly created address to the clipboard.


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5. Now you can filter your email based on the newly created address. For help using Gmails filtering, see this FAQ or this video tutorial (flash required).

Side note: I downloaded vMailias v1.1 on July 23rd. After playing around with it for a few minutes I noticed a behavior that may have been a bug. I sent an email to the developer and less than 20 minutes later he responded, confirming it was in fact a bug. A few hours later and v1.1.1 is now available for download, with the problems fixed. Talk about fast!