Posted in blog city on January 20th 2005   

Cedric recently wrote on Disposable Email Addresses. While the concept of disposable identities in not entirely new (see American Express Private Payments), it seems to be just catching up for email addresses from the list of service providers Cedric has mentioned.

In my view following would be core requirements for an online service provider of email –

1. Ability to associate multiple email addresses with a user id. This can also mean that separate user id and email id. Once a user is signed on, the user should have the ability to create/auto-generate multiple email addresses.

2. Support rule based creation of the email addresses, such as 
           a) Receive emails only from a certain domain (useful for mailing list subscriptions)
           b) Expire on so-and-so date or after so-and-so time period (useful for online shopping or other places where email address is needed temporarily)

3. Provide a seamless interface to all email addresses. The user should be able to send/receive emails to/from any email address using a single mailbox interface. Ofcourse, the user should be able to sort the email based on the address to which the email was received.

4. Support various administration features
           a) Temporary blockage of an email address
           b) Deletion of an email address
           c) Separate auto-reply and forwarding per each email address

Any more?

Filed under: Technology