Microsoft Launches Throwaway Hotmail Addresses

Never have to create a dud email account again.

We all have at least one spammy email account that we use to register for forums, sign up for newsletters and post comments on various different websites. You’d never dream of polluting your “real” email address with all that junk, so it’s just easier to have a decoy for all the less important stuff.

Microsoft knows we do this and now Redmond wants to help us. Hotmail is getting a new feature that allows “email enthusiasts” to create multiple email addresses that can be managed from their every day email inbox. No logging in and out of five different accounts -- you can do it all from your main inbox. Right now, Microsoft is limiting the number of alias accounts a user can add to five per year.

“[...] there are times when you simply don’t want to give out any part of your real email address – that’s where our new alias feature helps you out,” writes Microsoft’s Dharmesh Mehta. “Email aliases let you create completely different email addresses that you can use to receive email into your primary account without anyone knowing what your primary email address is.”