When you change your mailing address, there's an easy way to notify the post office of your new digs so that you don't miss any of your snail mail. If you change your phone number, it's just as easy to call the phone company so that folks trying to get in touch with you get a message that gives them your new number. If you change your email address, however, I hope you only have about five people to contact or you're going to spend a day sending every single person you know the new contact info. Many of us have been frustrated by the experience of changing our email address. While it's understood that ISPs are competing with each other, disconnecting you from your compadres has always seemed like a brutal punishment for leaving an ISP that you're unhappy with. According to an article in PC World , an estimated 100 million e-mail users in the United States change addresses each year, and a company called Veripost is now attempting to build a national (U.S.) platform for e-mail address change information. You register your old and new e-mail addresses and the company shoots would-be correspondents your new e-mail address. You can also ask to be notified for approval before that your address is given out. They intend to make the service free to consumers and have it paid for by ISPs. That's the unfortunate part. If ISPs (and former employers) wanted to perform this altruistic act for those leaving their services, it probably would already be happening.