A comment from Susan on my post about spambox.us lead me to investigate another temporary email forwarding service, Melt Mail.
I had already tried out spambox.us, which worked quite well, so I decided to give Melt Mail ago and compare the two services. It turns out there wasn’t much to compare, they both worked equally well. The only thing I can use to seperate the two services is that the temporary email addresses that spambox.us generates can last from 1 hour up to 1 year; as far as I could tell Melt Mail temporary email addresses only last for a maximum of 24 hours.
In short: spambox.us wins!
Out of curiosty, I performed a search on Google for temporary email forwarding, it turns out there are quite a few of these services around. Personally, I think spambox.us and Melt Mail are better services, and that decision was based purely on the design and UI of the websites!
I still couldn’t bring myself to give them my REAL email address however (just incase they pass it on, despite both services explaining they don’t). I used my gmail account instead.
technorati tags:spambox, meltmail
Filed under: web 2.0
Both spambox and meltmail require you to provide your real email address. These websites may sell you real email. You never know!!
Thats why I use a different type of temporary/disposable email. I use http://www.mintemail.com. With this website, you don’t need to provide your real email address. When the email is received, it is shown on the website.
Plus, you don’t need to press Ctrl+C because the email is automatically copied to your clipboard…
Try it for yourself. This is one of the best ways to keep your inbox spam free.
Hi Scott,
thanks for testing meltmail, also it is the loser of your test.
You are right, you can only create a forwarding address up to 24hours. The aim of the service is to provide a short-time forwarding (for registrations etc.)
The other idea is, that thru such a manageable period the user knows, that his e-mail will be forgotten at the end of the day. In comparison, one year is a long time — who knows what will happen to the database
Regarding your concerns about giving your real e-mail address: that were exactly the doubts i had and which lead to the creation of meltmail. Ok, this won’t convince you, because you don’t know me.
But thats always the problem: “as long as you don’t create it by yourself, there is an element of uncertainty”. But i can promise you, that there is no abuse. The expired (“melted”) addresses will be deleted in a regular interval and there is also no backup.
Hope that helps you
Regards.
Daniel B.
Hey Daniel,
Thanks for the comments. They do give insight to your decisions for having 24 hours as the limit until addresses expire. Makes perfect sense.
I did say that spambox.us wins, but ONLY because of the timeframe. I just think 24 hours is quite a small time in the busy world we live in. Perhaps 48 hours might be an option you’ll consider soon?
Other than that, I really like meltmail, and if it wasn’t for the timeframe meltmail probably would have won, it IS a fantastic service.