In general, opening a new email window in an email client will pick some default email address. This feature would either act as a local proxy and swap the selected address out or would be an add-on to common email clients. After the first time a particular address was sent an email, the program would automatically detect if the selected email sender address did not match the email recipient address.

For example, you could set up the program to only allow your work email address to send emails to your coworkers and to only allow two of your home email addresses to send emails to your brother.

The primary purpose of this feature would be to prevent accidental accidental usage of incorrect addresses, either for privacy reasons or because you were expected to use only your work email server to send work emails or whatever.

A similar feature for web-browsers could be used to associate specific websites with specific email addresses, ensuring (for example) that you only used your discussion board email address when sending emails to people who used a discussion board (as opposed to the email address you used at work, which happened to be MYFIRSTNAME_MYLASTNAME@MYCOMPANY.COM and which would give away your identity to random strangers.
-- aguydude, Apr 27 2007

PMMail could do this, and I think Sylpheed does.
-- Galbinus_Caeli, Apr 27 2007


...and after all, we all are Spartacus.
-- xandram, Apr 27 2007


...No, WE all are Spartacus.
-- normzone, Apr 27 2007


I'm Brian.
-- Galbinus_Caeli, Apr 28 2007


(+) Interesting idea, although it was hard for me to understand what you meant at first.

When you're communicating with someone, that's always happening in a social setting. If you did it in real life, you would change how you dress and talk according to the overall setting. But because it's email, it's still the same client, the same you sitting there in your underwear, and (unless you remember to change it) the same email sender.

Email clients should model those settings explicitly - let you name them, show you which one you're in, and do things differently based on the setting. In addition to the email "From" address, a client might also change your stationery, the format of your mail, what writing styles it warns you about, and whether and how it saves the correspondence.
-- jutta, Apr 28 2007


This seems far too complicated for the desired result. Instead of different e- mail addresses, why don't you offer a "Type" section under the "Subject" line. You will have predetermined the different type of e-mail you would send "Family", "Work", "Craigslist Personal Ads", and then certain people (also predetermined) would be more accesible as recipients.

Additionally, how the e-mail is signed, the font, and the spell check could be preferenced differently according to the type.
-- ColonelMuffins, May 01 2007



random, halfbakery