Combining Google logins so you have just 1 - legitimate email?

[Flibble]

Hi all,

I got this emailed to me, i'm sceptical as it involved login info and I think it could be someone trying to con me...

Is this legitimate or not?

The reason i'm unsure is that Adsense does not say anything on the site which is very strange!

Also why would it say:
"use an email address which has never been associated with another account"?

Thanks!

REMOVED by Flibble (no idea why this is 'not allowed', it's an email ffs...)

[edited by: Flibble at 9:40 am (utc) on April 23, 2007]

[benevolent001]

Hello Flibble

You just login to your Adsense login , if the email is authentic the G will itself instruct you to do this or that...on the login page itself , and plz delete the email , its not allowed over WebmasterWorld

Just login to Adsense and see what it says

[Flibble]

Thanks for the reply, when I login I get absolutely nothing so it must be a con.

However, why on earth is it 'not allowed on webmaster world'?

Clearly 1000's, perhaps 100000's of people will have got this email and this is one of the places we can alert them to it...

Sometimes rules are made to be broken as common sense prevails...

Flibble

[Gian04]

A rule is a rule, no matter how harsh it is

[Marcia]

TOS #9

Email excerpts of ANY type or length are not allowed on WebmasterWorld. There are no exceptions to this rule.

Not harsh, it's good common sense and respects copyright and privacy.

Added:
Bad, bad idea to combine emails. It sounds like a phishing scheme, I'd forward that email with full headers to adsense-abuse(at)google(dot)com ASAP.

[edited by: Marcia at 10:40 am (utc) on April 23, 2007]

[level80]

The email (I've received one too) according to Google Mail is:-

a) signed by google.com (nigh impossible to do unless you own/have access to that domain name)

b) is replied to from a google.com address (again as far as I know those are only used for staff)

c) is replied to from a google.com address used for Adsense support and

d) is genuine - it includes Google Ireland Ltd's snail mail address, company registration number and the URLs are genuine non-phishing ones (eg what is linked to in the anchor text (google.com) is what the link links to

I think basically a small number of people have Adwords and Adsense accounts and for some reason they're merging the systems/databases. This must be to avoid duplicate entries in a database for the same email address. There also seems a desire by Google for "one ring to rule them all" - eg your one Google Account username/password will allow you to log in to everything.

Admittedly Google knowing how much you earn, who the visitors on your website are, what they search for, what you search for, your email (if you use gmail) etc combining together may worry the Big Brother, civil liberties - we're heading down towards a police state lot, but having said all that with the resistance they did put up to the fishing expedition that was the DoJ subpoena for search results (or was it user's search history - can't remember) I still have some trust in Google (despite compromising on their principles regarding censorship in China).

[abbeyvet]

It's genuine. I've done it, had problems with it (lost data) and replied to the email for assistance, which was forthcoming and most definitely from Google.

[rj87uk]

I have the Email also, however I don't want to do it!

I am happy with my login's for different services... Don't see why things need to change! I like things staying the same.

[eddy22]

Why is it only few people have received this email and not everybody?

[farmboy]

Why is it only few people have received this email and not everybody?

I don't have Gmail and I haven't received anything from them by email, but when I login to AdSense, I get a message asking me to combine all my Google logins into one account. It looks like it's going to be mandatory.

FarmBoy

[Biggus_D]

I've tried several times to change from the original Yahoo email used to register the account to another one from Gmail, but the Adsense team doesn't allow me to do it, so I have to stick with Yahoo to use Adsense.

[Go60Guy]

I think they specifically state that you cannot change your Adsense email login to gmail. Seems bizzaar.

[Hobbs]

For the rest:
Many people receiving a genuine email from Google
does NOT mean that yours is not a phishing email.
Do your due diligence on every critical email you receive.

[Bddmed]

I was asked to change account too yesterday. But they asked after I initially logged in with my old e-mail.

[m0thman]

Yup I got this one a while back too. Being paranoid, of course checked the headers and even entered the google address manually just to be sure. I sync'd my AdSense to my google account and I'm now one happy bunny.

As Hobbs says though...

Do your due diligence on every critical email you receive.

Always...

[netmeg]

There's something in the AdSense blog about this now - says that supposedly only older accounts are being asked to update at this time:

[adsense.blogspot.com ]

[Go60Guy]

Well, re using gmail here's what the above blog says:

However, if you use another email address for other Google products like Gmail and Picasaweb, you already have a Google Account and you can finally use the same login for AdSense.

You'll be able to do this after you see the message about changing over in a future login.

[Chapman]

This is a reply I submitted to the "New Login Screen" post. It may be appropriate here as well.

---

I see a new screen, too. In the center, there is an image of a website called "Green Garden Tips".

I saw it one day last week, then the page reverted back to the older version.

From what I can tell... after you successfully pass through a new (and rather mandatory) login reprocessing wizard (see the "Combining Google logins so you have just 1 - legitimate email?" post), this is the login screen you'll continue to see.

In addition to that... logins are also now much more intelligent as they appear to be very "cookie-fied". After passing the tests of the "Combining Wizard" all my Google accounts operate under one email/password set and each associated account (Groups/Analytics/GMail/Adsense) was automatically updated to the new login... even if I had not changed browser settings.

If I simply visit a Google page (Groups/Analytics/GMail/Adsense) now... I'm logged in immediately without any other interaction.

Extremely nice!

Disclaimer: This is how it has been working today... tomorrow it could be completely different!

BTW, I received no prior email alerting me to the new account structure unlike many others.

Chapman

[eddy22]

You would need to be careful of checking gmail in public cafes if they have same log in to adsense