Searching For Gmail In Google Links You To Compose A Message To A Google Apps User

If you search for [gmail] in Google and if you click on the sitelink that reads “Google mail” — Google may push you to a page that composes an email to a Google Apps user.

Here is the search result you may see when you search for [gmail]:

Clicking on that sitelink below the main listing may take you to the compose window to email a specific Google Apps user.

This will only happen if (1) you see the sitelink and (2) you are logged into a Google Account. Otherwise, if you don’t have a Google Account, you will need to create one to send this user an email.

Why is some stranger’s email address showing up in the Google search results for sitelink for Gmail? It must have been an indexing issue by Google. I suspect this will be fixed shortly after we post our story.

Credit goes to Rahul Mistry of 123-reg.co.uk for sending us this tip.

Postscript: See our follow-up story: Days-Old Error In Google Search Causes Gmail User To Get Thousands Of Emails

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.