How do I find out who owns a Gmail account?

Gmail is Google's free mail service. Gmail takes the features of Google, which is the largest search engine, and builds it in to the email, so you can do searches on the web and through your emails. Gmail also has a very large storage inbox, with 2,600 megabytes of storage, which is increased every day. You can keep all your important messages, files and pictures forever, use search to find anything you're looking for, and make sense of it all with a new way of viewing messages as part of conversations.

One thing Gmail is well-known for is its security. So how do you find out who owns a gmail account? Technically, you can't. If you want to find out who else owns a Gmail account, you'll have to search through your existing contacts or invite others to join Gmail.

Like most companies and online service providers, Gmail will provide your information to places online that can in turn place ads on your screen that they feel are relevant based on your search criteria. Your personal information, such as your name, email address, and other information you enter when signing up, is not be sold or given to any type of third party. This includes advertisers and business partners. So while some email providers allow you to search for people based on their business associations or companies, Gmail will not allow that.

Some email service providers also put your IP address in the header of your email, making it easy to find a person's location. Gmail avoids this, as the IP address can lead a skilled internet user to the IP address's exact location.

If you'd like to find out who else owns a Gmail account, there are no gmail directories to search. There are a number of different email search providers on the internet, but their information usually only provides the person's address and phone number, not email. As a general rule, any website that asks for money to find email addresses is probably a scam, or will provide you with outdated email addresses at best.

In this day and age of identity theft, gmail's heightened security is appealing to many people. If you'd like a gmail account of your own, you can set one up by going to the gmail webpage, mail.google.com, and clicking on "sign up." From there, you will fill in a series of information, including:

• Name and login information. This first section will have you fill in your first and last name, gender, and then a username and password. Your login name will be your new email address.
• Password. Once you've entered in your new login name, you can then create your password. This should be something that is not easily guessed but easy for you to remember.
• Security question. If you happen to forget your password, you can send an email to the administrator and have them retrieve it for you. A drop down list will give you a number of options for questions.
• Verify your registration. You do this by filling in a series of letters and numbers, which helps to prevent automated registrations in your name.
• Read and agree to the Terms of Service, which tells you what you are agreeing to do and not to do with your account.