Can I get access to Google Postmaster tools if I’m using an ESP?

The answer is almost certainly yes, but there are definitely cases where it the answer is no.

If you’re using your own domains for the return path and/or the d= value then you can set up postmaster tools for those domains. If you’re using a domain managed by the ESP, or a subdomain where the ESP manages the DNS, you may need your ESP to publish the correct key in DNS to authenticate the domain to Google.

If you, and you alone, are using a custom return path and/or d= value (even if it’s you.espdomain.example) then ask your ESP to authenticate the domain or grant you access. It’s not a big deal, just tell them what email address you’re using and have them authorize it.

If you’re using a shared return path and/or d= value you likely can’t have access for privacy reasons. No ESP wants customers to see other customers’ data.

ESPs should not prevent access even in the case where they control the domain if they are assigning subdomains per customer. Every customer with dedicated domains, even if those domains are owned or managed by the

I actually have access to GPT for many of my clients – I just add the domain to my dashboard and tell them to authorize access for my gmail address. Even better, when the contract is over they can remove my authorization and their new data is still private.

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Dodgy PDF handling at Gmail

We sent out some W-9s this week. For non-Americans and those lucky enough not to have to deal with IRS paperwork those are tax forms.
They’re simple single page forms with the company name, address and tax ID numbers on them. Because this is the 21st Century we don’t fill them in with typewriters and snail mail them out, we fill in a form online at the IRS website which gives us PDFs to download that we then send out via email.

We started to get replies from people we’d sent them to that we hadn’t included the tax ID number. Which was odd, because it was definitely there in the PDFs we’d sent.
The reports of missing numbers came from Google Apps users, so we sent a copy to one of our Gmail addresses to see. Sure enough, when you click on the attachment it’s mostly there, but some of the digits of the tax ID number are missing.

And all the spaces have been stripped from our address.

The rest of the form looked fine, but the information we’d entered was scrambled. Downloading the PDF from Gmail and displaying it – everything is there, and in the right place.
Weird. After a brief “Are gmail hiding things that look like social security numbers?” detour I realized that the IRS website was probably generating the customized forms using PDF annotations.
PDF is a very powerful, but very complex, file format. It’s not just an image, it’s a combination of different elements – images, lines, vector artwork, text, interactive forms, all sorts of things – bundled together into a single file. And you can add elements to an existing PDF file to, for example, overlay text on to it. These “annotations” are a common way to fill in a PDF form, by adding text in the right place over the top of an existing template PDF.
I cracked the PDF open with some forensics tools and sure enough, the IRS had generated the PDF form using annotations.
 

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Tell us about how you use Gmail Postmaster Tools

One of the things I hear frequently is that folks really want access to Google Postmaster Tools through an API. I’ve also heard some suggestions that we should start a petition. I thought a better idea was to put together a survey showing how people are using GPT and how high the demand is for an API.
They’re a data company, let’s give them data.

I’ve put together a survey looking at how people are using GPT. It’s 4 pages and average time to take the survey is around 7 minutes. Please give us your feedback on GPT usage.
I’m planning on leaving the survey open through the first week in November. Then I’ll pull data together and share here and with Google.

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Google Postmaster Tools: Last Chance!

I’ll be closing down the Google Postmaster Tools survey Oct 31. If you’ve not had a chance to answer the questions yet, you have through tomorrow.
This data will be shared here. The ulterior motive is to convince Google to make an API available soon due to popular demand.

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