We’re going to create a small Chrome extension that uses InboxSDK and Pipl to let you search email addresses for user information right in our Gmai...
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This sounds like an interesting concept. I've personally never heard of Pipl until now. But now that I know of it, I'm already concerned of it. I looked up one of my main email addresses, and their system matched it to someone else with a similar name, and then pulled in all of that person's other resources... So it has me "profiled" as someone several years younger, living on the opposite side of the country. I can already see the inaccuracies in their database leading to confusion and possibly worse.
I absolutely agree with you. I was looking for Apis that I use for this example and Pipl worked really well, but it does make you question your privacy and the security of the information you put online. After using it I've come to understand that nothing we put online is private, and that is a bit scary.
Well, for me, it wasn't a privacy concern. It wasn't even my information, and THAT is my concern. Their automated process linked MY email address to SOMEONE ELSE'S information. That means if I sent someone an email, and that used your tool, my reputation is at the stake of some random stranger on the other side of the country. It is linking to their Facebook profile (only because their name is similar, NOT because of an email address or any other kind of match), so anything that person says or does, a potential employer or contractor could see that and easily just assume it was me... THAT is very scary.
Was that person the only result it returned or did it also return yours? I think the services tries to match multiple possible people given the information you provide.
If it only returned a completely different person and not you when the email you gave is used for social media, then they must have a serious flaw in their back-end logic.
I wasn't listed at all. That's the scary part. It listed my business name along with this other person's personal details. If I search for other email addresses I've used in the past, it finds me, but my primary email address from the past 10 years or so displays this entirely different person.
Additionally, the email address in question is @ my own domain name, so there should be absolutely zero confusion, because I'm the only person in the entire world with an email address with this domain.
Wow that's really weird. I'm curious to know what kind of algorithm they use to match people with their emails, and what caused this kind of confusion. It must have been a little frightening to see someone else come up when you search me@mydomain.com though lol.
The other person has a similar real name, that's it. But anyone building a site like that SHOULD know how common duplicate names are though! hahahahahaaa
This should be called "Building a Gmail/browser extension…", because you can actually do it in nearly the same way in Firefox e.g. (or Edge/others if they support browser/WebExtensions)…
That's a good point! InboxSDK makes it simple to work with Gmail on any browser and isn't specific to Chrome.
This is so cool @Mikias
Can a similar implementation be done with Angular?
Hey Shyamal, yeah you definitely can! If I have time to create an example I will let you know.
Thanks a lot Mikias, looking forward to the post!
Any examples on how to implement OAuth flow for Gmail API within inboxSDK?