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If you’ve ever wanted to peek behind the curtain of email to see exactly who the person is behind the account, Rapportive is the tech tool for you!
Rapportive gives you information about people based on their email addresses. This free service automagically gives you the inside scoop on someone and allows you to find out information about them and connect with their social media accounts from within your email. Rapportive was acquired earlier this year by LinkedIn.
What Rapportive Does
Rapportive shows up as a sidebar when you open an email or compose a message. You will see a profile picture and the contact information below it. From this side bar you can click on links to connect with a person on social media. You can also use Rapportive to share information about yourself with others.
Getting the Scoop on Others
One of the most valuable features of Rapportive is that it provides lots of important information about a person from their email account.You can see someone’s profile picture, place of employment, job title, location and social media accounts. You can also see their recent emails to you, Tweets and Facebook posts.
Rapportive allows you to connect with others from within your email which can be very handy to establish an instant connection. You can also make private notes about a person to help you remember details, upcoming dates or other information.
Sharing Your Information with Others
If you want to be found and connect on the Internet, or control the information you share, sign up for a Rapportive account. You can link your social media accounts from dozens of sites with Rapportive to make it easier for others to connect with you. For example, you can add your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, and other accounts to provide others with easy links to your profiles. Rapportive lists over 200 sites for you to connect, though if you’re on more than 200 social media sites, you probably don’t have time for Rapportive!
What You Need to Know
You Need to Have a Gmail Account or a Gmail App to Use Rapportive
You need to have a Gmail account to use Rapportive or use Google Apps on your business email account.
If you don’t have a Gmail account, you can sign up for one for free. You may want to get a Gmail account that you use just to check out other people, should you have a need for the kind of intelligence that Rapportive provides.
Your Subject Doesn’t Need to Use Gmail
Although you need to use Gmail or Google Apps to use Rapportive, your contacts don’t have to for you to discover information about them. They also don’t need to be in your Gmail contacts for you to get Rapportive information about them. Rapportive gives you information about almost everyone.
Rapportive Doesn’t Work with Everyone
Rapportive works frequently but not every time. The service is great, but it isn’t perfect. You won’t get the inside scoop on absolutely everybody, but this is still a valuable tool. I have been using Rapportive for months and find out information on most people who email me. In fact, I find Rapportive rarely is clueless on my contacts.
Getting Started with Rapportive
You can add Rapportive to your Gmail account by visiting the Rapportive website. Rapportive works on Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.
After you have added Rapportive, you will want to edit your profile. You can do this two ways. You can:
- click on the Rapportive link at the top of your Gmail home page or
- you can open an email message, go to the bottom of the Rapportive sidebar and click on My Profile.
You will be able to link your social media accounts and check your personal information. You want to be sure what others are seeing on Rapportive is the accurate information about you!
After you have set your profile, send yourself an email to check that the information being shown is accurate. If it isn’t, contact Rapportive to let them know.
Bottom Line
Get the inside scoop on people with Rapportive. The Internet can be an impersonal place but Rapportive can help you learn more about others and connect with them easily!
Have you used Rapportive? Have you checked out what information Rapportive is sharing about you? Let us know in the Comments section below!
This surely seems interesting Carolyn!
In short, you can have everything visible at one go in your email! 🙂
I did just glance through the main site of Rapportive and saw that even Twitter conversations etc become visible, so does that hold good for Facebook or Pininterest conversations too?
I liked the idea of getting to know more about your contacts, though if you have Rapportive will they know that you have installed this tool and can see their details? And I think if we are able to just add a few social networks it’s good enough, as you rightly mentioned – who has the time to add more. 🙂
I need to head over and give the site a good look. Thanks so much for sharing yet another tech tool with all of us. 🙂
Hi Harleena, Great question! No, the people you are seeing have no idea that you are viewing their information. I find Rapportive to be particularly helpful with a new contact to learn more about them. For example, sometimes you can’t tell from the name if a person is male or female, but Rapportive shows you a profile picture which can be very handy. I have also used Rapportive to link to people on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
I don’t link all my social media sites. For example, I don’t include Get Glue because I don’t necessarily think it’s important for my business contacts to learn what my favorite movies and TV shows are. But it’s very helpful to have the basics of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ connected to Rapportive.
I hope you enjoy using Rapportive, Harleena!
I shall confuse it with all different email accounts! I have one account for mostly business and I had a spam email on that account today in French. I think that is a LinkedIn connection that has used my email address for something. It will be interesting to use and confuse though!
My Neodigital blogs are scheduled for tomorrow. I think you will find those interesting. I took 300 photos about have over 200 usable ones. I did a blog using the ones from Merrion’s Wood, they are really good. The light shone through the trees just right. I also did Morecroft Wood, a lock keepers cottage and even photographed wild flowers taking advantage of the break in the rain. I have lots of photos for next week too!
Hi Mike, I can understand why the last thing you want is another email account. And if you don’t deal with strangers via email, perhaps you don’t need Rapportive. But this tech tool has been incredibly useful for me!
I look forward to your Neodigital Art lesson tomorrow!
Great Article Indeed, Carolyn
Well Rapportive seems just tailor fit app for social media connections. This details could play good role in transparency and getting to know about the person we are dealing with
Hi Ronald, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, you’re right, Rapportive is a great tool for making social media connections. But even if you don’t use it for that, Rapportive still provides lots of valuable information that helps you get to know a person better. It seems to make the Internet a friendlier place! 🙂
Well allrighty then, I better check this out I suppose. I think I will hook it to my personal e-mail instead of work however.
If you have been using it and recommend it then sounds good to me. Of course, you are smart like that though…….
Hi Bill, Yes, I have connected with some people and have found out valuable information about others through Rapportive.
If you use your home email address to connect to social media accounts, then that would be the best one to use to get started with Rapportive. You can link other email accounts later if you want.
Hi Carolyn,
I love this service actually, Ilka Flood introduced me to this program. I like it because I can see who is emailing me as well as all the other information you shared here with us. I think it’s a neat program but I wish you could use it on all email accounts and not just Google. Oh well, I’m sure that will come in time.
Thanks Carolyn and hope you’re still having a great time.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, I’m so glad you are already using Rapportive. It’s great to hear that you love this service just as much as I do!
I don’t know if it will be available for other email providers. Google offers an open platform for developers to build these sorts of apps. I’m not aware of any other email provider that offers such an open platform, but perhaps they will in the future!
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experiences with us, Adrienne!
Interesting – I haven’t heard of Rapportive before. How is it different than simply Google searching someone? Can’t I just use Google to find out the same information?
Hi Carol, Great question! Yes, you could do a Google search on someone, but if they have a common name, you may not connect the person with the correct search results. Plus that adds an extra step to your life.
I was searching for information on someone I was going to interview for an article but wasn’t having much luck getting any information on him. He emailed me and then all the information about him popped up, including a profile picture!
I think you’ll find Rapportive very useful, Carol! Thanks for visiting and asking your awesome question. 🙂
I have been using Rapportive for quite some time now and find it quite a useful source of “intelligence”. Most people are surprised when I show them what shows up via their email.
I also like how the company solicited suggestions from its users when planning an upgrade; so many don’t!
Rapportive was recently bought by LinkedIn but I haven’t noticed any changes with either platform as a result.
Hi Karen, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I agree, I haven’t noticed any changes to the service since LinkedIn bought Rapportive, except they now connect to even more social networks.
It’s really great to hear from another Rapportive fan. I’ve never shown people how they look on Rapportive, but I think people would be very surprised to see themselves! Great idea!
Thanks so much for visiting and sharing your awesome comment with us, Karen. 🙂
Hey Carolyn,
Again you have provided a great post.
But my question is if somebody don’t want to that his information is visible to others then what are the measures we can take(if any).Most of the bloggers don’t want to share information i guess.
Hi Aditya, Great question. Rapportive compiles information that’s publicly available on the Internet and then shares it. For example, if you have a profile picture on your Twitter account that’s linked to your email, Rapportive may show that picture.
Some people don’t have profile pictures uploaded to the Internet or might not have any social media accounts. Those are most likely the ones whose profiles Rapportive can’t find.
If you don’t want Rapportive to show your information, use an email address that isn’t linked to other social media accounts or a Gravatar account and doesn’t have a profile picture.
Thanks for the advice Carolyn.You have given me the answer which i am seeking for. 🙂
Now i will give my alternate e-mail id for rapportive.
Hi Carolyn,
This is very good for identifying the real person behind the email. I would say very helpful to protect ourselves from fraud. If we are using emails for business, its better to use this tool at the earliest. Thanks for telling us about it 🙂
Hi Ashvini, You’re right, if you receive an email from a stranger and the profile picture or other information doesn’t match the sender, you should proceed with extreme caution.
Rapportive can also clue you in that the stranger is someone you want to connect with as you can easily check out their Twitter, LinkedIn and other accounts.
I hope you find Rapportive helpful, Ashvini! 🙂
Carolyn – This sounds pretty interesting…but the sentence “The service is great, but it isn’t perfect. ” coming from you is a huge turn-off for me 🙂
Let me check it out anyways and see how easy it is to pry into other’s information using this tool. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Praveen, Good point, perhaps I was just stating the obvious there. Is any tech perfect? I haven’t found it yet!
What I meant was that Rapportive doesn’t give me information on absolutely everyone who contacts me via email. The service is so handy that I get spoiled. When I don’t have Rapportive information, I really miss it!
Definitely give it a try. I think you’ll really appreciate having easy access to the information!
I use Rapportive, very useful and it removes Google vertical ads 🙂
Another great GMail addon is Brandmymail ( http://www.brandmymail.com ), it allows very great signatures and templates
Hi Kenny, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Great point about ads being blocked by Rapportive. That’s a great benefit of the service.
I hadn’t heard of Brand My Mail before. I just checked it out and it looks very interesting. I will give it a try and perhaps do a future article on it. Thanks so much for bringing it to my attention! 🙂
At face value, it smacks a bit of Big Brother. But I can understand from your post how it might be helpful to have all of that information consolidated in one handy place. Often I find myself surfing all over to populate my address book with my contact’s information, so this would make that job much easier. I’ll have to check it out. As always, helpful Carolyn!
Hi Ruth, I agree that the entire Internet could be considered Big Brother. It’s creepy how much information you can find out about someone if you really dig. But Rapportive just collects information that’s readily available and provides it to you so you don’t have to hunt for it.
I hope you find Rapportive useful, Ruth!
This is a very interesting have to have on my gmail account. It will really give a lot of help, especially if we are doing a lot of business communication through that certain account.
Hi Carolyn, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, it is very interesting to have Rapportive on your Gmail account. I hope you find it to be very useful!
The ideas you’ve shared here are fantastic and no doubt so great and it may really improve the variety of individuals visiting your website.
Its an amazingly useful tool. It helps me to connect with the right kind of people instantly. In an age of hyper-communicated world, Rapportive brings method to madness!
LinkedIn has a winner in its portfolio when they acquired Rapportive!
Hi iRewardChart, Yes, Rapportive is amazingly useful. I find it to be very helpful in giving me information about others and putting faces with names. You’re right, this is an information age and Rapportive is a useful tool in providing that information. :-bd
Hi Carolyn,
I haven’t been using Rapportive, but since I’m using Sparrow (the email client for Mac), I have connected it to Facebook and I get images and some information about the people who are sending me emails (most people are using Facebook).
The only thing I’ve been looking at are the profile pictures, and that’s mostly because the email seems so much more personal when there’s actually a face next to the message 🙂
Rapportive looks awesome, and I understand how powerful it can be for people in business.
Hi Jens, Rapportive is also available in Mailplane for Mac. I haven’t use Sparrow on the Mac, but I have used it on my iPhone and I do like having the Facebook images on my email, though I don’t like how Sparrow doesn’t rotate 90 degrees like the native mail client does.
You’re right, mail does seem more personal when there is a picture showing as you read the mail. I find Rapportive to be very awesome and you’re right, it could be especially powerful for people in business.
Hi Carolyn
I don’t use Gmail much, but it does look like a need little extension that makes it easier to connect with other people. Always nice with a good plugin to make everyday tasks easier 🙂
Hi Thomas, Yes, Rapportive is a very handy extension. I get very spoiled in using it because I am then much more familiar with the person who is emailing me. Rapportive is one of the reasons that I do use Gmail.