Quite often, you will come across freebies on the Internet such as free music or free eBooks, but as the saying goes, "you don't get something for nothing." In return for that free MP3 or eBook, the site owner will want your email address, which they will then use to flood your email inbox with never-ending spam about Viagra . TrashMail is a Firefox add-on and Chrome extension which aims to instantly stop all this nonsense with a simple right-click of the mouse.

The address you want to use as your throwaway address can even be customized to suit your needs. So if you suddenly feel suspicious of PCWorld, you can sign up for one of our newsletters using a TrashMail address such as pcworld_trash@TrashMail.net (assuming nobody else is currently using that alias). This makes it easier to manage your Address Manager, which sits in the bottom right of your Firefox browser and in the top right of your Chrome browser. You can see at a glance which email addresses are currently active and when they expire. You can edit or delete addresses at any time.

The only downside to the TrashMail service (and it’s such a minor thing that I debated even mentioning it) is that some features, such as unlimited forwarding and longer expiry dates, are available only if you upgrade to the Plus version for $13 a year. It's not expensive if you value the service and value your privacy, but some people who don't believe in paying for anything on the Internet might be a little ticked off at having to hand over money.

On the whole, TrashMail is a browser extension you must install and use on a regular basis if you are serious about combating the spam in your email inbox. With most of the features free to use, there simply is no reason to ignore this one.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software for your Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox browser.

--Mark O'Neill