Joining a Google Group via the Web, using a non-Google Subscription Address

maintained by Rick Moen

Last changed: 2018-10-29

The Linuxmafia.com Knowledgebase entry covering how to join a Google Group without being pushed into using a Google Account used to point to http://www.kunaldua.com/blog/2009/01/join-google-groups-without-google-id/ (last updated 2010), which page recommended using the URL formula

http://groups.google.com/group/<groupname>/boxsubscribe?email=emailid

As of 2018, that method apparently still works, but does a forced redirect to

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/<groupname>/join

That, in turn, underlines nicely the point that Google occasionally makes existing methods to join Google Groups without using a Google Account mysteriously cease to work, e.g., at some point the redirect will be removed. If you search the Web for instructions about how, you find mostly methods that formerly worked but don't any more.

Anyway, as of 2018, the second URL pattern is current.

However, some further information is necessary: Google's Web pages check your Web browser's stored HTTP cookies (maybe other persistent browser-side tracking data; not sure). If the data thus gleaned find a known Google Account associated with your browser, or if when you enter an e-mail address Google finds that a known Google Account is associated with that e-mail address, then the WebUI will push you towards using the found Google Account for your subscription, not just your e-mail address as you requested.

If like me you're not big on helping Auntie Google track the user around the Internet any more than it already does, the moment you see that sort of pushing-a-Google-Account in the returned Web page (when you merely tried to join a Google Group with your own non-Google, non-Gmail e-mail address), you should Cancel, close the Web tab, and open a (new) Private Browsing tab to do the subscription, instead.

FYI, a sister Linuxmafia.com Knowledgebase entry (likewise linked off http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Mail/) covers how to join a Google Group entirely via e-mail (not using a Web browser). The cited e-mail-only method has a long record of continuing to work the same way.