If you have a Web site or blog, and who doesn't these days, it's natural for you to want people to be able to contact you online. But, there are concerns when it comes to posting your e-mail address, not the least of which is spam. There are all kinds of bots out there with the sole purpose of harvesting posted e-mail addresses.

iStockPhoto/Yong Hian Lim

Even if you don't have a site or blog, chances are you do have an e-mail address that you hand out fairly regularly. That, too, can be just begging for spam.

But, giving out your e-mail address -- one way or another -- is the only way to let people contact you, right?

Wrong.

Many hosting services provide a form tool that doesn't require you to actually post your e-mail address. What it does require, though, is at least some limited programming, and sometimes more than that. And those forms can still be spammed by bots. (People create bots for all kinds of nefarious reasons.)

So, there has to be another way to invite people to e-mail you, right? An easier way?

There is. Contactify.com.

Created by Ankur Shah, a London-based programmer, Contactify's tag line is "It's e-mail. Without the address."

That really says it all.

Contactify is free and very easy to set up. You type in your e-mail address. You type in a password. You verify that password. You click the "Create Link" button.

From there, just enter the security code and agree to the terms of service, and you're good to go.

Contactify spits out a custom link for you to put anywhere on your Web site or blog. It's not an e-mail address. It's a link to an online form. Mine is www.contactify.com/582b0. Go ahead and try it!

The very first e-mail you'll get is a message containing your personal Contactify link number, as well as the link you'll need to click activate your free account.

You can use your custom Contactify link anywhere you want to give people the opportunity to e-mail you.

The form folks fill out to send you a note is simple and straightforward.

Contactify.com

The Contactify e-mail form

There are fields for name, e-mail address, a subject line and, of course, a message.

Then, there's one more field, one that's essential to your privacy, which Contactify promises to safeguard.

Contactify's e-mail forms -- you can make as many links as you want -- protect you not only by hiding your e-mail address, but also by requiring senders to enter a security code. Seeing and entering that code requires a human, and that means bots can't spam your form.

The messages people send you will have a from address of message@contactify.com. You'll want to add it to your address book so the relayed messages don't wind up in your spam folder.

It's a very basic need that inspired Contactify.

"We've all experienced spam, junk mail and unwanted e-mail," Shah said.

True.

"With the growth of the Internet, and in particular, forums and social networks, we all rapidly want to be contactable, but there seems to be no sensible way to control or filter those who contact you, or to guard your privacy."

Also true. And that's exactly why Shah created Contactify.

"If one of your links starts to receive unwanted e-mail, then you can very easily modify or delete your link," Shah said. "[It] gives you complete control over the way people contact you, and is much simpler and easier than changing your e-mail address."

One thing you can't do with your Contactify link is use it in the e-mail field of somebody else's form, like a registration or when you're shopping online. That's because it's not an actual e-mail address -- name@domain.com. It's a Web address. Contactify is not meant to replace your e-mail address, just hide it from the public, including bots, harvesters and nefarious spammers. (There are services that offer temporary e-mail addresses, but that's a column for another time.)

Overall, Contactify a great little service, and there's all kinds of room for it to grow.

While you can change the name displayed on your form from your Contactify link number to anything you like -- your name, for example -- that's about all the customization that's available right now.

Some things I would like to see include personalized links, so mine could be www.contactify.com/catherineholland rather than www.contactify.com/582b0. The former rolls off the tongue a little easier if I wanted to tell people about my link instead of giving them my e-mail address, something I do several times a day. (You should see my spam box.)

I'd also like to see a form that can be integrated seamlessly into any site. Right now Contactify is clearly a link off your site. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, it would be great if your Contactify form could match the look and feel of your site.

Shah said both of these features are things he'd like to add in the not-too-distant future, perhaps as part of a premium version.

Right now Contactify is free, always a good thing, and Shah said he intends for the basic service to stay that way.

"It is hoped that by offering alternative paid services, the basic service can be kept free," he said. "The majority of users will probably find the basic service more than sufficient for their needs, and if not then they will be able to upgrade to any of the paid services. But again, our focus is on providing a solid basic service and then adding features as we develop them, as they are demanded and as they become useful."

Sounds pretty solid to me.

Shah, who would only describe his background as "varied," is planning to launch some other Web-based projects in the future, but he said it's an exciting time for Contactify. The service launched in early April, and drew a lot of attention from bloggers right off the bat.

"We regularly get e-mails from people requesting features," he said. "It is very satisfying to see people involved with the service."

And, it should be interesting to see how it evolves.