ISPs are telling their customers to use gmail/hotmail instead of their POP and IMAP servers; last year Macquarie University told its students to use gmail instead of the hassle, cost and overhead of running a local email server. Geeks are Sexy asks; Could Gmail become a corporate solution?
I used a gmail account for my consultancy last year. I was going to use an account specific to my business name's URL, but really, I couldn't be bothered with the hassle, the overhead, the concern about spam, etc. Plus my gmail account is my name not some fanciful nick like Level70Paladin@gmail.com, it is the much more dull and boring cam.riley at gmail.
Running email servers are a horrendous pain. The only real reason corporate users will keep it inhouse is to control the flow of information, but spam reduction is already outsourced on a per person cost basis. For smaller businesses who have less to protect, and less money or energy to spend on their own solutions, out-souring to a competent freeware system like gmail makes sense.
* For the record, I don't play online games like World of Warcraft and their clones. But even if I did my gmail account would be the same.
