This is one of the reasons why I don’t use GMAIL – Google Accidentally Bans Hundreds of Users from Gmail. Barry Schwartz reports on a Google Groups thread where many users have complained that their Gmail accounts were all of a sudden disabled. The problem began late on December 5th. The following day, Gmail Guide replied saying that this was an error on Google’s side and they are fixing it.
This is not the first time I have heard of problems with GMail. Reminds me of the days when many people (not me) used AOL and would have problems not getting mail or losing mail altogether. Now I have been tempted to get a GMail account in order to utilize the storage space – currently 2.5 Gigabytes if I understand correctly. However, I would never use it for business for the following reasons.
1. Google glitches just like the one mentioned above whether that involve not being able to access email or even worse, having email/data lost.
2. Not very professional. let’s face facts – YourName@gmail.com is not very professional looking. It also does nothing to promote your own domain such as Yourname@YourDomain.com does.
3. Using GMail for business allows Google to gather even more information on you than they already have. How do you think they deliver relevant ads? They scan your emails, that’s how! Big Brother is watching.
I know some like the convenience of having web access to email. However, one does not need a third party email service provider to gain web access to email. For example, our hosting provider allows web based access to email through a Horde application.
Another reason why people might like GMail and other third party providers is that they can establish “throw-away” addresses. You can do the same thing with your own domain. We have dozens of addresses that we use for all sorts of various services such as Digg, YouTube, Best of the Web Directory and the list goes on. It is as easy as creating a forwarding address which then forwards to your real address.
While I may experience an occasional mail server crash (1 in the last 5 years), I will never have to worry about GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail of any other third party email service provider spoiling my day because I am simply not going to use them.
I agree with you, but Google Apps lets you use your own domain. Also, I use Horde and it really is a joke compared to Horde’s interface, a joke. In fact, I am thinking of moving my domain to Google Apps and using it through IMAP as well as use Gmail if I ever need it.
I checked my gmail account and have 5.6 gigs available. 2.5 just doesn’t begin to cover it any more. 😉
I take many precautions not to appear in any search results. When I googled my name I was horrified to see that Yahoo had placed a private email that contained my actual mailing address into the search results! The eventually took care of the problem but never apologized… That was scary!
I applied for a gmail account because Hanif Khaki suggested it in one of his articles.
I didn’t realise you could use your own domain though, it’s much better than squirrelmail! (Horde isn’t set up on my server)
Free email services are great for personal use, but not very good for business purposes.
James Brausch has suggested some alternatives to these email accounts.
The ability to send, receive and reply to mail sent to my domain mail account is the only reason I considered using Gmail. Over the summer, while planning a vacation, I started using the Gmail account to access my email accounts in one location and I have never stopped using it.
No problems so far.
Personally, I am a little hesitant about replying to someone who is using a gmail (or other web based e-mail account) particularly when the discussion is business related. It gives me the impression that it is some kind of scam.