Following the expansion of Google’s “Workspace” branding to encompass personal Gmail accounts, I’ve been thinking about the subject of email. Specifically, Gmail’s almost total dominance in the personal email provider market. These days it’s even a little weird to see someone with a personal Yahoo or iCloud address; Gmail is so prevalent. While I know our readers are likely to slant to the Googly-end of most product spectrums, I’m curious to know how many of our readers use other email services and which.
I remember switching from an unfortunately named Hotmail account to Gmail during the invite-only beta days when I was a mere 14 years old, and I’ve stuck with it ever since. As a gateway and single sign-on method for all my other Google apps and services (not to mention Android itself), Google’s almost total ecosystem dominance can make using platforms with mediocre service integration like the iPhone pretty difficult. And somehow, Gmail accomplishes that without the sort of walled-garden approach Apple enforces to dictate its customers’ freedoms and lock them in. It’s pervasive but without arbitrary restrictions meant to trap you, ubiquitous simply because it’s almost indispensably good.
Still, competition is a healthy thing, and much as some of us lament Chrome’s similar great-but-dominant effect on the browser market, Gmail’s effect on personal email services could be having negative consequences. It’s the sort of thing I really wish I could switch away from, but I know my life — and, more terrifyingly, my productivity — would be worse off without it.
So are you similarly tethered to Gmail or Google Workspace, or have you stuck it out with something else? Though many of us may have more than one email account, for the purposes of this poll, consider your primary personal account.
