On my resume I use my First.Last@gmail instead of my company e-mail address. The reason for this is quite simple, I’m afraid that a company will see that I’m a freelance designer and automatically assume that I’m looking for work while business is slow and as soon as business picks up I will quit. Obviously if I’m applying to work at Pizza Hut this really isn’t a big consideration of theirs, but for a professional company without as high of a turnover rate I feel like this distinction could potentially be important. I’m sure that most companies wouldn’t consider this, but for the one that does I’d rather err on the side of caution.

Also, personally I agree that Gmail is much more professional than the others. It is an e-mail service designed for professionals, it tightly integrates into calendar and docs, and as soon as wave is out of beta it will also integrate with that as well. It isn’t the same as hotmail or yahoo by any stretch of the imagination, the only thing it shares is the cost, and if it didn’t nobody would use it.

I also use GMail to handle all of my e-mail tasks, it is far superior to Horde or Squirrel. Everything from Eric@domain.com gets tagged to that address, Support@domain.com another, etc. I can also send mail from GMail using any of those addresses, so it works out perfectly for me. The only complaint I have is that I can’t link both of my GMail accounts (I have a regular one that I’ve had for a long time using a nickname from when I was in school and my First.Last), but since I do a lot of web-design anyways and am constantly doing compatibility testing I use Chrome (my primary personal use browser) for all of the business e-mails, and FireFox for my personal e-mail, and then can stay logged into both at all times.

Personally, I think just as poorly of gmail as I do of any of those others. Sure, it doesn’t sound as silly as HOTmail or yahoo but what goes through my head regardless is the simple fact that they didn’t think enough of their business (which they are invested F/T to) to bother paying for a unique address. I think gmail gets a better image for now simply because it hasn’t been around as long. Give it some time though, it’s rapidly becoming the next hotmail as it deserves.

Funny thing, I do a LOT of going out of business ads and almost every company that sends me a logo does so via their gmail address.

Since then I’ve been considering their business service, google apps, which offer 24/7 support for $50US a year. I’m still looking for other options but this incident was a wake up call.

I have a few email addresses and need only check my main email to receive them. When responding to clients I do go to webmail of that domain, but add a bookmark or set your mail client to that account and you are one click away. Pretty easy.

@ Henrik – …Sugar… *bursts out laughing!*

@ George/Jonathan – Personally, I never did really understand how Google Apps works in regards to server emails. I use it. But then the other day I plotted out how my emails travel through my little network web of email hosts and forwards… It was… kind of scary to see email bounce around 10 times before actually getting to the inbox I read.

As for me, in 2001, my family bought the domain lissner.net – so my email address is essentially my full name great stuff.

Very simple and it looks very professional and keeps all my email in one place.

George
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(P.S., If you want to use Gmail, but keep your address at your own domain, you can use Google Apps for your domain. This lets you use Gmail’s servers/interface to manage your own domain’s email addresses, while saving you the hassle of maintaining yet another email address.)