What about those of us who personalize every email address for the specific use?

I like to know who is selling my email address, and then stop using their services immediately. (A certain discounted shoe store chain, for example.)

We're the group of early thirties with enough IT knowledge and plenty of distaste for all forms of telemarketing to continue keeping up with the approach for years to come.

Hey you missed a LARGE portion of those that have their own domain name. Geez.

Steve T is right. If you're seriously worried about what your domain name says about you then get your own domain and POP it with Yahoo.

For the record, the Yahoo UX / UI is sexier than Gmail's. Yahoo also have unlimited storage.

The media has been so sucked into the Goggle PR machine that even the superior services continue to be overlooked. Google understands that even when they fail at something and it's reported on that that's sucking up "bandwidth" that could be used to promote other's success. Google is like Wall Street.

A cute concept but I think there is a bit more substance behind a person's e-mail address. Many people have more than one address. Also, like phone numbers, people will normally maintain their identity once established. I would also say that there are more substantive topics to spend time researching and discussing. For an example, please check out www.ciorant.com

http://theprivatemarket.com -Paul

It should be mentioned that Gmail functionality is legendary and part of the "personality" of that address includes sophisticated computer users. Especially the ability to easily incorporate one or more more professional url email addresses for work in addition to a personal email address. Link to an article about this concept for real estate agents and professionals here:

http://theprivatemarket.com/?p=55

Step back from your computers and have a sense of humor, gentlemen!

Still use my yahoo account, and I am an IT analyst. So what about the typical user described in article?

Registered on '98 and still use it, as all of my friends has this as communication. It is like changing someone's cell number... who does it?

@hotmail

Citizen of a third world country, still waiting for the gmail bug to hit.

For personal email, gmail is great. It has better search capabilities than anything else and the capability to follow even branching conversations helps me keep track of email chains. And I don't have to worry about getting blacklisted like hotmail accounts. Couple that with an outstanding spam filter and unlimited storage (who's really going to use 7+ GB of email?). I don't mind Yahoo, it was just a little late to the party.