What's your primary e-mail service?
 

The comments to my latest blog post got me thinking: what's your primary e-mail?

I use GMail for all my e-mail, though I suppose that might change if I ever worked somewhere that preferred I use their e-mail system. Even then, I could (and would) link GMail to that account and access it through my GMail inbox.

I have backup e-mail addresses, like my old university e-mail (which gets nothing but spam at this point, but sometimes a university e-mail address comes in handy), hotmail, and yahoo... but I pretty much never use any of them.

This question is also interesting to me because a clear majority of people I know also use GMail as their primary e-mail address. Probably at least 75% of them. So many that when I find out someone's e-mail address is not GMail, I'm taken aback. Particularly if their e-mail address isn't a work e-mail, but some other free service like hotmail or yahoo, or, even worse, e-mail provided by their ISP. It's just an entirely foreign concept to me and my network of friends and co-workers.

Hotmail and Yahoo are decent competitors in the free e-mail market, and GMail is certainly not perfect, but the UI, the label system (as opposed to folders), and the integration with other Google products are just three reasons why I prefer GMail. I've got suggestions to make all three of those things better in GMail, but for me they are still superior to the alternatives.

So how about you? What do you use as your primary e-mail and why?
Bonus questions: Do you have backup e-mail addresses? If so, what services are they on and how often do you use them, if ever?

I use GMail for everything except school/work related, which I use a school assigned address. I use Thunderbird on my computer for all of my email addresses anyway, so I don't really have a preference as far as the browser based services go, I just use GMail because I've had it forever and everyone else uses it. I used to have backup yahoo and msn addresses for stuff I know would end up adding to the spam pile or whatever, but I never use them any more.

I sign up for them all, just recently, in order to create new aliases everywhere, and I'm not sure why I'm doing so.

Primarily, I am using Yahoo! for quirks and friends, and Gmail for signing up to site subscriptions and acquaintances.

I found out about GMX - Free E-Mail - Webmail & POP3, IMAP, and although I have signed up for it, I still have yet to integrate it fully. I think it is some sort of e-mail address book, and it could help verily much if I wasn't so lazy to test it out.

I forward everything (including my school email and another Gmail account) to a Gmail account. I love their labels for keeping track of things, and their archive/search feature makes finding everything I need really easy. In my current job, I'm responsible for scheduling workers. All of my workers email me their availability. Gmail allows me to have an accessible copy of my workers' availability close at hand versus juggling pieces of paper with everyone's dates written on them. Much simpler.

I use yahoo for everything else but gmail has me realname and I use it only for bills, and job applications.

Whoa, I didn't realize GMail let you link to other GMail accounts now. Awesome!

Yep, and I love that I can send email as if I'm sending it from any of those accounts. :)

I not only use my gmail account as my primary, but I also have AOL/Hotmail/Yahoo, so that I can IM from all those services.

But... I do like snowy and have a few gmail accounts that are all forwarded to another main gmail account. Here's one of the best things, I let gmail host mail for my own domains. It works really well.

ive had my hotmail account for about 10 years now. it does the simple job of delivering my personal emails to my inbox everyday, and thats all i ask for. i dont need a powerful tool because i have no need for it.

my work email i use when im at work. i use both simultaneously, but people change jobs all the time, so my work one can never become my primary email address.

I use several, but gmail is my primary.

I primarily use Gmail. I have a throwaway 12 year old yahoo address that I use to signup for stupid things. Sometimes I'll get an email from an old friend or have to use the account to recover a password.

When I see someone with a hotmail account I just scratch my head in disbelief. Gmail makes it so much easier and it integrates into everything else google has to offer. I couldn't imagine having to switch back to using yahoo as my primary.

^^ HA! What about aol? More and more people use aol now. WTF?!

Gmail. Count 'em 3. I have a main account where I get most everything, one for job-related stuff and one for backup and spammy stuff. Why? Web-based, can access from anywhere, storage.

I have old AOL, yahoo and hotmail accounts that I only use for the rare times I logon to AIM or MSN chat. My current workplace does not see the need to supply email access to employees of my caliber, so I've no work email at the moment.

I've used gmail pretty much since they came about, I have several accounts for various things and forward them all to my main account so I dont have to check them all separately.

Cyn, you do know that you can sign into your aol/aim name thru gmail and chat there right?

I use gmail, though on our home desktop I use outlook. I don't have it set up on my laptop yet.

I have a school account.
I used to have a yahoo account but it shut down when I didn't use it for 4 months.

Gmail since it beta'ed. I remember that they were giving 500 accounts per day, and they would invite you (through e-mail, haha) to be put on the wait list...

I held my breath, and turned a little blue. I remember that it took a couple weeks. They were offering something ridiculous like 700MB of e-mail space, and the tag line was "Don't ever have to erase e-mails again".

Of course, I thought "How in the fuck will this come out of beta and Google offering 700MB of space for free? To Everyone?"

Looking back in my inbox (holy shit), I see old presentations and projects I worked on and e-mailed myself, just to use the disk space...

You crazy kids don't know how well you have it! I walked uphill, Both ways, freezing cold, no shoes, jumping from fresh cow-pie to fresh cow-pie just to keep the frostbite back....

I still use Yahoo as my primary. I know I know!!!!!! I've had the address for years and it's not terribly spammed so I still use it. I don't know why I don't use gmail even though I have 2 addresses with it.

My main personal email ADDRESS is at a domain name I bought years and years ago that is my-actual-name-dot-net. My main business address is at my business domain name.

I forward both of those to (drumroll please) Gmail.

At first I forwarded it through Gmail and back to a local POP account, solely to get Google's excellent spam filtering. Then I started actually using the Gmail interface and found it better than anything I'd ever used, on the web or a local app.

I use Gmail, and more than just that, I use it to manage 5 separate email accounts. One is my "everything" email, the other is my "official business" email, another is a TFP-only email and the other two are attached to random web ventures. It is great being able to manage them all from one web interface. I am boggled by people who still use other services because, frankly, they all suck. The number one reason why they all suck is spam filtering. I don't know how Gmail manages to be the best at it but it is easy to observe; I simply do not get spam delivered to my inbox. It all goes to the spam folder. On top of that, the interface is the easiest and fastest. Why put yourself through anything else?

I have a gmail account but my primary account is with Yahoo. Had it for many years. My yahoo mail gets funneled into Outlook.

You do know that you can have gmail handle that directly right? It will also allow you to easily add/remove people and do all your google apps admin from one simple global interface.

Sign up for Google Apps

Just one less (maybe a couple more) bounces...

Is there anymail but gmail, anymore, really? I've been in it since you had to beg for invites.

I use Yahoo, have for six years now. I couldn't get my name as a Gmail address when I went to sign up so that is the main reason I don't have Gmail. Apparently it sounds like I am missing out.

I have Yahoo, hotmail, gmail, ISP provided, and work provided.
Work is, well it's for work. My family can contact me on that one too.
Yahoo and hotmail were set up so I can use their instant messengers.
Gmail was set up so I can use more of Google's services.
I mainly use my ISP provided email - but the others get checked periodically too.

i have 4 email addies...my primary is a gmail...my secondary is a hotmail..my third which i never use is an ISP provided one....and my last is another gmail that i use as a john doe one...

oh ya i just remembered i have a fifth that i use for the military its an AKO us.army.mil addy

Yeah, I know, but that came out after I set this up, and I've never needed to change how this works, so... It's never been a squeaky wheel and therefore never gotten grease.

I own a domain, and forward everything to Gmail. I use a different username@mydomain for every entity that I deal with. I use the filters in Gmail to automatically label and "archive" all of my mail, so anything in my Inbox is something that I haven't filtered yet.

Ive only ever used a yahoo account

My publicly available address is a Gmail account. Despite being out there on the intarwebs for all the spiders to index, a remarkably small amount of spam arrives in my inbox; I guess I'm a fan of their filters as well.

I have an account with my ISP that I give to all of my friends/family, and use for any professional correspondence. Since it doesn't exist within any public space, it's spam-free.

They both go to Thunderbird. Back when I was spending most of my time in a Linux environment I found it convenient to keep Thunderbird running on a separate workspace, so that I'd be notified in realtime as emails came in. It made me feel like some cool techno-elitist or something.

Finally I have a hotmail account from high school that I use to sign into MSN and check about once a month just to be sure nothing important got sent there by mistake.

The thing that I miss most about being back in a Windows environment, as an aside, is multiple workspaces. Why Microsoft has yet to implement such a simple and handy feature is something I just don't understand.

I find Gmail's spam filter a bit overzealous. I often have to fish false positives out of the Spam "folder". The most entertaining false positivies are when I go to authorize sending from a new account name, and it tosses it's own confirmation message into the spam folder. I finally had to create a rule to ensure that they never were marked as spam.

that has more to do with combating email spoofing....

first email was yahoo. Got gmail in beta and have never looked back. Except for the spam operamail addy I use for junk signups.

I rarely use email. I check my email about once a week and people know it.
Oh and I use Yahoo.

I have a work email that is tied to my company's domain. For that I use Apple Mail.

For everything else, I use Gmail. I have two addresses and one feeds into the other. I had a hotmail account but I let it die many years ago. I still have a Yahoo account but don't use it for anything other than Flickr and haven't looked at the email in ages.

I don't really follow... is it something that I can change?

Gmail for everything other than work-related stuff for which I use my work email. Love Gmail, it's got a good spam filter, tons of storage, access anywhere (including my iPhone), send from multiple addresses, labels, etc.

So basically, If Gmail dies, the world will end.

(Yes, I use Gmail too)

Da G-Gmail, da G-Mail, wha wha da G-Mail.

At home.

I have three G-Mail accounts. One general account, one for bills, and one for internet sexcapades.

Work account is entirely separate.

I also use G-mail as my primary e-mail address. I also have hotmail, juno and yahoo e-mail addresses that I don't use much (or at all), but I keep around as spam addresses. I prefer not to use my work e-mail address for personal use.

That's exactly why I never used it. I'll never beg for anything being given away. Yeah - like they're doing me a favor. :rolleyes:

I'm surprised at the poll results, though, and perhaps I'll rethink the whole idea. Many of you think it's the best - that says something.
I use an ISP-provided account mainly, for friends and family. The obvious downside to that is you have to let everyone know when you switch ISPs. I've also got a couple of Hotmail accounts; one for professional use and another that I use mainly for when I sign up for anything and expect spam from doing so.

I also have a couple of domain names that come with free e-mail service. Naturally, the business site is (well, . . . will be) my "work" e-mail.