For over two years I’ve been using Google’s (free) Hosted Domain service (Google Apps) to manage and host personal email accounts for my forml.com domain. This gives me all the wonderful features of Gmail (and all Google apps, including Google Talk), but with a custom domain name.

There are many benefits of a branded email address. But after much deliberation I have decided to stop using a hosted domain and just go with a regular Google (gmail) account.

My new primary email address is pmayne @ gmail.com (without the spaces) but all mail sent to my paul @ forml.com address will always forward to my new address until I ever decide to not renew that domain (so don’t worry about changing your address books).

The main reason I decided to switch is I want a permanent email address. If in a few years I decided I don’t need the forml domain name anymore, then what? My email address is gone. Now being directly on Gmail, I’m set for life.

A few minor reasons:

• Chat can be limited with Jabber services like Twitter.
• Updates to the interface are behind the standard Gmail updates.
• It’s easier to verbally tell someone “@gmail.com”