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Purchasing a service is no guarantee that it will still exist in the future. It seems to me that a brand-name free provider like, say, gmail.com will probably f
by brianberns 9y ago
Purchasing a service is no guarantee that it will still exist in the future. It seems to me that a brand-name free provider like, say, gmail.com will probably far outlast the for-pay services that you mentioned.
- jszymborski 9y agomailbox.org has been around since 1992 and fastmail since 2001. Both of those companies are profitable. Compare that with gmail that came out of beta in 2009, belongs to a company that is known for serially shutting down much-used and much-loved services, and whose profitability (that of gmail not google) is not entirely clear.
- brianberns 9y agoSorry, but that does nothing to persuade me. Gmail has over a billion active users. Any disruption in service would be felt worldwide. Fastmail and mailbox.org could disappear without even making the news.
- jbg_ 9y agoHistory is full of wildly popular things that became irrelevant. Gmail will certainly join that list one day.
- brianberns 9y agoSure, but not before email itself becomes irrelevant.