I've been pondering this for a while. The standard thinking is if everyone federated (e.g. XMPP in Facebook, Gmail) it would be good. But look at it from anothe

I've been pondering this for a while. The standard thinking is if everyone federated (e.g. XMPP in Facebook, Gmail) it would be good. But look at it from another perspective. Then your main account, your identity would be permanently tied to one provider (Facebook, Google) as your JID would end with @facebook.com. The only true solution is to use your own domain and then, if possible, delegate to hosted server. If the provider does something that you don't like you just change provider or host your own. And one's @gmail.com address will always be hosted by Google.