I don't think Google's going to kill off Gmail (at least any time in the short to medium term). On the other hand, I can see the following things happening: 1)

I don't think Google's going to kill off Gmail (at least any time in the short to medium term). On the other hand, I can see the following things happening: 1) Google kills of Groups in favour of Google+ 2) If not (1), Google limits Groups postings to only those coming from a Google account. 3) Google kills off one or all of Sites, Offers, Finance, Blogger Of those, I reckon (1) or (2) is the most likely. Groups (despite being really useful) was already out of date when it was launched. Of course, that's all meaningless speculation like much of the linked article. The conclusion at the end though (switching to an email account on your own domain), is relatively sensible (even if Google isn't about to close Gmail (hint: they aren't)). Controlling your own email address, if not the provider, reduces lock in and makes it generally a lot easier to switch to someone else in the future if/when something better turns up.