Google: you can run, but you can't hide

Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on May 21, 2007

One of my voluntary tasks is to document the growth of Google's webmail service (Gmail or Google Mail). The point is this: it's not enough to count up the number of gmail.com addresses in your list and then assume there aren't enough to worry about.

By worry, I mean check that your email gets delivered to Gmail addresses, and that it looks and works as intended when displayed by the Gmail interface.

Why is it not enough?

Because the Gmail email system lurks behind various other domain names, not just Gmail ones. So abcd.com addresses might be powered by Gmail. Not so long ago, for example, I wrote about how Gmail was the "hidden" email system behind many college email addresses.

Last week, Google announced the Partner Edition of Google Apps (the suite of products and services which includes Gmail and which is already used by over 100,000 organizations.)

According to Google, this Partner Edition lets "ISPs, portals, and other service providers offer their subscribers powerful Google applications...You can now offer your customers an entire suite of communication and collaboration services on your domain" (my emphasis.)

If the partner edition catches on, another great swathe of email addresses suddenly falls under the Gmail umbrella. So never mind how many gmail.com addresses sit in your database, be sure that you include Gmail in your design and delivery testing.

Because who knows how many of your subscribers use it.

More on Gmail | Tags: email marketing, google, gmail, google apps, email design

[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
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