Just when you thought Microsoft Exchange Server had beaten back all comers to establish itself as the email system of choice for businesses, the competition has resurfaced, but from an unexpected corner: Web-based email services. Although just about every email user I know has a Web-based email account in addition to a corporate email account, I've been running into more and more small businesses that use a Web-based service as their primary email system. Companies can use a businesslike email alias--for example, joebob@
mycompany.com--and forward messages from that address to their Web-based email accounts via a mail-forwarding service, which many Web-hosting companies offer free of charge.
To a large extent, it was Google's entry into the Web-based email business in April 2004 that added a little extra stamp of respectability to the entire arena, transforming its industry reputation from a haven for email spammers to a legitimate mail service. Furthermore, Google's Gmail email entry also spurred the two largest Web-based email players, Microsoft and Yahoo!, to improve and expand their offerings. . . .
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