I have used the Google Gmail service for years and I am often asked the question of "why switch?" Well there are a number of reasons someone might consider switching to the Google Gmail service, and of course I highlight many of these reasons in the video I just created yesterday showing How To Register For Google's Free Gmail E-Mail Service.

1. Reduced Risk

Now, first of all, many people are used to using E-mail clients such as Microsoft Outlook or Incredimail. While local e-mail clients offer some flexibility in managing your e-mail it often places people at risk for two reasons. First, if the e-mail client corrupts the data, you risk losing all of your e-mails. Second, if you lose your hard drive, say goodbye to everything including your calendars and contacts.

The solution offered by Google is that everything is stored on their Google "Cloud" – this means that when you send or receive new e-mails they are actually stored and backed up on the internet. Why does this matter? Well, you can access your e-mail from anywhere with internet AND if you lose your computer or hard drive it does not affect your e-mail, calendar or contacts.

2. Better Performance

The days of software solutions such as Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird and Incredimail are coming to an end. Why do I say that? Because of the cloud, of course! When you access your Gmail account you are connecting to what is called a "cloud" service – this service hosts your software for you so you don't require a great computer or hardware to run it! Just a browser!

Why is this so fantastic? Well, no more headaches associated with updating and patching your software, no more migrating to the "latest version", no more performance and loading issues because your computer "isn't powerful enought." Since everything is hosted on the cloud, all you need is a computer that can run a browser and that's it! You will get a fast, efficient mail client and very little risk to data loss.

3. Portability, Of Course

Remember the days of having your e-mail on your computer, but then not the same e-mails on your website login… oh, and the e-mails on your phone weren't the same as your computer. Oh and don't forget how you had a completely different address book on your phone than you did your e-mail list. Well those days are gone… and this is why.

When you store your contacts on the Google Cloud they instantly become available anywhere you have internet. But it get's better, if you have an Android phone those contacts are instantly synchronized in real time with your E-Mail client, and it's the same as your e-mail!

Didn't it suck marking E-mail as spam, deleting e-mails and responding to them on your phone, only to find when you sit down at your computer you have to do the EXACT same thing? Or "synchronize" your phone with your computer to update your changes. This isn't necessary anymore, because once you've updated something on your cloud through your phone, it is updated directly to your e-mail client. You are always working with the same information, so none of it gets lost!

4. Spam Filters Baby

Ahh yes, that notorious spam filter that everyone hates to train! Of course, you will still need to do a bit of training to your Google Gmail service, but usually that's for very specific instances where it accidentally marked someone you know as spam. Overall though, Google created it's intelligent spam filter based upon what the millions of users around the world are marking as spam.

The results? You get one of the most powerful and intelligent spam filters available that is constantly updated and managed without you even interfacing with it. If it gives you problems, you can train or force it to make exceptions using filters, it's really the best of both worlds.

5. The Price! Duh!

It's completely free and offers almost 8 gigabytes of E-mail storage. So seriously, what are people waiting for? Oh, you're afraid of losing your old e-mail address? Yeah… that's not a problem, you can actually configure your Gmail to send from your old e-mail address. Oh! But don't forget to forward your old e-mail address to your new Gmail address so you can start taking advantage of the spam filter immediately!

How's that for some reasons? Personally, I've used and loved Gmail since college, which is going on 8 years now.