I know more and more people, perfectly legitimate and serious people, using these - especially Gmail. Myself included. In fact I have more than one - I use them for different areas of my life - to keep things in better order.

One of my main reasons (and many other people I know as well) is that when you change service providers (or your domain name), your email ID changes as well, and you now have to advise everyone who had that old email ID. And you have to change all the sites that you signed up on with that email ID. And you have to change your own site and your business cards and any adversiting/affiliate stuff, and, and, and... With a Gmail account, I can change service providers, but it doesn't affect my email ID.

Regarding hiding behind these email IDs, there could be some, but you're probably missing some very legimate people by ignoring all of them. If they have some crazy email ID, I probably wouldn't take it seriously though.

I would have to say that I'm a bit learier of Hotmail and Yahoo IDs. I've worked in businesses that block any Hotmail or Yahoo email ID - just because there is so much spam coming out of there. So I'm not sure why people would want to use those any more - unless they don't realize they are being blocked in many places.

I'm rambling now. Signing off...
Deb