Having a GMail account is really useful. It's good for working with Google+, for obtaining reCAPTCHA keys, to use Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics and a host of other products including email!
Most people I know have a GMail account; I have a GMail account.
It is possible to use a GMail email account with Joomla but, as we've seen on a number of occasions in this forum, people have problems configuring their websites to use it. I do not want to discuss "configuration/usage problems" here; I do not want this discussion to digress into how to [technically] solve those problems. I don't have a problem my Joomla websites sending email and I don't need to know how to configure GMail with my Joomla website(s).
The purpose of this topic is to discuss why people would want to use a GMail account with Joomla in the first place.
I do not use GMail for mail. To be honest, I haven't looked at my GMail inbox in several years and I wouldn't know what mail is there. My business card does not have a @gmail.com address. If people send email to my @gmail.com address I won't see it.
If you have a website and you want your website to look more "professional" or "business-like" then I would suggest you use an email address that reflects your business. Consider the following two examples (both of which are fictitious, by the way):
1. [email protected]
2. [email protected]
Put yourself in the place of your customers and ask yourself which one of these looks more inviting in a business sense. Sure, use your @gmail.com email account for personal correspondence (e.g. writing to the kids, your friends or use it with Facebook, etc., to preserve your privacy and anonymity) but use @widgets-r-us.com for managing your website and transacting business in the real world.
While I would not go as far as to suggest that people should completely stay away from @gmail.com addresses when building Joomla websites (even if I would not use them myself), if you own a domain then chances are the hosting provider you've partnered with will allow you to create your own email accounts that use that domain. If it's not possible to use an email address that represents the site name then I guess you will have to use something else ... and you'll have to figure out, in your own way, how to configure your Joomla website to use that "something else".
Cheers.
