Yahoo adds Gmail: here's the one reason why

This week Yahoo Mail has added the ability to (easily) add a Gmail account for email forwarding. They've also got the ability to add Outlook emails, and if you're in the mood, an infinite loop with all other email addresses. If, for whatever reason, you'd like to create an unending loop of emails, all you'll need to do is add one forwarding service to the next, then that same service to the next, and on and on back to the point at which you started. Every email capable of adding POP3 addresses can become part of this giant game of digital telephone. But that's not why you'd actually want to use your Gmail account inside Yahoo Mail – nay!

Of course once you start the chain, you'll need to know when to stop. Once Yahoo begins forwarding to your old Hotmail account, you're going to end up at a dead sort of end. But lo! There is a reason for all of this! While Yahoo trying to draw you in with the ability to add your Gmail address might seem at odds with common sense, there is a reason why they'd make you consider such a thing.

Consider this – your work email requires that you use Yahoo. We don't know why, but they do.

In this situation we'll also assume you use Gmail for personal mail.

But you don't want to have to go through the trouble of using two completely different email apps just to access your work emails separate from your home emails. So you just kick back, relax, and add your Gmail account to your Yahoo mail.

Otherwise who knows? It's better to integrate with services you're competing with than to ignore them completely. Running one service through the other, connecting all of your networks – this is the way you become trapped in the internet forever.