More code foreshadowing perhaps?
While looking through the source code for Gmail last week, I found references to what is now known as "Gmail for your domain" — a service that will let domain owners use Google as a mail server, not just a client. Just when you thought everything had been discovered …
Context & Ripple Effects
An earlier source-code clue to a domain-oriented Gmail feature had already pointed to Google extending Gmail beyond individual inboxes. The newly found references reinforce, but do not confirm, that direction: the underlying claim remains unconfirmed source-code evidence rather than a product announcement.
First-order effects
- If Google launches the indicated service, domain owners would be able to place their email service with Google rather than use Gmail only as an end-user client.
Second-order effects
- The move would put Google in closer competition with providers that host email for organizations, shifting the choice from standalone inbox software to the provider running a domain's mail service.
Third-order effects
- Repeated code-level signals point toward Gmail becoming a service layer for organizations as well as individuals, though the evidence supplied does not establish a launch timetable or commercial terms.
The trend: Google appears to be testing Gmail's expansion from a consumer email product toward domain-level hosted communications, based on repeated but unconfirmed code references.