[josteink]

Email is similar, only it's not really practical to update everyone on your email address when you switch email providers.

Actually that's dead easy as long as you have ownership of the email-address used.

If you have an email-address ending in a domain you don't own, yes you are indeed fucked, because you were naive enough to associate your digital identity with an object you have no ownership rights to.

If you however use a email-provider to provide email for your own domain, you own the address and are free to move between providers at no cost what so ever. Like I did, when I got fed up with Google.

You're not locked in. You can have full freedom with a simple $10 domain. What are you waiting for?

[tseabrooks]

I agree, but that's the very definition of non practical. It doesn't work for 90% of the population. I feel like we should be searching, driving, for solutions that solve everyone's issue not use our issue. We are, for lack of a better word, the "digital 1%". Solutions for us don't necessarily work for everyone.

[microtonal]

Somebody has to own and manage the 'namespace'. If it's not you, it is always going to be someone else.

I think this was one of the motivations for pobox.com. By being primarily a mail forwarding service, you can switch e-mail provider by simply forwarding to another address. The same is true for domains, since most registrars have pretty simple interfaces to set up e-mail forwarding.

The hard parts are dealing with SPF/DKIM (since they don't work well with forwarding) and e-mail migration.

[RandallBrown]

Of course we were naive enough. Lots of people made these email addresses when they were in high school or earlier.

Changing it now is too big of a hassle.