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This week in the hosted Exchange space, we explored whether free e-mail services like Gmail are perceived as unprofessional in the business world, how e-mail is vital to social networking, as well as an array of new solutions out on the market.

According to a Business Insider piece, 70 percents of survey respondents perceived e-mails coming from a free hosted Exchange e-mail service like Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail as less professional. According to one opinion, “using a free e-mail service for your business emails is like ‘putting a sign for somebody else’s business over your front door.’ Why not blast your name out there for all the world to see?”

Those who choose to use a free service are therefore missing out on an opportunity to cast out a business name, and may give business contacts the wrong impression.

In other news, a survey by hosted Exchange e-mail and cross-channel marketing solutions provider Responsys found that e-mail marketing continues to be a key strategy for raising awareness of and driving traffic to retailers’ communities on Facebook (News - Alert), Twitter and other social networking sites.

"Three times as many retailers include share-with-your-network (SWYN) links on their product pages as regularly as they include them in their e-mails," said Chad White, research director at Responsys and author of the report, in a statement. "That's a strong indication that retailers are sold on the benefits of SWYN, but that placement further down the sales funnel is more effective in general."

As for product announcements, Soluble Apps’ introduced an e-mail forwarding feature to its MailShot e-mailing solution, Roaring Penguin upgraded its CanIt archiver software, and Harte-Hanks expanded its database product to include more e-mail contacts.

Meanwihle, ArcMail Guardian’s archiving appliance was named a KMWorld Trend Setting Product of 2011, and e-mail and Web security solutions provider AppRiver was honored as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. by Inc. Magazine.

For all the latest news on hosted Exchange e-mail, check back to the Hosted Exchange community, sponsored by Intermedia (News - Alert).

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.

Tammy Wolf is a TMCnet web editor. She covers a wide range of topics, including IP communications and information technology. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.