Google tweaks Gmail for business users

Google has made a much needed update to its Gmail service designed to make it more appealing to business users.

Many users employ Gmail as a hub to send messages as though they are from another account, such as Microsoft Outlook. But their Gmail username is shown in the 'Sender' field of the message as well as the displayed 'From' address.

This meant that the email recipient is given access to the sender's personal Gmail address as well as their corporate account details. Recipients were left confused as to which email account to respond to, and the sender's private Gmail account was exposed.

Google has now said that, instead of using Gmail servers to send the message, it will use the servers at the sender's other email address to prevent the two addresses being shown.

"We heard your request for another option that wouldn't show the 'on behalf of' text loud and clear, and now there's a new option that does just that," said Gmail software engineer Emmanuel Pellereau in a blog post.

Users wanting to turn on the new feature should go to the Gmail Accounts page under Settings, click 'edit info' from the 'Send mail as' section and then the option to 'Use your other email provider's SMTP servers'.