I'm curious: Gmail, since the very beginning, has been predicated on the idea that Google will serve you relevant, content-related ads. (I thought that was a non-starter, but the world proved me wrong.) How long did you use them, and what finally triggered you to say "No, this is not OK"?
I talked myself into using Gmail as the IMAP server for my business for a while, but then migrated that to Fastmail.
My company uses Gmail and Google Docs, extensively. It's been fun using Gmail, at least before they "updated" the interface. (The new interface has not been my friend, thus far.) I can definitely understand why everyone fell in love with Gmail when it was new.
Giving up Gmail is easy; there are many alternatives. Even Google Search has alternatives. A bigger frustration is Google Reader, which is harder to replace. And I can't give up Docs or Groups cold-turkey, because I belong to groups that use them; fortunately I haven't used them for anything especially private.
