I know that most of us are using GMail. But here Im going to share my personal experiences What GMail form Google really helped me.
No more DOT(.) or SMALL, CAPS Letter issues write your email with or without a dot or in small letter or capital letter it will work.
Second best thing in Gmail it helped me to manage my 1000 of contacts & groups very well.
Gmail Colorful Filtering Label facility is awesome.
Gmail/Google Account helped to create & share my blogs instantly.
Maximun online shopping & other sites works with gmail support without specific account for those sites.
Huge Cloud storage of 15 GB helped to store a lot of docs, data files & presentations.
Adsense helped to income from google using Gmail account.
Provides Remote Logout option from different location loggedin accounts.
Customized GMail Interface.
Play store from Google using Gmail Account.
Easy usage Forwarding and POP/IMAP Outlook/Thunderbird settings using Gmail Account.
Chat/Hangout using Gmail Account.
Google Talk.
Accesing & Sending Multiple Mail accounts at a place using POP3 in a Gmail Account.
Good Signature & Vacation responder Settings.
Inbox Appearance in Categories.
Gmail Labs: Some crazy experimental stuff.
Best Ever Customized Thmes.
GMail Basic HTML for Slow connections.
Id used mobile messaging feature also which was amazing but now closed.
So with Gmail Im using all these services - Mail, Contacts, Task, Calender, Blogger, Adsense, Google+, Drive, Books, Youtube, History, Maps, Translate, Voice, Talk, Profile, Docs, Cloudprint, Chrome Sync, Analytics & Audio.
So one at a place you also can use & access all these facilities. To more about you google services using your gmail account you can check your personal dashboard under google account settings.