Google Apps for your Domain is a set of tightly integrated services from Google. It gives your organization a quick start over the web, it includes customizable GMail based eMail service, Google Talk, Google Docs, Google Calender and Google Pages.

Initially targeted for organizations, Google Apps is now available for Organizations, Schools, education institutions and Universities. Unlike other Google services (GMail, YouTube, Orkut, etc. ) which are available for FREE as BEER, Google decided to follow an alternate route to their services -

• Standard Edition – Still FREE as BEER,
• Premium Edition - (about $50/user) Not for poor publisher like me and
• Education Edition – FREE & the best I think but hard to get, you gotcha’ own your very own Educational Institution.

I’ve been a Google Apps (Standard Edition) user for more than 2 years now, and there are few things that could really help you in case you are opting for Google Apps.

The Light Side.. Even if you don’t own a domain, Google gives you an option to buy one. The good thing is Google is in partnerships with the world’s 2 biggest Domain Registrars – GoDaddy & eNom. The better thing is – The size always doesn’t matter, If you go to GoDaddy or eNom to register a domain name it would cost you your pants, probably your undies too. But Google made it a point to provide things as cheap, even your daily dinner would seem more. You can go for domain for $10 (~INR 400). You also get to have hands on DNS Management / Control Panels from both GoDaddy & eNom. I found GoDaddy’s control panel more user friendly as compared to eNom’s.

As soon as your domain has been verified by Google, you are given access to the a whole pool of services.

It’s unmatched eMail Service is the first one I would love to talk about. It gives you your own eMail service with the same afresh looking interface of GMail, and that too with 6 GB of space per eMail ID. Google initially gives you 200 ID’s / eMail addresses if you purchase domain from Google, else if you already own a domain you can type in the magic number you want, so far so good 500 has worked for me. You can even increase the number of ID’s you want at a later stage all it calls for is a Convincing & Valid request to Google.

Office 97..2000..2003 .. Online. Google made history after the launch of its Google Docs’ service. Google Docs has almost all the features that an Office suit should have, all that costs you is your Internet Connection’s bill. You can create Word Documents, Spreadsheets – that can fetch information from Google Finance and Presentations that can run on web. Google Docs even provide options for you to export / import your documents. Google Docs is a whole product in itself.

A Google Solution for Your Own Co. Name, Your own VoIP Messenger, Yes!! and that too without any in-house or outsource development cost. You can use the same old “Google Talk“, just make sure you sign in with – YourID@YourDomainName.com. Then you have what Google calls it as Google Pages, a similar kind of thing to Yahoo! Geocities. Google gives you a decent enough solution to start your own home page, you have various layouts, themes and Google gadgets to help you quickly fill your home page with content.

Branding: Google’s policy, legacy or whatever you call it – It creates the services but gives control in hands of people to customize, “use it the way you like it” way. Google Apps incorporates the same old legacy, You can change the Google’s logo to your Own Co’s logo. Although it has usual Google words but it still gives you a great feel of your company being associated with a co. like Google.

The Dark Side..

Google is driven by internet advertisement, so be ready with the usual advertisement when you are checking your mail. The bad thing is it doesn’t let you monitor the mails of other employees. You cannot receive mails which are being delivered to all users, and you can’t use other email management features which are available to you from your hosting provider. So if you are looking for some Holmes’ kind of stuff, don’t count on Google’s standard edition. The Premier edition gives you a policy management, recovery of deleted emails & in short a more better control but it has a price.

Scenario:

A typical application of Google Apps (Standard Edition) is to domains like DelhiTechies, where there are few users who work in collaboration & trust. Generally when you go to buy domain name you don’t get hosting and email service for FREE & in most cases you don’t even have access to DNS Management until your hosting provider makes it available to you, you have to pay for it. This is when Google takes over, it gives you a Domain Name, an unmatched eMail service, unlimited number of web pages to get your website up & runnning in absolutely no time. Organizations that totally dependend on Google Apps do save costs too, a common cost saving would be licensing fee for Office products – Google Docs is a great service to use in conjunction with Google Apps.

There are more application scenarios to Google Apps, if you are using one or have an idea about, you are most welcome to discuss here.