Getting Personal With Google Apps

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://lifehacker.com/5708219/why-you-should-use-google-apps-with-your-personal-domain-for-your-google-life' target='_blank'>http://lifehacker.com/5708219/why-y...our-google-life</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"When it launched, millions of us grabbed free Gmail addresses, and associated Calendar, Docs, Voice, and other apps followed. But personal domains are cheap, and claiming an @yourname.com address to use with Google Apps is easier than ever. Here's why you should."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1291917160.usr20447.jpg" style="border: 0px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Free email services have been around for a very long time, and while most people do not think twice about emailing their friend @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @hotmail.com or even @facebook.com, there is still a stigma attached to businesses that use free email addresses.&nbsp; Running your own domain used to cost a fair bit of money and a certain amount of technical know-how.&nbsp; That is no longer the case.&nbsp; Domains are quite cheap and amount to the only real cost you have to make if you host with Google Apps.&nbsp;</p><p>Having your own domain is fun, and gives you some geek cred and ensures that regardless of what happens, short of not paying your domain registration fee, you have a permanent email address.&nbsp; While this is not as much of a problem with the free email providers, if you have an email address with your ISP, and decide to switch ISPs, you can spend an untold amount of time telling everyone of your new address.Still, that does not stop your email provider, even free ones, from taking back your address.&nbsp; Owning your own domain means that your email address is yours for an eternity.</p><p>That permanent email address is also complimented by Google's suite of online applications such as Calendar, Contacts, Docs, etc.&nbsp; With the low cost, there is no real reason why you should not take advantage and create your real online identity.</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

There's a downside though; Google Apps' Gmail is not the latest version. There's no Priority Inbox, and I'm missing my "Mark All as Read" action very much!

[ptyork]

There's a downside though; Google Apps' Gmail is not the latest version. There's no Priority Inbox, and I'm missing my "Mark All as Read" action very much!

This is somewhat random, I think, depending on how they roll the features out across the bazillion servers they have hosting Google Accounts. Also, check your domain settings ("Manage this domain" --> "Domain Settings" tab) and see whether you have the "Enable pre-release features" box checked. I do have Priority Inbox though I do NOT have the latest interface with the Compose button (instead of link) below the Mail/Contacts/Tasks links.

Regardless, I'm 99% happy with my Google Apps hosted domain. I aggregate all of my mail there and have accounts for everyone in my extended family (well, everyone with my same last name since it is a family domain name). Good stuff. Recommended wholeheartedly.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Nope, I've got that enabled, but still am on an old version.

[Philip Colmer]

A lot of this can be done with Live as well. I've got my personal domain set up to use Live so that I have a personal account that ties in with Hotmail, etc. Very easy to set up and you can have hundreds of accounts per domain.

Just an FYI for comparison with the Google offering.

--Philip