Google Apps - What it is and Why You Might Just Have to Use It!

Increasingly, hosting providers, especially free ones, are strongly encouraging their users to use Google Apps for managing their email. This is generally because the provider wants to reduce the processing overhead involved in running POP accounts and save on the disk space involved in storing mailboxes.

Generally speaking, it is true to say that using Google Apps gives much better performance than a small to medium sized host and you can usually tell when a host wants its users to go the GoogleApps route by the type of email support it offers.

If the host offers the sort of POP support where you can create separate email accounts - for example, admin@yoursite.com or fred@yoursite.com - then it is probably safe to say that you can expect a reasonably good email service. However, if your hosting account includes a single 'catch-all' email account then, even if you can access it through an email client, the chances are that you would be better off using Google Apps.

There are other email solutions out there but they often have a cost attached or do not offer the full functionality that Google Apps does.

Google Apps is actually much more than just email but I suspect that the majority of users do use it just for that. With a basic, out-of-the-box, Google Apps account you can:

- Add up to 100 user accounts

- Add other domains

- Each user account has its own mailbox

- Include a chat facility for your users

- Share and collaborate on documents

- Create private or public websites online and collaborate with others in building them

- Run a group calendar

- Create your own home page, choosing what Google widgets your users see

- and, of course, email

All this might sound a bit daunting if all you need is a couple of email accounts at yoursite.com! Don't worry - you can turn off anything you don't need and simply have what is, in effect, Gmail accounts but using your own domain name instead of gmail.com.

You may already have a Google customised search page which includes some of its more useful widgets like news feeds, note pads etc. and if you have a Gmail account you may also be using the page to show your email. The Google Apps home page is just like this except that you can 'brand' it with your own logo. (See the front entrance to my email management for an example - home.mypf.org).

From your home page you and your users, if you have any, can log in and access all the functions of the Google Apps site that you have set up and granted permissions for. You can even create your own URLs for specific functions. For instance, mail.mypf.org will take you to a branded Gmail login page.

The branding continues onto the Gmail pages too.

Of course, the whole point of hosting providers steering you towards Google Apps is so that you can get your POP service from there. Just like a regular Gmail account, Google Apps email accounts can also be accessed by POP clients.

Naturally all this comes at a price - but not a financial one! There is a fair amount of setup involved, from verifying that you own the domain for which you are opening the account to changing your domain's MX (mail exchange) records to point email delivery at your Google Apps account and configuring your mail client to use the Gmail accounts. Don't panic! I'll be covering setup in detail in another article.

Meanwhile, you can take a tour at www.google.com/a. Don't be put off by the reference to business use:  Google Apps is just as useful for individuals.