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Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

googleenterprise.blogspot.com

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Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#311

Post by philwelch »

gsk wrote: post #299
philwelch wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always hate these comparisons because they have no basis in reality. Food, drugs, and sex are basic human drives. You can't compare them to something as ephemeral as email.

That's not true. Communication(what email is for) is a basic need. Consider how much you spend on your mobile phone every year.

The mobile phone is a better comparison, but you're dealing in abstract concepts now, not the simple neurochemicals your brain has spent millions of years evolving to crave. Plus, email is probably one of the least satisfying forms of communication.

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#312

Post by speleding »

The free Google Apps was perfect for families: give each kid a nice kid@familyname.com and no problem with the silly 18 year limit that gmail has. The shared calendars work great in our family too.

It's certainly not worth $50 per year because the little ones get maybe 1 email a month from grandma. Since Google does not allow kids on gmail, where should families go now?

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#313

Post by sliverstorm »

fusiongyro wrote: post #292
indiecore wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

by cutting off free users they just opened themselves to getting undercut by a smaller company that can offer fewer, cheaper, targeted options. I just wanted an email for my domain and that's not worth 50 bucks a year. I'll just set up my own email system at this point, call it a learning experience and never be exposed to the rest of whatever was in Google Apps.

I do this. It's not easy, but it's not as bad as most of the comments here would lead you to believe. If you have the wherewithal to run things on a server it's definitely within reach, albeit probably not a cost-effective way to spend your time. Let me make a few recommendations. I'm not a sysadmin by trade but I know a few things you can do that will improve your lot in life running mail. - Postfix and Dovecot. The…

Do you still need to worry about SSH brute force attacks if you disable password-based login?

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#314

Post by sliverstorm »

gfosco wrote: post #228
wbillingsley wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All you need is a forwarding service to forward the incoming mail to your gmail account, as regular personal gmail can handle sending out email with a different from address. No exim4, no spamassassin, no clam-av, no figuring out which indexer to use, or any of that. Just a forward on the incoming mail.

I think most people would consider that cheating... You're hardly running your own email server, and still using Google. I actually miss running my own email domain, the privacy of it, not the actual administration. I stopped when I had gotten so crazy with aliases and disposable addresses that the spam overwhelmed me. Wasn't worth the time to 'do it right,' and I gave up my privacy for the simplicity of GMail. I wou…

You can take the middle ground; make your own complete mailserver, and have a forwarding GMail or similar account to act as a proxy receiver for forum registration and that sort of thing- services that are much more likely to get your address into the hands of spammers.

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#315

Post by wilfra »

blhack wrote: post #245

Huh. Just want to point out that one of the main reasons we're using google apps at my company is that I use google apps for hosting my personal email. When it came time to make a decision on that, and I am the one who makes that decision, I chose google apps because it was already familiar to me. Poor choice, imho. I'm curious what the actual overhead is for people like me. I have 1 account (as in: 1 email address)…

Never thought I'd see the day when Google forced me into Microsofts' arms. Wow.

http://domains.live.com was actually far simpler and faster to setup than a free Google Apps account - which I've done probably 20 times and still struggle to figure out each time. MS version took me about two minutes and was extremely easy to understand - and I can't recall the last time I've signed up for an MS web product. Probably Hotmail in 2002 or something.

Great job Big G! lol

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#317

Post by 6ren »

Google believes the cloud/apps have enough providers now, so they aren't needed to drive it.

Their strategy is to grow the web. This works because they make more money from the web being used. It also makes people love Google, which is important because switching search engines is easy. The love also helps in hiring.

However... they have introduced internal cost accounting, so that products must pay their way - a little internal market. IMHO, this is potentially dangerous, since there already is a market (the real one), and it ignores the advantages of a firm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nature_of_the_Firm) But they don't follow it absolutely, e.g. android isn't paying its way. (NB: Apple is focussed on making better products, not on growing the web).

If google can see that other firms are better placed to do a better job of growing the web in some respect (or they can apply pressure on them to do so), they are happy to step aside.

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#318

Post by timdev2 »

wbillingsley wrote: post #204
jrockway wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to run my own one-user email system. The hosting alone cost $240 a year. And I had to spend a lot of time configuring exim4 (and spamassassin and clam-av), figuring out which email indexer to use, setting up offlineimap, running cron jobs to archive mailing lists, coercing a friend to run a secondary MX for me, etc., etc. I didn't enjoy it all. And no matter what I did to reduce spam, about 10 messages a day a…

All you need is a forwarding service to forward the incoming mail to your gmail account, as regular personal gmail can handle sending out email with a different from address. No exim4, no spamassassin, no clam-av, no figuring out which indexer to use, or any of that. Just a forward on the incoming mail.

"regular personal gmail can handle sending out email with a different from address"

for now

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#319

Post by msy »

indiecore wrote: post #66
alanctgardner2 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a pretty pessimistic view. Customers are self-interested too: they want free content and services, but they also want absolute privacy, to ad-block everything, and generally cut off any possible revenue stream. This seems like it leads to a sort of local maxima where you produce the minimum quality required to drive users, with as little cost as possible. By cutting off ad-supported free users, Google is atte…

by cutting off free users they just opened themselves to getting undercut by a smaller company that can offer fewer, cheaper, targeted options. I just wanted an email for my domain and that's not worth 50 bucks a year. I'll just set up my own email system at this point, call it a learning experience and never be exposed to the rest of whatever was in Google Apps.

Rackspace email. Equally good experience IMHO, absolutely fantastic support, $12 a year per mailbox. Best purchase of a web service I've ever made. Your email is the skeleton key and core of your online existence, that's far too important to leave to a company that considers support an exercise in statistic management.

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#320

Post by gmac »

xentronium wrote: post #307
indiecore wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

by cutting off free users they just opened themselves to getting undercut by a smaller company that can offer fewer, cheaper, targeted options. I just wanted an email for my domain and that's not worth 50 bucks a year. I'll just set up my own email system at this point, call it a learning experience and never be exposed to the rest of whatever was in Google Apps.

There are alternatives to google that are free of charge. For example, Live (Microsoft service)[1] or Yandex (Russian google vis-a-vis). [2][3] [1] https://domains.live.com/ [2] http://pdd.yandex.ru [3] Major caveat: the interface is in Russian only now, but after initial setup it shouldn't be a big deal;

Also FastMail.fm, which I'm very happy with.
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