What do you use? Better yet, what's an alternative to Google Apps I can use for my domain?
I've been running my own mail, jabber and www server for over three years now, and I am extremely happy with it. If anybody is interested in my setup and/or would like to run their own, I'll be happy to write a quick guide/howto.
Me too! I'll soon be buying a small home server and I am still wondering how to begin building my setup, since I've never used anything else than FTP hosting.
"This is wrong." If you read their earnings release from yesterday[1], you will see this gem "Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our Network members, decreased approximately 6% over the second quarter of 2012 and decreased approximately 2% over the first quarter of 2013." If you aren't careful you might think that is a "good thing" Gee it cost them 6%…
might be inevitable for Google. Might not be for another clever service provider, or might not be for a paying-solution. Either way, Gmail is going down with things like that. Internet is one space where people can choose not to have ads, and nobody likes ads.
I agree but I suspect the choices are subscriptions or ads. As the Internet has matured the 'free' option is going away. Developers of course will be able to fund their own infrastructure (sort of a self subscribe model :-) but the 'free' internet is definitely going away.
"This is wrong." If you read their earnings release from yesterday[1], you will see this gem "Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our Network members, decreased approximately 6% over the second quarter of 2012 and decreased approximately 2% over the first quarter of 2013." If you aren't careful you might think that is a "good thing" Gee it cost them 6%…
is it possible their cpc went down because they've overwhored themselves and not the other way around? I seem to recall a shit ton of changes to SERPs preceding and during the periods mentioned.
Absolutely, but Google runs experiments all the time. If underwhoring would boost their CPC then those experiments will surface that fact. That it hasn't suggested to me that alternatives have cut into their margins. Since nobody likes to cede margin, they can either ride it into the ground (a common response) or change. Either way it will be different.
might be inevitable for Google. Might not be for another clever service provider, or might not be for a paying-solution. Either way, Gmail is going down with things like that. Internet is one space where people can choose not to have ads, and nobody likes ads.
I agree but I suspect the choices are subscriptions or ads. As the Internet has matured the 'free' option is going away. Developers of course will be able to fund their own infrastructure (sort of a self subscribe model :-) but the 'free' internet is definitely going away.
> the 'free' internet is definitely going away.
I really don't see that, we still have a huge number of free application. Maybe google is having some issues (google reader and gmail) but you still have a huge number of alternatives that are still free.
Probably should have mentioned free alternatives as I've signed up with Google Apps for business prior to December 2012. Also, it's still free if you use Google Education. So, any free alternatives to Google Apps for my domain?