Oh So Googly - Why I Dig Google Apps

If you didn't know already, you soon will... but I am a big fan of the Google. Time and time again, I find some new trick or tool or Google developed doohicky (sorry for the technical speak) that is smart, simple and well-designed. As a result of my enjoying almost all things Google, I have moved to where everything about this blog and everything about my home e-mail is all hosted with Google.

Along the top bottom of the blog, you will likely see a banner advertising something called "Google Apps" and ya might be wondering, "OK... I know Google does a whole bunch of stuff and I still want to punch myself for not jumping on their IPO... but what exactly are Google Apps?" In a nutshell (as opposed to in a conch shell cause, ya know, those are only good for making impromptu calls that it's time for a luau), Google Apps is a means to bring all of Google's nifty features into one place for your company, organiztion, team or family.

For me, I have everything for Kuzia.com all under Google and what is so great about it is that I do not even need a separate e-mail hosting service any more. I can access all of my e-mail for Kuzia.com on Gmail and I can also access it from home using any mail program of my choosing (such as Outlook, Outlook Express or my current fave, Thunderbird). So, you and your group can share calendars, documents, e-mail and so on all under any domain name you happen to snap up for yourselves. You can even have there be one common start page from which all of this goodness is accessible.

Oh and my favorite part... it's free. Sure, you can upgrade to larger accounts for a user-by-user fee, but for my own purposes, I can do everything I want all within the gratis version. It's definitely something to give some thought to, especially if you are:
- interested in a means by which to better organize your group (such as everyone in your family pops their calendars up onto the site)
- looking for an e-mail solution where you can access it anywhere and not be forced between choosing between a Web-only vs. e-mail client format.

Give it a whirl and let me know what experience you have with it all.