Gmail on your Domain??
It seems that everything nowadays that has Google stamped on it or even remotely related to it creates the amount of buzz that can rival a Paris Hilton or give Britneys of the world a complex!! :whistle: Be it Gmail or GPack, AdWords or the rumoured(mysterious) GBuy, everything makes the front page headline!! 
Yeah, so now Google’s Gmail will host email accounts on your domain as well. If you are interested & happen to be a school, business or organisation then you can get in touch with them to see if they will accept you into this limited beta!! Each account comes with the same bells and whistles as a normal Gmail account, and you get admin tools to boot, so you can manage accounts. Big deal, huh?? :eyebrow:
Well, Scoble doesn’t seem too happy about the buzz that this is creating, since its nothing innovative on Google’s part. Windows Live Custom Domains have already been available for quite a number of months now & its the same thing as what Gmail is now offering, free hosted email accounts for your domain. And as Scoble points out, the Windows Live Custom Domains program already has more than 20 colleges/universities signed up. And MSN has been providing the ability to use your own email address on MSN network as well as IM for ages!! So why the big buzz about Google’s new offering?
The reason is quite simple. Though bigger might not always be better, but then there’s no denying the fact that size does matter!! The Windows Live Custom Domains program offers you merely 40 email accounts per domain(doesn’t seem ideal for a school/college looking to provide student emails, but then they might be getting a different deal) and the storage ain’t that huge either, I’m guessing it to be 2MB as per standard Hotmail storage, you get a 250MB storage if you are a US national, which is stinking bias from Microsoft!! And here’s where Gmail scores, massive storage of 2GB(and increasing) which though might not be all used up or even 50% filled up, still attracts attention & users!! Add to that a slick interface, AJAX sweetened web 2.0 pie or the plain jane HTML one, depending on your preference of how well you react to sweeteners like AJAX!! :think: Basically its just re-branded Gmail, you use your own domain instead of Gmail’s. Rest everything remains same as that in Gmail, I don’t think its wise to recount all of Gmail’s features here again!! 
So when Scoble says:
I wonder how many other ideas we have that Google will get credit for?
I don’t quite understand the reason for frustration. Wouldn’t it be just good for them & us users if instead of focusing more on getting credit for their ideas, they’d focus on improving user experience and their services?? :cowboy:
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Who needs it? Just get a domain, some free host, and forward all your emails to a gmail account and use the address to send it through Gmail.
Well, if you’d read about it then you wouldn’t have said that!!
Its different, since here you can provide email to your company employees etc. or a college can provide the students with email on college domain, like the colleges which are already signed up with Windows Live Domains & Gmail for your Domain program.
Besides, a free host’s reliability(if a free webhost hosts your domain & lets you forward emails) is unlikely to be in the same league as that of either Windows Live or Gmail!!
I know it’s different (and I did read it), but I was pointing out the the same effect can be achieved through some improvisation.
Yeah, a similar effect can be achieved no doubt, but then the point is not to do that. As an individual it is easy to take the alternative approach, but then this program(of both Windows Live & Gmail) is not meant for individuals!!
Besides, I think there’s a lot of potential to be realised in this trend. There are lots of people who crave for cheap personal addresses, so if all you need for it is a domain, then I’m sure there are a lot of people who’ll go out and buy a domain for it.
Yes, you are right, but then, there are already services that provide emails like this on your domain for free(they show ads like Gmail do). But the only advantage Gmail has is that of the storage space and other Gmail goodies!!
The goodies more than anything else
yep, that’s right!! :tup: