Google has released the beta version of Google Apps for Your Domain, a service where your organization or website will be able to use Google’s services personalized with a unique domain. This means that your users at yourdomain.com will be able to log in into Google’s services using yourdomain.com.
Simply put, you will not even have to host emails at your server. Just point mail exchanger entry for yourdomain.com to Google and you users will have 2GB of email storage each, with Gmail interface! In addition to that other functions offered in the current beta version are Talk, Calendar, and Page Creator. Pointing your mail exchanger (MX) to Google effectively routes all your emails to Google.
If you have a huge fan base and would like to offer these services to your visitors/users, try and sign up! According to Google:
Organizations accepted by Google during the Google Apps for Your Domain beta period are eligible for free service for their approved beta users even beyond the end of the beta period, as described in the Terms of Service.
This translates to: if you use the service now, when the service is finalized and Google charges for it, you’ll still be able to use it for free.
One thing to note is that not everyone will be approved for their application. Google will review your application before letting you use this service:
We’ll review the information you submit and contact you if we select your domain for this beta test. If selected, we’ll ask you to log in with the same Google Account to complete the registration process.
The service is interesting, and I am not surprised it comes from Google. To read more about it go to: https://www.google.com/a/. You’ll need an account before applying. Too bad I have no well known domain. Good luck!