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This is a follow up to my post on Gmail for domains. We got accepted into the beta program a couple of weeks back, and now that everyone is back from conferences etc. we flipped the switch and started using Google's hosted Gmail solution.

So far, it's working great. There are a few little bugs in some of the admin tools (click twice instead of once to create a temporary password), but after switching MX records, we're up and running with a Bryght-branded login for Gmail. You can create user accounts (username@domain.com), nicknames (othername points to username@domain.com), and email lists (listname@domain.com delivers to user1@domain.com, user2@domain.com, etc.). Email lists can't include non domain addresses, so you'll still need Google Groups or similar if you want "real" mailing list functionality.

Best feature? Set a few more DNS records, and every single email account can also be a Jabber account, run through Google's talk.google.com server. Yes! Jabber world domination continues... (so add boris AT bryght.com to your Jabber buddy list)

That's about it, there isn't much more to tell. It's free for now (and looks to be free up until around a 1000 users, judging from the "Account Plan" link on the management dashboard), works well for basic email and chat account services, and has all the regular features of GMail.

But Google is not the only provider of hosted email (although the first to offer hosted chat using your own domain, I believe...). This Ars Technica article points out:

But lest I come off as a fawning Googlite, let's not pretend that Google is the first to do this. Yahoo already offers group rates for a co-brand of its email service, and MSN is currently beta testing its own "Windows Live Custom Domains" service, which aims to provide similar functionality. Feature sets, pricing, and options are all in flux right now. Competition is good, but Google is the last of the "big three" to head down this route.

Some more thoughts on what I want out of email after the jump. And yes, let's just assume Google Calendar is a given...I'm talking about actually dealing with/managing email in a more intelligent way across a company.

I was kicking the tires on Sprout's Mailroom product -- "Hosted email management for your sales and support email" as they say, with some neat functionality around assigning tasks and keeping track (really tracking) of who's emailing you and about what. Killer features? Um, how about integration with Gravatar and Basecamp for starters?

When you view an incoming email, MoreAbout will show you information about the person who sent it, including their Mailroom history and, when it’s available, a nice little picture. Additionally, if you use Basecamp, you can easily configure it to communicate with your Mailroom account. MoreAbout will then show you the details and progress of any work you are doing with a sender using Basecamp. (I know!)

The picture feature depends on a service called Gravatar. Gravatar, Destroyer of Worlds, is a website where people upload pictures of themselves, usually nude, together with their email address. When you enter your email address online, such as on a blog, that site can automatically contact Gravatar and the Destroyer of Worlds will hunt down a photo of you crying and re-publish it on the site making the request. This will allow viewers to associate a face (or a boob) with a comment. We do this on the Big Act, in fact. Skin crawling yet? No? Well, just you wait.

Well, OK, Gravatar integration isn't really a killer feature, but it is a nice universal way to have user images. I need to see about *really* using Sprout, but it means committing to it for a period of time (they have a free single user version, but we're talking sales and support email, which is always at least 2 people...)

Sprout folks: I'd love to link to the first issue of The Illustrated Sprout newsletter, but couldn't find it on your "super ultra mega blog", The Big Act (note: the blog is worth reading and subscribing to -- these guys are doing interesting things with email).

Another service that looks interesting is Joyent. No free version here, combining all the groupware buzzwords (email, calendaring, contacts, file sharing) into a graphically beautiful hosted product. The product overview has good descriptions and some movies to watch.

They don't quite have the buzz I thought they might have, but one person's post in the support forum is an interesting read: It's all coming together. To get the true benefit, you really need to live inside the web version of this. The very nice thing is the high level of standards that have been implemented, e.g. it's the only IMAP powered system in this write up, meaning you can do many things directly through your regular email client interface. LDAP, iCal, and RSS everywhere (never mind tagging and smart folders) are some of the other standards in play.

Communication. Group email. Collaboration. General mailboxes like sales@, info@, or support@. Massive amounts of email, email related to projects, people, files, etc. All of these are pieces of the puzzle, never mind chuqui's comment about "many protocols. stop stovepiping by socket port number...." -- bring in chat, Skype, etc.

*sigh* Enough pontificating about advanced collaboration that helps make email more useful...I have to go trawl the flagged email in my inbox.