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.

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.