Random blurbs.. 

Google Applications for your domains

Google Apps is a service from Google for using custom domain names with several Google products. It features several known Web applications, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Talk, Page Creator, and Docs & Spreadsheets.

Features

The Standard Edition is free and offers 2 GB of e-mail storage per account. The Premier Edition, which offers 10 GB of e-mail storage, is 50 USD per year, per account. The Education Edition, which is free, combines features from the Standard and Premier editions.

Differences between editions:

• Standard Edition   
  
  
  • Free     
  • 2 GB space for e-mail     
  • Text ads mandatory 

• Premier Edition   
       
  • 50 $USD / account / year     
  • 10 GB space for e-mail     
  • Text ads optional
  • Conference room/resource scheduling     
  • 99.9% e-mail uptime guarantee     
  • APIs for Single Sign On, etc.     
  • 24/7 phone support     
  • 3rd party applications and services 

• Education Edition   
       
  • Same as Premier Edition except for:     
  • Free for "accredited not-for-profit K-12 schools, colleges, and universities"     
  • No uptime guarantee     
  • 2 GB space for e-mail 

In February 2006, Google created Gmail For Your Domain with an invitation-only beta, which allowed Gmail to be used with a custom domain name. It featured 2GB of e-mail storage, and many of the standard Gmail features.

In August 2006, Google expanded on this service and developed Google Apps For Your Domain, incorporating more recent Google services, including Google Calendar, Google Talk, and Google Page Creator. Later, Google added a "Start Page" to all accounts, which is based on their iGoogle service.

In October 2006, Google allowed educational institutions to sign-up for the service as well, which was retitled Google Apps For Education. A large implementation of Google Apps is at Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada, where 38,000 users have Gmail and in-browser IM capabilities.

On 22 February 2007, Google launched a Premier Edition for enterprise, as well as making registration public for all Google Apps services. At the same time, all products were unified, and the online control panel was redesigned.

In June 2007, email migration from IMAP email services was added to Google Apps.