@IGotNothin:

Not just you. I'm getting it too. If I try with I.E.7, I get a blank page.

fuderyuu

Google just as unethical as M$? Sorry, but I think Google has a LOOOOONG way to go before they reach the depths of Microsoft's ethics cesspool.

/spinallaround

@Ben: I'm thinking of hosting my own website, but don't knnow where to start. Are there any good tutorials for this kind of thing?

Roriniho

Maybe it's just me, but it apparently doesn't work with Firefox. I get a text only site with just a couple links. Works fine in IE (surprise!). This is (part of) why people still love Google so much.

IGotNothin

I agree with Ben. I am not sure why everyone thinks that Google is fighting for them, I guess their PR shop is better than most. I try not to get caught up in the hype on these "new" products anymore and try and see if there is some kind of real value that I can use. I suspect that this new setup will add more value to real users as just about everyone uses MS products for their desktop applications.

jasongolod

I don't understand why people still love Google so much.

Sure they make a few great products but they are just a large and unethical as MS is now (look at Google's history on privacy).

Either way the best way to run domain apps is to host your own solution.

Ben

I thought it would be interesting to do a comparison to see just what Windows and Google offer in their "Apps" programs, the result are as follows.

Windows live community builder:
Silverlight Streaming
Photos
Contacts
Virtual Earth
Search
Live ID
Alerts
Admin Center
Expo
Messenger
Spaces
Writer
Gadgets
Tools

Google Apps:
Gmail
Google Talk
Google Calendar
Start Page
Google Docs
Page Creator
Control Panel
Extensibility APIs
Security and compliance
Help and support

So there you have it thats with both Free versions. Tell me what you think

Ninehand

I looked at the Windows Live Community Builder via. supplied link. As I suspected Microsoft is still doing a very good job at making things aesthetically pleasing, while offering a remix of another companies product. I must admit their spaces feature does look nicer than Google's but I stand firm on my first evaluation, Its just another copycat.

Ninehand

Yet an other Google imitations I wish that Microsoft would come up with their own stuff, But I guess that this will help Google improve as it provides some kind of competition.

Ninehand

I dislike Microsoft and Mac I'm a Linux guy. I use Windows XP on my computers thought because I couldn't play all my games if I weren't but I'm just saying that sure Google and MS are bad but if you look at the whole picture which company allows more user control.

Ninehand

@Ben

You do realize that Google has offices in China and failure to follow Chinese law could land every single person in those offices in jail?

This is what makes you say "look at Google's history on privacy"? Yahoo got caught in the exact same trap and unless I am mistaken MS has handed over info to the ChiComms as well. How is Google somehow worse in your eye?

dualsub2006

@/spinallaround:

Have you looked up Google's actions in the PRC (China)?

Let's talk after you do that.

Ben

@Roriniho:

Sure thing. The three solutions I would reccomend is buying a cheap but good host or VPS (Virtual Private Server). I have heard good things about zone.net.

If you want to run your own then just fire up Ubuntu Server LAMP edition - it has all the tools you would need to get started. All you would need is an extra computer and a static IP address (an IP adress that never changes - unlike a dynamic IP).

Last thing you could do is just find a server to host the certian apps you need. There are mail only hosting services... but if you just need this its probably best to use google or ms. Unless you want Outlook Exchange - then servers exist for that as well.

I'd reccomend the first option as it is fairly cheap and you are guaranteed to not have your server go down (as it is co-lo hosted). For other hosting providers check "Web Hosting Forums" on google.

Ben

@dualsub2006:
I didn't say one was worse then the other. I just said that Google isn't the savior with a pure soul like everyone loves to pretend it is.

Google didn't have to go into China in the first place - they chose business over freedom of speech - just like Yahoo, Cisco, etc.

A shame but I guess its how the organizations operate. As their motto goes, "Do no evil (unless required to by law!)"

Ben

Who's more evil? Decide for yourself:
Wikipedia: Criticism of Google
Wikipedia: Criticism of Microsoft

/spinallaround

Look at the track record of Google vs Microsoft. Microsoft courts developers to their closed systems - creating new non-standards when possible and grudgingly (but in a broken way) supporting open standards (and then extending them in non-standard ways) when they must.

Google on the other hand has a record of embracing standards and creating standards compliant open api's from the start.

I will say that this competition will be good. It always is. However, were I to choose a company to do business with today, I would choose Google. Open standards matter to me.

newz2000

MS make make "closed standards" but they are the standards almost EVERYONE uses.

So I would say they are the standards.

Ugh, I feel dirty arguing for MS lol.

Ben

dunno, I tried looking, and for some reason Silverlight doesn't work in IE7, but it works fine in Firefox. Go figure.

Competition is good, and its a whole lot better than that Microsoft Office Live that they put out last year. I can see businesses taking this up. For everyone else there is Google :)

Al Iguana

interesting as this discussion is, has anyone actually tried out the live domain apps? are they actually any good, or is there a catch somewhere?

badsandwich

Which would be great if you could trust M$ at all. I know Google has had their privacy problems, but at least they seem to try not to be evil.

aikoto