One additional awesome feature... the catch-all. In addition to creating accounts, you can create a "catch-all" for all email to your domain at doesn't match one of the accounts you established.

And then that account is its own gmail interface and mailbox, complete with rules and all that kind of stuff.

For all of my family members, I set up the rule so that if it sees mail to firstname. (firstname dot), it forwards to firstname.

Everything else it immediately deletes.

This allows me to create a new email address every time I visit a site that requires an email address. So I simply do something like firstname.cnncom@mydomain.com.

Then, if I start suddenly getting a ton of email to firstname.cnncom@mydomain.com, I can create a filter to delete all mail to that specific address, because it's obvious that cnn.com sold my email address or had a security breach.

tvjames

@Timcost: Yes, you will. Just turn on POP on the gmail account, and set the new GAppsFYD to pull via POP. Took about 3 days for my 5000 messages to sync.

You would have two accounts to monitor, unless you set the gmail one to forward to the GAppsFYD.

xoff

@billspaced: I stand corrected! That's really awesome. Thanks!!

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker Editor

First, let me say that I'm using GAppsFYD on several domains, and LOVE it. That said, there's some room for it to get better...

1. Mobile access - the mobile web interface is lovely and all, but I'd really like to have the functionality that the mobile gmail client or the bb FYD app gives. I mean come on, how hard would it be for them to release a new rev of the gmail client that would accept user@domain.com as a username, and then do the right thing? You know, the same way IMAP access works?

2. CalDAV - Put CalDAV into Gcal and I'll love the gcal team forever, like them for always, etc. For those who don't know - CalDAV is a web-based API that allows client apps to sync directly with a web-based calendar server, like Gcal. This would enable direct communication between apps like iCal, Mozilla Sunbird and Outhouse err...Outlook 2007 and Gcal.

Floobtronics

@raydancer and Gina,

So...if I were to purchase a domain name today (no hosting...just a domain name) then I could use it with GAppsFYD? And could I also apply this domain to my Blogger blog without having to pay for hosting?

Yes, I believe so, though not a Blogger blog--you could use Google Page Creator to set up a page or two. To FTP Blogger pages you'd need an FTP host, and Google does not provide FTP access to your web space there. But you could use Page Creator to make a page that links to your blogspot space.

You can buy a domain and use GAppsFYD and Blogger. I've done it, with a number of domains. Of course, you have to have a Blogger blog to do this.

Here's how: Buy domain. Set up Blogger to point to it: Blogger dashboard, Settings, Publishing, Advanced Settings, change blogspot.com address to your new domain.

Then, go to your domain registrar (from whom you purchased the domain) and change your CNAME record to point to ghs.google.com and your MX records to point to google's mail servers (search help in Blogger for MX records). Wait a few minutes up to a few hours for things to propagate throughout the 'net.

Rinse and repeat with other domains. I'm a big fan of GAppsFYD.

billspaced

Awesome comments here, thanks to all who took time to offer detailed explanations for the stuff I glossed over.

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker Editor

There are three things you need to know about when moving to GAFYD:

- your domain registrar (tells people what DNS server to use to find you)
- your DNS server (usually your webspace hosting company or you can use the free EveryDNS.net facility).
- your hosting company - the people who provide your email service (you may already have an existing one or you might be using your ISP email or you can start from scratch with GAFYD).

Here's my step by step guide for those looking to move to GAFYD. This is from memory...

1. Register your domain with a domain registrar (if not already registered).
2. Register for a free DNS account at EveryDNS.net.
3. Register your domain at GAFYD.
4. Set up your domain in your EveryDNS.net account with DNS as explained when you registered for GAFYD. You may also want to set up other DNS entries if you have other services hosted with your existing hosting company.
5. Set up your required accounts and email addresses at GAYFD. Pay careful attention to the forwarding info provided when you are registering to ensure mail doesn't get lost during migration.
6. Update your domain registrar to point your domain to the EveryDNS.net DNS servers rather than your existing hosting company (if any).
7. Delete any DNS settings with you existing hosting company (if any) so that they use EveryDNS.net.
8. You're done.

If your existing hosting company allows you to edit DNS for you domain then you can use that rather than EveryDNS.net but I wanted to move towards not relying on my hosting company for everything so that when Google provide all I need I can cancel my hosting account completely.

In the sequence above it is only after step 6 that Google will formally be providing email services for your domain. You can back out at any point up to then.

Hope that helps people.

BarCar

To answer your questions about what changes with your domain, the answer is: Nothing that you don't want to change.

After signing up, you have to change (or have your hosting provider change for you) your MX records. Your MX records tell email coming to your domain where to go. My MX records are set up as:

MX 0 ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
mail MX 0 ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.

This tells incoming mail to jeffcarr.info or mail.jeffcarr.info to go to Google.

You can also set up CNAME records to redirect subdomains to google's services. I have set up for example:

calendar CNAME ghs.google.com.
docs CNAME ghs.google.com.
email CNAME ghs.google.com.
home CNAME ghs.google.com.

This means that calendar.jeffcarr.info, docs.jeffcarr.info, email.jeffcarr.info, and home.jeffcarr.info all forward to Google's servers who then decide what to do with the request based on what you set up in Google's control panel.

If you wanted to, you *could* redirect requests for existing pages on your domain to Google, but you would specifically have to tell your server to redirect the request there.

If you use want to user Meebo for Jabber/GTalk, then you have to make a few additional changes to your DNS records. Feel free to email me for instructions, as this is getting too long already.

JeffCarr

I forward my mail both from a Gmail account I used to use and from one of my domains all to one inbox at one domain. I only check mail in the one place now.

williamk

The features do seem to lag behind the traditional Gmail service, but I can't speak highly enough about Google Apps. It's been a perfect way for me to manage the emails in my small company and manage all our family email addresses, too. I could go on and on about how my wife and I can finally share calendars and sync them with our phones, too. It's about friggin' time someone made all this so easy.

Equis

If I already have a gmail account and then I get GAppsFYD will I have to forward everything from my existing gmail acct to a new one? Would I have one gmail account with an alias that people would send mail to or would I have two gmail accounts that I would have to monitor?

TimCost

@Scapegoat: Can I just set up google apps on my domain and end up using that gmail interface for my mail, without the google name getting thrown all over everything? (my domain and previous and future pages all stay the same)

Yes, like WilliamK said, you can use as much or as little as you'd like. So you just want Gmail for your domain? You can do that. No Google name anywhere publicly.

My current host provides mailserver info, and the storage for the email is part of my overall plan; if I switch to google apps, is the mail stored with my host, or with Google, or both somehow?

The mail gets stored at Google. So you'd switch to Gmail. You'd have to download all your old mail from your host and import it into Google (now with IMAP, that's easy) to get it all in one place, but yeah. Your host's webmail becomes unnecessary.

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker Editor

The mail is sent to and stored on Google's servers, so it won't count against your current plan. You will have to verify that you own the domain you are setting up, which is done by uploading a file or changing a CNAME record. Both very simple to do.

Once you have verified ownership, you will be asked to change the MX records for your mail in the domain contol panel. This is fairly simple to do and Google provides some great FAQs to help out if you get confused.

I use Google Apps for 3 domains and its light-years ahead of the typical webmail access that normally comes with your server. I'll never go back.

integralpart

oh, one more thing. With GAppsFYD you can use as much or as little as you want. So if you just want email, only point your MX record to Google. That'll leave your existing websites and everything else intact.

williamk

I use GAppsFYD for a couple of domains and I dont have any other hosting. I use GoDaddy as my registrar so they handle the DNS. I've pointed the root record of my domain to my Blogger hosted blog. I've also setup aliases so I dont have to use the long Google urls to get to my login pages. I just use mail.domain.com and calendar.domain.com and so on.

One other thing I really like is that other Google services that arent specifically under the GAppsFYD banner work with your domain login. For example I use my me@mydomain.com login for Picasaweb for my pictures. Pretty much all the Google properties use the GAppsFYD logins now.

As far as a blog, I've setup a tumblog using Tumblr and it has a function for a custom domain. So just enter the info they give you in your DNS and you've got your free blog at your own domain. Blogger allows you to do this as well, using your GAppsFYD login you can setup your blog to use any url you want, once you set it up in your DNS properly. (They have instructions on doing it's pretty easy)

And like everyone else has commented, not having the new Gmail interface is pretty annoying.

williamk

I looked into this a while back, and still have the same questions after this article.

My current web host provides me with domains, web space, emails, etc, etc; and I already have a number of email addresses set up through them on the domains I own.

Unfortunately, the webmail service they provide is pretty sad, compared to gmail.

Can I just set up google apps on my domain and end up using that gmail interface for my mail, without the google name getting thrown all over everything? (my domain and previous and future pages all stay the same)

My current host provides mailserver info, and the storage for the email is part of my overall plan; if I switch to google apps, is the mail stored with my host, or with Google, or both somehow?

Scapegoat

@LASTVIGALANTE:

The standard edition does just fine. I've been using it for about a year and the only downside is the delay between 'regular' Google app users getting new features and those features showing up on GAppsFYD.

Ickster

One other disadvantage is GAppsFYD has not had the round of GMAIL2 enhancements that I'm longing for! At least it hasn't hit my domain yet...

softsmyth

I use GAppsFYD to have the cheapest possible webhosting I've found. I use NearlyFreeSpeech.net for hosting and domain name registration - $8 for the name, uber cheap, pay-as-you-go prices (I pay like $.02-3 a month). NFS charges $.01 a day for enabling e-mail services on their servers, but using GApps, I get that for free, riding on top of my domain name. It's perfect!

Andrew Heiss

What I'm most interested in is getting rid of that "on behalf of soandso@gmail.com" message on outgoing emails. Does the "Standard" free edition of Google Apps do this for me, or is this only on the "Premier" pay edition?

LastVigilante

@Totorototoro: If Google isn't hosting my domain, is Google just pointing your domain to their servers? Or is that my job, to notify my current host that Google is handling it?
If you use Gmail, you do have to set up your email MX server thingy at your domaiin registrar to GAppsFYD settings.

Otherwise, all the GAppsFYDomain URLs look like partnerpage.google.com/example.com (where example.com is your domain.)

So...if I were to purchase a domain name today (no hosting...just a domain name) then I could use it with GAppsFYD? And could I also apply this domain to my Blogger blog without having to pay for hosting?

Yes, I believe so, though not a Blogger blog--you could use Google Page Creator to set up a page or two. To FTP Blogger pages you'd need an FTP host, and Google does not provide FTP access to your web space there. But you could use Page Creator to make a page that links to your blogspot space.

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker Editor

Okay...so...if I were to purchase a domain name today (no hosting...just a domain name) then I could use it with GAppsFYD? And could I also apply this domain to my Blogger blog without having to pay for hosting?

If so, GAppsFYD sounds like it's the internet's clip-on tie...but in a good way.

Raydancer

Thanks for this article!
I'm still confused though...if Google isn't hosting my domain, is Google just pointing your domain to their servers? Or is that my job, to notify my current host that Google is handling it?

Totorototoro

I am a big fan ....point your blackberry to m.google.com/a and you can get the mobile email goodness there.

D.

Danomite

GAppsFYD is very nice for those of us who only want to pay the smallest amount possible for their domain and take advantage of the free web hosting (similar to Go Daddy's deal). The only problem with doing that is that companies like GoDaddy generally only allow one email address with very limited space. GAppsFYD fixes this by allowing up to 25 email address with ever increasing space (up to 5gigs/user I believe). Creating the accounts is very easy, so if you need a junk mail account it takes less then five minutes.

JoeLake

Oh. GAFYD doesn't get have Gmail version 2. Or at least I don't. :(

tvjames

Great topic! One of the reasons I had not made use of Google Apps was I was under the impression that you still have the "on behalf of" header issue which I wanted no part of. If that isn't an issue I am more likely to give them a try.

Thanks all!

mbierman

@22rifle: No - you've got it wrong.

If you use GAFYD and create an account username@domain.com that's who the recipient sees mail as coming from. There's no "on behalf of".

But if you then create a nickname of nickname@domain.com for username@domain.com and set up your account to allow you to also send as that address then it shows the email as coming from "username@domain.com on behalf of nickname@domain.com". Or is it the other way round?

Anyway, if you don't want "on behalf of" then you can always create another GAFYD account for nickname@domain.com but then you have two mailboxes to monitor.

So, to be clear, the "on behalf of" only appears if you send as an alternate address, not as the user account address.

BarCar

@22rifle: The "sent on behalf of" shows up in Outlook right at the top of the message. Most webmail clients dont show it unless you look at the headers. But since Outlook is sorta the default business mail client and business is where you might not want it to say "on behalf of" since that look sorta sketchy it's a concern for some people. Also when trying to keep work and personal stuff separate its not good for your business contacts to always see your personal email address.

Now, this is only if you are using a gmail.com login and sending on behalf of another domain. If you are using GAppsFYD you dont get that message since you arent sending on behalf of, you actually are that domain.

williamk

Let me see if I understand this. If I use Google to send emails from my username@mydomain.com address it will say "sent on behalf of username@gmail.com" (my gmail account)?

Which clients receive it that way? How can I test this? I thought all along that the gmail connection was hidden except in headers.

Next you will tell me that it also puts an advertisement in those emails!?!?!

Can anyone help me understand all this?

As a side question: Where is the downside of a contact knowing you use a rocking email client? I understand the issue with doing business with freebie email accounts. But what difference does it make to a contact what email client I use? i don't get it.

BTW, on the issue of using free email accounts for business of professional purposes, this is my perception when I get an email from a contact and they are using a free email address.

AOL = Who are you kidding? This isn't for real is it?

Hotmail = Come on! Get with the program.

Yahoo = A slight roll of the eyes.

Gmail = A slight shrug of the shoulders.

22rifle

@TVJames, ooh, that's brilliant. I just use cnn.com@mydomain.com to check that, but because of that, I have my catchall forwarding to my main mailbox.

Not a big deal for spam, as Google catches almost 100% of it, but when someone is spamming and spoofing one of my domain names like today....

I end up with 600+ postmaster responses in my mailbox...

JeffCarr

@tvjames: How were you able to use nicknames to generate emails based on a per site basis? Can you use wildcards in nicknames or do you have to create a nickname for every registration?

I just registered a domain and Google Apps for it yesterday so I was happy to see this post!

votresivain

All of this gapp talk makes me want to collaborate on something. Trouble is I don't know what.

:-D

onemoreday

I may well have missed it in one of the (many) comments above, but for those who do not already have their own domain, GAFYD is apparently working with various domain registrars now. I only found this out when a couple of friends of mine signed up a couple of months ago and I walked them through it. As I recall, they had made it pretty easy by having all the basic settings (A, MX, and other such records) preconfigured to work with GAFYD (I think GoDaddy was the registrar they were using then, but I'd bet that others would be similar). Check out the following help/FAQ page for more information:

[www.google.com]

mmccoombe

I use Google Apps for my domain for email hosting; I still have my domain web hosting through an excellent web host that offers PHP and mySQL for other things. But frankly, webhost email sucks compared to Gmail-hosted, even if it *does* reside with Google.

I get via my webhost something like 5GB space, and 75GB transfer each month. I wanted to host personalized email accounts for my friends, and it's sooo much better going with Google. I can't match Google's ~5GB per mailbox. The admin and management panel is so much better with Google. The spam filtering is better. The interface (gmail vs squirrelmail) is tons better. Plus, now Google offers both IMAP and POP, so those people who were using offline clients can keep doing so.

Everybody wins!

edmicman

Here's the most important aspect of GAFYD:

If you want to collaborate with a few people or say own a small company of 3 to 10 employees or more. (Meaning you want to share and work on documents with each other - all at the same time.) But you don't want to spend thousands on a server and a tech guy to run it each month, GAFYD allows you to do that!

Not only do all your employees get a great email interface they can access anywhere (with very strong passwords mind you) they also can create word, excel and presentation documents. And then share them with as many people as you want. You can then collaborate on them (make changes together) and chat about them all together in a group chat box next to the document.

You can then store those documents online. While allowing only those people your sharing them with access. You also have shared calenders, with reminders that can include everything from pop ups, to emails, to sms messages.

It basically organizes your entire group or company with the best shared email, calender, and collaborative documents available. Without having to spend hundreds of hours or thousands of dollars administering a server.

If your like me - just keeping the 10 computers within my small company networked and sharing the same file folder to store stuff in is enough. I can't tell you how much of a hassle Microsoft has made this. Not to mention the expense!

This is what makes GAFYD the killer app (if you will). Without this service your stuck buying a server and paying an administrator to keep it up and running. This can easily cost you thousands. Most small groups can't afford that.

In the case of my company - way to much to make it worth while. All we needed was to be able to all work from the same excel spreadsheet and a few "to do" type text documents. We've expanded GAFYD far beyond that now. And for $50 per user per year(?!). Instead of what? $5000 a year for a server and tech guy?

In a phrase? GAFYD is the bomb! :)

molife

@votresivain - In my GAFYD, I have several accounts set up as normal...

daughter@domain.com
wife@domain.com
brother@domain.com
me@domain.com
etc.
and I have an account catchall@domain.com

Then in the GAFYD management tool, click on "Service Settings" and "Email"

You'll see

   Catch-all address:
   If received email does not match any existing address:
   ( ) Discard the email
   ( ) Forward the email to [catchall___]@domain.com

So catchall@domain.com is a legitimate address, one of my users. So I go to mail.domain.com, sign in as catchall and edit the filters.

Starts with... --> forward to
me. --> me@domain.com
finances. --> me@domain.com
wife. --> wife@domain.com
brother. --> brother@domain.com
daughter. --> daughter@domain.com

The great thing is that when I sign in to me@domain.com, it still recognizes the mail as to where it originally was addressed.

So filters in my normal account can filter
me.soldmyemailaddressthosebastards@domain.com and dump it right in the trash and finances.usaa@domain.com gets flagged with the green $$$ label. me.newscom@domain.com amd me.yahoogroups@domain.com forwards to my work address (our work has an overly ambitious ironport that blocks stuff too often), marks with my red "delete" label and archives. (I go in every so often and delete everything with the delete label.) And me.googlealerts@domain.com and me.mypoints@domain.com get forwarded to Remember the Mail to be a checklist to review later.

tvjames

If anyone wants to play with Google apps without setting up a domain, the Fox TV station in Tulsa www.fox23.com has a deal where you create an account for an email. When you click on it to go to the email it sends you to gmail. A little playing with it I have found I have a docs and spreadsheet account as well. I have not moved around it to much.

There are various domains to get the account under, none which say fox23 at all.

docbob

OK, so without GAFYD, if I log into my gmail account, send a message to someone that uses Outlook, and use the drop down menu to send it from me@mydomain.com because I have it set up in Google and it will show up "on behalf of" in their email?

CRUD!

22rifle

onemoreday - LOL! So funny! But it's amazing how integral collaborating on even one simple spreadsheet can be to a small group or company. Before GAFYD each person had to open our "jobs in process spreadsheet". Then someone else would yell across the office "can you close the jobs spreadsheet?! I have to add something to it!". And so on and so forth. Back and forth. It was ridiculous. And the only solution we would ever get presented by IT people was "you need a server". Which meant "you need a server so I can come back here once a week to fix problems and make sure everyone stays connected." We already spend way to much on them keeping our simple network going. I know I would have then been up to 5 to 10k a year in IT expenses. And GAFYD is so EASY anyone can administer it and forget about it.

molife

For those who want even more control and formality, let's not forget that the gapps version for hire ($$) let's you manage mail in a more granular fashion.

rumor is that you get some of the advanced features which google bought through the postini acquisition.

i just moved my mx records and love having less overhead on my server. i also love having a jabber account pointing at my domain w/o having to set that up myself and encumbering the overhead.

somepocho

I use google apps for my dj site at the moment, Until I can configure my apache install for name based virtual hosting on windows (royal pain). I have been very impressed, the gmail was my main reason for signing up. Now with Imap this is a great solution. Being able to get my mail on my verizon phone via mobile web is a dream come true! F paying for their email service.

I used namecheap for my registration, but recently found a registrar that intergrates google apps right into the process, no need to go thru extra steps.

The price is right too. Currently $5.99 for a new domain w/ 1yr registration and Google Apps Suite.

name.com (Google apps explanation)

Seems like a one stop shop to me ;-)

My only gripe is that you can't get rid of the crap design templates on the pagebuilder, I wish I could shed them in favor of my own. I am competent in HTML already. I am sure they don't enable this, to keep everyone from using this for web hosting, since it is currently ad free.

dj_skilz

@dj_skilz - next year (early?) GApps will replace its funky page creator with a more full-fledged version based on last year's Jotspot acquisition.

More info: [googlesystem.blogspot.com]

tvjames

One annoyance with Gmail is that you can't be logged in to multiple accounts on the same computer at the same time. If each family member in my house has a Gmail account we have to sign out and sign in as a different user each time we want to check mail. Yes, you can set up a different profile or use a different browser altogether but it would be nice if this wasn't necessary.

Does GAFYD affect this at all? I'm not sure how it would be figured I'd ask all you smart lifehackers anyway.

jdoree

@jdoree: What web app *does* behave that way? How would the website know that it's you sitting at the PC vs your spouse vs a friend who's just over for the afternoon and wants to check his email? As far as I know, you either need to log into the website separately, or have separate windows accounts, or separate browser profiles.

If you know of a website that automagically knows who you are without some sort of verification, please tell me!

edmicman

@jdoree: I can keep one gmail and one GAFYD acct open at the same time in ffox, but not multiples of either. if you run IE and ffox simultaneously you can open more (which i assume you could extend to opera etc. but that could get annoying).

person_x

If you don't have your own domain already you can go to google apps and get the basic (free) addition and register a domain through google. They will randomly set you up with either godaddy or enom, and they will automatically set up the DNS routing for you. You end up paying $10 per year for domain registration, but nothing for the apps.

I love it. There are a few quirks, but its what you get for free. The ones I am aware of:
- slower upgrades than gbranded stuff
- At least your home page on your web site must be created through their app. You can create other pages and upload them yourself, but (for now) you can't direct your home page to an uploaded page.
- They seem to have a problem with routing the route domain. mail.yourdomain.com goes to your mail page. www.yourdomain.com goes to your web page. start.yourdomain.com goes to the start (login) page for your users. You can change all of the these defaults. The problem appears to be that the root domain: yourdomain.com with no www in front goes to your start page. There are instructions on changing this, but they don't reliably work. Most web site owners don't want to send root visitors to their start page, but to their home page.

Michael

emellaich

@person_x: Thanks! Thats the answer I was looking for. Is that in the same browser but a different tab or a completely different browser?

I'm not interested in multiples of the same account.

jdoree

@edmicman: I'm not saying that you shouldn't have to authenticate with the service, just that you should be able to log in to Gmail in one tab with one user and log into Gmail in another tab as another user and keep both tabs open. Through the magic of cookies etc. this should be possible. Right now you can do it but not in different tabs. You need two different Firefox profiles or two different browsers (i.e. Gmail open in Ff and Gmail open in IE).

I sometimes do this with one firefox and one flock browser running to stay with Mozilla based browser goodness.

jdoree

Google will host your domain (i.e. Google is a registrar) and any web pages you want to setup on it using the Web Pages link. The registration is $10/year I think. Plus registering with Google lets you rank a little higher in the search results.
If you don't like the default templates for web pages you can upload your own (FTP?).

pand0ra

If you don't own your own domain www.spamgourmet.com offers a similar catch-all email service which you can use with plain gmail (or any email address). You can give out cnn.yourusername@spamgourmet.com and it will autocreate and forward to your regular email acct until a certain # of messages have been sent or you cut it off. (They also have other domains which don't have the word 'spam' in them)

person_x

@tvjames: Wow thanks! I tested that out and it seems to be working great! This will be an excellent workaround for "unlimited" email addresses since so many sites do not accept the plus sign.

Jordan

@tvjames: That is true about spamgourmet, which is why I use their other domain options (e.g., antichef.com). Nobody has blocked that one on me yet. You can mix and match on the fly and they all go to your chosen "real" acct.

person_x

@person_x - a number of sites will not send to @spamgourmet.com. If you were to ask for emails from the organization I work for, and you provided a spamgourmet.com email address, you'd never receive any emails.

@jdoree - what's been said above is true. My wife actually forwards all her email from wife@domain.com to oldaddress@gmail.com. So she keeps Gmail open all the time and I can keep my GappGmail open all the time in Firefox without collision. The only problem comes in with non-Gapp sites, like Reader or Blogger. whenever I go into those, I end up signing her out of her Gmail. I would love to see Reader and Blogger go into Gapp. I can't see any compelling reason for Google to do it, but I'd like to see it none-the-less.

tvjames

One thing I forgot to mention GAFYD (paid) comes with phone support. And they are EXCELLENT! GAFYD is a very simple solution but during set up the phone tech support was VERY VERY helpful. I think they are based in UK everyone spoke with an english accent.

Someone needs to come up with a better name than that though. G-A-F-Y-D is so hard to remember let alone spell. How about GAFFY or GAFFED or just GHOST - probably copyrighted.

molife

@jdoree: i'm not sure i follow your question. you can have one gmail + one GAFYD acct open in each browser, the two acct types do not conflict with each other. (they have different logon pages, different cookies, etc.) doesn't matter if it's new tabs or new windows. you can get another 1 of each open at the same time with each add'l browser you run.

person_x

This is nothing but a data collection for Google Empire. They give you free Apps for your to use so they could learn more about you an dyour activities.

lawksalih

I've been using GAFYD for a while, mostly so that I can use an e-mail address with my own domain name. But I haven't been able to free myself from the @gmail.com address, mostly because when I send photos to friends and family using Picasa, it only allows me to use my Gmail address. I have Gmail forwarded to my personal domain, but I wish I could avoid that. WilliamK said, way above, that he can log into other Google services, including Picasaweb, using his "me@mydomain.com login". He says, "Pretty much all the Google properties use the GAppsFYD logins now." I haven't been able to log in using my me@mydomain.com login where it asks for a "Google account", including Picasa. What am I missing?

DougK

Question, if you have this set up for two domains and you use Mail.app and check through iMAP, will it let you check both domains at once or do you get some sort of log in problem?

I own my fullname.com and mycompanyname.com and they are currently hosted on Pair. I'd like to start using Gmail through imap on my Mac. Could I set up two Google for Domains accounts and check and send for both through Mail or would I have to forward one to the other and get the sent on behalf of message? I currently have a Gmail account as well and I'd like to check everything with a minimum of forwarding stuff around.

robgnyc