4 ms·

>I'll just set up my own email system at this point, call it a learning experience and never be exposed to the rest of whatever was in Google Apps. And? Free

>I'll just set up my own email system at this point, call it a learning experience and never be exposed to the rest of whatever was in Google Apps. And? Free users threatening to leave are hilarious (even better when they campaign against ad targeting and AdBlock everything). Google's decision pretty clearly signals that users like you aren't worth it to the company any more than Google Apps are worth $50 to you. Don't do business. That's the point of a market. I wouldn't pay for it either - I'm grateful that my Google Apps are grandfathered, but nobody is entitled to GMail, Facebook, Twitter, etc. It's a voluntary transaction between two entities and, in this case, you and Google Apps aren't a good fit.

blhack 14y ago
What you're missing here is that the free google apps was a way for admins to get their hands into the GA ecosystem. Google already offers the product for free, just so long as you use an @gmail.com address.
bad_user 14y ago
I use Google Apps because I want to use GMail, but with my own domain. That's it. I'm not an enterprise. I don't need more support than regular GMail users. I don't have special needs, like managing what services are allowed. I just don't want a @gmail.com address. I see people here defending this move, but think of how services like Google+ make mandatory an email address that's managed by Google. That email address will now have to be a @gmail.com address for regular users. Now think of how you can register with any email address on Facebook or Twitter, an email address which becomes your online ID. By using your own domain with your own email address, if the email provider interrupts the service for you, you can always change your MX records and recover all the accounts that rely on that address. That's not something you can do with a @gmail.com or a @yahoo.com or a @hotmail.com address. If Google cuts off your access for some reason (like in case they find out you're under 18 or some bullshit) or if they delete your account by accident (hey, shit happens), then at the very least your online identity is not lost. Freeloading is not the issue for me. I am already a paying Google customer in other ways (I buy stuff from Google Play, I pay for Google Drive storage, etc...) and I would happily pay them $50 per year anyway. The bigger issue is that using any Google service requires a Google email account, with Google Apps being a mild remedy for that. How can I encourage people to use Google's services now? Not mentioning that 2 businesses are now paying customers of Google Apps, because of my freeloading and my recommendations for it. Also, WTF is it with Google and raising prices? Companies are usually cutting prices down, while they are raising them. This also makes it an issue of trust - usually when I subscribe to services, I expect prices to go down, not up, otherwise I cannot trust it. My trust in Google is eroding right now. What next? Make Chrome and Android proprietary with a yearly subscription for users? Lots of pesky freeloaders out there.
- ebiester 14y ago
  If that's all you want, go to nearlyfreespeech, set up your domain there, and tell it to forward emails to your gmail account. Your gmail account then can send email under that name. I did it for quite a while.
  - bad_user 14y ago
    Thanks, that could be an alternative and I'll play around with it to see how it works out.
    - deong 14y ago
      It works, but Outlook (or at least some versions) will always show your emails as being from something like "address-you-forward-to@gmail.com (via you@your-real-domain.com)" which is annoying.
      - cbr 14y ago
        You can set gmail to use the smtp servers associated with your-real-domain.com and avoid this message.
- superuser2 14y ago
  Just because you have to have a GMail account to log in to Google services doesn't mean you have to use it as your primary email address. Plain-old GMail is no different (from a UX perspective) from being the sole user on a Google Apps account, so admins haven't really lost anything in terms of being able to evaluate Google Apps. There's nothing particularly interesting in the free version's admin panel.

blhack 14y ago

What you're missing here is that the free google apps was a way for admins to get their hands into the GA ecosystem. Google already offers the product for free, just so long as you use an @gmail.com address.

bad_user 14y ago

I use Google Apps because I want to use GMail, but with my own domain. That's it. I'm not an enterprise. I don't need more support than regular GMail users. I don't have special needs, like managing what services are allowed. I just don't want a @gmail.com address. I see people here defending this move, but think of how services like Google+ make mandatory an email address that's managed by Google. That email address will now have to be a @gmail.com address for regular users. Now think of how you can register with any email address on Facebook or Twitter, an email address which becomes your online ID. By using your own domain with your own email address, if the email provider interrupts the service for you, you can always change your MX records and recover all the accounts that rely on that address. That's not something you can do with a @gmail.com or a @yahoo.com or a @hotmail.com address. If Google cuts off your access for some reason (like in case they find out you're under 18 or some bullshit) or if they delete your account by accident (hey, shit happens), then at the very least your online identity is not lost. Freeloading is not the issue for me. I am already a paying Google customer in other ways (I buy stuff from Google Play, I pay for Google Drive storage, etc...) and I would happily pay them $50 per year anyway. The bigger issue is that using any Google service requires a Google email account, with Google Apps being a mild remedy for that. How can I encourage people to use Google's services now? Not mentioning that 2 businesses are now paying customers of Google Apps, because of my freeloading and my recommendations for it. Also, WTF is it with Google and raising prices? Companies are usually cutting prices down, while they are raising them. This also makes it an issue of trust - usually when I subscribe to services, I expect prices to go down, not up, otherwise I cannot trust it. My trust in Google is eroding right now. What next? Make Chrome and Android proprietary with a yearly subscription for users? Lots of pesky freeloaders out there.

ebiester 14y ago
If that's all you want, go to nearlyfreespeech, set up your domain there, and tell it to forward emails to your gmail account. Your gmail account then can send email under that name. I did it for quite a while.
- bad_user 14y ago
  Thanks, that could be an alternative and I'll play around with it to see how it works out.
  - deong 14y ago
    It works, but Outlook (or at least some versions) will always show your emails as being from something like "address-you-forward-to@gmail.com (via you@your-real-domain.com)" which is annoying.
    - cbr 14y ago
      You can set gmail to use the smtp servers associated with your-real-domain.com and avoid this message.
superuser2 14y ago
Just because you have to have a GMail account to log in to Google services doesn't mean you have to use it as your primary email address. Plain-old GMail is no different (from a UX perspective) from being the sole user on a Google Apps account, so admins haven't really lost anything in terms of being able to evaluate Google Apps. There's nothing particularly interesting in the free version's admin panel.