I had been using Google Apps with my contact form plugin for quiet some time already.  For a small blog like me, that would be find and cool.

What is Google Apps?

Google Apps is a service from Google for using custom domain names with several Google products. It features several Web applications with similar functionality to traditional office suites, including: Gmail, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs and Sites.

The Standard Edition is free and offers the same amount of storage as regular Gmail accounts.  The Premier Edition, which offers 25 GB of e-mail storage, is 50 USD, or 40 EUR, per year, per account. You could find the comparison between the two here.  The Education Edition, which is free, combines some features from the Standard and Premier editions.

How to use it?

For Gmail to work bearing your domain name your need to change your MX record to point to Google or amend your CNAME record to work with Google.

In order to verify the domain ownership, you’ll need to upload an html file to your main directory or change your CNAME record.  The verification process will take up to 48 hours.

Does Your Blog (Business) Requires It?

Advantage

For the standard edition, you can have 100 user with email account ending with your@yourdomain.com.  The advantage here is that you don’t have the look of using a free email service! @gmail.com address.   If you decide to move email providers away from Gmail, you can do so without changing or losing your domain address.

Disadvantage

Google seems to roll out new features a little slower for it versus non-domain Google offerings as proven in the case of mobile Gmail app which only works for straight-up vanilla Gmail accounts.

If you worried about privacy, may be you should not try this application either.

Should you take it?

Well, that I leave to you. If you wants to added some value to your blog, for example, free email account bearing your domain name, may be it’s a good idea.

If you happy with email function provided by your hosting provider, just wait until you need it.

Or, what your say, should you?