Having just blogged about FastMail.FM vs. Google Apps for Your Domain, I'm intrigued to see to today that the latter is now fuller-featured, and with a paid version as well as a free version.
The upshot: If you want to tie your personal domain name to a host of Google-type services, now including Office-like word processing and spreadsheets as well as e-mail and IM, this is your lucky day. And most of this is available for free -- but only the the paid version comes with phone support and an up-time guarantee.
When I wrote about Google Apps not long ago, I raved about it. I have since migrated a loved one to this free service for her personal e-mail, and she hasn't had a lick of trouble. I'm delighted this entry-level yet powerful service will still cost her and other average users nothing, nada, zip.
But I'll still associate my personal domain name with FastMail instead of Google Apps (for now). FastMail's killer feature is IMAP. Gotta have that. Not sure why Google doesn't offer it. Their loss.
Update: Google premium: Don't get too excited.
Update: By the way, I figured out why Google Notifier stopped working on my various Macs, per this post. It apparently doesn't like Google Apps-type Gmail accounts, just the generic ones. That's one more reason I'll stay away from Google Apps for now, I gotta have that notifier.
