Digital Home Thoughts: Getting Personal With Google Apps

"When it launched, millions of us grabbed free Gmail addresses, and associated Calendar, Docs, Voice, and other apps followed. But personal domains are cheap, and claiming an @yourname.com address to use with Google Apps is easier than ever. Here's why you should."

Free email services have been around for a very long time, and while most people do not think twice about emailing their friend @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @hotmail.com or even @facebook.com, there is still a stigma attached to businesses that use free email addresses. Running your own domain used to cost a fair bit of money and a certain amount of technical know-how. That is no longer the case. Domains are quite cheap and amount to the only real cost you have to make if you host with Google Apps.

Having your own domain is fun, and gives you some geek cred and ensures that regardless of what happens, short of not paying your domain registration fee, you have a permanent email address. While this is not as much of a problem with the free email providers, if you have an email address with your ISP, and decide to switch ISPs, you can spend an untold amount of time telling everyone of your new address.Still, that does not stop your email provider, even free ones, from taking back your address. Owning your own domain means that your email address is yours for an eternity.

That permanent email address is also complimented by Google's suite of online applications such as Calendar, Contacts, Docs, etc. With the low cost, there is no real reason why you should not take advantage and create your real online identity.