Why you should be using Google Hosted Apps

The answer is simple - it works, and it works really well.

For three years now, all of our 3bit.com/.com.au/.co.nz emails have been running off the Google Hosted Apps email platform.  Like any IT start-up, we originally ran our own email server internally, but after dramas and headaches, and never-ending security and spam updates, we moved a few of our users over to Google as a trial - the reluctant remaining (and I admit, I was not keen initially) were pushed, and it's a decision that we haven't looked back on.

Some of the killer features include:

• Search. Plain and simple, this is the main reason we use Google - their web search works brilliantly, and using this to search years of archived email makes finding things really painless.  Search options such as from:(mauricio@gz.co.nz) has:attachment after:2010/7/11 before:2010/7/14 help refine searches even more.
• Accessibility.  Whether it's through the webmail interface (which uses SSL), on a smart phone (or iPad), or in an email program such as Outlook or Thunderbird (POP3 or IMAP), all are supported.  I now only use the webmail, instead of Thunderbird, as the keyboard shortcuts make moving and handling email quick.  I achieve push email through Nokia's pseudo push email to my E71, without having to sell my soul to Blackberry.
• Spam. The false positive (emails marked as spam when they are legitimate) is low, and I get very few spam emails that pass through their filters.  I don't need to pay a third party to filter my email first, or keep my own filters up to date - Google take care of it all.
• Storage - Each account gets a massive 25GB of storage - even with all our emails archived, our user average is around 14% used.  We also don't need to worry about backups.
• Upgrades - We no longer needed a dedicated mail admin - by moving our mail to the cloud, upgrades are taken care of, and we don't experience any downtime.

Below is a short video about NZ Post going Google:

I highly recommend you take a look at Google's offerings, and as a blatant plug, if you want to setup a domain on Google, flick us an email or make a comment below.