Last night, I signed up for Google Apps, and actually paid for it. It’s not at all that I don’t pay for software or services anymore (though it’s rare these days to have to pay for a lot of great things), but I thought it somewhat novel that I had to pay Google for something, directly, and I think it’s the first time I’ve done so.
I’ve set up Google AdWords accounts for people and “paid” for the setup, I “pay” Google on behalf of other people when clicking on ads they serve up, and so forth. But it’s the first time I’ve flat out bought a service from the company, personally. What made me do it? Well, having used Gmail for YEARS now, I know I’m comfortable using it, and I’m trying to pull all my personal accounts into one place. And 25 gigs of mail is worth it. I’ve also started to use Google Docs quite a bit of late, and this is a nice convenient way to do so, online or offline. Of course I’m comfortable using browser-based applications and services, but this is the first time that I’d gone about a year with a computer without purchasing disc-originated software for word processing, spreadsheets, and so on, and it’s kind of a curious feeling to make yet another big change to how I work with technology. It’s another curious feeling to actually start paying Google in a consumer kind of way, and I’m interested to see if that becomes a trend with other people I know.
Props to John for helping me get it lit up just right, email and all.
Apps is great. You’ll love it. The only annoying quirk I’ve encountered is that, if you use Google Reader, the iGoogle widget doesn’t work with your custom start page. Frustrating but, hopefully, they’ll do the right thing and integrate it properly like they do with Gmail and the Labs stuff.
It’s always interesting when you can see a company transition from creating amazing free software to creating options where people pay for that software. More often then not, you’ll find features in normal Google services either toned down or even off b/c Google can’t make them 100% stable environments, yet.