Google Updates Apps For Domains

UPDATED: Google is not a portal company, but the brainiacs at the Googleplex are happy to build one for your organization or small business. They just prefer you call it a “start page.”

Starting today, Google is updating its Google Apps for Your Domain product, Mike Horowitz, Google’s product manager, told internetnews.com.

The new start page is based on Google’s Custom Home Page. It is supposed to be a central access point for Google Apps for Your Domain, a product Google launched in August.

As internetnews.com previously reported, Google Apps for Your Domain includes tools for communicating and collaborating in the enterprise, such as Gmail Web e-mail, instant messaging, voice calling and collaborative calendering.

The service also includes Web page design, publishing and hosting via Google Page Creator.

The standard package also includes 2 gigabytes of e-mail storage for each user, customization tools and help for administrators via e-mail or an online help center.

The news today is that now administrators can customize a start page for all the users of those Google apps. Horowitz said Arizona State University and Clarin, a major Argentinian ISP, have already signed on as partners.

But even though those and other partners will bring thousands of searchers to Google, they shouldn’t expect a slice of Google’s advertising revenue.

“The thought that went into this decision was: How do we bring more value to organizations?” Horowitz said.

He said Google is thinking of releasing making a premium option available in the first quarter of 2007.