Personalizing Google Apps for Your Domain

Google on Monday added a "start page" feature to its Google Apps for Your Domain package of Web applications, which it launched in August. The start page will serve as a central access point for the applications that come bundled in the package, including things like e-mail, news, weather, map and calendar, product manager Mike Horowitz said. Google Apps for Your Domain allows corporations and organizations to offer those applications to employees and others for free, in essence outsourcing the infrastructure, maintenance and other costs to Google.

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A customizable start page

Administrators can design the page, lock it down and give it a custom URL.

"This is not a portal," Horowitz said. "This is just a start page based on Google Personalized Homepage." Both the organizations that offer the applications and their users can customize the start page. For example, Arizona State University will be using the product to offer e-mail, calendar and class schedule information to its 65,000 students, Horowitz said. Gateway has already launched a Start Page for its customers, he said. Google does not charge for the Google Apps for Your Domain, which is in beta, nor does it put ads on it.