The Windows Live Custom Domains thing has received a lot of play in the “blogosphere” recently and, to be honest, I just let it all pass by. I really wasn’t all that interested in checking it out. But, I had some time to kill this morning while waiting for an electrician at the office and followed a few links and ended up at the site. So, I did some reading and finally twigged to what the thing is: Have us host e-mail and IM for you in a domain you already own.
In fact I should mention, right before I got there, I had noticed a few articles about Google’s new “Gmail for your domain” (slashdot was one that I read).
Now, I suddenly realize these are too very similar ideas by two very different companies trying to play in the same niche. Which one of has the more “rushed” product, I wonder? Surely, the timing on these announcements can’t be all that accidental?
Frankly, I’m intrigued by the Microsoft offering and might just give it a go for my little side business. I’ve seen GMail’s anti-spam measures in action and haven’t been all that impressed, maybe MS’s new product does it better? But will it be better than Hotmail? There’s the question… Suppose there’s only one way to find out, I just am not sure I have the courage!
[edit] I found this Q&A post right after I posted… Two deal-breakers for me right now: no “catch all” addresses and, perhaps worse, no outlook support without paying for an MSN account. Doh.
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February 11th, 2006 
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[...] Got my beta invitation earlier this week. Set stuff up this evening. My domain’s email is now handled by Gmail (Gmail for Your domain last mentioned here). I had signed up for the beta early February and just been patiently waiting. [...]
Very useful post, I was looking for whether they had catchall support.
Do GMail have it?
Any chance I could get an invite to the GMail fy Domain service
Gmail have it.
And I think most people now dont have to wait to sing up to Gmail for your domain.
I even got the application approved for a domain without website – (grahasegara.com)
I never had the chance to go with Gmail with 2 rejections to apply.
Now big G offers a freely available standard sign-up for custom domain email hosting, but I just couldn’t get through the steps, held by one stupid error: Google Apps does not currently support domains in United States?!
Trying MS now, idle in between the record propagation. But to be honest, hotmail has way too more ads than Gmail.
Sure it does!