Google Apps is a service from Google providing independently customizable versions of several Google products under a custom domain name. It features several Web applications with similar functionality to traditional office suites, including Gmail, Google Groups, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs and Sites. It was the vision of Rajen Sheth, a Google employee who later developed Chromebooks.
Google Apps for business is free for 30 days, $5 USD per user account and month thereafter or $50 per year. Google Apps for Education is free and offers the same amount of storage as free Gmail accounts. Free Google Apps is still available though it is demoted in their search results so that users must navigate past the priced offering. Google Apps for Education, which is free, combines features from the Standard and Premier editions.
In addition to shared apps (calendar, docs, etc.), there is Google Apps Marketplace, an App “store” for Google Apps users. It contains various apps, both free and for a fee…