Signing up for Google's Microsoft Office Killer

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    Google Apps Premier has launched and it plans to take on small business customers. Should Microsoft be worried?

    Google may undercut Microsoft Office with its business apps subscriptions for a mere $50 per account a year, but there are a few fine print items to consider. Here's a look at the sign-up process and where I hit trouble spots. Step one: Forking over the dough. That's easy enough.

    Caption by: Larry Dignan

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    Since this is a hosted service I was very interested in the service level agreement. Here's the link. Unfortunately...

    Caption by: Larry Dignan

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    ...it didn't work. Could be a deal breaker for some.

    Caption by: Larry Dignan

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    Here's the administrator account setup. Looks easy enough. One big problem: I don't have a domain name. The help page says there's an option to get one if I sign up for Google Apps Standard and then upgrade to premier. For giggles I proceed with the domain name I used to own.

    Caption by: Larry Dignan

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    A pretty snazzy dashboard. Again though I have to verify my domain--which I don't have--or get a new one.

    Caption by: Larry Dignan

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    This verification gets a little complicated for sole proprietors or anyone that wants Google apps sans the ads.

    Caption by: Larry Dignan

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    More dashboards. Very Google-ish with a simple interface.

    Caption by: Larry Dignan

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    Stuck in the domain loop.

    Caption by: Larry Dignan

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    These settings will be swell once I find a domain name.

    Caption by: Larry Dignan

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These settings will be swell once I find a domain name.

Caption by: Larry Dignan

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