Windows Live Custom Domains/Live Mail or Google Apps for your domain – Review

Sorry I wasn’t able to post for the past 3 days as their was Priority-0 issue 😉

In the meantime, Google launched its Google Apps for Domain. Isn’t it the same as Google Hosted Mail + Google Talk + Google Calendar and Google Page Creator all bundled together ? However, the mighty Microsoft has quietly launched Windows Hosted Domains Service. Initial review of hosted domain which is out of Beta was earlier done and feedback sent to Hotmail. Its time to compare the two – Promise Vs Performance.

I was lucky enough to get a beta test account for Google’s Hosted Mail(It’s invite only). I had applied for this very domain, Convergence.In (not the usual .COM, .Net …tld, but India specific tld). If you have hosted the domain on some web space and then try to change the MX records as indicated in the instructions of your hosted GMail dashboard, you might face some issues to configure. You need to change the MX records on your hosting server and not at your domain registrar. Both Hotmail and Google don’t mention this fact very clearly. Glad I used DNS Stuff to reverse engineer and then configure it myself.

I added an e-mail account cp AT convergence Dot In as the administrator account and I was up and running. Sign up process took less than a minute. As promised, my mail box size is 2 GB, the cool gmail interface, Google Calendar and also I was able to log on to GTalk with this account and chat. Additionally I am given the option of uploading my own company logo and a page hosted for my e-mail on Google servers. You can check out Convergence.In sign-up page here. Help pages and FAQs are very well written. I haven’t tested Google’s Page Creator with this account. Indians still face intermittent downtime of their ridiculous 256KBPs internet termed as broadband, No worries, you can also pop your hosted domain e-mails 🙂 Overall Convergence.In rates this service at 9.5 on a scale of 10.0.

Microsoft’s Windows Live Custom Domains is open for anyone to sign-up on any TLD. Once again decided to use two of my .In domains to test out this service. With your passport/hotmail account you logon and add your domain and then change the MX records. (Support staff was helpful but wasn’t able to diagnose the problem). As an admin I created cp AT goHotels Dot In. I go back to Hotmail.com and try to Login. What ? You went to Hotmail.com ? Yes, Microsoft doesn’t provide a cool page branded with your company logo like Google does. OK. Sign-up process is painfull with changing password once, entering the password 4 times, entering personal information and accepting the agreement twice. Finally into your InBox. InBox size is just 25MB and not as promsied as 2GB :-(. Maybe because I am in India, I care less. Their is Help which is not really helpful and no FAQ. And this service by MSN is out of Beta 🙂

What’s more disappointing with Live Domains is this. Check out this, screen shot which claims “Visitors come to your website to check their e-mail…”. However, in reality, they need not come to your site. They can goto Hotmail and check their e-mails. I thought Microsoft would provide some API to integrate this service on the website, but all they give is a link to embed which is available in this screen shot. MSN Chat and Calendar worked fine with the new id. Further, you can upgrade this account to Live Mail Beta, but that can be another review in itself as I found too many problems, especially about 1/4th the screen being occupied for banner advertising. POP mail isn’t supported. Overall Convergence.In rates the Microsoft Live Custom Domains service at 6.5 on a scale of 10.0.

Kindly feel free to post your experience and views.

Windows Live Mail, Google Apps for your domains