After talking with our resident mastermind Dieki, I am considering Google Apps as a very viable possibility for web hosting. I wanted to start a thread on it and ask - has anyone here used Google for web hosting? What are your experiences? Likes and dislikes?

From talking with Dieki, I picked up a couple of things that appeal to me about hosting with Google. First, it's free to start out. So at the beginning, I only have to pay for a domain name, leaving the rest of my funds for design work. Once my website starts generating a lot of traffic, the rate is very reasonable. Should the rate ever get unreasonable, Dieki knows how to transfer the website to another server so I won't lose followers.

The obvious flipside to that, of course, is variable rate. If I went with another web host, I would be paying from square one, but the rate would be consistent for unlimited space. Some hosting options also include domain names with the price.

Another benefit to going with Google is that I can use the Blogger interface for the blog portion of the website. I was considering switching to WordPress for its power, but I love Blogger for its simplicity. I'm also kind of a Google girl.

Has anyone had experience with Google web hosting?

I have published extensively with Blogger, and, by extension, Google. I'm not sure what you mean by having to pay when you get greater levels of traffic, though. If you buy a domain through www.blogger.com (powered by some Google-sponsored domain provider), then you will get a free Google Apps account. Traffic would be connected to the hosting, not Google apps, IMHO. But, hosting is generally unlimited (Or let's just say that if you get the domain through blogger the traffic levels are very, very, high).

That being said, I find the Google Apps service indispensable. I use it for both www.intothebook.net and www.face-finder.net, and have thus far not paid a penny for it, though I likely would if I had to It's hard to sum up how many services it can provide for you, particularly in a team blog.

eru

I am going to have to look into that, Huey, as I'm not sure how that differs from using GA like Dieki's talking. I have a question for you - when you buy a domain name and host through Blogger like you are, is all of your design work done through Blogger's interface? Can you upload original web design like a static homepage, or are you working with Blogger themes and pages? I hope that made sense. Thanks!

You are working with Blogger themes, but they are pretty flexible. Into the Book is a blogger theme, as is 139:23, as is FaceFinder, as are the templates you can get on the Template Designer. Blogger hasn't a static homepage, being a blogging platform; Wordpress does.

eru

Thank you for clearing that up for me. The static homepage could be a drawback... the only drawback, actually. *hugs Blogger*

There are ways to get around it, however. PM me if you're interested, since it would be a long explanation.

eru

I know enough for the time being. Thank you ZILLIONS! Cupcake?

Gladly *gobbles cupcake*

eru

One particular benefit to Google Apps is email addresses which are @your-domain.com For example, for Into the Book, our contact form sends to [email protected]. This looks more professional than [email protected] (which wasn't available anyways).

Additionally, we have an email address which Feedburner uses to send out our email updates: [email protected]. Or at FaceFinder, we have an email address called [email protected] where we can direct people to email their face submissions.

Personally, I find email the biggest benefit of Google Apps Plus the fact that it ties in seamlessly with Blogger, being a google product.

eru

The service I was talking about is called Google App Engine, which is an unfortunate misnaming 'cause it's only loosely related to Google Apps. It hosts normal webpages, though it uses Python as a serverside language instead of PHP.

Thanks for clarifying that. I know you've explained that to me about fifty times, but I keep getting GA and GAE mixed up.

I see...*nods* I have never heard of GAE. *looks it up*

I must confess, I'm not an expert on this kind of thing, at least the hosting side. I'm more on the client-side, themes and such.

eru

GAE is nice because:

• It's free until you're a quite large. (1GB traffic\day; depending on the site, that could be more than 70,000 pageviews\month)
• Even after that, it's about a fifth of the price of HW's host.
• It's fast and reliable.
• It handles login stuff for you.

GAE's disadvantages are:

• It's not a traditional web host. There is no MySQL, no PHP, etc. It uses Python \Java\Go with a nonrelational database called bigtables. So you can't use most CMS or forum software.
• If you were doing a very big website, like, more than four or five times the size of HW (Which gets >175,000 pageviews a month right now), it would be cheaper to go with a different host.

Hm. Definitely not a traditional web host Do you use it, Dieki?

eru

Yup, it hosts http://diekisdreamings.com.