Google just added a new feature to its Google Apps for Your Domain suite of hosted services - a customizable start page. This is a new corporate version of Google's existing personal start page, for people inside a company using Google's apps for e-mail and calendaring. The differences between the standard Google start page and this product are that administrators can design the page, can lock down all or part of it, and can give it a custom URL.

Setting up a company intranet page is certainly easy with this tool, but Google's business services are still a bit light. Google hasn't yet integrated Google Docs and Spreadsheets into Google Apps for Your Domain, for example. Google does have all the pieces (including a recently acquired wiki service, a blogging platform, and more) to build a killer small business service. If Google takes the small business market seriously, we should see more activity on this service, and soon. Otherwise, Microsoft's Office Live and Intel's SuiteTwo may grab a lot of the business customers Google is trying to woo.

The service is currently under beta test and available free of cost. In order to use the service, an IT personnel from your organisation will have to sign up for the service. Google will then review your request to determine whether you meet their basic criteria. Once approved, the administrator (IT personnel) will be able to access the Google Apps for Your Domain control panel. Organizations accepted by Google during the Google Apps for Your Domain beta period are eligible for free service for their approved beta users even beyond the end of the beta period, as described in the Terms of Service.