There’s No Free Lunch with Google – Apps

As the economy continues to tighten and Google looks for additional revenue streams, it looks like they’re gradually minimizing free access to their Apps.

Google says that most of the one million businesses that use Google Apps choose the free version that is supported by advertising. To reduce the attractiveness of this option, they have started to reduce the number of users that can be associated with a free account.

Google Apps is a suite of online applications like Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, etc. that are combined for business use. In a recent post, they state that more than 1 million businesses use Google Apps currently.  They also state that some 3,000 new businesses sign up on a daily basis.

Take a look at the images below (courtesy of TechCrunch) to see the progression is “free users” allowed…

Google has also made some changes to their the sign-up page for Google Apps. The page used to show a comparison between the free version and the premium version. Now, however, it just shows the premium version, along with a free trial offer.

Make a little more money?  Hey, I’m all for it.