On Thursday December 6th, 2012 Google quietly announced the end of its free basic version of email services for Businesses in a Blog post.  Previously, businesses had been able to set up 10 email addresses based on their domain using the online suite of business applications, including Google Drive, e-mail, calendar and storage.
Google has been reducing free accounts since it first started offering accounts with up to 200 emails, they first reduced it to 100 users, then 50 users, and then finally reduced to 10 users in April of 2011.

New Google business accounts will now be charged $50 per user. However, existing users will see NO CHANGE.  The new “Premium Version” includes 24/7 phone support, 25 GB inbox (Which is huge), and a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

Reports have shown that over 5 Million businesses have taken advantage of the free cloud based services and this move to eliminate free services is widely seen as an attempt to capitalize on its popularity with small businesses and increase its bottom line.

What do you think of this move? Did your business take advantage of the free email prior to this change? Let us know in the comments section below.