Google has started offering its Gmail users the opportunity to sign up for an enterprise version of its free email service. Last week the firm released a few details about the service, and announced its first user was San José City College.

Gmail's product manager, Stephanie Hannon, wrote on Google's blog, "We're testing a new service with the college by hosting Gmail accounts with SJCC domain addresses - like student@jaguars.sjcc.edu - plus admin tools for efficient account management. Massive storage and features that tame the most unruly inboxes - like powerful mail search, conversation view for messages, and a fast interface - make Gmail very handy for students."

Users will each get a 2GB inbox – a capacity that exceeds the mail storage offered by most enterprise mail systems, and customer organisations are allowed to chose and keep their own domain name. On his blog, IT author Nicholas Carr, wrote, “Gmail suddenly becomes a viable software-as-a-service alternative for a lot of small- and mid-sized organisations that have traditionally had to maintain their own mail server or rent a hosted one.”

Google has not yet announced a commercial roll-out date, or any information on pricing. The question now for potential users is will Google will charge a small fee, or will use its Ad Sense model – which links to contextual advertising – as a revenue generator?

Microsoft is offering a similar service in Beta. Windows Live Custom Domains is also free, offers up to 60 email accounts – with a limit of 250MB. Screenshots and details of a Yahoo service – currently in beta – have also surfaced. Yahoo’s offering has a similar look and feel to off-the-shelf enterprise mail clients.

Also last week, Google announced a partnership with technology consultancy BearingPoint that will see the two firms offer industry-specific search results. BearingPoint said that the agreement would let it offer fully customisable search results to firms in industries such as pharmaceuticals, banking and aerospace, and the capability will be provided via specialised search appliances.