What does Google Apps do that you can't already get for free?

Maybe I’m just slow, but the recent announcement of the free availability of Google Apps to nonprofits puzzled me. Weren’t all these apps already free to everyone? Well, a Google webinar later, I’m much enlightened. And pretty compelled.

What does Google Apps for Education (and now for nonprofits) offer that you can’t get without?

• Your own domain for Gmail. Your organizational email addresses will be at laura@yournonprofit.org, rather than laura@gmail.com.
• The ability to customize your own Google Start page. This was particularly compelling to me. You can set all the defaults for an organizational start page, which can include custom links, searches, even custom applications, which your staff can then individually customize. This seems like an interesting option for a very light “intranet” that would provide key links to staff.
• No ads. You can turn off the Google ads (interestingly, for only your full time staff, not part time, and you’re obligated to tell Google which is which)
• Phone and email support. Enough said.
• Substantial APIs . Integrate with LDAP servers to create accounts, enable single-sign-on, integrate with Outlook, etc
• Visual branding for your organizations. All the Google Apps (Gmail, Chat, Calendar, Google Start Page, Dos and Spreadsheets) can show your logo and a bit of color branding

By the way, the Google webinar was worthwhile – fairly information rich.

Update 7/23: Whoops! In fact, as Mr/ Ms Anonymous pointed out in the comments, these are the benefits that you get from Google Apps as opposed to just using the one-off applications. But in fact there's a free version of Google Apps that is available to everyone that has most of these features. The key things the Education version brings you over these is the No Ads, Phone and Email Support, and Substantial APIs - the rest of this you can get in the free version of regular Google Apps. I guess I was even more confused than I realized I was!