Google Apps custom domain login page gets redirected to Google

Question

I've setup my Google Apps mail domain, but when I go to:

http://mail.example.com/

it shows me the login form (no problem), but the address is:

https://www.google.com/a/example.com/ServiceLogin?service=mail&passive=true&rm=false&continue=https://mail.google.com/a/example.com/&ss=1&ltmpl=default&ltmplcache=2

Shouldn't it be still mail.example.com?

Or is the mail subdomain just for redirect only?

Answer 1

That's exactly how it works and is by design. Once you set it up, all it does it make it easier for you to hand out to your users and for them to get to the login page.

Set up URL forwarding

Google Apps offers a URL forwarding feature called custom URLs. This allows you to create simple, easy-to-remember URLs for the services available in the core Google Apps suite. For instance, a custom URL allows you and your users to reach the email login page at http://mail.example.com. You'll need to create a CNAME record in your domain settings in order to set up a custom URL.

You can then use either the custom sub-domain you've set up or the longer full Google Apps URL. Either one works, but only the latter is the one that appears in your location bar.