When we highlight great business tools here, we typically focus on things that are new. Things that no one’s heard of. Things that are bright and shiny and full of fresh, cutting-edge awesome.

Sometimes we focus so intently on this “new-ness” that we can’t see what’s right under our noses.

Case in point: Google Apps.

A month ago we reintroduced you to Google Apps. Is Google Apps new? No. Is it shiny and sexy and fun? That’s debatable. But is it cool? Is it just dead useful? You’re darned right it is.

With Google Apps, you get a huge suite of tools, each of which can easily stand up against some of the biggest names in enterprise software. For small business people, there are few options that are better. And the price? Sweet. Less than $50 per user per year.

With Google Apps, you get:

Gmail for business: web-based with 25GB of storage and one of the best SPAM killers on the Web.

Google Calendar: Get your stuff together! Know where you need to be and when you need to be there. Scheduling, shared online calendars and sync-able with your smartphone.

Google Docs: Hands-down, one of the best document-sharing applications that there is. Work collaboratively online without attachments and share your documents, spreadsheets and presentations. It even has integrated chat, so you can work with your team members, no matter where they are.

Google Groups: Share content easily with user-created mailing lists and searchable archives.

Google Sites: Super-secure, code-free web pages. Great for intranets and team-managed sites.

Google Video: Secure, hosted video sharing.

Google Apps is the perfect suite of tools for independent contractors. It’s accessible anywhere, you can add as many users as you like for less than the cost of dinner for two at most restaurants. Did you know that you can get 80GB of storage with Google for less than DropBox charges for 50GB? No joke.

It’s 100% practical. It’s 100% useful. It’s 100% easy-to-use. Is it 100% sexy? Not really. But you’re gonna love it. I’m 100% sure about that.