Google Apps Information

Google Apps is a service from Google providing independently customizable versions of several Google products under a custom domain name. It features several Web applications with similar functionality to traditional office suites, including: Gmail, Google Groups, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs and Sites.

The Standard Edition is free and offers the same amount of storage as regular Gmail accounts.^[1] The Premier Edition, which offers additional e-mail storage, is available for an annual fee. The Education Edition, which is free, combines features from the Standard and Premier editions.

History

• August 4, 2010

Google Senior Vice President Urs Hölzle announced that Google will cease development of Google Wave.^[2]

• May 24, 2010:

Google announced that Google Wave will be available to domains hosted by Google Apps in next generation (only US English). Google wave is a live, shared space on the web where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.^[3]

• September 15, 2009:

Google announced that it will provide GovCloud, which will host Google Apps in a separate data environment with enhanced encryption for meeting state and government security standards. ^[4]

• July 7, 2009:

Google upgraded all of the services under Google Apps from 'Beta' status.^[5]

• June 9, 2009:

Google introduced Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, enabling companies running Microsoft Exchange Server to migrate their email boxes from Exchange to Google Apps.^[6][7].

• April 1, 2009:

Google added theme support to the mail interface^[8][9].

• January 29, 2009:

Google added Google Apps to the Google Labs suite. This allows users to add gadgets to their inbox such as 'Offline', 'Tasks', and 'Vacation Time!'.^[10]

• January 14, 2009:

Google removed the ability to add additional users to Standard Edition domains and limited new standard edition domains to 50 users (a reduction from the previous 100).

• December 1, 2008:

Google removed the Start Page option for new Google Apps accounts. They are apparently trying to transition new users to using sites instead.

• September 2008:

Google Page Creator and file uploader was removed as an available service for new Google Apps applicants.

• February 28, 2008:

Google announced that Google Sites will be available to domains hosted by Google Apps. Google Sites allows collaborative editing of web sites and permits users to upload images and videos to their site.^[11]

• October 12, 2007:

Google announced that e-mail storage for domains using Google Apps would be increasing. Premier Edition accounts now have 25 GB of space each (previously 10 GB). Standard and Education Edition accounts will mirror the Gmail counter (previously 2 GB, over 7 GB as of August 2008).^[1]

• October 3, 2007:

Google announced that "security, compliance, policy management, and message recovery services" from recently-acquired Postini will be integrated into Google Apps Premier Edition.^[12][13]

• June 2007:

Email migration from IMAP email services was added to Google Apps.^[14]

• February 22, 2007:

Google launched a Premier Edition for enterprise, as well as making registration public for all Google Apps services. At the same time, all products were unified, and the online control panel was redesigned.

• October 2006:

Google allowed educational institutions to sign-up for the service as well, which was retitled Google Apps For Education. A large implementation of Google Apps is at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, where 38,000 users have Gmail and in-browser IM capabilities.^[15]

• August 2006:

Google expanded on this service and developed Google Apps For Your Domain, incorporating more recent Google services, including Google Calendar, Google Talk, and Google Page Creator. Later, Google added a "Start Page" to all accounts, which is based on their iGoogle service.

• February 2006:

Google created Gmail For Your Domain with an invitation-only beta, which allowed Gmail to be used with a custom domain name. It featured 2 GB of e-mail storage, and many of the standard Gmail features.

Differences between editions

Each edition has a limit on the number of users that may be active at any given time. ^[16] Google Apps launched with a default user allotment of 200 users, which was shortly changed to 100 users. In addition, users could request to have their user limit increased through a manual process taking (at least) 1-2 weeks for approval. In January of 2009, the cap was changed so that all new accounts would receive only 50 users as opposed to 100, and could not request more without payment. ^[17] This was confirmed as relating to the launch of the Google Apps commercial reseller program. Existing Standard Edition users before January 2009 kept their old allocation, in addition to the ability their "request" more users, though these limit requests are now commonly answered with suggestions to "upgrade your subscription". ^[18]

The subscription level of a Google Apps edition is billed based on the total number of available users in the Apps account, and the edition features apply to all users accounts in that subscription. It is not possible to purchase upgrades for a subset of users: to increase the user limit, subscriptions must be purchased for all accounts. For example, an upgrade from a "Standard" limit of 50 users to allow up to 60 users would involve paying for 60 users, whether they are used or not. ^[19]

Standard Edition^[20]

(same restrictions as Gmail)

• Free
• Same storage space as regular gmail.com accounts (over 7500 MB as of September 22, 2010)
• Text ads standard (can be turned off in each account)
• Limited to 50 Users within same domain.
• Email attachments cannot be larger than 25 megabytes.
• Limited to sending email to 500 external recipients per day per email account.^[21]

Premier Edition

• 50 USD/40 EUR/33 GBP / account / year
• 25 GB space for e-mail / account
• Text ads optional
• Integrated Postini "security, compliance, policy management, and message recovery services"
• Conference room/resource scheduling
• 99.9% e-mail uptime guarantee
• APIs for Single Sign On, etc.
• 24/7 phone support
• Google Video (Private company version of YouTube.)
• Limited to sending email to 2000 external recipients per day per email account.^[21]

Education Edition

same as Premier Edition except for:

• Free for "accredited not-for-profit 501(c)(3) entities <3,000 users, K-12 schools, colleges, and universities"
• No ads for faculty, staff, or students
• Google may serve ads to accounts not associated with enrolled students, non-profit staff or volunteers ^[22]
• Same storage space as regular gmail.com accounts (over 7500 MB as of September 22, 2009) ^[1]

Available services depending on type of Google Account

Adoption

It is not known how many people use the Google Apps platform, although a Google blog post in March 2010 claimed that 25 million people had "switched to Google Apps." ^[23]

Google is making a concerted effort to increase usage, particularly in the public sector. In 2009, Los Angeles, California awarded Google a five-year contract to provide Google Apps services to 34,000 employees.^[24] In early 2010, the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shifted 5,000 email accounts to Google Apps.^[24] On July 22, 2010, the General Services Administration certified that Google Apps met its GSA's cybersecurity requirements.^[24] On October 29, 2010, Google filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Interior, which opened up a bid for software that required that bidders use Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite. Google sued, calling the requirement "unduly restrictive of competition."^[25] Scholars have pointed out that, beginning in 2005, the prevalence of open standards and open source may begin to significantly change way that public entities (which represent some of the worlds' most significant software purchases) choose to select vendors.^[26]

See also

• Comparison of office suites
• Online office suite

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Rob Siemborski (2007-10-12). "More Gmail storage coming for all". Google. http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/more-gmail-storage-coming-for-all.html. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
2. ^ "Update on Google Wave" (in English). The Google Wave Blog. Google. 4 August 2010. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-on-google-wave.html.
3. ^ "Google Wave Available for Everyone" (in English). The Google Wave Blog. Google. 18 May 2010. http://googlewave.blogspot.com/2010/05/google-wave-available-for-everyone.html. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
4. ^ "Google to Launch Government Cloud". http://www.govtech.com/gt/724044.
5. ^ "Google Apps is out of beta (yes, really)". http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-apps-is-out-of-beta-yes-really.html.
6. ^ http://jkontherun.com/2009/06/09/google-apps-sync-for-microsoft-outlook-treads-on-microsoft-exchange/
7. ^ http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_and_microsoft_sitting_in_a_tree.php
8. ^ http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/04/01/gmail-themes-finally-come-to-google-apps/
9. ^ http://lifehacker.com/5192677/google-apps-adds-support-for-themes
10. ^ "Gmail Gets Offline Support, Finally". shilpz. http://glamizer.blogspot.com/2009/01/gmail-gets-offline-support-finally.html. Retrieved 2009-01-29.
11. ^ "Google Sites". Google. http://www.google.com/sites/overview.html. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
12. ^ "Google Adds Postini's Security and Compliance Capabilities to Google Apps". Google Press Center. 2007-10-03. http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/apps_postini_20071003.html. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
13. ^ "Google Apps - Additional security and compliance options". Google. http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/security.html. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
14. ^ David Berlind (2007-06-25). "Google improves ‘Apps’, offers organizations clear path off Exchange, Notes, etc. to GMail". ZDNet. http://blogs.zdnet.com/Berlind/?p=580. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
15. ^ Lee Rickwood (2007-03-23). "Google Apps: Killer software or killer decision?". PCWorld.ca. http://www.pcworld.ca/news/column/8088b6470a01040800f483b40707b39a/pg1.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
16. ^ "Google Apps FAQ: Standard vs. Premiere". Zadling. http://www.zadling.com/google-apps/google-apps-faq-standard-vs-premiere/.
17. ^ "Google Help Center: Standard Edition user accounts". Google. http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=113251.
18. ^ "Google Apps Blog - 50 user limit for new Standard Edition customers". Google. http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/2009/01/50-user-limit-for-new-standard-edition.html.
19. ^ "Google Help Center: Purchase and Renewals". Google. http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=56904.
20. ^ "Google Apps - Google Apps Standard Edition helps groups build community". Google. http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
21. ^ ^{a b} "Google Apps - Mail Sending Limits". Google. http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=166862. Retrieved 2009-12-14.
22. ^ "Google Apps Education Edition agreement". Google. http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/education_terms.html. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
23. ^ [http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/25-million-people-have-gone-google.html Google Blog stating that 25 million people have adopted Apps
24. ^ ^{a b c} Efrati, Amir (July 26, 2010). "Microsoft Google View To Sell U.S. Cloud Mail". Wall Street Journal: p. B1.
25. ^ [http://www.scribd.com/doc/40513712/Google-v-US-Complaint Google, Inc. vs. the United States
26. ^ Casson and Ryan, Open Standards, Open Source Adoption in the Public Sector, and Their Relationship to Microsoft’s Market Dominance

Further reading

• Beswick, James (2009). Getting Productive With Google Apps. San Francisco, CA: 415 Systems. ISBN 9781440486760.
• Conner, Nancy (2008). Google Apps: The Missing Manual. Sebastopol: Pogue Press. ISBN 9780596515799.
• Granneman, Scott (2008). Google Apps Deciphered: Compute in the Cloud to Streamline Your Desktop. USA: Prentice Hall. ISBN 9780137004706.
• Meet the father of Google Apps (who used to work at Microsoft)

External links

• Official website
• Google Apps Help

Categories: Google services | Cloud applications | Online office suites | Free email hosting

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