Smarterware » Google Apps

Google Apps vs. Google Accounts Parity Coming

Gina Trapani — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 21:02:00 +0000

Google Apps users who want access to all the same products that regular Google Accounts have won't have to wait much longer. An anonymous tipster tells me a Google Trusted Tester program is underway right now, which "transitions" Google Apps accounts to full access to all GOOG products, including Voice, Reader, Buzz, Analytics, and more. Here's the official Help page which includes a visualization of the transition, in the screenshot here. (Here's a PDF, in case they pull access to the link.)

On this week's episode of TWiG, Leo, Jeff, and I were hoping aloud that there would be some way to merge existing Google/Apps accounts into one. It doesn't look like that will be possible. However, if you have a Google account that "conflicts" with your Apps account because you've assigned the same email address to both, GOOG will resolve the conflict by adding a +personal to your regular account's sign-in address. Stay with me here.

Here's what that means. If you have a Google account for sue@example.com as well as a Google Apps account for sue@example.com, after the transition you'll still be able to sign into your Google account using sue+personal@example.com. It's a bit confusing, and a little more work than the one-click account merge we'd hoped for. However, thanks in large part to Google's internal Data Liberation Front, many of Google's tools offer data export features. So, while it'll take some time, it shouldn't be difficult to export your data from your Google account and import it into your Google Apps account after this transition is done.

The only product I'm worried about? Google Voice. Since it's got my primary phone number associated with it, transitioning it from my Google account to my Google Apps account won't be a simple data export/import operation. I hope I'll be able to port my Voice number from my original account to my Google Apps account when all this goes down. No word on when exactly that will be, but the fact that it's in Trusted Tester phase means "pretty dang soon."

Update: Hooray!! You can currently request to port your Google Voice account to another Google account (though not a Google Apps account--yet?) Thanks, programzeta!

About the conversion: A visualization on what's changing [Google Accounts Help]

The Power Users Guide to Google Apps at Maximum PC

Gina Trapani — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:04:32 +0000

My Maximum PC magazine cover story, The Power Users Guide to Google Apps, is now available online. In it, I pick my favorite advanced features in Google Maps, Calendar, Docs, Wave, Reader, Alerts, Profiles, Chrome, Search, Picasa, and Gmail--and trust me, there are a lot of them.

Forbes on Google Apps in the Enterprise

Gina Trapani — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:33:02 +0000

"Google now has 1,000 of its 20,000 employees working on enterprise products, largely Apps. Four hundred are engineers; most of the rest are involved in sales and support, a high proportion at engineer-dominated Google. The enterprise is still dwarfed by Microsoft, which makes $19 billion from the office suite. Still, 2 million businesses have signed on to use Google software in its short life, drawn by cost, speed, collaboration and control."

Configure Google Apps For Your Domain

Gina Trapani — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:58:00 +0000

There's always lots of interest in posts about Google Apps, a lesser-known way to put Google services behind your domain name. This morning at Lifehacker I ran down some of the most important Google Apps settings, and how to do things like map multiple domains to one account, create users and groups, and configure your catch-all domain email address. Here's more on how to Trick Out Google Apps for Your Domain.

How to Integrate Your Google Apps

Gina Trapani — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:26:10 +0000

The information you keep in Google apps like Gmail, GCal, Reader, and Voice doesn't just live in one place. There are a few easy but non-obvious ways to plug different Google apps together and share their data and features.

Thanks to things like Labs and gadgets, you can get your Calendar in Gmail (and vice versa), Docs in Calendar and Gmail, Profile info in Google Reader, Google Voice SMS in your Gmail, and just about everything on iGoogle. Here's how.

Read the rest at Lifehacker »

Have Gmail and Your Own Domain Name with Google Apps

Gina Trapani — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:00:43 +0000

When you want Gmail without the @gmail.com address, you want a Google Apps account. Over at Harvard Businesses' Conversation Starters blog today, I ran down the advantages (and disadvantages) of putting a free Google Apps account behind yourname.com. Check it out: How to Make Your Small Business Look Big.