google apps

Features

• Meet the father of Google Apps (who used to work at Microsoft)

  Three weeks into his tenure at Google, Rajen Sheth -- former Microsoft and VMware employee -- met with Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt to propose a way of turning Gmail into a business-class e-mail system. And he was soundly rejected. 

• Microsoft Office vs. Google Apps: The business brawl

  In the business battle to rule the enterprise office suite of the future, Microsoft and Google both must overcome significant problems.

• Google's free file storage not such a good deal

  Google's introduction of free online storage for any type of file serves as a reminder that storing a gigabyte of data in the Internet cloud can vary in price from free to US$3.50 per, and that's just what Google charges its customers.

• How many people have really 'Gone Google'?

  How many people really use Google Apps and how many of them are paying customers? That's a question Google has never quite answered, having touted a "20 million users" and "2 million companies" figure that is almost meaningless.

• Does Google know too much about you?

  Do you trust Google? If you use its multitude of online services on a daily basis you might, but is that assumption wise? For some, Google is a wonderful company with a broad selection of useful online tools that make life easier, but for others Google is a looming, unregulated monster just waiting for the moment to drop the 'don't' from the company's unofficial motto, "Don't be evil."

• Google Apps still trying to win over corporate users

  While Google is often cited as having a golden touch, the company's productivity application suite is still a mere bronze competitor to Microsoft's Office and collaboration tools despite upgrades over the past year that focused on evolving and securing the online tools for corporate users.

• Washington uses Google Apps to power new intranet

  When it came time for Washington, D.C., to create a new intranet for city employees, spending US$4 million on a site based on proprietary portal software just didn't seem like a good idea to CTO Vivek Kundra. But using Google Apps did, he said in an interview Tuesday.

• Google App Engine: Getting Data Out Ain't Simple. Yet.

  Developers who adopt the Google App Engine for their cloud computing platform today may fear data lock-in, since the only way to import or export data is using a Python-based API. Google is working on a tool to improve data exchange to improve data portability.