Google Apps vs. Small Business
Submitted by Ryan on Wed, 05/07/2008 - 00:39.
I haven't tried their SB Apps yet but saw this video tonight and will be looking into it:
I haven't tried their SB Apps yet but saw this video tonight and will be looking into it:
looking into it as well
Hi Ryan,
What are your initial thoughts? I have been looking into it as well the only thing that held me back of using was a technical thing they can not solve, and that is the fact that I am using a lot of Google apps under username A and my gmail account is under username B and it is not possible to merge the 2 accounts (according to G itself).
But perhaps I need to start using it and see if there is a way around it.
The other thing that I am not a big fan about is that I get the feeling that Google is 'owning' too much stuff I have: Apps, gmail, personal email accounts, Adwords, Adsense, etc etc etc.
The company just makes too many fantastic applications :)
Richard
Richard, I have been
Richard,
I have been using Google's Small Business apps for 2 years now. They host all my company email and I love the ability to collaborate on documents I am working on. The stuff Google does for individuals like Gmail and Google Apps is a way for them test and refine their services before offering to businesses. I highly recommend it and I believe Jeremy is using their services as well.
Cheers,
Jason Woods
Follow me on Twitter
I rely on Google.
I have my iGoogle page set up with 6 tabs and each tab has some Gadgets made by Google such as Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Finance, Notebook, To Do, Bookmarks, Checkout, Analytics etc.
Google is very useful indeed. I understand the concerns about Google owning too much information but, if you've ever signed in to a Google account then surfed the Internet, they 'own' your surfing habits anyway. Personally, I don't worry too much about this but I still don't use the Google spreadsheet for my finances, to me that's a step too far!
Thanks...
This looks pretty cool...thanks for sharing this...
I have been using google
I have been using google apps for email for about 3 months. It has worked very well for me. There is basically three levels of email that you can use with gmail.
1) The free gmail account. Once you sign up you have the basic email address that all the other online based email services give you: username@gmail.com
You can however go into your account setting and change your out going and reply to email address to match your domain: myname@mydomain.com
That makes it where you are able to brand yourself to your domain, and if you were to someday move away from google all your contacts don't need to get the " I have a new email address" message from you.
The downside is that some of the email clients that people use will show a "sent by username@gmail.com" in the message even after you have updated your account to show you domain based email.
2) The free google apps for your domain email. This solves the above problem because google hosts your email on their servers. This is done by updating your MX records with their info (they show exactly how to do this). You will still be able to have contact forms on your domain, but if you are using a 3rd party autoresponder that you have installed on your hosting account it will no longer work as per google's terms of service doesn't allow 3rd party scripts to access their mail servers.
If you are using something like that you will have to move it to a different hosting account or utilize an off site service like Aweber or Constant Contact.
The free google apps for your domain also comes with the other applications as well - "Google Apps gives everyone at your organization a custom email address, tools for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, a shared calendaring system and access to a flexible intranet system."
3) Finally there is the paid google apps for your domain. You get all of the above plus more of a guaranteed uptime, no contextual ads appearing when you are checking mail, more space in each account, and a lot more flexibility with other things you are running on your server.
More info here: http://www.google.com/a
So far I have been very happy with the free google apps for your domain tools. It is an amazing bunch of tools that they are providing for free!
Jack Ball
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/JackBall - I'll follow you!
I use it and love it. I use
I use it and love it. I use it for QYDJ and my affiliate business.
what do you use of Google apps
Jeremy and others,
when you say that you 'use it' ... what do you use? The whole thing, so Googles version of Word, Excel, Outlook, etc?
Thanks
Richard
I use G-mail, the word
I use G-mail, the word processor, and the spreadsheet. 10x better than Microsoft for collaboration and it's all online, so you can access anytime, anywhere from any device.
The only product I'm not using is their presentation (powerpoint clone) tool.
"when you say that you 'use
"when you say that you 'use it' ... what do you use? The whole thing, so Googles version of Word, Excel, Outlook, etc?"
Google's version of Word and Excel is called Google Docs & Spreadsheets. I suppose the equivalent of Outlook would be a combination of Gmail and Calendar. I use all these applications and many more provided by Google.
I have been using Google apps for
I have been using Google apps for Email, Calender and recently started using Docs and Excel. It is so convenient to have everything in one browser window.
Not looking good for MS.
Dan
OK, you guys convinced me
OK, you guys convinced me ... I am going to start using it as of Monday ... give myself the weekend to set it up.
Let's see how it works
Richard
Great product
The spam blocking capabilities alone have saved me a TON of time with email in Google Apps for domains. Absolutely love the service.
Analytics
I think Google has some great services, but I'm skeptical about using analytics on my websites. Maybe I'm a bit paranoid, but I don't think it's a good idea to share every move you make with one entity.
That's a valid concern and I
That's a valid concern and I struggle with it every day. Google is a lot more like "Big Brother" than the government is. They probably no more about you too ;)
I understand what you're saying
I just signed up for a google account (after reading their terms of service). It's been a few years since I read the book, but it's almost 1984 all over again. But, what choice do we have? If we want to be successful. At least we aren't being forced to use unthink. We can still think for ourselves.
my transfer - from Office to Google Apps
My wife is for work in South Africa, my kids are with their grandparents ... so that gives me time to do some things that I wanted to do already for quite some time ... move from MS Office to Google Apps.
Why? My main reasons:
1) accessibility: when we are travelling we always had issues when we wanted to get to our emails. We did not have access to old emails etc. And not only emails but all your documents can be accessed whenever you have internet connection.
2) backup: I wanted to have a backup of my emails / docs outside the office, just in case of fire / theft or whatever. Right now I am making backups on an external Harddisk and bring it home. Not ideal. Google is making backups on the go. I still am not feeling 100% secure to have all my data with Google, what if ... they steal it? What if ... they loose my data? Hmmm ... will need to give it time to get over it I assume.
3) cost: Google Apps comes in 2 flavours: the Standard Edition (free) and the Premier Edition ($50 per user per year), have a look here http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/editions.html. In the light of last nights call, go for the Standard Edition and you save yourself a lot of money compared to MS Office and when you need the Premier Edition of Google you can always decide later on doing so.
4) performance of my laptop: I have a laptop that is 2 years old (I know too old LOL) and with Outlook 2007 it is SLOWWWWWWW! I expect that Google Apps will be working a lot faster.
Why did I not do it earlier?
Good question ...
1) time is an issue. I just found out that I already signed up for the business edition before but that I just did not finish the whole process hahaha.
2) and don't laugh, but I was always under the impression that I was forced to use a gmail account to be able to make use of Google Apps. But that is not true. You can use your own domainname, email addresses, etc etc.
So where am I know?
1) First of all I signed up (some time ago already, but this is not that difficult to do): go here http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/editions.html and choose te edition you want and follow the next steps. I choose for the Standard free edition
2) As I already signed up some time ago I am not sure what the steps now are, but I can tell you what I did after I signed into my account. I went to the 'advanced tools' tab and there you see a tool to upload your emails etc from Outlook and other mail programs into Gmail. And that is where I am right now ... and for quite some time I think, as the tool tells me that it will take another 8 hours and 12 minutes from now ... so I will grab my lunch (it is 12:40 pm here) and enjoy the sun.
To be continued ...
Richard
twitter.com/DutchBIP
p.s. if you like videos and presentations about Google Apps, go to http://services.google.com/apps/resources/overviews/welcome/index.html. On the site you can find a lot of good presentations about the product.
2 hours later ... I see that
2 hours later ... I see that the upload is finished (already) but that I got quite some error messages. It looks however that these errors are due to the fact that Google does not upload empty folders (emails in Outlook have been archived but folders were left). Have to check this later.
In the same message it stated that it could take up to 24 hours for Google to show my emails online. Need to go right now, but will check on this later.
to be continued ...
Richard
twitter.com/DutchBIP
Does anybody here know of an
Does anybody here know of an easy way to create labels in the same way as you can use folders and sub-sub-sub folders in outlook? Right now I do see the sub-sub-sub folders in the labels, but I only see about 30 characters and then it breaks up. I hope it makes sense what I am trying to ask you guys. If not please let me know :)
Richard
twitter.com/DutchBIP
The Google email uploader,
The Google email uploader, that you can use to upload emails from e.g. Outlook to Gmail is not working properly. It gave me numerous error messages and I just found out that hopefully by the end of this week a new version will become available that will take care of the current issues.
Richard
twitter.com/DutchBIP
Using Google Apps OFFLINE????
Can you use G Apps offline? I am reading some stories about G Gears but as do not see it being mentioned widespread on Google Apps itself I assume it is not that easy to use, or am I wrong. The reason I ask is that I need to go to South Africa soon and there is not always internet connection where I go and I want to be able to work offline as well.
Richard
twitter.com/DutchBIP
I think there are some
I think there are some restriction using Google Docs offline, i.e. you cannot create new documents, etc.
Also, when I use it offline, at times I am not sure whether my documents/ spreadsheets were properly saved.
The offline function seems more like a extension of the online features, i.e. it probably cannot be used completely offline. You will probably need to connect online, from time to time, synchronizing the documents before losing them for good.
CT
https://twitter.com/ct2008
You can use Google Reader
You can use Google Reader and Docs offline with Gears. It's very easy to use, just open the app and work on it as if you were connected to the Internet.
More info here: http://gears.google.com/
i love google docs, and
i love google docs, and sheets, not soo big on the presentation online app.
what kills is the REAL TIME online collaboration feature.
office needs to catch up to that.
good to see micro$oft on their toes from not only apple but google.
:)
Agreed; competition is good
Agreed; competition is good for everyone! Now if MS and Yahoo can create a better search engine maybe they could give Google a run for their money... I won't hold my breath ;)
And now there is acrobat.com
And now there is acrobat.com...
These browser based applications are not only helping people be more productive but they are creating competition for MS, and thats a good thing.
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