Executive Summary:
Google Apps is an office application suite offered as a Web-based software as service (SaaS). You can personalize your Google Apps Start Page with an online control panel and build Web pages with Web Creator. The major applications in Google Apps are Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, and Google Docs, and you can also add Google Gadgets to your pages.
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If you’ve been using Google only as a search engine,
you might be surprised by some of the features it’s
now offering. Google Apps, an emerging competitor to
Microsoft Office, has definitely grabbed Microsoft’s attention.
In fact, Microsoft’s move to Windows Live and its new
Software Plus Services strategy are certainly motivated by
Google’s recent moves. Google’s Web-based suite offers a
free, limited-feature Standard Edition as well as the fullfeatured
Premier Edition for $50 per user per year. Here are
the most important features of Google Apps.
10. Internet domain integration—Google
Apps Standard Edition is free if you already
own an Internet domain name. You simply
verify that you’re the owner, and you can
integrate Google Apps with your domain. If you don’t own
a domain name, Google offers domain registration for $10
per year.
9. Single sign-on and directory integration—
Google Apps makes use of Security Assertion
Markup Language (SAML) to permit single signon
(SSO) capabilities with a variety of different
LDAP-compatible authentication services. For more
information about Google Apps’ SSO capabilities, refer
to code.google.com/apis/apps/sso/saml_reference_
implementation.html.
8. Start Page—The Google Apps Start Page is the
user’s entry point into Google Apps. The Start
Page can be customized to provide your organization’s
logo and content. In addition, you can
add many different custom features using add-ons called Google Gadgets.
7. Google Gadgets—A few of the available Google
Gadgets include a search function, an MP3 player,
a live TV feed, a custom RSS reader, and even the
Bejeweled and PacMan games. You can create
your own Google Gadgets with the Google API. You’ll find
the list of available Google Gadgets at www.google.com/ig/
directory?synd=open.
6. Control panel—You manage Google Apps with
a Web-based control panel, which lets you set up
and manage user accounts, configure user sharing
permissions, and migrate your existing email to
Gmail. You can also brand your site with your own logos
and color schemes.
5. Page Creator—To help you build and customize
your site, Google Apps provides Page Creator, a
Web-based graphical Web page designer with
single-click Web page publishing. Page Creator
Web pages are compatible with both Microsoft Internet
Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.
4. Gmail—One of the stalwart applications in the
Google Apps suite is Gmail. Google Apps Premier
Edition allows 25GB of storage for each Gmail
account, and Google Apps provides tools for
email routing and migration. Google has recently added
Postini for security and message recovery. Gmail supports
POP3 and MAPI connectivity.
3. Google Talk—Google’s IM component, Google
Talk, is integrated with Gmail, letting you initiate
chat sessions from email messages. Google Talk is
designed primarily for use with other Google Talk
clients, but it’s built using the open Extensible Messaging and
Presence Protocol (XMPP), which lets it interoperate with
other IM clients. Google Talk also features file transfer, conversation
logging, and voice communications using VoIP.
2. Google Calendar—Another staple in the Google
Apps suite is Google Calendar. Based on Asynchronous
JavaScript and XML (Ajax), Google
Calendar offers a rich end-user experience, letting
you make appointments and schedule meetings and notifications.
Unlike Microsoft Office Outlook with Microsoft
Exchange Server, Google Calendar can publish public calendars.
Google Calendar also provides cool Short Message
Service (SMS) scheduling and notifications that can send
text messages to mobile devices.
1. Google Docs—As the keystone of
Google Apps, Google Docs facilitates
real-time document sharing and
collaboration. Multiple, geographically
disparate users can share and
even simultaneously edit documents.
Google Docs has long provided word
processing and spreadsheet functionality, working
with .doc, .rtf, .xls, and .csv file formats. Google recently
added the ability to use the .ppt document format as
well, so you can now collaborate on and share presentations
with Google Docs.
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