Google is quietly testing Google+ for Domains | Hacker News Reader

Google is quietly testing Google+ for Domains

thenextweb.com

95 pointsjoetyson29 comments

  > their organization name was being used in lieu of 
  > a circle when they tried to share something.

I think there are two types of Google Apps users: (1) the Large Organization and (2) the Guy Who Wants Gmail At His Domain.

(1) is okay if their users don't get the quickest rollout of new services, it's just a nice hosted email/calendar/docs solution. Users of (1) probably have personal GMail accounts they use for personal stuff, anyway.

(2) is confused whenever their me@mydomain.com email account doesn't act 100% like a regular GMail account.

Google has to cater to (1) because that's the whole point of Google Apps -- but that means that (2) gets slower rollouts of features that (1) might not appreciate. Perhaps if there were a different product, aimed toward the individual rather than the organization, this type of confusion could be avoided.

I use Google apps for both (1) and (2) above (although I'm not confused when mydomain.com doesn't work like my GMail account).

In the case of (1) the biggest issue I see is when people from an organization leave. It'll be interesting to see how Google handles that in Google+ for Apps users.

As an example, right now, when deleting a Google Apps account all of the user's shared docs, calendars, emails, etc. are deleted. I'm not sure if there's a way to preserve information or transition ownership easily.

For organizations like schools I could easily envision someone wanting to take their Google+ content with them once they graduate. For companies there's usually a mix of content that should be removed and preserved that's specific to that organization.

For my personal domain I do want Google Apps features to have parity with GMail. It's not that I don't understand the difference. It's that I don't want to split my information between multiple online identities.

  > In the case of (1) the biggest issue I see is when people from an organization leave. 
  > [...] when deleting a Google Apps account all of the user's shared docs, 
  > calendars, emails, etc. are deleted.

Wow, that's shocking. I've only ever used GApps for (2), but I just kind of assumed that deleting a user didn't also auto-delete their data in the organization's GApps account.

  > For my personal domain I do want Google Apps features to have parity with GMail. 
  > It's not that I don't understand the difference. It's that I don't want to split 
  > my information between multiple online identities.

Perhaps I was being overly simplistic. Presumably folks that set up their own GApps account for their domain understand that they're setting up a different kind of Google account. The disparity is always jarring, though, esp. in the case of Google Plus.

It looks like Google has improved deleting users since the last time I had to do it. That's a relief! They've been improving Google Apps a lot in the past year.

http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=33314

"Shared documents created by the user will be deleted within five days unless ownership is reassigned. You can reassign ownership of all documents created by the user before deleting the account. If you only need to save some documents, spreadsheets, or presentations, ask the user to reassign ownership of selected documents prior to deleting the account."

Shared calendars aren't deleted. Email seems to be unless steps are taken to export the data prior to account deletion, etc. etc.

It'll be interesting to see their take on Google+ content.

I never understood why those in camp (2) don't have a proper Google account not linked to Google Apps, and just forward all their mail along? That seems like the brain-dead obvious solution (and means that if you ever want to move your domain name or get rid of it a few years down the line, you always have a permanent address to fall back on).

I forward my google account to my google apps. My main issue is that all my contacts are neatly organized in google apps and it's hard to use services like Google+ or Google Voice when they pull contacts from my gmail account.

I meant the opposite. You forward your mail to the non-Google Apps account.

I used to forward from my Google Apps account to regular GMail but different people would see my email address from my domain and others from gmail.com depending on their mail client.

It's a minor nuisance but switching it around and routing everything to my apps account solved that inconsistency.

>> depending on their mail client

Could you elaborate on that? Does the "Send mail as" feature in gmail not work sometimes?

It's been a while but I believe when using the "Send mail as" feature in gmail it puts your preferred address in the from: field but keeps your gmail address in the sender: field.

That's probably fine in most cases but I was getting inconsistent results when people replied to my emails. Some were addressed to my domain and others to my gmail address.

I was also concerned that this might give me a slightly higher perceived risk in some SPAM filters.

Like I said earlier, none of this was a huge deal. It was just one of those inconsistencies that led me to routing all my mail to Google Apps.

For me the reason is integration: Calendar invites, Google Docs "shares", and other permissions grants don't forward, so they always end up tied to the Google Apps account. Which means using it as a primary account, gives one a better more integrated experience.

You can add secondary (non-Google) e-mail addresses to a Google account, which should then all be associated with the same calendar.

i'm sure an organization wouldn't appreciate their users forwarding company emails to a personal gmail account. in almost all cases, it is probably against their policy. it would actually be a burden for the user to have their email configured the way you describe, just to get access to a couple consumer features before they are hardened for enterprises.

Good! Much better than blaming their paying Apps customers (in front of their users) for things they didn't implement:

http://www.google.com/support/+/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answ...

>Error: Admin disabled >It looks like your domain administrator has disabled access to Google Profiles for your organization[0]. If you think this is a mistake, you can get in touch with your admin. (And if you need help convincing them, try giving them a box of chocolates.)

[0] http://www.google.com/support/+/bin/answer.py?answer=1258896

clicks link

>We're sorry, but the information you've requested cannot be found. Please try searching or browsing the Help Center.

FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU

This is good news. For geeks with their own domain for email the free apps accounts are great. The downside is that they are usually slow to rollout new services. Looking forward to trying G+

You're not wrong; I'm still eagerly awaiting a Google Reader account that uses my actual email, rather than dumping me out to the root Apps address!

(I've been eagerly waiting for 2 years)

Huh? I've been using Reader with my free Apps account for about a year now. (Ever since they upgraded the Apps accounts to full fledged Google accounts.)

They already have this. Go into your Google Apps admin, go to "Organizations & Users", click "Services", and make sure Google Reader is turned on. Might want to go through and see what others you're missing while you're at it!

I think many more people have Google+ than realize it. I signed up first day, never got any email, and signing into GMail one day, I happened to look at the upper left corner of the black bar and there was You+. I clicked and had Google+.

Is this specifically for Google App customers? You're right I can get the same black bar and You+ in the upper left corner. But going any further results in "Google+ is in limited Field Trial, Keep me posted".

Really? Wow. Then it's as someone said: I won a lottery. I'd rather have cash.

Same thing here, I get this even though I have an invite.

This could be a huge contender for Jive, Chatter, etc.

Yammer comes to my mind, too.

Google+ for Google apps will kill Yammer.

This is great, apps users finally getting some love. I Can't wait to try it out.

This is exciting news. Was beginning to feel lonely :)

Exciting.

Let me unashamedly open the traditional Google+ invite begging thread.

paul.bridger, gmail. Much obliged!

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