Comments on: A review of Google Apps

By: the earlybird

the earlybird — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 04:06:41 +0000

i think google apps looks amazing but since i have already been using gmail, google docs and google calendar for ages the fact i can't integrate those easily makes it a total bust for me

By: the earlybird

the earlybird — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:06:41 +0000

i think google apps looks amazing but since i have already been using gmail, google docs and google calendar for ages the fact i can’t integrate those easily makes it a total bust for me

By: Sasha

Sasha — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:30:16 +0000

Thanks, nice thorough review.
My main problem with google docs is that it creates an environment not friendly to version control. I work for a magazine and I was finding that using Google docs instead of sending the content by email was great in terms of sharing and collaboration – not so good when I wanted to show how many changes I had made to a doc, because often the original was just edited and saved without a new file name. Too much in the way of carbon-based procedure was required!
Security and privacy does seem to be an issue. I'd love to know how many companies would never use web2.0 apps simply for those reasons.

By: Sasha

Sasha — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:30:16 +0000

Thanks, nice thorough review.
My main problem with google docs is that it creates an environment not friendly to version control. I work for a magazine and I was finding that using Google docs instead of sending the content by email was great in terms of sharing and collaboration – not so good when I wanted to show how many changes I had made to a doc, because often the original was just edited and saved without a new file name. Too much in the way of carbon-based procedure was required!
Security and privacy does seem to be an issue. I’d love to know how many companies would never use web2.0 apps simply for those reasons.

By: Gaz

Gaz — Wed, 21 May 2008 07:52:18 +0000

@Amrita, google apps doesnt work properly in China, their competitor Baidu is deploying their own copy of google apps just like they did with most other google services, since they have government investors the government has been making it very hard for any of google's features to work. Google is regularly redirected to baidu in red China (using DNS poisoning on state owned ISP's who have a monopoly). Exactly the same thing happened to ebay and youtube as well as many many others, simple communist formula: find good website, copy it, block the original and make it 'illegal'. Hope that helps.

By: Gaz

Gaz — Wed, 21 May 2008 00:52:18 +0000

@Amrita, google apps doesnt work properly in China, their competitor Baidu is deploying their own copy of google apps just like they did with most other google services, since they have government investors the government has been making it very hard for any of google’s features to work. Google is regularly redirected to baidu in red China (using DNS poisoning on state owned ISP’s who have a monopoly). Exactly the same thing happened to ebay and youtube as well as many many others, simple communist formula: find good website, copy it, block the original and make it ‘illegal’. Hope that helps.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 09 May 2008 07:00:02 +0000

Hi, great article. I use photos a lot on my gmail and can't see it as a link with my docs and calendar link on the top of the page in my google apps account – is that something that google has done on purpose? i enabled the photos API but the URL “doesn't exist on this server”. Thanks for your replyies if you can shed some light for me. Matt

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:02 +0000

Hi, great article. I use photos a lot on my gmail and can’t see it as a link with my docs and calendar link on the top of the page in my google apps account – is that something that google has done on purpose? i enabled the photos API but the URL “doesn’t exist on this server”. Thanks for your replyies if you can shed some light for me. Matt

By: Google Apps Makes Life Easier -- Your Happenings!

Google Apps Makes Life Easier -- Your Happenings! — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:33:30 +0000

[...] If you don’t trust commercial review, our blogOsphere buddy Justin Hartman has also given his views on Google Apps. (much more detailed [...]

By: Charl van Niekerk

Charl van Niekerk — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 04:00:29 +0000

@Amrita: Didn't Google hijack China at some point in time? Rather interesting.

By: Charl van Niekerk

Charl van Niekerk — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 21:00:29 +0000

@Amrita: Didn’t Google hijack China at some point in time? Rather interesting.

By: Amrita

Amrita — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 16:32:44 +0000

My friend has a website hosted by GoogleApps but it can't be opened by customers residing in China. Any idea what's wrong with this?

By: Amrita

Amrita — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 09:32:44 +0000

My friend has a website hosted by GoogleApps but it can’t be opened by customers residing in China. Any idea what’s wrong with this?

By: yasser

yasser — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:22:05 +0000

i've been playing around with it for about 3 months and i have to admit it ,
google apps is really another Massive REVOLUTION on the web.
big up to Google for introducing such a fantastic product package.
truly awesome!

By: yasser

yasser — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:22:05 +0000

i’ve been playing around with it for about 3 months and i have to admit it ,
google apps is really another Massive REVOLUTION on the web.
big up to Google for introducing such a fantastic product package.
truly awesome!

By: Charl van Niekerk

Charl van Niekerk — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 18:13:37 +0000

Yes, that would be your Jabber federation that's broken too. You should be unable to speak to anybody on any Jabber server outside of Google Talk or Google Apps.

By: Charl van Niekerk

Charl van Niekerk — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 11:13:37 +0000

Yes, that would be your Jabber federation that’s broken too. You should be unable to speak to anybody on any Jabber server outside of Google Talk or Google Apps.

By: Justin Hartman

Justin Hartman — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 02:58:08 +0000

Charl, I also got it working with Gaim but the problem is the contacts you have. I now have to go back and request authorisation from my contacts using the new email which will be a pain.

Twitter also doesn't work with Google Apps domains as it doesn't recognise my Apps domain as a Gtalk account. I wonder if I'm doing something wrong of if this is the case with you as well?

By: Charl van Niekerk

Charl van Niekerk — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 23:08:51 +0000

I have been using Google Apps for just over a year now - I can't imagine life without it. I use Google Talk without any problems from Gaim though (my charlvn@charlvn.za.net account).

The only thing that is broken is my Jabber federation, which means I cannot speak to normal Jabber users through that account, only to Google Talk users. I have to set up a whole lot of SRV records which my DNS provider (everydns) does not currently support in order to get that working.

I prefer to use Jabber though since jabber.obsidian.co.za is a local server.

By: Justin Hartman

Justin Hartman — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 22:33:02 +0000

Thanks Tyler I've been wanting to do something like this for some time but time has not been on my side. I forget how long it takes to produce this kind of review but I'm pleased one person enjoyed it!!!

I don't use Docs that much simply because it just takes too long to load. These rich Ajax applications can border on insanity as their library's are quite large to load in a browser but no doubt it will improve.