Google Apps for Your Domain has been
launched in 2006 as a solutions for organizations that wanted to use Google's applications on their own domains. In 2007, Google launched
a premier edition for businesses that added corporate features, APIs, phone support and service-level agreement for Gmail.
But how many businesses use Google Apps?
A post from July mentioned that "500,000 organizations adopt Apps as part of their business, with another 3,000 signing up every day", while
another blog post from October informed us that "more than 1 million businesses have selected Google Apps to run their business".
It's not clear how many of these organizations use the paid edition of Google Apps, but Google decided to make it difficult to even find the free version.
Here's
Google Apps homepage, where you can only click on a big blue button:
The second page says that "Google recommends Premier Edition for businesses in the cloud" and invites to me start a free trial. There's a small link below the "Begin free trial" button that lets you use the standard version, but it's difficult to notice.
If you click on that link, you'll get the page that compares the standard and the premier versions, which
used to be displayed by default.
Google Apps is now in the same league as
RealPlayer, which shows a small link to the free version, while using the rest of the page to promote a paid version. Just in case the link to the Google Apps Standard Edition goes away, here's
how to sign up for free.
Labels: Annoyances, Google Apps
Telsa said on November 17, 2008 3:24 AM PDT:
well this move is not so nice at all. it doesn't look like google style.
ahab said on November 17, 2008 3:35 AM PDT:
The 'how to sign up for free' link is the one for Google Apps for Teams. This is not a recommended sign up as it influences the accounts of all user in that domain; they may unknowingly end up with two Google Accounts, one at www.google.com/accounts and one at www.google.com/a/MYDOMAIN.EXT (where MYDOMAIN.EXT is the domain you are creating the Google Apps for Teams for. This can be extremely confusing especially for Google Docs users that may suddendly find documents shared to the other of the two accounts.
Once a Google Apps for Teams has been created it is very difficult (or even impossible) to delete it, with as a result the (oblivious)other users will have to suffer from the confusion of the two accounts with the same login/password indefinitely.
Please don't think light-heartedly about creating a free Google Apps account, it can be a pain not to find out its ins and outs and the influence this has on existing users in the same domain.
Jalu said on November 17, 2008 4:01 AM PDT:
I want .cn support :) have any info when it's coming?
Jalu: unless sites.google.com is a banned url in China, you should be able to work with a .cn domain. Or am I missing something here?
On another note, I think it is only fair that you have to digg around a bit to get to the standard (free) version of Apps (of any flavor). After all, it is FREE.
Ahab: While I agree that there are certain dangers to users, google sites is still very good news for all those who need a free web site / wiki. So let's scare everyone away....
Its really nice that you have noticed it...!! Lots of friends asked me about this. and i search to get standard one. This is definitely not google style.
said on November 17, 2008 8:20 AM PDT:
If you look carefully at the bottom of that homepage, there is a text: "See our solutions for schools, non-profits and ISPs."
Just click the non-profits link, then you get to a description page for the free services, with a big blue button that takes you to the comparison page...
Not a whole lot friendlier, but at least you can get it from the front page.
Downloading the free RealPlayer is pretty straightforward these days. One click from http://real.com and it's downloading.
I agree, this doesn't look like the kind of move google would do.
said on November 17, 2008 1:20 PM PDT:
They aren't taking anything away, they have just begun marketing their more advanced paid services. If we want Google to stick around and be profitable enough to keep developing new tools, they need to make money too.
I don';t have a problem with the change, it's just common sense for a business to try to make money first.
Do you complain about the ads showing up first on the search pages?
Does it stop you from searching?
Users are still getting free search and a lot more from Google.
macbeach said on November 17, 2008 2:51 PM PDT:
It could be worse. AOL, Yahoo and even Microsoft are outright eliminating their bottom rung of online tools. I'm sure there are bean counters at Google already asking "do we really need all this stuff?"
said on November 17, 2008 4:00 PM PDT:
Google apps is a load of rubbish anyway - its like a normal google account 7 years ago. even the 'start page' is a really stripped down version of iGoogle.
Don't forget the free Google Apps for Education (I use it since since 2006 and find it very useful :o)
useless said on November 18, 2008 12:32 AM PDT:
Useful article.Thanks a lot.Cheers.
indeed. i noticed this the other day while signing a client up for apps free edition. i googled for the signup page :-)
JJ said on December 17, 2008 9:33 AM PDT:
This is very cool. Thanks
said on January 6, 2009 4:25 AM PDT:
Here's the link for free edition
http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/new
opit said on February 14, 2009 1:43 PM PDT:
I think that a search company has to be concerned when its 'product' becomes dominated by revenue stream. It discredited Microsoft, to some extent Yahoo, and itself when paid ads were all one could find : in fact, I've had to go through chains of false leads on different topics at different times ( on various sites ). That's when people go for alternatives. I'm in social networks and bookmarking because I remember when Search...was almost useless.
momo said on May 9, 2009 1:57 PM PDT:
many thanks.
Thanks a bunch for this. I have decided to take the plunge today and switch to google hosted email. And I haven't been able to find the free one for some time now. While I understand that google needs to market its paid products, the worst part is that while I'd most certainly not pay $50 for a single inbox per year due to the price and the fact that I have no use for the services offered, I for one would be willing to pay $15 or so per year for the free services they're offering right now (which is certainly more than, well, nothing)
said on May 30, 2009 1:33 PM PDT:
I spent 15 mins looking for it. Thanks!
~Romil said on June 24, 2009 2:43 AM PDT:
We can't blame Google, most of their services are top notch and free. However, paying them a little shouldn't hurt, if one can. Google Apps is hands down best tool in this category.
And, it just needs an 'aware' internet user to find all the links. ;)
Kawika said on June 29, 2009 10:43 PM PDT:
Thanks for posting the link. I had no idea they pulled it. That is very un-Google-like, I'm afraid.
Fabian said on June 30, 2009 2:23 AM PDT:
Yuss! Thank you!
Had a minor panic attack there, thought they had dropped the free version!
I called GOOGLE this morning and made them give me the STANDARD APPS link.
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html
Things have chnaged a little since this was first posted.
Click on the premium sign up and you will get the url
http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/premier/new
Change it to
http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/standard/new
or
http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/new
for the free one
