Thanks for the tip. It makes a lot of sense as this might concide with Tim Armstrong's Q&A at the BoA conference tomorrow.

http://investor.google.com/webcast.html

any word on what they plan to do with the free service they've been offering during the beta?

It is indeed LIVE now!

http://digg.com/tech_news/Google_Apps_Premium_is_LIVE_Free_Tail_till_30_April/

And best of all, docs are included for free...

[Moved from "BREAKING: Google Launches APP Premier"]

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/02/21/google-launches-apps-premier/

https://www.google.com/a/

Ohhhh exciting! Now that's what I call "features, not products" – looks like senior engineers have been having words!

[Moved from "New Updated GAFYD is here... screen cap included"]

http://www.pacificdave.com/google/new-g-apps-dashboard.jpg

Looks like Google has been putting some work into this. Looks good...

And the premier upgrade which costs $50 per user per year and with a 3 user minimum. Comes with a free trial till April 30, 2007.

http://www.pacificdave.com/google/new-g-apps-premier-upgrade.jpg

Finally the comparison between Standard and Premier editions.

http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/editions.html

Everything else should be easy to find and self explanatory.

you get 10GB of email storage in the Premier Edition..

cool.. :)

Even the Premier Edition isn't as exciting as it should be... Just 10GB per user at $50 / user account / year? No wiki and Picasa Web integration? No email enhancements (like external lists)?

Within our small company we have been (and still are) using gmail, calendar, docs & spreadsheets, since they appeared. The reason we never really started using Google Apps for Your Domain account, is that we cannot migrate our existing Gmail accounts to the Google Apps (Premier). I mean, we currently have thousands of messages in our Gmail accounts, with relevant info. We can't just start using Google Apps, without having access to those messages/attachments. I don't understand, how Google cannot provide a solution for this – surely we are not the only ones with this problem? I just upgraded our existing Google Apps to Premier service, to see if a solution has been provided now, but alas... So I'll probably end up cancelling the service before April 30th. What a pity!

$50/year per user sounds very steep.

>> $50/year per user sounds very steep.

For the type of company that *needs* all those extra features offered by Google Apps Premier, $50 isn't that steep.

Other things to note:

* It looks like they've dropped the "Beta" status.

* It appears they'll be offering optional ads in Gmail, presumably on the same terms as AdSense so that the companies can potentially make money if their users click the ads.

* When they updated to the new version, they changed my custom URL for Google Page Creator to the standard one (for both accounts I've got setup).

* Official press release:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/google_apps.html

pacificdave said:

<< And the premier upgrade which costs $50 per user per year and with a 3 user minimum. Comes with a free trial till April 30, 2007. >>

I think this just defaults to the number of active users you already have setup when you're upgrading. (And since you can't have some using the Premier Edition and others using the Standard Edition, this makes sense.)

If the new service had a way to backup your messages outside of gmail I'd definitely stump up – that's my one bug bear with the current gmail. I'd also like the easy migration from standard gmail mentioned above

<< If the new service had a way to backup your messages outside of gmail I'd definitely stump up >>

Why can't you just use a POP3 client / mail forwarding to do this yourself?

<< I'd also like the easy migration from standard gmail mentioned above >>

It looks like they might be offering this. They list "Email migration tools" as "Limited Release" so there's probably a way for them to do this – although they might charge for doing so. Have you emailed support?

BTW, you can also request this as a feature here, so they're obviously aware this is something a lot of people would like:

http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/request.py?contact_type=suggest

Dave: that's what POP is good for. Download gmail to your computer using Outlook or Thunderbird or whatever – then you have a backup.

"99.9% uptime guarantee for email**: ??

so there is no guarantee for the free edition only for the premium ?

Why is not picaso part of this ?? a lot of small companies use scanned images /forms .. with tags its an easy way to keep records.

they could have also moved Gbase into a secure area for each premim signon..No Blogger intergation ...:(-

This is quite a dissappoint ...

You can use Blogger Custom Domains.

>> You can use Blogger Custom Domains.

But you'll still need a Google Account to make posts.

"The new pricing? $50 for 10gb a year. That's not bad, but does this mean Google will never offer a paid storage increment for Gmail non-app users? I hope not." ???

I think it's not expensive. For example, Picasa Web charges you $25 for 6.25GB storage per year.

In Google Apps you pay $50 /year/user for the extra storage (8GB), phone support, guaranteed uptime and some APIs.

Microsoft offers free domain registration, 50 accounts*2GB, a way to upload existing sites, applications for managing employees, and phone support for $480/year. Their offer is much weaker, but the price difference is huge.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/FX101925601033.aspx

Intermidia.NET – $150/year/user for Exchange, support, 2GB.
http://www.intermedia.net/exchange-hosting/small-business-exchange-hosting/plans/compare.asp

[ edited to correct some facts – Ionut]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., February 22, 2007 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)
today introduced Google Apps Premier Edition, a new version of
Google's hosted services for communication and collaboration designed
for businesses of all sizes. Google Apps Premier Edition is available
for $50 per user account per year, and includes phone support,
additional storage, and a new set of administration and business
integration capabilities.

Google Apps TM, launched as a free service in August 2006, is a suite
of applications that includes Gmail TM webmail services, Google
Calendar TM shared calendaring, Google Talk TM instant messaging and
voice-over-IP, and the Start Page feature for creating a customizable
home page on a specific domain. More than 100,000 small businesses and
hundreds of universities now use the service. Google Apps Premier
Edition now joins Google Apps Standard Edition and Google Apps
Education Edition, both of which will continue to be offered for free
to organizations.

"Procter & Gamble Global Business Services (GBS) has enrolled as a
charter enterprise customer of Google Apps, a successful consumer
product suite now available to enterprises. P&G will work closely with
Google in shaping enterprise characteristics and requirements for
these popular tools," said Laurie Heltsley, director Procter & Gamble
Global Business Services.

"So much of business now relies on people being able to communicate
and collaborate effectively," said Gregory Simpson, CTO for General
Electric Company. "GE is interested in evaluating Google Apps for the
easy access it provides to a suite of web applications, and the way
these applications can help people work together. Given its consumer
experience, Google has a natural advantage in understanding how people
interact together over the web."

Google also today announced that all editions of Google Apps now
include Google Docs & Spreadsheets TM. In addition, Google Apps now
supports Gmail for mobile on BlackBerry TM handheld devices.

"Businesses are looking for applications that are simple and intuitive
for employees, but also offer the security, reliability and
manageability their organizations require," said Dave Girouard, vice
president and general manager, Google Enterprise. "With Google Apps,
our customers can tap into an unprecedented stream of technology and
innovation at a fraction of the cost of traditional installed
solutions."

Features unique to Google Apps Premier Edition include:

- 10 GBs of storage per user – Offers about 100 times the storage of
the average corporate mailbox, eliminating the need to frequently
delete email.
- APIs for business integration – APIs for data migration, user
provisioning, single sign-on, and mail gateways enable businesses to
further customize the service for unique environments.
- 99.9 % uptime – Service Level Agreements for high availability of
Gmail, with Google monitoring and crediting customers if service
levels are not met.
- 24x7 support for critical issues – Includes extended business hours
telephone support for administrators.
- Advertising optional – Advertising is turned off by default, but
businesses can choose to include Google's relevant target-based ads if
desired.
- $50 per user account per year – Simple and affordable annual fee
makes it practical to offer these applications to everyone in the
organization.

In addition to Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk and Start Page, all
editions of Google Apps now include:

- Google Docs & Spreadsheets – With this addition, teams can easily
collaborate on documents and spreadsheets without the need to email
documents back and forth. Multiple employees can securely work on a
document at the same time. All revisions are recorded for editing, and
administrative controls allow organizations to define limits on
document sharing. According to custom analysis of Nielsen//NetRatings
MegaPanel released this week, 92 percent of users of online
productivity tools last October used Google Docs & Spreadsheets,
making it the number one product in its class.

- Gmail for mobile devices on BlackBerry – Gmail for mobile devices
provides the same Gmail experience – such as search, conversation view
and synchronization with desktop version – on BlackBerry handheld
devices for users of Google Apps. Gmail for mobile devices joins a
list of other mobile options for Google Apps and BlackBerry users that
already includes a Google Talk client and a variety of calendar sync
tools.

- Application-level control – Allows administrators to adapt services
to business policies, such as sharing of calendars or documents
outside of the company.

"When it comes to our email systems, our doctors don't have the time
or the budgets to deal with managing technology or defending against
spam," said Andrew Johnson, chief information officer, San Francisco
Bay Pediatrics. "With Google Apps Premier Edition we don't have to
worry about downloading the latest spam filters or navigating unwieldy
servers. This is where we let Google do what it does best, so we can
do what we do best – help our patients."

In addition to Procter & Gamble Global Business Services and San
Francisco Bay Pediatrics, other early adopters of Google Apps Premier
Edition include Salesforce.com and Prudential Preferred Properties in
the U.S., as well as Essilor and Mediametrie in France.

To provide more options and value to customers of Google Apps Premier
Edition, Google Enterprise Professional partners like Avaya and
Postini are developing a variety of solutions based on our APIs,
including email gateways, enhanced security, Google Calendar
synchronization, third-party integration with Google Talk, as well as
offering deployment, migration, and additional support services.

From the Google featured video, Douglas Merrill says [2:22]:
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/customers.html#goog

<< Everything is integrated around search. You don't have to remember whether this was an email or a chat or a document that you stored on a thumbdrive. None of that matters. Our employees simply have to search for things. And everyone understands search. >>

Of course users have to remember whether it was an email/chat or a document, etc. as there isn't one search box that will search across all the Google Apps (yet). Surely it's only a matter of time before that becomes available though... isn't it?

Ionut said:

<< In Google Apps you pay $600 /year/user for the extra storage (8GB), phone support, guaranteed uptime and some APIs. >>

$600? How are you calculating that? Am I missing something?

Douglas Merrill rocks! I think he could convince you to buy anything.

$600.

Oh, sorry. It's $50 per year, not per month. Then it's really cheap.

Ionut: Where are you getting $600/user/year from? It's $50, right?

/pd: One of the reasons they don't offer the 99.9% uptime *guarantee* for free users is that there's nothing to back that up with. The point is that if they drop below that % they will compensate users accordingly. If you've not paid, they can't compensate you. That's not to say they won't be improving the reliability for free users.

Has anyone seen this: http://cdharrison.com/index.php/2007/02/22/resource-availability/

Sander, that's interesting. I'd noticed that they'd added some more options in the Calendar settings under Google Apps, so I guess this feature has only just been added. I only use the Google Calendar attached to my Google Account (and it's not included there) so I can't be sure though.

Sander... thanks for the link. From what I gather, the Guest and Resource Availability update hasn't been widely released... I still don't know whether it's a Premium level feature... My Google Apps acct shows it's just the Standard Edition, but Google *might* have enabled Premier features on my acct... I know one of the features of the Premier Edition they are promoting (http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/editions.html) is "Shared calendar resources"... perhaps this is it??

(To confirm, I also get the "Guest and Resource Availability" on my Standard Edition Google Apps account but I just wasn't sure whether it was there before today...)

Good to know Tony. I hadn't noticed it before today either...

With the Google Apps PE... another benefit is the removal of Advertising when reading email... Though the ads are unobtrusive, that option alone might be enough for some people to make the switch.

Plus when you consider what you're getting for $4.167 per month... it ain't a bad deal.

I was afraid that all of my clients that I have moved over were going to have problems when Google went premium. I am very tankful that the free edition is still around AND it even got better (docs and spreadsheets+Contact sharing+more) It honestly makes me want to get the premium version to "vote" with my business... but you are all right... it is a bit steep in pricing. I wish they would offer a version without phone support (since that is probably their biggest expense) for $15/user/year

freaky.. I am not seeing a "Guest and Resource Availability" link when I am trying to invite another person!

Dave, above, was asking about email backup; it looks as though one of Google's "professional partners" is providing a more comprehensive solution:

http://www.google.com/enterprise/gallery/products.html#postini

Helpful link: https://docs.google.com/a/yourdomain.com/MigrateOldAccount

This tool will permanently move your documents from your old Writely/Gdocs.

And if your old Google Docs login (docs.google.com) it's the same as the Google Docs login (docs.google.com/a/yourdomain.com/) – because you already had an Google Account with your own non-gmail email domain (same email for Google Account and Google Apps)? Not working...

Can someone clarify the position of mixing standard Google Apps for Your Domain with the premium version.

I understand that the minimum for a premium account are 3 users. Does that mean that I could open up an account with 30 users but only choose to have 3 users with 10Gb email storage with the others having a standard account with 2gb accounts.

If so, then in general terms it means that most small companies will only need to pay $150 dollars a year (£77, 114 euros) in most cases. My guess is that you would be able to upgrade individual accounts should they get near the 2gb limit.

Another question I have is what is storage limit for Google Docs for premium users?

Utills, you can have the Premier account with just one user...

<< Can someone clarify the position of mixing standard Google Apps for Your Domain with the premium version. >>

Googlaxy's right – see my comment above:
http://blogoscoped.com/forum/86978.html#id87024

As far as I can tell, it's not possible to mix Standard and Premier accounts as the Edition is specified at the domain-level rather than the user-level. I guess you would need to use two separate domains if you wanted to do this.

Scott sends in this screen (almost, but not exactly the same as PacificDave's):

http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-apps-inside-2007.png

[Thanks Scott http://www.greenthinkers.org!]

Well, the only difference is that I'm not using the web page editor from Google. I personally hate the Google's web page editor. For even creating simple non-database sites you need just drive space and ftp access.

It also seems I'm on a difference size screen and using XP with a theme for that screen cap than Scott.

I'm not really using Google Page Creator. Just playing around with it.

I took the screen grab on a Mac in Firefox.

I have been using Google Apps since August now … and I think its very cool. But the best thing is the Google API. For example we are developing an FREE open source "business application platform" (think salesforce.com). Our first application is working tightly integrated with GOOGLE APPS.

www.applicationexchange.com

[URL fixed and unlinked – Tony]

It may not be expensive if you have 1 or 2 accounts. But if you have a free version with 15 accounts, it will cost a good amount per year...