Going All in on the Google Cloud

Mike Elgan of InfoWorld wrote an interesting article about what he learned by going all-in on Google Apps, gMail, etc. What's surprising is he decided to stay there.

You can't get the ultimate mobile computing experience by using nothing but Google products, but it's possible and enjoyable to use only Google products. I had a lot of fun with this experiment.

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'm going all-in on cloud services, and sticking with Drive, Keep, and Docs, as I found them to be better than the alternatives I used previously.

Go here for Mike's full article.

-- Chris Claborne

aka Christian

Another example of why to use Google’s Two-Factor Authentication

This is a good article on how to close security holes for Google Apps users.  At the core is “two-factor authentication”.  I’ve written about two factor authentication before and I wish it was available on more sites.  I like Google’s and PayPal’s implementation (using my iPhone to receive a one-time second authentication password).  It’s not a huge pain because I can check a box to have Google remember me for a while.  Why aren’t more sites using this?  My bank doesn’t even offer this.  Although two factor authentication isn’t the end all be all of security, it closes a gaping hole.

Using Google's Two-Factor Authentication

UPDATE:  If you've read about Gmail account passwords getting stolen (hackers getting users to load a fake page and stealing password) and you are concerned, you really should read this.  Had those users turned on Google’s “Two-Step Verification” they probably wouldn't have been hacked.

Google introduced what's known in the industry as "two-factor authentication” last year.  Google calls it "2-step verification".  Although I use a two-factor authentication system every day for the company I work for and have used others in the past, it’s time to tighten my security belt. In addition, I feel that if I’m going to write about Google’s system, I really should be using it.  Actually I think you should too.  Security is in the news a lot more these days and people are putting more of their lives into the cloud.  If you use Google Docs and other services like I do, you should be doing a better job of ensuring your stuff is secure and private.  

After the break, I’ll explain what it is, how it works, and how to turn it on for your Google account.

Cloud Docs on the iPad

I wanted to be able to continue to use the cloud for editing my documents in Google Docs.  If you need a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation editor that will open your Google documents, or equivalent Microsoft product files, try Docs to Go.

My attempt to use the rich text editing in Google Docs on my iPad 2 was a dismal failure.  Although Google offered “desktop mode” from the iPad Browser, I would designate it as #FAIL for the iPad.  This forced me to look for a real solution for rich text editors for the iPad and I was pleasantly surprised.  As proof of my success, most of this article was written using the iPad with “Docs to Go” and an Apple bluetooth keyboard.  Combined with Google Docs and Dropbox, Using Docs To Go is a very powerful tool for document editing on the go.

After the break, I’ll compare some core capabilities of Office2 HD and Docs To Go.

What's New in Google Apps

Originaly published on 2/1/2011
As promised, this is my what’s new article on Google Apps. Google Docs has been around since 2006 and has been going through a continual cycle of enhance and extend (as I discussed in 2008). 2010 marked a time of furious change in Google Docs, now a part of a suite of tools called Google Apps, and I’ll review some of those here. This rapid release of change is partially enabled because of Google's distribution system, the Internet. This is an advantage of cloud computing (for the most part) over the client software in a box method because there is nothing to install and users don't have to "upgrade". Upgrades are released to everyone at once (mostly). If you receive a feature you don't like though, it could turn into a disadvantage.

Before identifying what’s new, a quick description is in order. In general, Google Apps is a suite of online office productivity tools. Individual users can access most of these tools using a Google Gmail account. The basic tool set covers all the classic office productivity tools similar to those found in Microsoft Office Basic. All access to Google Apps is via the WEB and users’ data lives in the “cloud” on Google servers where it is regularly backed up, and accessible from anywhere, and any device. When people think of operating “in the cloud” this is a prime example.
UPDATE: Look at the end of this article for a update regarding mobile

Google Released “Google Cloud Connect” Today

Today, Google took their MS Office plugin out of BETA and release Google Cloud Connect (GCC), a way to easily share and edit documents real-time with others. The video on their announcement is very compelling.  From their blog:" It adds simultaneous collaboration, revision history, cloud sync, unique URLs and simple sharing to the Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint applications."

Cloud Connect is a very smooth move by Google as a way to demonstrate the power of real-time collaboration without leaving the coveted Microsoft Office Environment.  Check out the announcement. By using GCC, users gain many of the advantages of using Google Docs without leaving MS Office. I'll write more when I have a chance to try it out.

Google Draws a Line, Microsoft Stumbles

Google Announces New SLA

Google drew a line in the sand when it announced on January 14, 2011 some changes to its service level agreement (SLA). First, the SLA will no longer have an "out" for planned downtime. Customers will receive SLA credits for any downtime - planned or unplanned. Google claims to be the first major cloud provider to eliminate maintenance windows from its service level agreement.

Previously, Google did not count periods shorter than 10 minutes as downtime. That meant that even though short outages could add up to hours over a long enough period of time, the company had no obligation to compensate users. Google is ending that policy and will now credit users for any amount downtime, no matter how brief.

Wave Bye Bye

When you look at Google Wave, and the fact that Google is pulling it, I don't think so much about failure as I do about Google continuing to build intellectual capital (IC).

They were brave enough to take a chance at re-inventing how people collaborate and work together, it wasn't accepted by enough users and is being pulled by Google, but in the end, Google wins.

Google Analytics, A Free and Powerful Cloud Service

Google Analytics is a free service that you can use from Google to get usage statistics on your various web sites. It’s not only free, it’s powerful, and it’s another example of a cloud based services. I use it on all of my web properties where I can. Analytics can help you not only understand how people are using your site but help you improve sales, increase revenue from advertising, lower support costs, increase customer satisfaction, find dead pages and more. Understanding how people get to and use your site can have huge benefits to large and small sites. This article will explain how it works, features of Google Analytics, how to implement it on your site and a look into why everyone doesn’t use it.

Google Wave, I've gotta get me some of that!

After looking over all the preview materials, hype and papers written by early look users (and now the early adopters) as well as Google’s videos about Google Wave, I initially thought it was a solution to a problem that I didn’t have. It was confusing. As the product steeps / ferments/ matures in the back of my brain, it’s exactly something that I could useat work… all day. In fact, I want it right now!!!

Continous Evolution

Google just announced a couple of new features and an apology for the outage last week. For me, I’ve already enabled the SSL feature (rolled out over a week ago).

When reviewers compare Google Apps to things like MS Office they don't take into account that it's just a snapshot in time which is no longer valid in Web 2.0 time frames. This approach used to be accepted since competitors would release major changes & features at best every 6 months. What the major zines fail to realize (and possibly desktop application vendors as well) is that web based apps like gMail, and other Google Apps are on a continual release train that delivers in weeks, not months and years. Features arrive all the time. Fixes are applied and instantly used by millions within hours. This is yet another example of that. Sure Google Apps may not be completely on-par with MS Office, but the trend is that it can sneak up and bite them when no one is looking.

In addition to this, innovative hackers have enhanced Google Apps with Firefox plug-ins and whole applications. RememberTheMilk.com is a perfect example. They graft their ToDo list management system directly onto gMail using Firefox in a very innovative way (innovative to me) to make up for missing functionality. Now take all of this together, add mobility detection and other features and you have excellent integration with all Google Apps on mobile device (iPhone for me) that surpasses any total solution out there.

Just as important is that Google is learning to deliver application on a massive scale. Something that comes only with experience and a few stubbed toes along the way. Enter stage right the Google application development environment and the future potential is staggering. Am I a Google groupie? Yes. Does this apply to the SAAS web application delivery industry as a whole, absolutely. We are sitting on the cusp of a very large change.

If you read this far I thank you.
Chris Claborne