Beware of the Spy?

As a Google Apps Premier Reseller & Partner, we are always asked about the newest and greatest features from Google – especially those in Google Apps. With the new Google Drive launch that recently occurred, we have received a considerable amount of Q&A on the topic of data and data privacy – especially “What happens to my data that I put in Google Drive?” & “Who owns my data in Google Drive?”

You’ll hear a considerable amount of brouhaha about the new Google consolidated privacy policy, as well as some strong and scary wording in the new terms of service pertaining to Google Drive. But there is nothing to worry about here…

What we really need to be concerned with is how do we honestly expect to deal with a service provider and data warehouse service in today’s day and age? Google Drive is providing your data, on its global network, to you – whenever you need it, wherever you need – no matter what city, state, country or device you happen to use.

With this specific issue in mind, understand that your data, and the files and images and audio and everything else, are “expected” to be YOUR intellectual property (IP). Google is merely applying the licensure necessary to redistribute that content of your IP to wherever you happen to request it. Whether you share it, lock it up tight, or temporarily give access to someone else… Google has to reserve the right to carry your data to where you want it carried… Sound simple?

Google Drive finally unveiled its long-rumored cloud data storage service, Google Drive. The wording of the terms of services claims that Google reserves the right to “use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute” content uploaded to their services. [Source: PCWorld]

So what has you so concerned? Does it mean that Google is going to scour through your data and learn all about you? It merely states that Google is going to give you your data when you need it by accessing their servers. Same idea as when you arrive in Las Vegas, ready to withdraw some hard-earned cash at the local casino’s ATM – they take money from your bank account back in Memphis, TN, pull it out of your account, and deliver it in nice and neat stacks of $100 dollar bills. You should read the data sharing agreements for the STAR/PLUS network too. Similar wording as that in Google’s TOS.

The situation with Google Drive is the same. The wording isn’t there to suggest that Google owns your data and will do with it as it pleases. The wording grants Google the legal rights necessary to act on your behalf in transmitting information and making it available on the Web around the world.

I still agree that the wording is a bit scary. However, it is not different than the wording of the terms of service across the rest of Google, or different from the legalese used by competing cloud storage services, so there really isn’t anything to be concerned about. [Source: PCWorld]

Our approach is to worry more about the company that DOES NOT disclose how, where, and to whom will be granted access to your data. That will make you stay awake at night wondering how a programmer in some foreign land is snooping through your data because he/she needs to make sure your account is being used properly.

The final blow to Microsoft and DropBox reiterates the standard verbiage:

“Some of our Services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.”

Now get back to work!

Keep Calm and Carry On

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
- Steve Jobs, 1955 – 2011
- Stanford Commencement Address

Exciting news for all users of Google Apps as well as GMail – Offline capabilities are back!!

As of today, Aug 31, 2011, Google has released the capability to work offline in Gmail.  To skip the details and get it working, jump over to our online instructions on how to enable Offline E-mail for Google Apps and GMail.

Google has released a new version of Gmail that operates without an internet connection, and it plans to offer similar offline versions of Google Docs and Google Calendar over the coming week. But these tools will only work in tandem with Google’s own Chrome browser.

The company had promised offline versions of its Google Apps by the end of the summer, saying they would compliment Chrome OS, the Google OS that puts all applications inside the browser. But this is the first indication that these apps would only work with Chrome.

Based on Google’s Gmail web app for tablets, the new Gmail Offline must be “installed” from the company’s Chrome Web Store, its marketplace for web applications and Chrome extensions. This adds an icon to Chrome’s “new tab” page, and after clicking on this icon, you can continue using Gmail while offline. The app is due to arrive in the Chrome Web Store today.

G-Apps Masters is an Authorized Google Apps Reseller. For all your Google Apps Support needs, please contact us so we can assist you with your Technical Support requests: (877) 774-4664 or (877) 77-4-GOOG

We’ve been getting a mixed bag of complaints/issues surrounding Google Apps GMail Offline mail capabilities.  We’ve finally uncovered this little bugget of information and want to prepare our clients, as well as future clients, of a change coming down the pipeline.  See the article below for details on an exciting new change to Offline E-mail with GMail. If you’d like more details, please contact our Google Apps Support Team at: supp...@gappsmasters.com

What’s changing with Gmail Offline and browser support?

The new Gmail Offline capability is targeted for delivery as a Chrome browser web app this summer.

As we move the Gmail Offline capability to a Chrome web app, we will deprecate the Google Gears-based Gmail Offline. This coincides with the version 12 release of the Google Chrome browser which no longer supports Gears (Gears blogpost). As a result, Google Gears-based Gmail Offline will no longer work with the Chrome browser as of Tuesday May 24, 2011. Google Gears-based Gmail Offline will continue to work in versions of Internet Explorer 8 and Mozilla Firefox versions 3.6.

Browser	Today	After May 24	Early Summer
Google Chrome
Microsoft Internet Explorer® 8
Mozilla Firefox® 3.6

Your Gmail Offline users may have seen this notification in Chrome:

Google Chrome is changing: It will no longer support Gears starting with version 12, which means Gmail offline will no longer work. If you’ve been syncing offline, in a few weeks, all changes will be synchronized and the offline feature will be disabled. We’ll have a new offline feature available for Chrome soon—in the meantime, you can still use offline in Firefox 3.x browsers.

We realize that there will be a temporary gap in Gmail offline access via Chrome, and we are working hard to deliver offline capabilities through a new Gmail Offline Chrome web app as quickly as possible. Following is information and tips to help your users continue offline access during this transition period.

If you use Chrome and Gmail Offline

Beginning on Tuesday, May 24, 2011, users will no longer be able to use Chrome with Google Gears-based Gmail Offline. The Offline setting will not appear in the Settings menu, and users may receive an error message when they try to access their Gmail offline.

Any messages placed in user’s offline outbox before May 24th, will be automatically sent the next time the user logs into Gmail via Chrome for following few weeks (until the release of the next generation Chrome browser, which doesn’t support Gears). However, users cannot view or access their Gmail offline.

Tip: At the end of this document, you’ll find a sample template email that tells users how to set up offline access with another supported browser.

Be sure that your offline users do not update to later versions of Firefox and Internet Explorer as the Google Gears Offline feature works only with Firefox 3.6 and Internet Explorer 8.

When can we use Chrome with offline? This summer, we will release a new Gmail Offline Chrome web app. We recommend that some of your IT users or early adopters try the Gmail Offline Chrome web app first before switching your organization to Chrome for offline access.

If you use Firefox or Internet Explorer and Gmail Offline

If your users use Firefox v3.6 or Internet Explorer 8, Google Gears-based Gmail Offline will continue to work as usual. However, please note that updates to these versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers may affect Gears support, and therefore Gmail offline access.

Actions to take now: Make sure that your Gmail Offline users on Firefox or Internet Explorer know that they should not update their browsers to Firefox v4 or Internet Explorer 9. Google Gears works only Firefox v3.6 and Internet Explorer 8, and not newer versions of these browsers.

See & Discuss: Google Docs User Interface Language Issues

Who Changed My User Language in Google Docs?

We’ve received several complaints over the last 48 hours of users in various browsers (Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari) experiencing sudden changes to the user interface for Google Docs (specifically) – but also other language related portions of Google Apps (GMail and others).

What’s Happening?

A user will login to Google Apps GMail, everything looks fine….  The user then opens “Documents” for Google Docs and ends up seeing foreign language cahracters (Chinese, Japanese, Arabic). Looking at the Google Docs Settings reveals either no selected Language, or English (US).

How to Fix?

The easiest way to fix this (when possible) is to login to Google Docs, click the location where “Settings” should be (upper right corner, possibly with a drop down arrow), and click on the first option. Because this is often found in foreign languages, it may take a few tries to navigate.

Once inside the “Settings”, the very first drop down option will be for Language selection. Change the language to either English (US) or English (UK).  Once the interface returns to normal, select the proper English version that fits your needs.

Google is aware of an issue with various language occurrences similar to this and is working on a remedy.

G-Apps Masters is an Authorized Google Apps Reseller. For all your Google Apps Support needs, please contact us so we can assist you with your Technical Support requests: (877) 774-4664 or (877) 77-4-GOOG

The Google Apps Tech Support team at G-Apps Masters has come up with a quick and easy way to get your Outlook auto-complete e-mail addresses into the Contacts list for GMail. By following these quick instructions, you can recover those “lost” e-mail addresses that don’t import very easily, and can be nearly impossible to find.

Find out how they did it – Import Outlook Auto-complete into GMail

Microsoft Outlook: The AutoComplete feature is on by default, and it will suggest names as you type in the following boxes:

• To, Cc, and Bcc boxes in an e-mail message.
• E-mail field in a contact card.

When you type the first letter of a name in one of these boxes, AutoComplete begins to suggest possible matches based on names you have typed before. The more letters you type, the greater the possibility of AutoComplete finding a match.

Names that you use less frequently will move lower in the list over time, and eventually will no longer appear.

Click the name you want to enter in the box. If you are using the keyboard, select the name using the UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW keys, and then press ENTER (or TAB). If no suggestion matches what you are typing, continue typing. The AutoComplete feature will remember what you typed the next time you type that name.

NOTE To delete unwanted suggestions from the list, select the unwanted suggestion by using the UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW keys, and then press DELETE.

G-Apps Masters is an Authorized Google Apps Reseller. For all your Google Apps Support needs, please contact us so we can assist you with your Technical Support requests: (877) 774-4664 or (877) 77-4-GOOG

The problem we see with the current Microsoft marketing strategy is that it preys on people’s ignorance. Microsoft makes one think that it isn’t a big deal to all of a sudden start using Microsoft’s products as web enabled. When has Microsoft ever made something simple, easy, point and click piece of cake? By choosing any other provider, Microsoft focuses on these changes as something they would rather you not have to “go through” in order to appreciate the Microsoft simplicity. All the while making their marketing references to a nonsensical allegory of “to the cloud” simplicity of easy, peasy, – yet something-sleazy.

Everything in Microsoft’s marketing message seems simple. Are you a bored couple sitting and waiting for your delayed flight at the airport? “To the cloud” to easily and effortlessly watch movies from your home computer.

Are you a virtual office of geographically displaced workers, with the CEO part-timing as a coffee slinger? “To the cloud!” in order to share your financial forecasting with your CFO in a different state (and state of mind).

What they fail to mention is how “easy” the process really is to accomplish these feats. In order to run “to the cloud” with Microsoft you absolutely must be running Windows 7 + Office 2010. Trying to run Office 2010 on anything less can be painful – if not fruitless. In order to run Windows 7, your computer should be up to contemporary specs (i.e. bye-bye 2 year old laptop). And what about internet connectivity? Absolute must.

For years Microsoft has focused that one of the primary problems with Google Apps for Business, is that it requires the use of – that’s right – Internet connectivity to function! God forbid anyone *need* to be connected in order to function! How well does Windows Update function without an Internet connection? What about e-mail via Outlook? Most of our core business tools, in use today, absolutely require internet connectivity to function – or fully function.

And last, but not least, everyone – not a single deviation – but everyone, must be on the same platform, functioning within the same suite of tools. So your co-worker in Dubai, who’s running Windows 7 + Office 2010, trying to work “in the cloud” with Jim in Scranton, OH with Windows XP + Office 2007 just won’t be able to dazzle the Board of Directors with real-time collaboration.

Google Apps requires two primary pieces: 1) Internet connectivity; 2) a Web Browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer)

We all know marketing is about showing only the strong points of any product or service. Transparency in a service’s failure is rarely focused on by the company promotional team. You will find any mention buried below the search results of most modern search engine listing as a core function of modern marketing efforts. Microsoft and its clumsy licensing model, incoherent snorts of “to the cloud” do not ever focus the message on “upgrade now to enjoy these benefits”.  And rarely, if ever, let you know that the licensing model for any Microsoft “Cloud” Solution is more cryptic than the Dicitonary to a 3 year old.

Google is very forthcoming about issues, as they arise. Google Apps Status Dashboard showcases issues, in real-time, to the entire suite of services. And what about the big GMail loss of data issue that occurred February 2011? Google was very clear on what happened, how it happened, and how it has taken steps to alleviate from ever occurring again to .00002% of its users.

How does Google Apps play into this same model? Simply put, it makes you focus on what you can do, how to do it, and how it actually is deployed and functional without the need for anything more than a “modern” computer, web browser, and internet connection.

G-Apps Masters is an Authorized Google Apps Reseller. For all your Google Apps Support needs, please contact us so we can assist you with your Technical Support requests: (877) 774-4664 or (877) 77-4-GOOG

How about a big smooch for Valentine's Day?

We found it interesting that last month, Microsoft sent out Valentine’s Day Love Letters about breaking up… It was all about how people and businesses that “Broke Up” with Microsoft and switched to Google Apps.  Here’s the kicker – it claims that they wanted to come back to Microsoft’s loving arms. As amusing as it was, it touched on a great deal of what Microsoft really has going for it…  Mainly, Microsoft has had its claws into our computer based workflow for nearly two decades – that’s right – 20+ years of Microsft Windows and all it brought to our computing world.

There was an article written by the San Francisco Chronicle (SFC) about some of the reasons why people were switching back to Microsoft after trying out Google Apps for Business. There is mention of a follow-up article that will bring light to the other side, those switching away from Microsoft over to Google Apps, but we’ve not seen that yet. Being able to present both sides, with a healthy dose of reality should be the focused effort of the SFC.

Here is a quick excerpt from the article and some ideas on how it fell short…

BridgeView IT is an IT recruiting firm with about 30 employees and 100 freelance consultants. In a phone interview, BridgeView cofounder Tim Glennie explained that his company faced an expensive upgrade to its on-premise e-mail system, which was based on an old version of Microsoft’s Exchange Server. To save money, the company looked at Google Apps, which costs $50 per user per year.

But after the 30-day trial ended last October, BridgeView decided to go with Microsoft’s hosted offering, the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) instead.

Here are some reasons why:

• Google Apps had trouble syncing data with employees’ BlackBerry devices.

• BridgeView makes heavy use of nested email folders in Outlook, which didn’t show up correctly in Gmail.

• When BridgeView tried to contact Google for support, they couldn’t find a phone number to call. Google does offer a support line for issues like major outages, but for point questions Google pointed BridgeView to online forums.

At G-Apps Masters, we could have solved these failure points very easily:

1. Blackberry: Sync’ing with Blackberry is a piece of cake. The easiest, least intrusive way is to use the Google Apps GMail application. It works, and works well, to give you 100% functionality of GMail (read/compose, star, report spam, labels, etc). While it is a useful tool, we find that most of our clients want to use the native Blackberry e-mail (messaging) and sync contacts and calendars with the device (wirelessly). This can be accomplished by using IMAP for e-mail (connects directly to Google Apps mail servers and syncs in real-time) as well as Google Sync for contact/calendar sync. Not only does this solution work, and work well, it saves immediate costs over the requirement to have a BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server) and a BES mobile carrier contract (usually $10-20 per phone more than BIS – Blackberry Internet Services plans). In a 50 user organization, switching to Google Apps would cost $2,500 in licenses with Blackberry (BIS) costs at ~$20/user/month – around $1,000/mo. With BES (dedicated server, $3,000-5,000), requires connecting to Microsoft Exchange server, with Blackberry Licenses ($100/device) + Blackberry (BES) costs at $40/user/month – around $2,000/month. You can quickly see the cost savings in initial hardware, licensing, labor for setup/configuration by professional IT Services, monthly recurring carrier costs, not to mention maintenance when BES requires upgrades (or Exchange requires patches, backups, updates/upgrades). Google Apps still sits at $50/user per year. With no required maintenance. Sound simple? If you need more clarity, see our Support forum for Blackberry Setup with Google Apps
2. Nested Folders: Within Google Apps (GMail) there is a feature called LABELS. Labels replace the typical nomenclature of FOLDERS. Whereas we are used to the physical world of one paper, one folder, labels eliminates this old method for filing and managing e-mail. GMail is predicated on Google’s powerful search capability. When we use Outlook to handle e-mail, we look for organization in the form of folders. With GMail, you have new options. You can retain the use of Folders by making a 1:1 connection with Labels. This is built into the platform. Labels = Folders when it comes to GMail. Here’s where it gets tricky…  Having folders, under folders, under other folders – aka “Nested Folders”. This is a great organizational method for keeping your folders organized. However, it simply replicates human nature to store in a logical, hierarchical function. You want to find the May 2010 invoice for XYZ Company, look in the drawer for Clients, Sorted alphabetically, look for letter X, find “XYZ Company” labeled folder, then open it, look for section for “Invoices” in their folder, then look for the 2010 labels, then look for May labels, then find the invoice. With Google Apps and GMail, you can simply search for “XYZ Company invoice may 2010″ in the search bar. It will search your entire 25GB mail storage and report what it found – usually within 2-3 seconds. If you look at the Outlook “folders” example, you see it may have taken 5-6 clicks – with GMail it took one click. Now I know you’re saying to yourself, “Outlook can search for messages too!”. You’re right, it can, but it does so with the help of Windows Search 4.0 – which is constantly bogging down your computer as it indexes the contents of every file, folder, e-mail, etc. If you tried to search Outlook and had 10GB of e-mail, two things would probably happen – 1) Your system would search, and search, and search – taking several minutes, maybe even longer; 2) Because your Outlook mail storage file (PST/OST) was 10GB, Outlook and/or your computer, would probably crash/freeze/blue screen. Using labels in GMail is an old method for organizing your e-mail – but can be done very simply and easily using labels. (Also, there is a “Lab” feature for “Nested Labels” which replicates 100% of what they said could not be done in GMail.)
3. Google Apps Support: Every Google Apps for Business licensed domain gets 24×7 access to Google Enterprise Support. If you have a functional issue, call their support line and they will happily create a ticket and get it into the queue for processing. Depending on the severity, you will receive a response within a day or two – sometimes longer. As an Authorized Google Apps Reseller, G-Apps Masters has access to tools that can help speed up the support process. We offer Google Apps Support 24×7 telephone, e-mail and web support. If you have an issue that cannot be resolved, let us know. We can usually solve issues within hours, where it may take Enterprise Support days/weeks. Our team lives and breathes Google Apps. We know how it works, why it works, and what to do if things aren’t behaving properly. With experience comes knowledge – and we’ve been using Google Apps since it was launched, and supporting our clients since the day after it was launched. Visit our Support Portal to access our Knowledgebase & Help Forums, as well as to create a ticket if you need a resolution to Google Apps Help & Support.

G-Apps Masters is an Authorized Google Apps Reseller. For all your Google Apps Support needs, please contact us so we can assist you with your Technical Support requests: (877) 774-4664 or (877) 77-4-GOOG

The underlying causes of the GMail Outage of 2011 which affected a very tiny percentage of GMail and Google Apps mail users has been resolved.  With that being said, we always believe in transparency and identifying problems, as well as solutions to alleviate their recurrence. The bad news, something caused an issue that should never have occurred…  The good news, it has been fully recovered and did not affect any of G-Apps Masters’ customers and clients.

Google has posted the following “Incident Report” surrounding the issues that arose on, or around, Feb 27, 2011:

The following is the incident report for the Gmail issues experienced by a very small percentage of Google Apps customers beginning on February 27, 2011. The affected users reported empty mailboxes and login errors with Gmail and other Google Apps services. To resolve the issues, Google Engineering restored account data and user access for the affected users. During this incident, some incoming messages were automatically bounced (senders received a delivery failure notification); no email was lost from users’ mailboxes.

We understand that this service outage has affected our valued customers and their users, and we sincerely apologize for the impact and disruption.

Issue Analysis and Actions

Note: All times listed are in Pacific Standard Time

At approximately 10:00 AM, February 27, Google Support received initial reports of customers 1) finding their Gmail mailboxes empty and personal settings (such as labels and themes) reset to the defaults, or 2) receiving a 500-series error stating that their Gmail account was temporarily unavailable.

After analyzing the issue, Google Engineering determined that the root cause was a bug inadvertently introduced in a Gmail storage software update. The bug caused the affected users’ messages and account settings to become temporarily unavailable from the datacenters. At 1:05 PM, February 27, Google Engineering reverted the storage software update, and halted further deployment.

Restoration Process

While analyzing the issue and its root cause, Google Engineering also worked on the process to restore users’ accounts. At 6:00 PM, February 27, Google Engineering temporarily disabled access to Gmail and other Google Apps services for all potentially affected users. This was a precautionary measure to prevent issues with data integrity during the mailbox restoration process. When users attempted to log in to their Gmail or Google Apps account, they received the message, “Sorry, your account has been disabled.” At 1:30 PM, February 28, following further analysis, Google Engineering identified those users not affected by the software bug, and restored their account access. For the affected users, Google Engineering restored access to all of their Google Apps services other than Gmail.

Gmail stores multiple copies of users’ messages in multiple datacenters and on tape backups. With this software issue, some messages were unavailable online and required restoration from offline tape backups. Google Engineering retrieved the users’ data from tape backups, moved the data into their mailboxes, validated the data restoration, delivered all queued incoming messages, and re-enabled login access. The time required to retrieve users’ data from tape backups contributed to the extended time for the restoration. In addition, the restoration time depended on the size of the user’s mailbox: the larger the user’s mailbox, the longer the restoration. During this incident, user accounts that were programmatically updated by Google Apps Directory Sync or the Google Apps Provisioning API (utilities used by Google Apps administrators) required additional time for restoration.During this incident, no existing messages or Gmail settings were lost from the users’ accounts. However, between 6:00 PM February 27 to 2:00 PM February 28, new incoming messages were not accepted, and the senders received a “Delivery Status Notification (Failure)” bounce notification. Messages sent after this timeframe were delivered as usual, and available once users logged in.

Google Engineering worked diligently through the list of affected user accounts to restore access as quickly as possible while ensuring data integrity. By 3:40 PM, March 2, Gmail data and login access were restored to 98% of Google Apps for Business users. Google Engineering and Google Support worked directly with the remaining users as needed, and by 11:30 AM, March 3, all Google Apps for Business user accounts had been restored.

Incident Communications

During the incident, Google Support posted regular updates to the Apps Status Dashboard. On February 28, Google Engineering released a Gmail blog post that described the cause of the issue, included information on the account restoration process, and listed an email address for users to report any residual issues.

Corrective and Preventative Measures

Google Engineering and Support conducted an internal review and analysis, and have begun the following actions to help address the underlying causes of the issues and prevent recurrence:

• Expand testing tools to better identify this class of bug during the software development cycle.
• Implement alerts and monitoring to detect this type of issue more quickly, and stop propagation.
• Speed the email restoration process by increasing the automation and performance of the tools used for identifying affected users, and for disabling and re-enabling users accounts.
• Develop tools that allow users to maintain account access to their Google Apps services during a Gmail service disruption. Improve support communications: When customers submit a case about a large service disruption or outage to Google Enterprise Support, they can automatically receive status/ resolution updates through email or online in their support case.

We are dedicated to making these improvements, all of which are now in progress. We understand that this issue has impacted and frustrated customers. Google is committed to continually and quickly improving our technology and operational processes to help prevent service disruptions.

If you have any concerns about this incident, please give us a call and one of our Senior Engineers can go into further detail and answer any questions: (877) 774-4664

G-Apps Masters is an Authorized Google Apps Reseller. For all your Google Apps Support needs, please contact us so we can assist you with your Technical Support requests: (877) 774-4664 or (877) 77-4-GOOG