Google+ is now available with Google Apps
Google Apps fans, today we're ready to add you to our circles. Google+ makes sharing on the web more like sharing in the real world, and now Google+ is available to people who use Google Apps at college, at work or at home.
Context & Ripple Effects
Google had tested a domain-oriented version of Google+ in July and then confirmed that Apps users would receive access. The release turns that planned connection into an option for the organizations and institutions already using Google's hosted productivity suite.
The move matters because Google is placing a sharing service alongside Apps products such as Gmail and Docs, rather than leaving it as a separate consumer-facing destination. Syndicated coverage also framed administrator access to user data as a key governance issue for business adopters.
First-order effects
- Google Apps users at work, college and home can use Google+ through the same broader service environment as their existing Google productivity tools.
- Apps administrators and organizational buyers must account for Google+ activity in their data-management and oversight decisions.
Second-order effects
- Google Apps' value proposition expands from hosted email and documents toward a suite that also includes internal and external sharing, raising the stakes for customers evaluating integrated collaboration tools.
- The administrator-data framing makes governance a purchase consideration alongside user adoption, giving IT departments a direct role in how broadly Google+ is enabled.
Third-order effects
- If Google continues attaching communication services to Apps, competition in hosted productivity will increasingly hinge on how tightly collaboration, identity and administrative controls are integrated rather than on individual applications alone.
The trend: Hosted workplace software is evolving from a collection of productivity applications into managed collaboration environments that combine sharing tools with centralized administration.