
G Suite: intelligent tools designed for teams - akrolsmir
https://googleforwork.blogspot.com/2016/09/intelligent-tools-built-for-teams.html
======
oridecon
Can't I pay to just use a custom domain in a regular Google account? All I
want is to use it for my Gmail. I don't have any use for the "G Suite"
features and I know that some features are not available there, especially
newer ones.

I'm probably leaving for another provider because of this. I'm more and more
concerned about the @gmail.com lock-in. I don't even send any media
attachments (audio, video) or store anything in my Drive since I know of
several people getting banned and not even receiving a justification
(anecdotal, but it's enough to make me nervous about it). I'm not saying that
was the cause, but I can't know for sure, so...

~~~
jakebasile
Whatever you do, do not buy a Google Apps (sorry, G Suite) account for
personal use. I made this mistake years ago and it bites me constantly. You
get locked in to paying per month just so you get access to the things you
bought through it (movies, apps, etc) and for that privilege you get locked
out of many new features like Spaces, Google Now email cards, Fi, the new
Trips app, Google Play Family Sharing.

~~~
Adaptive
I agree fully on the lame way Google rolls out (or fails to roll out) key
features for Google Apps. Even when features do roll out, they are sometimes
incomplete, for example, you can't set up Google Music family accounts with
Google Apps accounts. Dumb. I like Google Music but Spotify is easier for me
to use with my family's various google apps accounts.

However, there is one VERY important difference: data ownership and privacy.
Google Apps for Work (and edu) accounts, which I use for various organizations
as well as even for my own personal, single-user domain, have much better data
ownership and privacy terms:

See:
[https://support.google.com/work/answer/6056650?hl=en](https://support.google.com/work/answer/6056650?hl=en)

    
    
        Does Google use my organization’s data in Google Apps
        services or Cloud Platform for advertising purposes?
    
        No. There are no ads in Google Apps Services or Google Cloud
        Platform, and we have no plans to change this in the future.
        We do not scan for advertising purposes in Gmail or other
        Google Apps services. Google does not collect or use data in
        Google Apps services for advertising purposes.
    
        The process is different for our free offerings and the
        consumer space. For information on our free consumer
        products, be sure to check Google's Privacy and Terms page
        for more consumer tools and information relating to consumer
        privacy.

~~~
jakebasile
Yeah, Apps accounts have much different privacy terms and this is likely the
reason for some of their exclusions such as Google Now email cards but it
cannot logically explain why other things don't work like Play Music family
plans.

Still, if I had the choice I'd opt in to the standard privacy policy in an
instant. I understand some people's concerns about Google information
gathering but it's not a concern of mine. I just want things to work.

~~~
dragonwriter
Google play family plans don't work because Apps is expressly designed for
non-family organizations. Ideally, they would have organizational plans, but
the parameters for that are different.

Features that aren't relevant to the intended target market may be useful to
people making atypical uses, but it's quite likely not commercially sensible
to bother with them, and building a robust separate G Suite for Personal
Domains offering that takes the right mix of features of the existing consumer
and organizational offerings may itself not serve enough of a market to be
worth the effort.

------
0xCMP
This change doesn't make "sense." They literally didn't explain at all how
this would improve or change anything, but they spent the time to rename it,
draw some cute gifs, and make a completely marketing fluff video about the
future of work.

You know what company sounds like mostly marketing fluff? Hint: It's the one
"no one ever got fired for buying [from]."

------
currywurst
G Suite .. really odd name. Then again, naming things is a hard computer
science problem ;)

~~~
inopinatus
In my household, we are flabbergasted that Google's marketing team missed the
unfortunate associations of this new name.

~~~
kristianp
Can I have a clue? I don't see it.

~~~
inopinatus
Sweet spot.

------
tnorthcutt
This appears to be a rebrand of Google Apps;
[https://apps.google.com](https://apps.google.com) now redirects to
[https://gsuite.google.com](https://gsuite.google.com)

------
nightski
A new name! That is exactly what google apps was missing. Now I'll be so much
more productive yay. It's too bad I switched to Fastmail though.

------
planetjones
I have to take issue with the opening paragraph. It says that research shows
we spend 3 out of 5 days working on stuff we weren't hired to do. But then it
says attending meetings falls under that definition as does gathering
information. A lot of people need to meet to gather information. Of course
that's part of their jobs. While machine learning can, I am sure, help a lot
the fallacy the opening paragraph starts with makes me lose faith in the whole
article. They also don't cross reference this 'research'.

~~~
douche
Improved communication and information sharing does sharply reduce the
necessity of synchronous everybody-in-a-room or on-a-conference-call meetings.
There are more effective ways to do this stuff if we would just embrace them.

------
riffic
"G Sweet" ? I'm going to feel like such a dick saying that with a serious look
on my face.

~~~
toxik
Then there's the fact that suite is very commonly mistaken for suit by non-
native English speakers like myself. Maybe that's a better name, though. G
Suit.

------
freewizard
So Hangout is pivoting to a business tool in G Suite? While Allo/Duo are
created for consumer market?

Interesting if so, it's exactly the opposite to most other companies: create a
consumer product, reuse brand and/or code for biz product.

~~~
s3r3nity
Well my hypothesis would be that Microsoft and Box tends to work the other way
around as well (biz product -> consumer)...though then again a generality like
that for companies of massive size is tough statement to make.

------
aikah
"G Suite: intelligent tools designed for teams" : corporate gibberish.

~~~
reagan83
The new use of the word "intelligent" to describe their tools makes me wonder
if the previous tools lacked that very ingredient.

Or, as you aptly mentioned, these are wasteful words.

------
awad
In theory, the new functionality is cool and will help people be more
productive. As a reasonably happy work customer, I'm quite excited to try
these out. But I am not sure why they decided to rename it...again. Does no
one at Google understand branding?

------
cornchips
Formerly: Google Apps for Your Domain, Google Apps, Google Apps for Business,
and Google Apps for Work...

A turd by any other name is still a turd.

This name is definitely poor; people will have trouble with "suite", short of
english/french speaking countries, and even in english speaking countries,
considering suite and sweet are homophones and the fairly low usage of suite.

Can anyone at google explain why the brand changes every couple years? New
leadership?

~~~
godzillabrennus
Must be new leadership or maybe too many marketing people getting a voice in
product.

I owned a company that was a Google reseller for a couple of years and when
pitching it I would just call it gmail for your company. Brainstorm all the
fancy names you want but people understand what you are talking about when you
call it gmail.

Microsoft even with all its flaws has never bothered to claim that a calendar
is a standalone app. Actually, considering how badly they merged Sunrise into
Outlook maybe they should...

~~~
bigtones
You're right - it's new leadership. Diane Greene.

------
puzzle
There's, uh, prior art for the name:
[https://www.instagram.com/p/5dDY0YtgEP/](https://www.instagram.com/p/5dDY0YtgEP/)

~~~
eitally
That's, uh, also a Google thing. But yes, that did cause significant googler
confusion this morning.

------
tominous
I can see why they might want to rebrand, given that (a) the word "app" has
taken on a specific meaning in the mobile space and (b) Google as a whole is
now branded with a stylised "G".

EDIT: It's hard for this product to have its own stable brand identity. All it
does is add a feature to the existing Google products: the ability to use a
custom domain, with some useful tools to manage that namespace.

Maybe the word Domain should be emphasised: "G Domain Suite" (or Domain
Pack/Extensions/Link). Sounds better than just G Suite anyway.

------
fooey
I really miss getting custom domains on Google Apps for free.

I've never found a good way to do email for cheapskates since then.

~~~
hackernews2000
This "announcement" is full of buzzwords and useless marketing mumbo jumbo,
but doesn't say if free accounts created years ago will remain free. Can
anybody please confirm?

~~~
hackernews2000
Thankfully: "Google Apps Free Edition (legacy) remains the same"

[https://support.google.com/a/answer/7126147](https://support.google.com/a/answer/7126147)

------
akurilin
Official google drive client for Linux? :*(

~~~
jakebasile
Probably never going to happen.

[https://abevoelker.github.io/how-long-since-google-said-a-
go...](https://abevoelker.github.io/how-long-since-google-said-a-google-drive-
linux-client-is-coming/)

~~~
akurilin
Bummer. We'd consider moving off of Dropbox and have everything in one place
if we could support all of our Linux machines. Right now we have to have our
files in Dropbox and our documents in Google Drive.

~~~
OliPicard
Have you considered using Insync instead? I use it on an Ubuntu instance and
it works like a charm with Google Drive.

------
rwc
Interesting use of pronouns here... "adding her to the team" but "removing him
from the team". Why not be consistent?

"Drives help streamline teamwork from end-to-end, from onboarding a new team
member (add her to the team and she instantly has access to all of the work in
one place) to offboarding a departing team member (remove him from the team
and all of his work stays right in place), and everything in-between."

~~~
douche
I don't get the aversion to non-gendered pronouns. Them's and they's are A-OK.

~~~
s3r3nity
I think it's not grammatically accurate to use "them" and "they" for a
singular subject; if it's one person or thing, the pronoun should be he/she/it
or some combination. For press releases, the safe option is to be
grammatically correct than colloquially acceptable.

Nevertheless it could be one of those things that is in flux as part of the
evolution of the English language.

~~~
optimuspaul
I don't think it's a grammar thing at all it's a definition of the words
thing, which guess what, it's covered already!

they

pronoun 1\. used to refer to two or more people or things previously mentioned
or easily identified. "the two men could get life sentences if they are
convicted" informal a group of people in authority regarded collectively.
"they cut my water off"

2\. used to refer to a person of unspecified sex. "ask someone if they could
help"

------
HugoDaniel
Why not G Spot ? :)

~~~
anotherevan
That's what they're renaming Google Maps to.

[https://twitter.com/HackerNewsOnion/status/78161631937652736...](https://twitter.com/HackerNewsOnion/status/781616319376527364)

------
dennisgorelik
That G-naming reminded me "G-spot".

