Opinions on Google Chrome? APPS?

[Santilli]

Hi
I remember someone saying he was converting over to Google apps? What do you think of them and, which ones do you use?

Thanks

GS

 

[Will Rickards]

I think you are thinking of google apps for your domain.
This is where you have a gmail/docs/etc interface for your own domain.
I use it and it is great. Wish they had a picasa web type interface too and I could use my own web space for it.

As for Chrome, I use that as my primary browser.
I never used many firefox extensions, and was using opera for a while before so it was an easy shift.

 

[Gilbo]

My company is shifting to Google Apps for everything. It's seriously made just about everything easier.

The new Exchange/Outlook syncing app is going to make a big difference for anyone who thought they were trapped by Microsoft's proprietary formats.


The one big disadvantage is that there's no such thing as shared contacts. You can't have a central pool of contacts accessible by everyone. If it wasn't for this, we'd have completely transitioned a year ago.

 

[Howell]

My company is shifting to Google Apps for everything. It's seriously made just about everything easier.

I have nonspecific concerns about running a company off of Google Apps. Privacy mostly. How did you guys iron that out?

 

[Mercutio]

I create a "skeleton" account to store shared contacts and export that information to each client and account as they are configured.

I'm not really worried about privacy, given how much google knows about everyone anyway.

 

[ddrueding]

I have around 7 companies and 350 users on Google Apps so far, I have at least 3 more companies in some phase of the transition as well. Privacy is a non-issue; their EULA says that it will take a subpoena to get information from them, and that any other uses only involve anonomized (sp?) data. That is good enough for me.

Chrome is nice, but lacks all the Firefox goodness. I use both, Chrome for my Google Apps/Mail accounts, Firefox for general surfing, Pandora, and you guys.

 

[sechs]

Last I checked, Chrome doesn't allow ad blocking. That's a deal killer.

 

[mubs]

I have nonspecific concerns about running a company off of Google Apps. Privacy mostly. How did you guys iron that out?

Me too. Notwithstanding what Merc said about G knowing our underwear size.

 

[Mercutio]

Last I checked, Chrome doesn't allow ad blocking. That's a deal killer.

You can set up a hosts file or run Squid or a local ad-blocking proxy like privoxy if you need ad blocking and want to use Chrome. I've done it. It's not that hard to set up.

Chrome v2 is supposed to have its own plug-in architecture.

I tried Chrome. It's pretty "meh" to me.

I have several clients on Gmail now. No one seems to want to move off Office 2003. I have few clients that have some non-critical PCs with OpenOffice, but nobody I work with wants to use Google Docs; the overall feeling is that standard office monkeys can't handle going out to a web page to save and edit documents.

 

[ddrueding]

I got the most progressive department at the company to start trying Google Docs today. I think they will enjoy it internally, but the fact that it is easier to send a document as a PDF from your desktop than direct from Google Doc is a hand-forehead moment.

 

[Mercutio]

 

[mubs]

That's cool!

 

[sechs]

You can set up a hosts file or run Squid or a local ad-blocking proxy like privoxy if you need ad blocking and want to use Chrome.

Or I could just use Firefox and Adblock. That's a lot easier.

 

[timwhit]

I've used Privoxy in the past and it was very simple.

 

[Mercutio]

Or I could just use Firefox and Adblock. That's a lot easier.

Of course, Firefox and Adblock only solve issues while you're using Firefox, not IM software, Email or any of the other Internet tools one might have, where using a proper hosts file and/or proxy can take care of all your filtering needs.

 

[sechs]

Except that I don't need or want to have those things filtered.

 

[Fushigi]

Google Apps status dashboard. Might be handy for when the apps go down.

 

[Gilbo]

It turns out there is a way to have shared contacts using Google Apps.

The Google Contacts API allows adding shared contacts that are outside your domain (by default only contacts within your domain are shared when you enable contact sharing).


Google has supplied an open source Python application that uploads CSV files to a domain's shared contacts using the Google Contacts API.

I've read inconsistent things about whether you need Premier Edition for this to work or not and haven't had a chance to try it. I'll update when I do.


Merc,
The big problem for my company is we really need to keep all the contacts in sync. If the boss' contact list isn't up-to-date, he's not happy, and it is definitely not his job to maintain it.


P.S. As for Chrome, I use it a lot. I find it much faster perceptibly than the benchmarks suggest. I still use Firefox for a lot of general browsing because I'm dependent on a variety of extensions, but Chrome is used for any Javascript heavy, AJAXy type website. I find it a much superior browsing experience on those sites.

 

[timwhit]

P.S. As for Chrome, I use it a lot. I find it much faster perceptibly than the benchmarks suggest. I still use Firefox for a lot of general browsing because I'm dependent on a variety of extensions, but Chrome is used for any Javascript heavy, AJAXy type website. I find it a much superior browsing experience on those sites.

I think Chrome feels a lot faster because it's UI is not so damn slow. I don't think JavaScript performance is nearly as big a deal as everyone has been making it out to be. I am running Opera 10 and it's JS performance is not nearly as high as FF 3.5 or Chrome, but for some reason it feels just as fast as Chrome and a lot faster than FF. Even in GMail and other Ajax heavy apps I don't notice a difference.

 

[time]

Thanks Timwhit, I thought it was just my imagination. I'd agree with everything you said.

I toyed with Chrome earlier but found it hopelessly incompatible with intranet stuff - it's probably much better now. I assumed that was why it felt fast: less handling of complex or unexpected stuff.

 

[P5-133XL]

The beta 4.xxx version of Chrome does not seem to have the incompatibilities that 3.x did and it seems to be significantly faster too..

 

[time]

I'm not really worried about privacy, given how much google knows about everyone anyway.

The Church of Google

 

[Fushigi]

If you used Google online storage in the past, the $/GB ratio just got better by roughly a factor of 8. This is for space that exceeds the free space granted by Picasa, Gmail, etc. $5/yr for 20GB is the baseline ($20/yr for 10GB was the old minimum) and it ranges all the way up to $4096/yr for 16TB.

 

[LiamC]

The Church of Google

That is funny.

Up until some fundamentalist reads it and decides to commit some atrocity because of perceived apostasy or heresy...

 

[LiamC]

duplicate...

 

[time]

So, I tried Google Docs with both Chrome and Opera.

Why can't I get to the second page of any Word document (2003/2007)?

Is Google Apps somehow different, i.e. it actually works?

 

[ddrueding]

So, I tried Google Docs with both Chrome and Opera.

Why can't I get to the second page of any Word document (2003/2007)?

Is Google Apps somehow different, i.e. it actually works?

I've never heard of this problem, so the question is, what are you doing wrong? Do you have a sample document?

 

[time]

How about this Word 2007 document in a zip archive?

 

[ddrueding]

All 4 pages, no problem.

 

[time]

Okay, I spent some more time on it.

• It always displays in draft view, there is no page view.
• So it is showing me the whole document, but without any page breaks.
• At the bottom, it says "Page 1 of 4", which is nonsense. Hence my confusion.
• It's incapable of previewing the document I linked.
• If you turn off the 'automatic document conversion during upload', you are limited to a ReadOnly view, i.e. it cannot edit Word 2007 format.
• However, it does display a correct preview (but no editing)!
• WTF can't it preview the same document once it's converted it?
• Why is it so damn clunky, eg incapable of telling me I'm trying to upload a file I've already uploaded?
• Is GoogleApps really the same?

 

[time]

No responses, leading me to conclude that no-one here really uses this shit. Ddrueding, are you sure your users aren't stocking up on tar and feathers?

I'm a bit fed up with the outrageous claims that alternative office software vendors come up with, starting with Sun. They all seem to be okay in an emergency or for super-trivial stuff, but turn out to be not a serious option at all. It's particularly frustrating, because Microsoft's product is overpriced by about 10 times and its impact on a system is ludicrous.

 

[Handruin]

I don't use Google docs for anything. I've just been following along to learn, but have no experience with what you've been trying.

 

[ddrueding]

We're coming from Office 2003, not 2007, and import of the older, less broken standard is significantly better.

Either way:

I can edit the document, view it with page breaks in print preview, clunky how?

The stated intent of Google Docs was to do the 10% of MS Word that normal people actually use, and make the interface simpler. I'd consider a single row of buttons and a single menu bar to be a great success over the evil ribbon of doom.

 

[Howell]

I don't use Google docs for anything. I've just been following along to learn, but have no experience with what you've been trying.

I use "documents" but only for super simple stuff like lists. It was not worth the trouble to try to share my resume with a friend after converting from O2003. Totally screwed up the formatting.

I use "spreadsheets" for much more complicated stuff but I've originated them in Gdocs.

 

[Will Rickards]

I only use google docs to open stuff people send me on my personal account.
Usually this is very infrequent.
At work we are still very heavy MS office users.

 

[sechs]

I use "documents" but only for super simple stuff like lists. It was not worth the trouble to try to share my resume with a friend after converting from O2003. Totally screwed up the formatting.

PDF? That's it's raison d'être.

Well, if you don't want Merc to violate your exit port with gas-powered lumber cutting tools.

 

[Howell]

PDF? That's it's raison d'être.

I was not aware that Gdocs could import PDFs into an editable file type. I don't think it could last year when I tried.

 

[Mercutio]

Well, if you don't want Merc to violate your exit port with gas-powered lumber cutting tools.

It's not my fault that Adobe is gunning for status as the worst technology company on Earth. Those twunts really, really, really need to get some religion on the idea of making secure software. It needs to happen yesterday, and then they need to perform an apology in the form of a single-stroke seppuku to all the poor bastards who have had to clean up XP Antivirus and SecurityTool.

Foxit's latest update has changed its default behavior so that it will no long attempt to connect to the internet as a result of embedded javascript; it's a feature that a users have to explicitly turn on now.

Anyway, I do a bunch of stuff with Google Docs for ease of access. The only stuff I don't use it for are training materials where I have bunches of textboxes and floating graphics. I sort of curse myself for working in Word, but that's a job requirement that I can't get away from.

 

[ddrueding]

...bunches of textboxes and floating graphics...

This is the issue. Writing docs with Google is fine, but it isn't the tool to create a book or advertisement.

 

[LunarMist]

Compatibility is always crap beyond basics. That is the way it is. Nothing new.