yon Leveron blog

Google has announced this recently. As shown below, it’s already in effect for one of my Google Apps domains.

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Vijay Bangaru, Product Manager for Google Docs yesterday announced that Google Docs now supports files up to 250 MB in size (larger than the attachment limit on most email applications), which means Google Docs users can now store backups of large graphic files, RAW photos and ZIP archives on the cloud.

The news comes at a time when Google is trying to instill in users a confidence regarding cloud storage. A lot of people are wary of trusting the cloud as their sole storage solution. It’s this kind of thinking that Google will need to overcome if its Chrome OS, which stores everything in the cloud, is to be successful.

Upload your files and access them anywhere with Google Docs

Over the next few weeks, we’re rolling out the ability to upload all file types to the cloud through Google Docs, giving you one place where you can upload and access your key files online. Because Google Docs now supports files up to 250 MB in size, which is larger than the attachment limit on most email applications, you’ll be able to backup large graphics files, RAW photos, ZIP archives and much more to the cloud. More importantly, instead of carrying a USB drive, you can now use Google Docs as a more convenient option for accessing your files on different computers.

This feature can also help you work with teams to organize and collaborate on information online. For example, an architect can share large schematic files with her construction firm, while a P.T.A. member can share large graphic files for posters with other members. You can even add these files to the same shared project folder your team has already been using to collaborate on documents and spreadsheets.

In addition to uploading any file into Google Docs, our Google Apps Premier Edition customers will be able to seamlessly upload many files at once and sync them with their desktop in real time using third party applications. You can read more about how the ability to upload any file will help businesses on the Google Enterprise blog.

This feature will be enabled for your account over the next couple of weeks — look for the bubble notification when you sign in to Google Docs. For more information, check out our post on the Google Docs blog.

http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=50092

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Google-Docs-File-Types-Size,9435.html

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=29470

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Fairly handy, for those that have “more than a few” contacts . . .

One button to merge all duplicate contacts

(via Permalink @ gmail’s blog)

This is nice since I prefer one of the non-defaults . . .

New in Gmail Labs: Default text styling

(via http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/new-in-labs-default-text-styling.html )

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An alternative to moving from Google Apps Standard edition up to Google Apps Premier edition :

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/more-extra-storage-for-less.html

This makes great financial sense for personal / family use, if you don’t need some of the extras from Premier. Case in point personally, as a family who uses Standard :

You have one person who may go significantly over their 7+ gig allotment : easy, add 20 gigs of space to that (for 27+g total; it’s in addition to the current level of “free” storage) for USD $5 per year (currently), for that user only. Problem solved, pretty cheaply

This is significantly different cost-wise than moving the entire family / organization to 25 gig total space per year at a cost of $50 per user, and with the requirement of moving all users to this Premier plan. The math is fairly compelling, if you don’t need the service level agreement of 99.9% guaranteed uptime, and the Postini services, etc.

Happy gmailing, etc. and keep it secure!

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(via http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/google-apps-highlights-1162009.html

I am really hoping to get some dedicated import / export tools for all things (especially email); this would certainly aid portability, and probably bring more people into the Google Apps fold, if they felt they could also back out if need be.

Personally, I’ve had a devil of a time with a full-featured (i.e. multi-labelled, using colors, with rules, etc.) populated Gmail account going over to an Apps email, or vice versa, or even Apps email –> Apps email. Exportability to some standard format would greatly help; I wish there were an XML format for this, that could handle all of the possibilities; by definition, it should be extensible, but with at least most functionality supported by all of the major players.

• Customizable options for Gmail offline
• Google Docs bulk export
• Visual indicators for edited and all-new items in Google Docs
• Administrator controls for Chat

These are certainly positive steps for Google however; I am continuing to hope for further expansion in what I think is pretty much the best-of-breed out there, for “free cost” environments. It may not rival all of the features I was used to in Microsoft Exchange 2010, but it also is not hosted internally, and Google is soaking up the hardware and software costs associated, in exchange for the advertising, etc.

I am looking forward to further integration via Google Voice and Google Wave as well.

Have a great day!

Ref : http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/choose-which-messages-get-downloaded.html

While this is also a useful feature for those on the go, I think that many folks would find a ton of time savings via Gmail Filters.

In Gmail, one common use of these filters as a way to allow custom, automatic processing of messages as they arrive. I put each mailing list into into own “label” (folder) automatically, to keep my Inbox tidy. For some of the lists that I don’t read very often, I even set the message status as “has been read” for those, to keep the number indicator low in my folder list. (different colors per label / folder make things easier to distinguish, even after many hours per day at the monitors)

There are numerous advanced filter possibilities, as well as some undocumented features that work well, in my limited experience.

I find Gmail (via their Google Apps / Standard Edition) to be of quite a bit of value for myself and the family. However, many folks simply don’t know what the service is capable of, and it’s painful to see them struggle with their email.

As a friend, a few quick Filters can really help them out for a long time to come. There are numerous other tweaks that can help them via the Gmail Labs, as well as the standard Settings page (force https mode, etc.)

If you have an especially helpful tip or set of tips for filtering or Gmail, please forward and I will give due credit, thanks!

Mail and contact import for everyone