Google Apps - History

History

• February 2006 - Google created Gmail For Your Domain with an invitation-only beta, which allowed Gmail to be used with a custom domain name. It featured 2 GB of e-mail storage, and many of the standard Gmail features.
• August 2006 - Google expanded on this service and developed Google Apps For Your Domain, incorporating more recent Google services, including Google Calendar, Google Talk, and Google Page Creator. Later, Google added a "Start Page" to all accounts, which is based on their iGoogle service.
• October 2006 - Google allowed educational institutions to sign up for the service, which was retitled Google Apps For Education. A large implementation of Google Apps is at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, where 38,000 users have Gmail and in-browser IM capabilities.
• February 22, 2007 - Google launched a Premier Edition for enterprise, as well as making registration public for all Google Apps services. At the same time, all products were unified, and the online control panel was redesigned.
• June 2007 - Email migration from IMAP email services was added to Google Apps.
• October 3, 2007 - Google announced that "security, compliance, policy management, and message recovery services" from recently-acquired Postini will be integrated into Google Apps Premier Edition.
• October 12, 2007 - Google announced that e-mail storage for domains using Google Apps would be increasing. Premier Edition accounts now have 25 GB of space each (previously 10 GB). Standard and Education Edition accounts will mirror the Gmail counter (previously 2 GB, over 7 GB as of August 2008).
• February 28, 2008 - Google announced that Google Sites will be available to domains hosted by Google Apps. Google Sites allows collaborative editing of web sites and permits users to upload images and videos to their site.
• September 2008 - Google Page Creator and file uploader was removed as an available service for new Google Apps applicants.
• December 1, 2008 - Google removed the Start Page option for new Google Apps accounts. They are apparently trying to transition new users to using sites instead.
• January 14, 2009 - Google removed the ability to add additional users to Standard Edition domains and limited new standard edition domains to 50 users (a reduction from the previous 100).
• January 29, 2009 - Google added Google Apps to the Google Labs suite. This allows users to add gadgets to their inbox such as 'Offline', 'Tasks', and 'Vacation Time!'.
• April 1, 2009 - Google added theme support to the mail interface.
• June 9, 2009 - Google introduced Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, enabling companies running Microsoft Exchange Server to migrate their email boxes from Exchange to Google Apps.
• July 7, 2009 - Google upgraded all of the services under Google Apps from 'Beta' status.
• September 15, 2009 - Google announced that it will provide GovCloud, which will host Google Apps in a separate data environment with enhanced encryption for meeting state and government security standards.
• March 9, 2010 - Google opened the Google Apps Marketplace, a venue for third-party, cloud-based applications to supplement Google's own online applications.
• May 24, 2010 - Google announced that Google Wave will be available to domains hosted by Google Apps in next generation (only US English). Google Wave was a live, shared space on the web where people could discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.
• August 3, 2010 - Google Senior Vice President Urs Hölzle announced that Google will cease development of Google Wave.
• Mid–end of 2010 - Google started rejecting registration of dot tk domains for Google Apps (Google Apps Standard Edition at that time), but it did not affect Google Apps for Business (Google Apps Premiere Edition at the time) and Google Apps for Education (Google Apps Education Edition at the time). All Google Apps accounts using dot tk domains registered before March 2010 became disabled. When affected users try to use Google Apps, they get the following message: "This account has been disabled."
• Second half of 2010 - Google Apps accounts are transitioned to the same backend as other Google accounts, a technical change that allows both accounts to receive new features at the same time.
• May 10, 2011 - The number of free accounts for Google Apps (formerly Google Apps Standard Edition) drops from 50 to 10.
• August 3, 2012 - The Google Video for Business and Google Apps for Teams services are discontinued. Apps for Teams allowed persons with a valid business or school email address to use Google collaboration services without using Gmail or a full Apps for Business or Education distribution.
• December 7, 2012 - Google discontinues the free version of Google Apps.