Microsoft Takes Another Shot at Google Apps
Last Updated on Wednesday, 9 May 2012 07:33 Written by Alan Wednesday, 9 May 2012 07:33
Over the past few months Microsoft has taken several shots at Google, mostly with videos like Googlightling and Cupcakes. They have also offered instructions for users to move their Google Docs to Office web Apps. Now they are at it again, except this time it’s a slide show presentation that pits Office 365 against Google Apps. Office 365 is the professional version of Office Web Apps, much as Google Apps aims at corporations while Google Docs is aimed at more casual users.
The simple new nine slide presentation was posted to the MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) blog today by Microsoft UK. It offers a frame by frame comparison of the two services. It points out the differences, such as security and privacy, customized versus generic dashboards, feature roadmaps, differences in support, and more.
While we have used both services here, we have never done a head-to-head comparison, but this got us thinking that one may be on the way in our very near future. In the meantime, you can check out the Microsoft slide show posted below. Stayed tuned for that battle in a future post.
Google Adds Automatic Translation and 2 Other Labs Features to Gmail
Last Updated on Tuesday, 1 May 2012 08:08 Written by Alan Tuesday, 1 May 2012 08:08
Do you frequently have reason to correspond via email with people who don’t speak your native language? Many people may answer no to that question, but there are no doubt a few of you in large worldwide corporations who will answer yes, and for those people Google has some good news. Today they announced automatic translation in Gmail.
Translation was previously been available through Gmail Labs, but today it and two other Labs apps officially graduated to full Gmail integration. A “Translate message” option will appear at the top of messages whenever Google detects a foreign language. The new features will be rolling out to all users over the next few days. Along with automatic message translation, users will be getting notification of the number of new email messages they have right in the Gmail tab, and also “Smart Mute”.
All three of these former Labs projects should be live for all users by the end of this week. For more information you can check out the Gmail blog.
Gmail Storage Gets Bumped to 10 GB
Last Updated on Tuesday, 24 April 2012 09:39 Written by Alan Tuesday, 24 April 2012 09:39
Today Google hit the trifecta of tech news with Google Docs storage being bumped up to 5 GB, the release of Google Drive, and now Gmail being bumped up to 10 GB of storage. Gmail previously offered 7.5 GB of storage, a number that has risen several times during the life of the service. Google’s email service is one of the most popular on the web. Although they trail behind both Hotmail and Yahoo in user totals, they are far-and-away the leaders among the geeks and the “in-crowd”.
The announcement from Google was short and sweet – “Today, we’re happy to announce that we’re increasing everyone’s free storage in Gmail from 7.5 GB to 10 GB (and counting) to celebrate today’s launch of Google Drive. The increase will take effect over the next 24 hours. We hope you all enjoy the little bump!”
The Gmail storage is a moving target that Google changes periodically as they gain more users and those users save more and more emails and attachments. The new total does not count against your Google Drive storage and neither does the free 1 GB of Picasa storage that Google offers. All of those who sign up for a Google account will automatically be registered for a Gmail account, as well as other Google services.
