Google Apps Avalanche!

Currently your Peddie Google Apps for Education account gives you access to the limited set of the Google applications listed below:

• Email / Gmail (http://email.peddie.org)
• Calendar (http://calendar.peddie.org)
• Docs (http://docs.peddie.org)
• Chat
• Sites (http://sites.peddie.org)
• Groups (http://groups.peddie.org)

As you probably know, this is only a small subset of the dozens of Google applications available to those with personal Google accounts. Other Google applications include YouTube, Picasa, Blogger, Reader, & Books. A more complete but not exhaustive list can be found here.

Since Google Apps for Education launched about 3 years ago (Peddie switched in September 2008) Google has slowly added new apps to Google Apps for Education at the rate of a few apps per year with Google Groups being the most recent addition. In what is by far the single biggest improvement which Google has made to Google Apss since it was launched, Google is in the process of allowing Google Apps accounts to have access to virtually all of the Google applications previously available only to personal Google accounts.

It actually is even better than this, because what Google is really doing is transitioning Google Apps accounts to the same infrastructure as personal Google accounts. The result is that anything you can do with a regular Google account, you will be able to do with your Peddie Google Apps account.

Benefits

Many More Google Applications
As mentioned above, you will be able to use you Peddie Google Apps account to sign into most Google applications. A detailed list of exactly which accounts you can use is posted here. Note that we may not enable all of the applications listed.

Any Google Sign In Page

Another subtle, but potentially a very useful consequence is that you will be able to use your Peddie Google username (i.e. your email address) and password to sign in on any Google sign in page. This will be especially important as more 3rd party sites build tools that work with Google applications such as Google Docs. For now, this just makes things simpler allowing you to sign in on any Google sign in page, not just on Peddie-specific sign in pages.

Negative Effects
As with any change of this magnitude there are some negative consequences that are a necessary result of the major changes Google is making.

One Web Browser - One Google Account

You will only be able to be signed in to one Google Account at a time in a single type of web browser. For example, you will not be able to sign into your personal Google account and your Peddie Google account in Firefox at the same time. If you have two Google accounts (i.e. a personal Google account and a Peddie account) we recommend you use one type of browser for your Peddie account (e.g. Chrome) and another for you personal account (e.g. Firefox). While Google has enabled limited multiple sign-in functionality (click here for Google's help page explaining this), we do not recommend this because we think using different browsers for different accounts will provide you with the better, more trouble-free experience.

Conflicting Accounts

Now that Google has included all Google applications, there is a possibility of conflicting accounts because it was possible to create a personal Google account (e.g. for YouTube or Picasa) using any email address, even your peddie.org address. If you have a conflicting account you will receive an email with further instructions. The bottom line is that conflicting accounts won't lose any data, they will just have to change the account username to something different than a peddie.org email address. For more information as well as a video explaining the issue, please click here for Google's help page.

When & What Do You Need To Do?

So the most obvious questions is when will this transition take place? We will initiate the transition on Thursday, February 10th. It will take up to 24 hours to take effect on all accounts.

The second question is what do you need to do? The short answer is nothing*. The change itself is anti-climatic as you will notice little besides a notification from Google that your account has been transitioned. If you want to confirm that the change has been successful, try signing in to your account using the standard Google Accounts sign in page (http://www.google.com/accounts) using your full Peddie email address and password. This page will not currently work with your Peddie Google account, but will once your account is transitioned.

* If you have a conflicting account you will have to change your username for your personal account as mentioned above. Again, you will receive an email if this is the case.

Additional Information

If you would like to know more about this transition, please click here to read Google's main help page which provides detailed information about this transition and how it affects you.