Adding Paid Licenses for Google Drive in Google Apps for Business

Ever since Google Drive was announced and I upgraded my space, I’ve been enjoying enhanced speed and performance.  I’ve also been waiting for Google to take Google Drive Licenses live in the Google Apps for Business domain control panel.  This afternoon, Google Drive licenses became available for purchase with a big, yellow, box notification in my Google Apps Dashboard!

First, you have to agree to the activation conditions and confirm with Google Apps you want to add Drive licenses to your account and that’s a confusing process where you have to click on buttons to continue — and it looks like you’re adding every single Drive license to your account — but you are not.  You are merely confirming to Google that you will pay for licenses IF you decide to assign them to your users.

Google sets up the system to bill you on the first of every month, but you won’t be billed for anything until you actually assign licenses after giving Google your billing information and credit card.  It takes about 10 minutes for Google to email you and verify your billing information and to assign you a whole new “Billing ID” number number for this licensure process.  I was having horrible flashbacks to Office 365!

Continue reading → Adding Paid Licenses for Google Drive in Google Apps for Business

Why Does Gravatar Want My Google Apps Contacts?

After a successful return to WordPress.com from WordPress Multisite, I began rooting around the Settings and Tools and Appearance areas for my WordPress.com account to discover any new joys that were added during my inattention.

I found I could now add my “Google Profile” as a “verified” external service via Gravatar.  I clicked to continue to complete the verification process for my “Public Profile.”

Continue reading → Why Does Gravatar Want My Google Apps Contacts?

Suing for Google Apps for Education Access

I am a massive fan of Google Apps.  I wrote the first Google Apps Administrator book to market and, to this day, I still use Google Apps via Boles University to run my empire of polymathic projects.

Continue reading → Suing for Google Apps for Education Access

Poor Google Apps Premier Support and Missing Google Search Returns

There’s nothing quite as harrowing as having anything Google go toes up — because there is no clear path to getting a hassle-free technical support experience even if you pay your way as a Google Apps Premier Customer and even if you write the first Google Apps Administrator Guide book to market.  I have a long history of writing technical books and providing online technical support and, without question, Google are the absolute worst problem solvers when it comes to the individual incident and fixing the outlier and resolving the uncommon anomaly.  We won’t get into how generally awful Blogger tech support is today — we’ll just stay focused on Google Apps Premier for now.

Continue reading → Poor Google Apps Premier Support and Missing Google Search Returns

Google Voice Arrives in Google Apps!

It was a thrill to wake up this morning, power on Gmail for BolesUniversity.com, and be greeted with an invitation to set up Google Voice for video chat and phone calling from directly inside Gmail!

Continue reading → Google Voice Arrives in Google Apps!

While Google Poops, the Rest of Us Get Dumped

As the author of the new book — Google Apps Administrator Guide — it is difficult for me to write this article today, but the hallmark of the book is its blunt examination of Google Apps and how to get the whole mishmash of applications working in unison across an entire domain. I believe the book is a fun, honest and informational read that doesn’t kowtow or ass munch.

Continue reading → While Google Poops, the Rest of Us Get Dumped