Tag: Google

AKA G Suite, AKA Workspaces – I refuse to accept that name changes have effectively altered (or killed) the original system.

Introduced around 2006, the GAFYD package offered access to Gmail facilities using a custom domain, and proved immediately popular with technophiles looking to provide a simple, recognisable, home for family and small business operations, mainly for email. Over time that use morphed into further areas – including purchases from YouTube, storage etc.

At the time, the clear statement was that this provision would be free forever ‘as long as the service continues to exist‘ or words to that effect – with hindsight we can see how meaningless that was, as obviously once the free service is discontinued that statement becomes self-fulfilling.

Google stopped accepting new free accounts back in 2012 or so, but permitted existing ones to continue, even as the name (but not promoted purpose) changed first to GSuite, then latterly to Workspaces, with new service provisions (and existing limitations – tried integrating with Google Home recently?), but retaining the core of a custom domain serving a gmail backend.

The bombshell at the start of this year was that the free accounts would now need to be migrated to paid Workspace ones within a few months. There was no discussion, no consideration of those who have invested time and effort in developing a family brand and purchasing further services from Google based on the original package. Costs are surprisingly high – $6 per user per month, so for a family of say five individuals, that’s $360 per year for absolutely nothing more than they had before, and for many that includes business services that they never asked for or will ever use.

Crumbs were thrown eventually, a possible migration to a free account of some sort which notably does not include custom domain based email, but only the barest fractured effort was made to communicate with customers. Timescales and alternatives were confused, but at no point did anyone from Google (a faceless organisation at the best of times) attempt to listen to the affected groups.

At no time has anyone from Google even addressed the possibility of a Families Workspace sort of arrangement, for a minimal cost of say $1 or $2/user/month, which would give the above family of five an annual bill of $60 to $120, much more in line with other family-based services now available. This would not necessarily include the more business orientated application, but retain the core email with a custom domain. Don’t forget that Google already have this capability (in use since 2006), so there’s zero cost to develop it, it just provides an option that many customers have said would be acceptable – but not for Google.

Many threw the towel in quickly, and migrated to other services: the longstanding Microsoft 365 package proved attractive, and Apple’s relatively new iCloud+ support of custom domains for email was quoted as an effective alternative (Google’s abandonment of their clientele was most surprising given that this was a new package announce less than 12 months ago – commercial suicide?). Others waited on Google’s hints of an alternative, for families with less than 10 users, supported by an obviously meaningless questionnaire – if they didn’t already know their userbase, and the likely effect of the announcement, then they weren’t going to get any good news from the underpublicised and almost hidden web page. That alternative is still not clarified or even defined beyond a non-existent waitlist, other than an unambiguous statement that it would not include any gmail functionality, let alone with custom domains.

So there you have it – a large, somewhat inaccessible, corporation breaks a clear promise, made to technically adept influencers, and expects everyone to just fall in with their plans. The end users are faced with having to migrate more than a decade of history to a new environment, face possible monetary losses, deal with families uprooted from longstanding email experiences, and all this without any help from the organisation responsible for the chaos.

Google – you’ve obviously forgotten that mantra: “Don’t be evil“.

Those of us who signed up for a free Google Apps account back in 2006 or thereabouts just got hit with a sledgehammer from the organisation – pay up by July or lose your data. Although signing up for the free option was dropped in 2012 many IT-savvy people had set up family groups with custom domains by that point and have relied on the service since then. The short notice and possible relatively high cost (6€ per user per month) for the transition hasn’t gone down at all well, and remember that’s with a by now possibly influential group of people.

When originally offered there was a statement that the service would continue to be free, but with the proviso that would only apply as long as Google continued to offer the service. I’m assuming there’s been sufficient change here to make dropping it legal, so I’ll let others argue that point. Suffice it to say that I still think this is a bit of an underhand move to save probably very little actual operational costs, and something that won’t generate enough revenue to recover the bad feeling engendered by the move.

Disclaimer – I’m one of those hit by the announcement, and I’m not particularly overjoyed with it. Although not amongst the worst-hit (those who have used the accounts to purchase apps or media, or use the Google account to authenticate sign-ins elsewhere are really going to feel the pain) I either need to pony up for multiple accounts or find somewhere to migrate everything to.

That’s a lot of email, all nicely sorted and labelled, that’s going to have to move, unless the behemoth comes up with an alternative. There are murmurings of movement on the matter, in response to much disquiet and outright outrage, but nothing concrete has emerged yet. Will this be a climbdown (very unlikely – they’ve made their intentions clear) or more possibly provision of a lower cost alternative that retains the rights and privileges ensconced in the current provision? Don’t know yet, but it’s going to have to be competitive with the possible alternatives: a family Office365 account (ugh – GoDaddy domain registration required!), Zoho email, or my current favoured option – iCloud+ with the newish custom domain facility. The latter is looking very attractive if Google fails to make any move, given that the costs are already covered by my iCloud subscription.

BTW, Google will also lose my YouTube monthly subscription if they go ahead with this – it’s been nice, but no way will I continue to support a company that just drops such an important facility with so little recognition or planning, Do no evil, huh.