Google Going 'Back to School' with New Site for Google Apps

Google is pushing hard its Google Apps suite for businesses and organizations and, after an all-out campaign in August, with school about to begin, it was a good a time to set up a site dedicated to helping schools and educational institutions make the switch and, at the same time, do a little boasting of the program's success.

“As of this fall, over five million students at thousands of schools in more than 145 countries have 'gone Google' and are actively using Google Apps Education Edition on campus. Since this time last year the number of students using Google Apps on campus has increased by 400%. Because more schools sign up for Apps everyday, we wanted to celebrate the start of the 2009 school year by launching a new site,” Miriam Schneider and Jason Cook, Google Apps Education Edition team, wrote on Google's official blog.

The site provides some information and guides for setting up and making the most out of the Google Apps product suite and also has a community forum, where users and administrators can share their experiences and find help. But, apart from its utilitarian nature, the site is really more of a showcase, featuring a map of schools from around the world that are now using Google Apps, while also sharing some of their stories with the product with real-life accounts from those involved.

Google lists some of the success stories belonging to the likes of the Temple University, where 70,000 students now use the suite, along with 90 percent of the 5,000 faculty members that were given a choice between employing Gmail or an “alternative vendor,” though Google doesn't specify which. The company is also promoting the financial aspect of the switch, noting how the Notre Dame University saved $1.5 million by adopting Google Apps. While Google Apps is targeted as an enterprise offering for businesses to handle their internal communications, Google hopes that, by getting students using and used to its offering, it will take their preferences and brand loyalty forward with their future employers.