14 DAY TRIAL // Google is moving one step closer to bringing more of its services to Apps users, specifically, services so far reserved to regular users. Google has said that it will allow Apps users to sign up for Picasa, Blogger and any number of Google services using their Apps accounts.
Now Google is moving forward with the plan and has started sending out invitations to beta test the new capabilities to select users, according to Wired.
Google Apps currently comes with a set of core services provided by Google, Gmail, Docs and several others. However, users wanting to access regular products like Picasa, YouTube, Reader and any other Google web service.
The way Google plans to do this is by making the Apps account universal, enabling users to log into any service. Of course, the regular Google services that are not part of Apps will behave exactly the same, meaning that they won't get extended storage on Apps and any of the other perks.
Google has now started asking so-called Trusted Testers to get involved with this new testing phase which would have the feature tested in the wild.
Apps users had the possibility to create regular Google accounts using their Apps email. However, these accounts would be separate from their work or school ones.
Those that have done this already are out of luck, Google won't be merging the two accounts, but creating a new one. Users will still be able to access their old Google accounts by adding "+personal" to their email address, something like email+personal@my-domain.com.
The plan is to roll-out the feature for all Apps users by the end of the year. With the new accounts, users will be able to access some of the services would make a good fit for Apps but haven't been made available yet, like Picasa photo sharing or Blogger.