Google on Thursday announced a new product that links Google Apps together with a new suite of social media features. Called Google Apps Team Edition, the new product is designed to spread
virally and encourage more user collaboration. Team Apps users can identify other Google Apps users inside his or her company and invite them to share documents and calendars.
Team Apps has the beginnings of a kind of corporate social graph, by linking groups of users across platforms like Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Start Page and Google Page
Creator. It also allows users to control their work groups through an administrative control panel. Privacy is a major concern, but Google earlier this week said it added new security and compliance
options.
Google wants consumers and companies to store their computing services on the Web, freeing the desktop from slowdowns and viruses. The cloud also allows Google to
collect even more information about its users, linking them to colleagues and friends. "All of these applications are social applications," Sheth said. "Every time you create an event with a group of
people, you're creating a connection with that group."
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