Google sharpens its B2B focus

Premier Service now called Apps for Business

Google has restructured its Apps accounts into four distinct types, with the Premier Service now renamed as Apps for Business; demonstrating that the giant is sharpening its B2B focus.

Google will continue to offer its basic Apps account, aimed at groups of up to 50 users, for free. But its previously-offered Premier service for larger groups and organisations has been replaced by Apps for Business. Tailored editions for government and education are the third and fourth versions.

Google has also added more than 60 new applications to its Apps account system including news service Google Reader, advertising tool AdWords and call and voicemail manager GoogleVoice.

Before Google made the changes, users who wanted to access their email and documents, plus applications like Reader and YouTube, had to maintain two separate Google accounts, a standard account plus an Apps account.

The new service means users will be able to access all features through their Apps account.

"The team has worked hard to unlock all of this new functionality for our customers, and we think many of these new applications will become indispensable within your organisation," wrote lead software engineer Derek Parnham on Google's blog.

Apps for Business subscribers will be able to tailor sets of applications to specific groups of employees. The service already includes basic office applications such as email, calendar and word processing, as well as supporting some third-party apps.

Google will transfer existing Apps customers to the new service, while new customers can access all applications straight away.