Last June, Google first launched a beta of its long-anticipated social network, Google+. And it raised plenty of eyebrows: despite Google’s history of flubbing ‘social’, Google+ actually shows a lot of promise. Google says the service has grown to 40 million users (I’m more interested in engagement numbers, but that’s another story) and it’s doing everything it can to get it in front of more users.
But there’s been one very large group of people that’s been left out in the cold: Google Apps users. Google Apps is the suite of products that Google sells to businesses and schools, and allows for custom domains, administrator controls, boosted security, and other key features (for a price). Some apps users understandably took offense to the lack of support, as they’re actually paying Google money.
Google was quick to say it was working on Google Apps support, and today, that promise has come to fruition: Google has just announced that Google Apps users can now sign up for Google+.
Apps users will be able to share posts directly to other users within their workgroups and/or universities. And, in a nice move, Google is building a migration tool allowing existing Google+ users to port their personal accounts over to their Apps accounts (you’ll keep both your existing Circles and followers). It isn’t done just yet, but Google says it will be in a few weeks.
