San Francisco: Google will no longer offer its Web-based office productivity software free to small businesses, the Internet company's latest move to expand revenue beyond its core advertising services.
Google said on Thursday that businesses with 10 or fewer people will now need to pay $50 per user per year - the same rate that larger businesses pay - to use its Google Apps software which includes email, word processing, spreadsheet and presentation tools.
The change will let Google offer a more consistent service to business customers, the company said in a post on its company blog. "Businesses quickly outgrow the basic version and want things like 24/7 customer support and larger inboxes," Google said.
Individual consumers will still be able to get a free version of many of the products, such as Gmail, Google said. And existing business customers who use the free version will continue to get it for free, though they will not receive the additional services included in the premium version....
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09:49 AM, Dec 08, 2012
