Google looks to offer campus e-mail

The look and functionality of UCLA’s Bruin OnLine e-mail service may soon mirror that of Google Inc.’s Gmail as part of a new program Google is offering at universities globally.

The program, Google Apps Education, is a free service through which Google offers its Gmail application and interface, including functions such as Google Calendar and Google Talk, as an alternative to university-specific e-mail services such as Bruin OnLine.

Through the program, students would retain their ucla.edu e-mail addresses but would view and access their e-mails through a system that closely resembles Gmail, said Jeff Keltner, an enterprise specialist at Google Communications Products.

“We’d be happy to work with UCLA to bring (Google Apps) to students there,” Keltner said, adding that Google has already implemented the program at other universities, including Arizona State University.

To implement the program, UCLA administrators would need to register the ucla.edu domain name with Google and UCLA e-mail accounts would then be stored in Google databases, Keltner said.

Robert McCrum, a third-year political science student, expressed concerns about how Google will use this account information.

“I’d worry that Google might sell our information,” McCrum said.

Keltner said selling such information violates Google’s privacy policy, adding that Google, as an Internet company, spends a great deal of resources on data protection.

Diana Vivirito, a third-year biology student, said she was concerned that Google Apps Education might complicate the Bruin OnLine system, making checking e-mail confusing.

Keltner said, logistically, Google Apps Education would not change the way students sign in to their e-mail accounts.

“Essentially everything looks just like before,” he said.

But after signing in, students are taken to a different mailbox interface that resembles Gmail, Keltner said, adding that this interface can be customized by the university so the Gmail logo is replaced by university logos.

Keltner said university administrators would be able to decide whether they want to change the entire system to Google Apps Education or whether students would be able to switch to the program at their choice.

There is no established date by which the change will occur, as no agreement has been made between UCLA and Google at this time. But once the administration decides on the program, Keltner said implementation is typically quick, taking just two weeks at ASU.

Google Apps’ e-mail service will also offer 2 gigabytes of e-mail storage, Keltner said, as opposed to the 75 megabytes Bruin OnLine currently offers.

Google offers this free program partly to “generate users for life,” Keltner said.

The new interface includes advertisements, but Keltner said universities are allowed to remove this advertising when they customize the page.

Doris Ng, a fourth-year economics student who has a personal Gmail account, said she liked the idea of the program because she currently receives less spam on her Gmail account than on her Bruin OnLine account, adding that she believes Google had a better spam filter.

Keltner said Google has incorporated student feedback in designing the program.

Google created an online survey asking students what they do and do not like about their university’s e-mail system, to better understand what students want and to tailor Google Apps Education to students, Keltner said.

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