Google adds video sharing to Apps

Google bolstered its Google Apps suite with new YouTube-like video sharing capabilities called Google Video for Business. Available at no extra cost to Google Apps Premier users, the new feature lets users easily upload, edit and share videos across an enterprise.

Since the new service is available via the browser, including Safari on the iPhone, it should make disseminating videos within enterprises far easier, and thus, more popular. Google envisions several corporate uses for the new functionality, including company communications (instead of static e-mail), as well as training and how-tos. As a security precaution, however, video sharing outside the enterprise is curtailed. Google says the videos can only be shared within an enterprise's own domain and there is no public "post to YouTube" function.

Google Apps Premier users get 3GB of video storage per user account, although each video is limited to a maximum of 300MB. The service is currently available from the Google Apps control panel.