By next semester, ASU e-mail will let students instant message friends, schedule classes and search their inboxes, all with a little help from Google.
In the first project of its kind in the company's history, all 65,000 asu.edu student e-mail addresses are being switched over to Google e-mail, or Gmail, accounts.
Beginning Tuesday, students were able to switch over to the Gmail from the old Electronic Messaging Menu Application system. EMMA should be phased out by January.
"It's a little like making a technology deal with an advanced culture," said Adrian Sannier, University technology officer.
The e-mail switchover marks the third collaboration between the multinational Internet company and ASU, following work on mapping Mars in March and the company opening an office on University property two weeks ago.
"It's important for us to be first because we believe developing a close relationship at the edge of innovation will enable ASU to have a voice in where [Google's] technology goes," Sannier said.
The Gmail service is part of a new program called Google Apps for Education. Along with the beefed up instant message and calendar features, inbox storage also jumps from 50 megabytes to 2 gigabytes - roughly 27,000 e-mails and attachments by State Press estimates.
The addresses will remain the same, said Kari Barlow, assistant vice president in the University Technology Office.
The University Technology Office began looking into other providers because EMMA offered only a bare bones operation, Sannier said.
Though Google is overhauling ASU's system, apart from a support fee, ASU is not reimbursing them.
"Google is primarily an advertising media company," Sannier said, and for these companies, "the desire is to build that community that uses your tool set, and that's the benefit for ASU."
"We're going to be able to reduce the cost and provide a service that's better, and that's not the way the world usually works," he added.
Beth McRae, a spokeswoman for Google, said in an e-mail the company would not comment on finances or negotiations.
Brian Carpenter, a biology freshman, already forwards his asu.edu e-mails to a personal Gmail account, but would probably start using the University-provided service with the switchover, he said.
"[There's] more space [in Gmail] which might be good for saving important e-mails from professors and stuff," he said.
The University looked into different options for about a year, but when Google announced they were opening a location in Tempe, the University focused their attentions on collaborating with the company, Sannier said.
Before the end of the year, other Google services, such as online word and spreadsheet processing, will be available to students, Sannier said.
Google recently announced a partnership with Blackboard, Sannier added, so Google features like search will be integrated into the existing classroom technology.
Molecular biology senior Ame Valadez forwards her e-mails to a hotmail.com account, and said she would continue to do this even after the switch.
But Valadez said she would probably use other Gmail features, such as the calendar.
"I might be using that instead of a notebook or an agenda [because] I would probably lose [them]," she said.
Students wishing to switch their e-mails to Gmail should visit www.asu.edu/emailsignup.
Google was founded in 1981, and is now one of the five most visited Web sites in the world, according to the company.
Reach the reporter at james.kindle@asu.edu
