[sjdorst]

When you were creating users for coffeekooks.com, I saw that users can belong to groups. Can I use those groups to control access to specific sites?

For instance, suppose I create a "Management" group - can I then restrict a site to be viewable only by people in that group - and later - if I create a new user and add her to the "Management" group, will she then be able to view the site WITHOUT my having to change anything (specifically adding her as a specific allowed viewer) about the site?

[reckoner]

For instance, suppose I create a "Management" group - can I then restrict a site to be viewable only by people in that group - and later - if I create a new user and add her to the "Management" group, will she then be able to view the site WITHOUT my having to change anything (specifically adding her as a specific allowed viewer) about the site?

Yes, it is possible. You can create and manage groups of users for your domain and control access to different services both with users accounts and groups.

More on this feature in the following help article: http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=182426

[sjdorst]

Yes, it is possible. You can create and manage groups of users for your domain and control access to different services both with users accounts and groups.

More on this feature in the following help article: http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=182426

OK. Sounds good. Only thing that might prevent me from testing this is that it's only available to Premium and Enterprise users. I'm hoping that MOST of the features I need aren't similarly restricted!

[reckoner]

Only thing that might prevent me from testing this is that it's only available to Premium and Enterprise users. I'm hoping that MOST of the features I need aren't similarly restricted!

Access restriction with groups within one service is available in all editions. Yet access restriction to different services with groups is only available to Premium/Education editions.
Consider that you can start another trial period just after you finished the first one. You just need to ensure that automatic renewal option is off.

[reckoner]

if I create a new user and add her to the "Management" group, will she then be able to view the site WITHOUT my having to change anything?

Yes, this feature works exactly as you described. Here's a reference to a corresponding Google Help article:

http://www.google.com/support/sites/bin/an...mp;answer=97934

In Standard edition only the administrator can manage groups, however in Premium and Education editions there're additional user manageable groups service which you can add to your domain and it works exactly like Google Groups do.