Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Googland

Googland

[G] Adding Google Checkout Donate buttons to your Google Site

Posted: 13 Jul 2010 03:48 AM PDT

Official Google Checkout Blog: Adding Google Checkout Donate buttons to your Google Site

To make it easier for non-profits to receive donations with Checkout, we've launched a Google Checkout donation gadget for Google sites:

It's easy to add the button right from your Sites page by selecting the "Google Checkout Donate Button" from the Google Sites list of featured gadgets which is accessible through the "Insert" menu and then "More gadgets..."

To learn more about how to create a Google Checkout for Non-Profits account, please visit the instructions page.

Posted by Nicolas Garnier, Developer Programs Engineer
URL: http://googlecheckout.blogspot.com/2010/07/adding-google-checkout-donate-buttons.html

[G] Open, Integrated and Giving You Choice: The Story Behind the Google Apps Marketplace

Posted: 12 Jul 2010 11:38 PM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Open, Integrated and Giving You Choice: The Story Behind the Google Apps Marketplace


Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sites and all Google Apps were designed as cloud-based services from day one.  Google's web-centric approach allows any application to work seamlessly on any device with a browser, allowing users to work when, where, and how they want. No more need for constant upgrades, security patches and bug fixes required by client based software.

Given the first step to the cloud for many businesses and schools is Gmail, the Google Apps Marketplace aims to make it easier for organizations that have "gone Google" to take the next step and take fuller advantage of the cloud by running even more of their infrastructure on cloud-based apps, from hundreds of software companies.

These software companies agree the web-centric approach is the way to go, and are building their applications on web-based architectures and open standards like OpenID for Single Sign-On and OAuth for data access.  Marketplace developers build their applications using the technologies and hosting platform they prefer.  Want to build using Java?  Great.  Ruby or PHP?  Fine with us.  .NET?  Sure, the Marketplace supports that too.  These apps are then hosted on developers' own servers, on Amazon EC2, on Google's App Engine, or on any other cloud hosting service.  As developers, they don't need to worry about proprietary tools, vendor lock-in, or proprietary cloud architecture lock-in, and as Google Apps customers, you'll even find apps that compete with Google products such as SlideRocket presentations and Zoho CRM, giving you the maximum possible choice.

The key advantage of Marketplace apps, however, is their integration with Google Apps.  All installable Marketplace apps feature single sign-on with Google Apps, and most go beyond that to incorporate specific features that help you accomplish everyday tasks more easily in combination with Google's applications.  Here is a tiny sampling of Marketplace apps that integrate with various Google Apps:

Gmail -- Manymoon is an online project management tool that make it easy to turn emails from team mates or customers directly into tasks in your projects.  Kwaga Context and Awayfind are two productivity apps that help you manage your conversations directly in your Gmail inbox, helping keep you more productive.

Spreadsheets -- Sliderocket let's you connect media-rich presentations to live data in Google Spreadsheets, so your presentation always display the most up to date charts and graphs, and    Smartsheet let's you extend Google Spreadsheets with Gantt tracking and customer management features to empower your sales teams.

Calendar -- Tungle.me and Timebridge are meeting management tools that make it easier to set up and conduct meetings with partners and customers who use different calendaring systems.

Sites -- RunMyProcess let's you embed custom business process workflows into Google Sites, so each part of an organization can more easily access business process that effect their daily work.

Talk -- Atlassian integrates Jira Studio with Google Talk, so your software development team can stay up to date with the latest build status and team conversations from within Jira Studio, all in real time.

There are hundreds more business applications available on the Marketplace for every aspect of your business.  Find CRM apps, Admin tools, Document Management apps, Productivity apps, and many more.

Every week more cloud-based business applications are added. If you can't find an app you want please post a suggestion.

Posted by Don Dodge, Google Apps Team
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/07/open-integrated-and-giving-you-choice.html

[G] A Guide to Getting Started with Google drawings

Posted: 12 Jul 2010 07:54 PM PDT

Official Google Docs Blog: A Guide to Getting Started with Google drawings

Last year we published Getting Started Guides for spreadsheets, documents, and presentations -- because using a product for the first time can sometimes be challenging. People have found these very helpful, so we've created a Getting Started Guide for drawings.

This guide covers the basics about Google drawings and gives you all the information you need to start creating, editing, formatting, and sharing your drawings. It also includes some tips and tricks about features you may not know too much about. If you already use Google presentations, but aren't so familiar with drawings, you can read this guide to learn, for example, how to embed your drawing into a presentation.

Don't forget to share this link with your family, friends, and coworkers who may want to get started with Google drawings.

After you're finished reviewing the guide, check our Help Center for more information. And if you have questions or want to share your suggestions and comments, visit our product ideas page.

Posted by: Bryan Carroll, Consumer Operations Strategist
URL: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/07/guide-to-getting-started-with-google.html

[G] Analytics Intelligence Tips: Custom Alerts

Posted: 12 Jul 2010 06:49 PM PDT

Google Analytics Blog: Analytics Intelligence Tips: Custom Alerts

Last week, we shared a video on how to get the most out of your automatic alerts. Now that you're familiar with automatic alerts, you know that Google Analytics has an intelligence engine that monitors your traffic and posts alerts when it sees something unusual. Now we want to tell you about "custom alerts." With custom alerts, you can add on to this capability and tell Google Analytics to also watch out for specific things that you know you're interested in.

Custom alerts can be used in so many ways that it's sometimes hard to know where and when to incorporate them into your workflow. This week's video, also below, shows how to use custom alerts as a campaign management tool. The idea is that, when you set up a new campaign, you set up alerts that help you manage the campaign -- for example, alerts that trigger when revenue from the campaign increases or decreases.



Campaign management is just one of the ways you can use custom alerts. We'd love to hear how you're using them. Feel free to share your own tips in the comments.

Posted by Alden DeSoto, Google Analytics Team
URL: http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/07/analytics-intelligence-tips-custom.html

[G] App Inventor for Android

Posted: 12 Jul 2010 05:36 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: App Inventor for Android

App Inventor is a new tool in Google Labs that makes it easy for anyone—programmers and non-programmers, professionals and students—to create mobile applications for Android-powered devices. And today, we're extending invitations to the general public.

For many people, their mobile phone—and access to the Internet—is always within reach. App Inventor for Android gives everyone, regardless of programming experience, the opportunity to control and reshape their communication experience. We've observed people take pride in becoming creators of mobile technology and not just consumers of it.

For the past year, we've been testing App Inventor in classrooms around the United States, and we've found that it opens up the world of computer programming to students in new and powerful ways. David Wolber, professor of computer science at the University of San Francisco and part of the initial pilot program, says "students traditionally intimidated by technology are motivated and excited to program with App Inventor." One student from Professor Wolber's class told us: "I used to think that no one could program except CS people. Now, I've made dozens of applications for the Android phone!" Another student, who struggles with dyslexia, was inspired by App Inventor to take more computer science classes and is now learning Python. Check out this video to hear more about App Inventor for Android at University of San Francisco.

Visit our site to learn more about App Inventor and see sample apps. To request an invitation, fill out this form and you'll soon be on your way to building mobile applications. And check out the video below to see how it works. We can't wait to see what you create!



Posted by Mark Friedman, Google Engineer
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/app-inventor-for-android.html

[G] HTML5 features now in Safari too

Posted: 12 Jul 2010 03:10 PM PDT

Official Gmail Blog: HTML5 features now in Safari too

Posted by Michael Davidson, Software Engineer

We've been posting a bunch recently about new Gmail features built on top of HTML5 and other advancements in browser platforms, but so far you've only be able to drag in attachments and drag images into messages in Chrome and Firefox, and the ability to have new windows outlive your original Gmail window was limited to Chrome. Now, all three of these features work in the newest version of Safari (Safari 5) too.
URL: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/html5-features-now-in-safari-too.html

[G] Our highlights from Vidcon

Posted: 12 Jul 2010 01:52 PM PDT

YouTube Blog: Our highlights from Vidcon

Wow. Let's hope vlogbrothers Hank and John Green are somewhere tropical right now, resting up after the coup they just pulled off in Vidcon 2010. The sold-out online video conference took over L.A.'s Hyatt Regency Century Plaza from July 9 -11 in a flurry of cameras, Bieber-inspired hairstyles and coveted subscribe pillows. Feedback on Twitter was unanimously positive: Vidcon rulez!

We were lucky enough to be among the 1,300+ fanboys and girls who gathered to fete all things video and hear from some of the biggest names in the online video industry. It was invaluable to meet with so many of you in "real life" and, yeah, some of us may even admit to a quickened heartbeat when in the vicinity of our favorite creators.

Here are our highlights from the event, in no particular order:

  • The energy and passion of everyone there. Wow! Just WOW. We should bottle that, keep it around the office, ration it and release it occasionally when we need a boost. RedBull and 5-hour-energy would not be needed in the micro-kitchens anymore... - Andy Stack, Product Manager

  • The two-way interactions between YouTube staff and community -- the chance to go beyond the username and talk with people about what they need from YouTube's product to help them accomplish their goals - Hunter Walk, Director, Product Management

  • iJustine giving out T-shirts to faithful fans in the lobby, using a bar stool as her table, showed her dedication to the YouTube community - Anna Richardson, PR Manager

  • The Uncultured Project and the standing ovation it received after showing this video. It's one more reminder of how YouTube and its community are changing the world in both big and small ways. - Jim Woods, Director, Content Partnerships

  • HiimRawn's performance on Saturday morning, featuring Rawn in a bikini, playing the accordion, dancers in gold lame body suits, John Green in a turkey costume and a small marching band. - Mark Day, Comedy Manager

  • Meeting John Green while wearing a shirt with his face on it. John Green: "Nice shirt." My response: "Nice face!" - Rick Silvestrini, Product Marketing Manager

  • I fell in love with the incredible passion from the audience and their desire to change the world -- invigorating and reminds me why we do what we do. Hank and John are especially awesome and genuine; they're leading a movement. - Brian Glick, Product Manager

  • Being in the elevator with a sobbing girl after the iJustine meetup. - Lauren Siegal, Ad Programs Associate

  • Sitting on a panel with DeStorm, who moved from the established music industry to make his musical career on YouTube without major label backing. It was great that he, like so many YouTube musicians I met, see a successful YouTube presence not as stepping stone to a label deal, but as the career in and of itself. - Chris LaRosa, Product Manger

  • Seeing kids networking, getting involved in the culture, and wanting to apply for partnership. I'm amazed at the initiative they're taking when they're already so young. - Jeffrey Lee-Chan, Software Engineer

  • Hearing an aspiring partner say that getting autoplay on his channel changed his life. - Josh Siegel, Product Manager

  • ShayCarl, charlieissocoollike, sxephil, whatthebuckshow and many other partners highlighting how this is the best job they ever had. - Shenaz Zack, Product Manager

  • Although it was a bit uncomfortable to hear a 13-year-old girl ask Shane Dawson to be the father of her children, it was truly inspiring to witness the enthusiasm, dedication, and excitement of fans and YouTube stars. Props to the Green brothers for their hard work and giving away conference proceeds to charity! - Falon Fatemi, Strategist, Business Development

  • Seeing parents trying to understand YouTube and supporting their kids who were so passionate about it...and getting a glimpse of Rocktard. - Mia Quagliarello, Product Marketing Manager

  • Ze Frank's presentation - too many to name!


And what about you? What were your highlights? Share your thoughts and videos in the comments below! (Please note: comments are moderated due to spam and will be updated about once a day.)

So once again, thank you, Hank, John, everyone at Vidcon and in fact the whole YouTube community. We were honored to be part of your event.

The YouTube Team






URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/8KRWHDKBH-o/our-highlights-from-vidcon.html

[G] Google Summer of Code BoF at USENIX

Posted: 12 Jul 2010 09:49 AM PDT

Google Open Source Blog: Google Summer of Code BoF at USENIX


USENIX is a technical organization that has a lot of community members associated with our open source efforts as well as lots of strong ties to the research community. A couple weeks ago I attended the USENIX Annual Technical Conference (ATC). Googler Dave Presotto was a member of the program committee. ATC is a federated conference that brings together researchers and developers working in a wide variety of focus areas. We love to support the members of this organization in their efforts throughout the year. Among the presentations I enjoyed most were the one on robotic honeybees, another on power usage in smart phones, and really enjoyed the keynote on concurrency from Ivan Sutherland.

We held a Google Summer of Code™ Birds of a Feather (BoF) meetup on Thursday night after the conference reception. We talked about Google Summer of Code over ice cream and beer well into the evening. In all we had about 25 attendees, many of whom hadn't heard of Google Summer of Code before. It was great to tell some people new to the program about it and also to hear from those who have participated about how its changed their lives. A great time was had by all; we even ended up closing the place down that evening.

Don't miss the next Google Summer of Code BoF at OSCON in just a couple weeks!

By Carol Smith, Open Source Team
URL: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2010/07/google-summer-of-code-bof-at-usenix.html
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