Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Googland

Googland

[G] Your ideas on human rights and free expression on YouTube

Posted: 21 Sep 2010 05:02 AM PDT

YouTube Blog: Your ideas on human rights and free expression on YouTube

About a month ago, as part of our series of blogs about human rights and video with WITNESS.org, we asked for your thoughts and ideas on some of the key topics on the future of video activism. Now we're responding to some of your top-voted questions and comments within the Moderator series we set up to facilitate the discussion. Click here to see our discussion on privacy, impact, and classification of human rights videos online.

But the conversation only grows from here. This week, we've gathered with around 300 activists, nonprofits, and thought leaders in Budapest for Internet at Liberty 2010, a conference that Google is sponsoring in conjunction with the Central Europeon University to examine key issues in online free expression. We've been collecting your thoughts on how to keep the Internet safe for online free expression in another Moderator series; many of your ideas will be discussed in the panels and discussions that take place in Hungary. The conference will be live streamed, and we'll post videos of the session to a special YouTube channel dedicated to the discussions that take place.

People everywhere use platforms like YouTube to share their stories with the world every day. Sometimes those stories are as simple as an idea, a thought or a diary of life through your eyes; other times, those stories expose abuses of power or human rights violations in ways that are changing how justice is served around the world. Whatever you decide to use the web for, we believe it's vital to a free society to keep the Internet open, and it's through discussions like these that we can continue to teach each other how to do so.

Steve Grove, Head of News & Politics, YouTube, and Sameer Padania for WITNESS


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/1-km1KTP5ns/your-ideas-on-human-rights-and-free.html

[G] The Magic Of Weighted Sort

Posted: 21 Sep 2010 03:25 AM PDT

Google Analytics Blog: The Magic Of Weighted Sort

Avinash Kaushik is the Analytics Evangelist here at Google. He is, without a doubt, our toughest, most vocal and valued critic and advisor - we couldn't be luckier to have him. He reminds me of a younger, more talkative Gandalf, the wizard from the The Lord of The Rings who just knows stuff. Lots of stuff. Basically everything. When it comes to analytics, Avinash is our Gandalf, except Avinash is a much more riveting public speaker.

So, when he lauds something, it should be noted. That's why his recent post, End of Dumb Tables in Web Analytics Tools! Hello: Weighted Sort, about the newly launched Google Analytics feature, weighted sort - which sorts table data according to its importance, not simply according to numerical value - is worth reading for this audience.

Here's a quote from Avinash's post:
Arthur C. Clarke said:

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

That quote comes to mind when I think of a new feature in Google Analytics that carries the unassuming name of Weighted Sort. It is an advanced implementation of technology (mathematical algorithms in this case) and when used it very much feels like magic!

In this blog post I want to share with you why I am so incredibly excited about this feature, how it works and how going forward you will reject every tool that does not come built in with this feature (ok so maybe that's a stretch, but I promise you this is so cool that at least for a few minutes you'll think other tools are lame by comparison!).
We have a very long tail of data in web analytics. Tens of thousands of rows of keywords in the Search Report (even for this small blog!). Hundreds and hundreds of referring urls and campaigns and page names and so on and so forth.
Yet because we are humans we tend to look at just the top ten or twenty rows to try and find insights. The problem? The top ten of anything rarely changes (except in rare circumstances like a sale or on a pure content – think news – site).

Hence I have persistently evangelized the need for true Analysis Ninjas to move beyond the top ten rows of data to find insights.
He goes on to give great examples of use, and even gets into the math behind the feature. Love that! It's a must-read post for anyone interested in getting the most out of Google Analytics, or in web analytics as a whole.

We hope you're making use of this new feature. Feel free to let us know in the comments below.

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team
URL: http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/09/magic-of-weighted-sort.html

[G] Hot Off The Press: A New Blog In JAPAC

Posted: 21 Sep 2010 03:25 AM PDT

Google Analytics Blog: Hot Off The Press: A New Blog In JAPAC

Here's another example of how complex and useful this product is. In addition to the six conversion and analytics-focused company blogs already in existence, Google is launching another Analytics blog in JAPAC, led by our own Vinoaj Vijeyakumaar, lead specialist in the hemisphere, called Conversion Room Asia-Pacific Blog.

Vinoaj (aka Vinny) has already been a regular contributor to other Google blogs and is an expert practitioner so expect some fantastic posts, a few of which we'll repost here. Also, the JAPAC blog will be worth following for some more in-depth customer examples of usage.


Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team
URL: http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/09/hot-off-press-new-blog-in-japac.html

[G] Ohio Linux Fest Wrap-up

Posted: 21 Sep 2010 02:41 AM PDT

Google Open Source Blog: Ohio Linux Fest Wrap-up


I just got back from Ohio Linux Fest, a three-day all-volunteer conference on free and open source software held in Columbus, Ohio. A wonderful group of about 800 people, some from the Midwest, some of whom were from other parts of the country, some of whom were experienced with open source software, and some of whom were new to it, attended. I enjoyed seeing the wide variety of talk topics - from starting your own business in open source to an entire workshop devoted to diversity in open source software development. Some of the topics were even a little unexpected - there was a great talk on reaching out to new people through video games.

I spoke on the 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Project Managers late in the day on Saturday. Much of the content for the talk was gleaned from experience at Google and managing the Google Summer of Code project. The audience had some great questions about how to effectively manage upward (to your boss), what sorts of tactics to take when you feel your managers are meddling too much in your project, and how to manage your workflow in an environment where too many tasks are high priority. I'll be giving this talk again at Linux Conf AU, which is being held in Brisbane January 24th to 29th next year.

By Carol Smith, Open Source Team
URL: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2010/09/ohio-linux-fest-wrap-up.html

[G] Ocean comes to Google Earth for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

Posted: 21 Sep 2010 02:06 AM PDT

Google LatLong: Ocean comes to Google Earth for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch


We recently announced the arrival of ocean bathymetry and ocean layer content to Google Earth for Android. Today, with the latest release of Google Earth 3.1 for iOS, we're proud to announce that you can now explore underwater landscapes and terrain on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Dive below the ocean's surface to explore underwater canyons, or travel to the ocean's deepest point, the Mariana Trench. Once underwater, simply swipe the screen with two fingers to "look around." You can always reset your view by clicking on the north arrow on the iPad, or on the compass on the iPhone and iPod.

As with the desktop and other mobile versions of Google Earth, we've also added the "Ocean" layer, which features hundreds of photos and videos from more than 100 contributors curated by the Sylvia Earle Alliance.


This version also includes native support for the new Retina display, which means that if you have an iPhone 4 or the new iPod touch, you'll get to enjoy an even sharper view of the world.

Google Earth 3.2 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch is available now in the App Store, or navigate to http://m.google.com/earth in your mobile browser. You can also download Google Earth by scanning this QR code:

For help or additional information, visit our help center.

Posted by Peter Birch, Product Manager
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/09/we-recently-announced-arrival-of-ocean.html

[G] Enriched Google online experience now available in every new BMW

Posted: 21 Sep 2010 02:06 AM PDT

Google LatLong: Enriched Google online experience now available in every new BMW


Google is working with the automotive industry to bring Google innovations and services into cars, and to give our users access to relevant information while driving. BMW has always been a pioneer in this area, and well known for its Internet-connected cars and ConnectedDrive product.

Today, we're happy to announce that in a joint effort with BMW, we have renewed the package of Google services that come with BMW's ConnectedDrive service. As part of this major update, if you're a ConnectedDrive customer in Germany, Austria, France, Italy and the U.K., you'll have access to several exciting Google services you've never before experienced in a car.

BMW is introducing these services in every new car equipped with a professional navigation system as of September 2010.


So what's new?

Firstly, we're introducing search suggestions for Google Local Search.

We know that input mechanisms in your vehicle are sometimes limited and time-consuming. To enter a search query, you often need to know exactly what you're looking for.

To address this challenge, cars with our new service package will provide suggested results after you enter the first few characters - similar to what you're used to on Google's desktop web search. Suggestions are based on your location and will surely speed up your search. Once you've tried this in your car, you'll never want to leave home any other way!


With only a couple of characters, you'll be guided to the information you want that has been fully integrated in your navigation experience. How about finding the nearest hotel with only a few keystrokes and a bit of "jog-wheeling"?


Secondly, we're beefing up the usefulness of your results via a "pictures at your destination" service that gives you much richer details about the location you've entered into the system.

For each search result, Google Local Search already provides helpful information such as a place's address, phone number, ratings, reviews, various business attributes, etc.

But we get that you might want even more, and are now enabling you to have an advance look at the destination you're going. "Pictures at your destination" is a new service that combines images of your destination from various online sources. Where available, you'll see satellite imagery, user generated photos from the Panoramio community, or even Street View imagery that gives you a sense of what you can visually expect when you get to your destination.

Have a look:








Thirdly and as always, we're continuing to make improvements to our Local Search offering. Google Local Search is already available in many cars worldwide and has become a very useful complimentary service to static-only point of interest (POI) searches from DVDs or hard drives. By taking advantage of the rich information and fresh data this technological integration allows, we hope searching for places in your car makes it faster, easier and more exciting for you to get where you're going.

Enjoy your connected drive, and stay tuned for more great car services from the Google automotive team and our partners!

Posted by Markus Mühlbauer, Engineering and Product Manager, Automotive
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/09/enriched-google-online-experience-now.html

[G] Save Money and Improve Collaboration with Google Apps

Posted: 20 Sep 2010 11:19 PM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Save Money and Improve Collaboration with Google Apps

Wentworth Property Management Corp is a large property management company made up of over 40 offices specializing in security, rental and homeowner's insurance, concierge, cleaning and real estate services. Keeping all those offices and people connected and maintaining all of their Exchange servers became very difficult and very expensive. Wentworth needed an easier -- and less costly -- way for its employees to stay connected and to continue to scale as company continues to grow. The answer? Google Apps, which has already proven an invaluable tool for helping geographically distributed teams more easily coordinate their efforts.

Join this live TechRepublic webcast, featuring Wentworth CIO Manu Jaggi, to learn exactly why Wentworth chose Google Apps and what it's meant for the organization:

* Discover the most common criteria for comparing and evaluating Google Apps against alternative solutions such as Microsoft Exchange
* Hear how Wentworth uses the full range of Google Apps to more effectively communicate and collaborate across many geographically distributed offices
* See how eliminating inefficiencies and and focusing on innovation, not IT server maintenance can save money and improve an organization's productivity

Tomorrow, Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. EDT / 11:00 a.m. PDT / 6:00 p.m. GMT.



Posted by Ashley Chandler, Google Apps team
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/09/save-money-and-improve-collaboration.html

[G] Show me the honey

Posted: 20 Sep 2010 10:30 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: Show me the honey

Since we installed four beehives on campus this spring, the area around the hives has been, well, a hive of activity. Many Googlers took the beekeeping plunge, donning bee suits and diving into regular beekeeping activities such as regular checks for diseases and parasites. Today, we have more than 80 employees signed up to care for the bees. We're happy to report that the bees have prospered at Google (must be all the free food) and the hives have grown from their original one-story "campus," the Hiveplex, to five stories.

Over the past few weeks, there's been a ton of anticipation on campus as the hives filled with honey and harvest time drew closer. Each beekeeping team is assigned to one of the four colored hives, and some teams were spotted peeking into other hives to see which was ahead in terms of honey production.

The actual harvest, last week, was a fun-filled event with both traditional and modern methods of honey extraction. Under the helpful guidance of Bill Tomaszewski of Marin Bee Company, Googlers took turns uncapping the honey (removing the protective wax that bees use to cover a cell once it's filled with honey), hand-cranking the honey extraction machinery to spin the honey out of the honey comb and pouring the honey through filters to remove the bits of wax and other particles that came from the hive.

The end result was beyond any of our expectations—approximately 405lbs of raw, natural honey. (We were so eager to taste the harvest that we neglected to use the scales that had been set up!) We also determined it was more or less a dead heat for which hive was the most productive. Even with such a harvest, we made sure we left enough honey behind to allow the bees to get comfortably through the winter months.

The honey is being put to good use—everyone who participated in the extraction got a jar to take home, while the rest of the honey will be used in the cafes and for cooking classes organized by Marc Rasic, an executive chef at Google and one of the people behind the beekeeping initiative.

We're also relieved that none of the hives have succumbed to Colony Collapse Disorder, but we'll be keeping a close eye on them over the winter months to ensure that they stay happy, healthy and ready to start work again in the spring. We're already looking forward to next year!



Posted by Rob Peterson, Manager, Software Engineering
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/show-me-honey.html

[G] Behind the scenes of Weezer’s new album launch

Posted: 20 Sep 2010 04:07 PM PDT

YouTube Blog: Behind the scenes of Weezer's new album launch

Editor's Note: Today's guest blogger is Ben Patterson. Ben is the founder of DashGo, Inc. a digital marketing and distribution platform servicing music, video and podcast content. Clients include Weezer, This American Life and Delicious Vinyl. Last week Weezer launched its new album, Hurley, with the YouTube community.



It all started at VidCon.



VidCon is an event I attended this past July. My company, DashGo, markets, distributes and manages catalogs for indie labels and bands, and the vast majority of our content is audio. VidCon was eye-opening: an army of YouTube content creators--some meeting for the first time following years of online sharing and collaboration--pumped energy into the room. In panel discussions, everyone credited their success to two entities: YouTube and other YouTube users.



One of my clients is Weezer, an alternative-rock band known for hits, including "Buddy Holly," "Beverly Hills" and "Pork & Beans." Weezer's always been a fan of innovation and collaboration and is no stranger to YouTube. Back in 2008, Weezer went on a Hootenanny tour, inviting fans to perform alongside them with whatever instruments they could play. Rivers Cuomo, lead singer, co-wrote a song with hundreds of YouTube content creators in a project called "Let's Write a Sawng." And, of course, Weezer invited a number of YouTube content creators to appear in their own "Pork and Beans" video, a video viewed over 20 million times.



Weezer was getting ready to launch their new album, Hurley. Our concept for the band this time was simple. Instead of inviting YouTube content creators to invade a Weezer video, we'd flip the tables. Rather than make our own video a needle in the haystack we decided to build a whole stack of needles. First we all asked our friends and co-workers about their favorite YouTube content creators. We asked fans on Twitter and Facebook who they liked on YouTube. Then I sent an email to the dozens of recommended YouTube content creators letting them know Weezer was interested in participating in their programs. Acting, performance, interview, make-up, comedy--whatever they wanted Weezer to do, Weezer was game.



The response was overwhelming, especially considering I sent the request out six days before shooting was to begin. Two weeks later, the shooting was done and each YouTube partner prepared his or her own video. Weezer wouldn't see anything until the videos went live on 9/14.



We were amazed by the range of creativity. The Gregory Brothers AutoTuned Weezer's "Memories." Weezer got to cover StSanders' "Kiss Shreds," a band favorite, and the Magic Hugs guys brought them back to their days as a brand new band. Four of the videos made it into the Top 20 chart within 24 hours. We were also featured on YouTube's Music Tuesday showcase.



Weezer reached more than 10 million folks if you count the aggregate number of subscribers of the participating content creators. That's more than triple the ratings of most late night talk shows. Ray William Johnson alone gets more viewers per episode than Comedy Central's Tosh.0. And best of all, the new album Hurley hit the top 10 on iTunes charts and #1 on Amazon MP3.



Of course, none of this would be possible without all of the content creators who invited Weezer into their channels. A huge thanks to them and their fans for letting Weezer into your house for the day. And we thought you'd enjoy this outtake:







Serena Satyasai,  Marketing Manager,  recently watched "I spanked Weezer."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/tjJugZ0wPLg/behind-scenes-of-weezers-new-album.html

[G] Ocean comes to Google Earth for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

Posted: 20 Sep 2010 03:28 PM PDT

Official Google Mobile Blog: Ocean comes to Google Earth for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

(Cross-posted from the Google Lat Long blog)

We recently announced the arrival of ocean bathymetry and ocean layer content to Google Earth for Android. Today, with the latest release of Google Earth 3.1 for iOS, we're proud to announce that you can now explore underwater landscapes and terrain on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Dive below the ocean's surface to explore underwater canyons, or travel to the ocean's deepest point, the Mariana Trench. Once underwater, simply swipe the screen with two fingers to "look around." You can always reset your view by clicking on the north arrow on the iPad, or on the compass on the iPhone and iPod.As with the desktop and other mobile versions of Google Earth, we've also added the "Ocean" layer, which features hundreds of photos and videos from more than 100 contributors curated by the Sylvia Earle Alliance.


This version also includes native support for the new Retina display, which means that if you have an iPhone 4 or the new iPod touch, you'll get to enjoy an even sharper view of the world.

Google Earth 3.2 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch is available now in the App Store, or navigate to http://m.google.com/earth in your mobile browser. You can also download Google Earth by scanning this QR code:
For help or additional information, visit our help center.

Posted by Peter Birch, Google Earth Product Manager


URL: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/09/ocean-comes-to-google-earth-for-iphone.html

[G] Introducing themed ads in Custom Search

Posted: 20 Sep 2010 02:08 PM PDT

Inside AdSense: Introducing themed ads in Custom Search

Last year, we took a big step forward in improving customization of the look and feel of results by providing plug-n-play themes in the Custom Search Element. This enabled you to choose from among a palette of predefined styles. You can find a style that matches your website and start using search, or further customize the style if you like.

We're taking themes one step further. Each theme now has ads displayed with a look and feel that match the overall style used for the search results.

The result is harmony between search results and ads, which we think makes for a great user experience. The following screenshots show search results and ads for three different themes: espresso, minimalist and green sky.



We hope you agree that your visitors will enjoy themed ads. As always, be sure to send us your feedback.

Posted by Rajat Mukherjee - Group Product Manager, Search
URL: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2010/09/introducing-themed-ads-in-custom-search.html

[G] Remembering Fred Jelinek

Posted: 20 Sep 2010 12:36 PM PDT

Official Google Research Blog: Remembering Fred Jelinek

Posted by Ciprian Chelba, Research Team

It is with great sadness that we note the passing of Fred Jelinek, teacher and colleague to many of us here at Google. His seminal contributions to statistical modeling of speech and language influenced not only us, but many more members of the research community.

Several of us at Google remember Fred:

Ciprian Chelba:
Fred was my thesis advisor at CLSP. My ten years of work in the field after graduation led me to increasingly appreciate the values that Fred instilled by personal example: work on the hard problem because it simply cannot be avoided, bring fundamental and original contributions that steer clear of incrementalism, exercise your creativity despite the risks entailed, and pursue your ideas with determination.

I recently heard a comment from a colleague, "A natural born leader is someone you follow even if only out of curiosity." I immediately thought of Fred. Working with him marked a turning point in my life, and his influential role will be remembered.

Bob Moore:
I first met Fred Jelinek in 1984 at an IBM-sponsored workshop on natural-language processing. Fred's talk was my first exposure to the application of statistical ideas to language, and about the only thing I understood was the basic idea of N-gram language modeling: estimate the probability of the next word in a sequence based on a small fixed number of immediately preceding words. At the time, I was so steeped in the tradition of linguistically-based formal grammars that I was sure Fred's approach could not possibly be useful.

Starting about five years later, however, I began to interact with Fred often at speech and language technology meetings organized by DARPA, as well as events affiliated with the Association for Computational Linguistics. Gradually, I (along with much of the computational linguistics community) began to understand and appreciate the statistical approach to language technology that Fred and his colleagues were developing, to the point that it now dominates the field of computational linguistics, including my own research. The importance of Fred's technical contributions and visionary leadership in bringing about this revolution in language technology cannot be overstated. The field is greatly diminished by his passing.

Fernando Pereira:
I met Fred first at a DARPA-organized workshop where one of the main topics was how to put natural language processing research on a more empirical, data-driven path. Fred was leading the charge for the move, drawing from his successes in speech recognition. Although I had already started exploring those ideas, I was not fully convinced by Fred's vision. Nevertheless, Fred's program raised many interesting research questions, and I could not resist some of them. Working on search for speech recognition at AT&T, I was part of the small team that invented the finite-state transducer representation of recognition models. I gave what I think was the first public talk on the approach at a workshop session that Fred chaired. It was Fred's turn to be skeptical, and we had a spirited exchange in the discussion period. At the time, I was disappointed that I had failed to interest Fred in the work, but later I was delighted when Fred became a strong supporter of our work after a JHU Summer workshop where Michael Riley led the use of our software tools in successful experiments with a team of JHU researchers and students. Indeed, in hindsight, Fred was right to be skeptical before we had empirical validation for the approach, and his strong support when the results started coming in was thus much more meaningful and gratifying. Through these experiences and much more, I came to respect immensely Fred's pioneer spirit, vision, and sharp mind. Many of my most successful projects benefited directly or indirectly from his ideas, his criticism, and his building of thriving institutions, from CLSP to links with the research team at Charles University in Prague. I saw Fred last at ACL in Uppsala. He was in great form, and we had a good discussion on funding for the summer workshops. I am very sad that he will not be with us to continue these conversations.

Shankar Kumar:
Fred was my academic advisor at CLSP/JHU and I interacted with him throughout my Ph.D. program. I had the privilege of having him on my thesis committee. My very first exposure to research in speech and NLP was through an independent study that I did under him. A few years later, I was his teaching assistant for the speech recognition class. Fred's energy and passion for research made a strong impression on me back then and continues to influence my work to this day. I remember Fred carefully writing up his ideas and sending them out as a starting point to our discussions. While I found this curiously amusing at the time, I now think this was his unique approach to ensure clarity of thought and to steer the discussion without distractions. Fred's enthusiasm for learning new concepts was infectious! I attended several classes and guest lectures with him - graphical models, NLP, and many more. His insightful questions and his active participation in each one of these classes made them memorable for me. He epitomized what a life-long learner should be. I will always recall Fred's advice on sharing credit generously. In his own words, "The contribution of a research paper does not get divided by the number of authors". By his passing, we have lost a role model who dedicated his life to research and whose contributions will continue to impact and shape the field for years to come.

Michael Riley:
I got to know Fred pretty well having attended two of the CLSP six-week summer workshops, working on a few joint grants, and visiting CLSP in between. If there is a 'father of speech recognition', its got to be Fred Jelinek - he led the IBM team that invented and popularized many of the key methods used today. His intellect, wide knowledge, and force of will served him well later as the leader of the JHU Center for Language and Speech Processing - a sort of academic hearth where countless speech/NLP researchers and students interacted over the years in seminars and workshops. I was impressed that at an age when many retired and after which most of his IBM colleagues had gone into (very lucrative) financial engineering, he remained a vigorous, leading academic. Fernando mentioned the initial skepticism he had for our work on weighted FSTs for ASR. Some years later though I heard that he praised the work to my lab director, Larry Rabiner, on a plane ride that likely helped my promotion shortly thereafter. And no discussion of Fred would be complete without a mention of his inimitable humor, delivered in that loud Czech-accented voice:
Riley [at workshop planning meeting]: "Could they hold the summer workshop in some nicer place than Baltimore to help attract people?"
Fred: "Riley, we'll hold it in Rome next year and get better people than you!"

Seminar presenter: [fumbling with Windows configuration for minutes].
Fred [very loud]: "How long do we have to endure this high-tech torture?"

The website of The Johns Hopkins University's Center for Language and Speech Processing links to Fred's own descriptions of his life and technical achievements.
URL: http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2010/09/remembering-fred-jelinek.html

[G] Three million businesses have gone Google: celebrating growth, innovation and security

Posted: 20 Sep 2010 08:25 AM PDT

Official Google Blog: Three million businesses have gone Google: celebrating growth, innovation and security

Today we're hosting more than 300 CIOs and IT professionals from around the world in Paris at Google Atmosphere, our annual European event dedicated to cloud computing—web-based applications that are built on shared infrastructure and delivered through the browser. This year, the discussion at Atmosphere is focused on how companies can benefit from the breakthroughs in productivity and security that cloud-based applications are uniquely capable of delivering.

This event also marks some major milestones:
  • As of today, more than 3 million businesses have gone Google, and over 30 million users within businesses, schools and organizations now depend on our messaging and collaboration tools.
  • We're launching new cloud-powered capabilities: two-step verification to help enhance security and soon, mobile editing in Google Docs on Android and the iPad™.
First, Google Apps Premier, Education and Government Edition administrators can now have users sign in with the combination of their password (something they know) and a one-time verification code provided by a mobile phone (something they have). Users can continue to access Google Apps from Internet-connected devices, but with stronger protections to help fend off risks like phishing scams and password reuse. For the first time, we're making this technology accessible to organizations large and small without the costs and complexities that have historically limited two-step verification to large enterprises with deep pockets. Furthermore, in the coming months, Standard Edition and hundreds of millions of individual Google users will be able to enjoy this feature as well.


Second, today we demonstrated new mobile editing capabilities for Google Docs on the Android platform and the iPad. In the next few weeks, co-workers around the world will soon be able to co-edit files simultaneously from an even wider array of devices.

Only cloud computing is able to deliver the whole package of productivity-enhancing collaboration, superior reliability and virtually unlimited scale at a price that's affordable for any size organization. Our Atmosphere event is a nice opportunity to step back and fully appreciate the power of the cloud with customers and future customers alike.

Posted by Dave Girouard, President, Google Enterprise
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/three-million-businesses-have-gone.html
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