Saturday, October 9, 2010

Googland

Googland

[G] Getting the most out of Gmail

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 12:59 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Getting the most out of Gmail

Last week we posted some tips to help you move from Microsoft Outlook® and other client-based software to Google Apps. Today we'd like to share some more thoughts on making the most of Gmail.

Save time with Priority Inbox
A busy day often affords few email breaks. When you do get a chance to scan your mail, Priority Inbox helps you prioritize by identifying the messages that require your immediate attention. Gmail uses a variety of signals to predict which messages are important, including the people you email most and which messages you open and reply to. The best part is it gets better the more you use it. Turn on and manage Priority Inbox in your mail Settings – and read our tips to become a real Priority Inbox whiz!


Seamless chat, video and calling
We work with people in multiple ways, and Gmail makes it easy for you to choose the most effective means to communicate: email, chat, text messaging, video chats and phone calls are all available from your inbox. For example, voice and video chat lets you have an actual conversation with someone or meet face-to-face in brilliant resolution. And for those early adopters transitioned to our new infrastructure, we recently added the ability to call phones in Gmail, so you can place phone calls from your computer to any landline or mobile phone number and receive calls as well. For phone calls and video chat, download this plugin to get started.

Get more attached to your email
Attachments in other email systems can be cumbersome; they take up space, can be hard to find and you have to open another program to take action, which slows you down. Gmail has some helpful features that let you quickly view attachments without the need to open or download them on client-side software. The Google Docs Viewer allows you to view .doc, .pdf, .ppt and other attachments in a new browser tab simply by clicking the "View" link at the bottom of a Gmail message. If you decide you want to edit the file, click "Edit online" to open it in Google Docs, or download it to your desktop.

Gmail also includes a Google Docs preview lab that lets you read the entire contents of a Google document, spreadsheet or presentation right in Gmail. Note that your administrator needs to have enabled Labs for you to access them.

Put email in context
Wouldn't it be great if you could update a sales lead without leaving your inbox? With contextual gadgets, you can. They display information from social networks, business services, web applications and other systems, and let you interact with that data right within Gmail. Your administrator or any third-party developer can build and distribute Gmail contextual gadgets to the domain with just a few clicks via the Google Apps Marketplace, which we launched in March. To learn more, browse for apps in the Marketplace that have 'Mail Integration'.



The keys to productivity
With Gmail, we built in keyboard shortcuts to help you get through your mail quickly and efficiently. Once you enable this feature in Settings, you can archive (e), reply (r), compose (c), delete (#) or take just about any other action with one key or a short combo. For a handy guide, type "?" while you're in Gmail – for maximum efficiency, print it out and post it at your desk.

Experiment in our Labs
Gmail Labs give users experimental – sometimes whimsical – features to customize Gmail in a way that works best for them. Some Labs accommodate preferences, such as adding a "Send & Archive" button, while others help you communicate, such as the Google Voice player and SMS in Chat. Still others help you stay organized, like the Google Docs and Calendar gadgets. If your administrator has enabled Labs for your domain, check them out for yourself.

What's your favorite feature in Gmail? Feel free to let us know in the comments below. Happy (productive) emailing!

Posted by Rajen Sheth, Google Apps Product Manager
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/10/getting-most-out-of-gmail.html

[G] This week in search 10/8/10

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 06:21 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: This week in search 10/8/10

This is one of a regular series of posts on search experience updates. Look for the label This week in search and subscribe to the series. - Ed.

While we're always working on making search more precise, comprehensiveness and interactive, you can also count on us to bring you enhancements in speed and language. This week, our updates include releases that will help you get the information you're looking for fast—and in many different languages.

Flu facts in search
Just in time for flu season, we're again collaborating with the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services (HHS), their flu.gov collaborators and the American Lung Association to help you easily find nearby locations to get the flu vaccine. When searching for flu-related terms, information will appear at the top of your search results, including tips from flu.gov and a flu vaccine finder box with an expanding map that displays locations where you can receive vaccine. You can also visit www.google.com/flushot for the flu vaccine finder. While we're all hoping for a relatively tame flu season, preparation is always necessary. We hope this enhancement will make it easier.


Example searches: [flu] and [flu shot]

Google Alerts for video now in 40 languages
Google Alerts has been helping English speakers discover new videos related to their interests for years. Last week, we added support for video alerts in 39 additional languages, including Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. This means that all of you around the world can now monitor the web for new videos, as well as for news, blogs, web results and real-time updates. Visit www.google.com/alerts and try it out.

A new addition to Google Translate
It is with great linguistic pleasure that we've added Latin to as an alpha language in Google Translate. Although considered a "dead language" by many, Latin is still studied by hundreds of thousands of students worldwide and is the predecessor to many modern tongues. If you are looking for something to translate, check out our post announcing the feature (written entirely in Latin!). While this may not be popular for translating YouTube captions or emails, we hope it will help unlock the many ancient documents that are written in Latin.

The week in searches
Want to know what was hot on Google Search in the U.S. this week? Check out the Google Beat, where we give you the scoop on what got people clicking on Google. This week, we cover the Rick Sanchez/Jon Stewart comments as well as the buzz around the Ryder Cup golf competition.

We hope you find these updates useful. Stay tuned for more next week.

Posted by Ben Ling, Director of Search Properties
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/this-week-in-search-10810.html

[G] Google Apps highlights – 10/8/2010

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 06:21 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: Google Apps highlights – 10/8/2010

This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label "Google Apps highlights" and subscribe to the series. - Ed.

Over the last couple weeks, we rolled out new settings in Gmail for email traditionalists, and some features in Google Docs to make it easier to work with document revisions and imported spreadsheet data. We also had big news to share about bringing Google Apps to all K-12 students in New York state.

Try Gmail without conversation view
We think conversation view in Gmail is a big time saver, because it automatically groups related messages into neatly organized discussions. But over the years we've heard from many people accustomed to a traditional inbox that conversation view drives them nuts. Last Wednesday we introduced the option for people to turn conversation view off or on in Gmail Settings if they'd like. With this option, messages are delivered to the inbox individually, like you see in most email applications. Threaded or unthreaded—now it's your choice.


Better revision history in Google documents
One of the ways Google Docs is different from other office software is its ability to automatically save and display every revision ever made, even if multiple people have edited a file together. Last week we made revision history in Google documents even better, by simplifying how revision time stamps are displayed, speeding up how fast you can flip through sequential revisions, and highlighting changes made by different editors with different colors, so you can quickly scan for who changed what. Go to "File" > "See revision history" to try it out.


Better data import in Google spreadsheets
We also improved Google spreadsheets recently with better data import options. For example, if you're importing information from a .csv file, you can create a whole new spreadsheet, append to the current sheet, add a new sheet to your existing spreadsheet or even replace your entire spreadsheet with the new version. We also upgraded the import preview pane to show a snapshot of how your spreadsheet will look after import, so you can verify that things are set the way you want.


Who's gone Google?
Tens of thousands of businesses, schools and organizations have made the switch to Gmail and Google Apps since our last update. And on Tuesday, we announced a new agreement with the state of New York to bring Google Apps, including training and support to 697 public school districts, as well as all non-public and charter schools across the state. New York is the fifth and largest state to "go Google" throughout their K-12 system, joining Oregon, Iowa, Colorado and Maryland. We're unbelievably excited about the opportunity to enrich the classroom for more than 3.1 million students and hundreds of thousands of teachers in New York.



We hope these updates help you and your organization get even more from Google Apps. For details and the latest news in this area, check out the Google Apps Blog.

Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/google-apps-highlights-1082010.html

[G] Goodbye to an old friend: 1-800-GOOG-411

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 06:21 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: Goodbye to an old friend: 1-800-GOOG-411

Back in 2007 we launched 1-800-GOOG-411, a voice-powered directory assistance service that connects you quickly to businesses across the U.S. and Canada. On November 12, 2010, we will shut down the service.

GOOG-411 was the first speech recognition service from Google and helped provide a foundation for more ambitious services now available on smartphones, such as:
  • Voice Search - search Google by speaking instead of typing.
  • Voice Input - fill in any text field on Android by speaking instead of typing.
  • Voice Actions - control your Android phone with voice commands. For example, you can call any business quickly and easily just by saying its name.
Our success encouraged us to aim for more innovation. Thus, we're putting all of our resources into speech-enabling the next generation of Google products and services across a multitude of languages.

If you don't use a smartphone, and you're trying to call a business, you can send a text message with the name and location of the business to 466453 ("GOOGLE") and we'll text you the information, or on Gmail you can use the new phone-calling features to call any U.S. business free of charge. Also, if you don't have the free voice search app pre-installed on your phone, you can download it here.

Thanks for all the calls, and keep an eye out for all the innovation to come.

Posted by The GOOG-411 Team
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/goodbye-to-old-friend-1-800-goog-411.html

[G] Western Union now launched in four African countries

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 06:19 PM PDT

Inside AdSense: Western Union now launched in four African countries

We're excited to announce the launch of Western Union Quick Cash® payments in four countries in Africa! You can now select Western Union Quick Cash payments in:
  • Algeria
  • Ghana
  • Kenya
  • Uganda
Western Union Quick Cash payments will reach you faster than checks, and they're free of charge. Payments will continue to follow our normal payment schedule and will be available for pickup in your local currency at your local Western Union agent the day after they're issued.

A couple of things to note: We can send Western Union payments only to publishers that have an individual account at this time. Also, the payee name on your account must exactly match the government-issued ID card that you'll use when picking up your payments. For more information on how to sign up for and pick up Western Union payments, please visit our Help Center.

Posted by Deborah Chang - AdSense Payments team
URL: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2010/10/western-union-now-launched-in-four.html

[G] Finding your hidden treasure: international campaigns with AdWords

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 05:54 PM PDT

Inside AdWords: Finding your hidden treasure: international campaigns with AdWords

Cross posted from the Official Google Blog.

In 2000, Antoine Assi founded Middle Eastern export website www.aldoukan.com—it was one of the first e-commerce businesses in the Middle East. He was just 20 years old and he made time to develop the business in between computer science classes at his university. He needed a way to advertise his website from the comfort of his own dorm room, so he decided to test out Google AdWords.

His friends didn't believe him when Antoine said he was going to sell and advertise traditional Middle Eastern foods and goods online. However, by 2004, his business had grown so rapidly that he decided to take leave from school to run it full-time. He then started his second company, www.mosaicmarble.com, which sells handcut decorative tiles online internationally.

Antoine believed there was a gap in the mosaic market and he wanted to share these artistic and historic decorations abroad. He knew there was a market for these tiles internationally—he just didn't quite know where the opportunity existed. To identify these international growth opportunities, Antoine built on his knowledge of AdWords: He ran several AdWords campaigns, each targeted at the location and language of the test country.



From there, Antoine measured sales and percentage of website traffic from each country and campaign. He ended campaigns for countries with low sales volume and invested in campaigns for countries with higher sales volume and greater return on investment. Where he saw steady product sales, Antoine even had the company website translated into the language of the successful host country. As you can imagine, translating the site to the language of a country in which he'd already seen success only further promoted sales in that location.

Antoine refers to his AdWords campaigns as his hidden treasure, telling us that "the second month we started advertising on Google, we started feeling overwhelmed by the orders and the inquiries... We had to hire new employees on a weekly basis."

Mosaic Marble quickly grew from two employees and eight artists to more than 40 employees and 120 artists. And the company's website is now available in seven languages: Arabic, English, Finnish, German, Italian, Portuguese and French.



In addition to helping him expand his business, these international campaigns helped Antoine and his colleagues share these cultural icons with a larger part of the world. There are now homes and public spaces adorned with these ancient Greek creations in more than 50 countries worldwide. "Due to Google," says Antoine, "we have customers such as the President of Congo, the Dubai Minister of Internal Affairs, the Princess of Jordan, and the Royal Music Academy of London."

 Posted by Gordon Zhu, Inside AdWords crew
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/10/finding-your-hidden-treasure.html

[G] Going Google Across the 50 States: North Carolina based American Support relies on Docs, Sites and Chat to run its business

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 12:29 PM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Going Google Across the 50 States: North Carolina based American Support relies on Docs, Sites and Chat to run its business

Editor's note: Over 3 million businesses have adopted Google Apps. Today we'll hear from Matt Zemon, President of American Support, headquartered in North Carolina. To learn more about other organizations that have gone Google and share your story, visit our community map or test drive life in the cloud with the Go Google cloud calculator.

At American Support, we provide back office services to over 400 cable, phone and internet franchises in 29 states. Our services include billing and subscriber management along with 24/7 customer care and technical support.

When I originally founded the company in 2006 we had a joint venture with a Philippines-based call center to provide customer service at a reasonable cost to our clients. In the first couple years of business it became evident that our clients and their subscribers wanted to have American-based customer service. Our clients were not happy with the off-shore customer service we were providing and we were having difficulties winning new business. As a customer service outsourcer the challenge was finding a way to provide the American customer service they desired at a price point they could afford.

To save our business we ended up rethinking our business model and looking to the cloud to drive down costs and increase our efficiency. The first change was migrating to a call center in the cloud platform which enabled us to recruit, train and route calls to rural American home-based employees who needed and wanted the work. With this technology solution in place we began bringing our call center jobs back to America. As of May of last year we are a 100% American customer service organization.

The second change was moving from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps in 2009, which allowed us to more efficiently and effectively collaborate with our employees and clients spread out across the United States.

Today we maintain a small office in North Carolina and a technical assistance center and network operations center in Montana. The rest of our management team is spread out between Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Georgia and Nebraska. Our entire customer support team works from home.

Tools that fostered collaboration were absolutely essential to running our business. Each manager and their team really live in the Google Apps environment. All of their meetings are done through Google Docs and video chats. I've never met 90% of our employees in person. Every meeting agenda is built off of a doc with everyone logged into the same doc at the same time, taking notes and keeping track of next steps as we move along through the meeting agenda. Plus, our clients across the country have started getting used to the value of moving away from attachments to using Google Docs. Working together internally and externally is so much easier when we're always sure we're looking at the most current document and you can collaborate on it in real-time.

Google Sites is also a key aspect of our business operations. We create a custom site for each of our clients that contains the most frequently asked questions, their unique policies and procedures, and other useful information for our teams. Sites allows us to keep all information in one place that everyone on the team can update and reference.

We had initially looked at Google Apps for its 25 GB of mail and shared calendars, but it's Google Sites, Docs and Talk that allow us to communicate successfully and efficiently so that we can support customers with a team all over the country. We attribute our successful collaboration and the ability to run a coast-to-coast virtual team to our use of Google Apps.

Posted by Matt Zemon, President, American Support
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/10/going-google-across-50-states-north.html

[G] Simply Lennon

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 09:43 AM PDT

Official Google Blog: Simply Lennon

There's a lot that can be said about John Lennon, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Even more can be said about the individual experiences people have had growing up with his music. It seems like everyone has a Lennon story. The earliest memory I have of him is listening to his songs in the backseat of our old station wagon with my brothers, watching my mom and dad sing along on the cassette player. It's a very simple memory, but rich with subtlety—the sunlight through the windshield, my mom's smile—and so it's stuck with me. And maybe that's what John's music is about. There's an earnest simplicity to it, yet I'm sure any one of us, regardless of whether or not we were around during his time, could describe some way he has deeply enriched our lives.

Starting today and all day tomorrow, which would have been John's 70th birthday, we're celebrating him with our first-ever animated video doodle. The old saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words" still rings true, so I hope a moving picture will help me adequately—and simply—thank John for the memories.

Posted by Mike Dutton, Google Doodler
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/simply-lennon.html

[G] Help Us Make Blogger Better (again)

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 09:42 AM PDT

Blogger Buzz: Help Us Make Blogger Better (again)

A little over a year ago, we asked all of you to speak your mind and let us know what we could do to make Blogger better. Two thousand ideas and seventy-five thousand votes later, we had quite the laundry list of feature requests and feedback to dig through. Our team took a long, hard look at the data and spent the last year cranking out as many of these features and fixes as humanly possible.


To date, we're happy to say that we've been able to launch most of the top-requested features from the list. Here are just a handful of the features you asked for which are now live:


...and that's just the beginning of the list. We're also working on a few big improvements that we're pretty excited about, so stay tuned as we continue to roll things out of the oven in the near future.

Just as we did last year, we're asking for your input on our Product Ideas page. As always, our ears are open to your feedback and your input has been invaluable over the years in helping us figure out where to put our time and energy.

Please take a moment to vote on and submit ideas, whether specific feature requests or general service improvements. Think about new features that would make you use Blogger more, the things from other services which may be missing, and even the things which may be frustrating at times. We promise to once again take a long look at the feedback, and hope to tackle many of the top issues just as we did last time around.

Thanks again in advance for all your help making Blogger the best service it can be!
URL: http://buzz.blogger.com/2010/10/help-us-make-blogger-better-again.html

[G] Guest post: Discover amazing products and earn money with OpenSky

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 09:42 AM PDT

Blogger Buzz: Guest post: Discover amazing products and earn money with OpenSky

This is a guest post by John Caplan, founder and CEO of OpenSky. OpenSky allows bloggers, including all Blogger users, to discover unique products and sell those on their blogs. As we are interested in helping our users find various ways to monetize their blogs, we've asked John to introduce OpenSky for our users. -- The Blogger team


For most of you, writing a blog is about sharing your passion in a way that connects you with others. That's why Blogger was created -- to help people have their own voice on the web to share that passion.

We at OpenSky want to empower you to share even more with the people who read your blog. We do this by helping you discover great products and giving you the ability to share those products on your blog. Not only will you deepen your relationships with your readers, but you'll also earn money from every sale.

Most everyone who reads your blog probably loves discovering new products, especially unique items that they wouldn't find in a giant chain store. And your readers will especially love learning about stuff from someone they trust, like you.

That's why blogging and product recommendations work so well together.

How OpenSky works

OpenSky is a free platform that empowers you to discover and sell unique products that speak to your passion. So you can hook up your readers with great things they'll love.

While most affiliate programs draw away your audience, on OpenSky you'll drive readers to an environment dedicated to you and your products.

For every sale you make we split the profits 50/50, which means you can make up to 4x more than a run-of-the-mill affiliate program. We take care of all the order processing, fulfillment and customer service. You get all the credit.

Sign up now, and discover great new products today.

What People Are Saying About OpenSky

Fast Company described us the best when they said:

"OpenSky may have cracked the code for web publishers and small e-tailers, delivering profits to both while helping consumers with a pain-free shopping experience."

Also, see what The New York Times, LA Times, VentureBeat, TechCrunch have written, or watch this video about us from Good Morning America:



Join us (and start selling) today.
URL: http://buzz.blogger.com/2010/10/guest-post-discover-amazing-products.html

[G] “Fred: The Movie” comes to YouTube

Posted: 08 Oct 2010 08:18 AM PDT

YouTube Blog: "Fred: The Movie" comes to YouTube



You
may have heard of a lil' someone called Fred, the squealing,
hyperactive force behind the first YouTube channel to hit 1 million
subscribers. Since he hit that milestone in April 2009, he's amassed
more than 2 million subscribers on YouTube and his videos have been
viewed more than 616 million (!) times. Oh yeah -- he made a movie, too.


In honor of "Fred: The Movie"
joining the YouTube corpus for rent, we asked the Nebraskan teenager
who plays Fred, Lucas Cruikshank, to take us behind the scenes of his
movie, tell us what was in his trailer (was he a diva?!), and to spill
the beans on the YouTube videos he can't live without.





1) Some people say the movie's Fred character is different than Fred in YouTube videos. Do you agree?
He's
a little different than the high-pitched voice on YouTube videos and
that's because I think the audience would get annoyed listening to that
voice for the duration of the film. Fred is still obnoxious, but I toned
it down for the movie, so he's not as crazy as in his YouTube videos.
He is more energetic and hyper in those videos. The movie consists of a
theme rather than random videos, creating a need for calmer, storyline
sequences with Fred.


2) Describe your on-set trailer. What was in it?
I
am used to being all by myself when shooting my YouTube videos and this
was completely different because there was a whole crew and service men
placed around the set. It was my first trailer, which had a shower,
kitchen, and that was a big change from just me with my camera. There
were team members with ideas and creative input versus me making all
decisions with editing. It was a good change. I was thinking of
expanding "Fred" to another medium and need to be open to change and
enjoyed the filming/production process.

3) Tell us a fact about the movie that no one else knows.
Nobody
realizes how fast the movie was put together; there were meetings in
July with Hollywood producers, and I started shooting in early November.
Shooting ended two months later, around Christmas.

4) What was your inspiration behind creating Fred in the first place?
I
became addicted to making videos after receiving a video camera for my
13th birthday. My friend recommended checking out YouTube. My show
became poking fun at video bloggers who are telling a story, but I am
blogging at the age of six, when kids are naïve and throw tantrums. I
exaggerate all these naïve and child-like qualities in a high-pitch
voice.


5) What advice would you give others in your place?
I
would say have fun making videos. There is a notion of getting famous
overnight, but you need to be patient and love what you do. I was making
videos since 2006 and two years later, it took off, and the videos got
popular. You should focus on creativity, not just views or subscribers,
and be passionate about it.


Charu Magon, Partnerships, recently rented "Fred: The Movie."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/d6t6mQIvuUE/fred-movie-comes-to-youtube.html
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