Friday, February 11, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] New Interface Wednesdays: Quickly view your total earnings

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 12:21 AM PST

Inside AdSense: New Interface Wednesdays: Quickly view your total earnings

This week we'd like to highlight a few ways that you can view your total earnings. In the past, AdSense reported separately on AdSense for content, AdSense for search, and other AdSense product earnings. You've asked for the ability to quickly check your total earnings, and we're happy to let you know that this is now possible.

If you'd like to focus on the overall sum of your earnings, you can look at the Entire account by day, week, or month reports under More reports. These reports will show you your combined earnings across all products. In future posts, we'll show you how you can further customize these reports so they make the most sense for your business.

If you'd prefer to see your total account earnings broken out by product in the new interface, you can still do so. By selecting the Products report, you can view earnings from each product you are using as its own line item, as well as the summed, total earnings.


Try it now! Navigate to the new interface and click on the Performance reports tab, and then Products, or More reports, and then Entire account by month.

Posted by Guillaume Ryder - AdSense Engineer
URL: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-interface-wednesdays-quickly-view.html

[G] Join us for an AdSense Optimisation Session in London, UK

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 12:21 AM PST

Inside AdSense: Join us for an AdSense Optimisation Session in London, UK

On Wednesday, February 16th, two of our optimizers will be in London, where they'll hold 20-minute optimization sessions at a local coffee shop in the afternoon. We're aiming to keep this session casual, so we can provide one-on-one consultations to as many of you as possible.

We'd love to meet you, so please fill out this form if you'll be in the London area on February 16th and would like to schedule an appointment with our team. Once we get your RSVP, we'll follow up by email with additional details if there's time available. Scheduling will be done on a first-come, first-served basis, but we'll do our best to include as many of you as space will allow.

See you in London!

Posted by Nathaniel Kolenberg - Inside AdSense team
URL: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2011/02/join-us-for-adsense-optimisation.html

[G] Upcoming changes in backup ad options

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 12:21 AM PST

Inside AdSense: Upcoming changes in backup ad options

We frequently review our product and feature offerings to ensure they're as effective as possible. Based on these reviews and on feedback from our non-profit partners, we'll gradually begin retiring public service ads (PSAs) from AdSense sites so that we can focus our efforts on developing new opportunities for these partners.

As a refresher, PSAs are unpaid ads that can appear on publisher sites when we aren't able to serve a paid ad. This can occur for a number of reasons, such as when relevant ads aren't available for a page, or when a publisher has exceeded the amount of time to verify their address by receiving a Personal Identification Number.

As always, we're committed to supporting our non-profit partners, which is why we're continuing to offer free AdWords advertising for these partners via Google Grants; the Google Grants program is just one part of our larger Google for non-profits initiative. Also, ads in the Google Grants program are unaffected by this change. They'll continue to appear on AdSense sites and you'll earn from valid clicks and impressions, just like with normal ads. To learn more about the latest in Google Grants, including recent tips, events, and clinics, visit the official Google Grants blog.

What does this mean for you as a publisher? If you've previously selected 'Show public service ads' in the 'Backup ads' section of the new AdSense interface (or the 'Alternate ads or colors' section in the old AdSense interface), you'll begin to see that when we're unable to serve paid ads to your pages, a blank space will appear instead of a PSA. On the other hand, if you've opted to show non-Google ads from another URL or to show a solid color, you won't be affected by this change; your choices will continue to be applied in cases when we aren't able to show paid ads.

You'll also notice that the option to select PSAs as backup ads no longer appears in your account. We're working to provide new backup ad options, and will keep you updated with any developments right here on Inside AdSense.

If you'd like to update the settings for your backup ads at any time, sign in to your account and follow the instructions for the interface you're using:
  • New AdSense interface: Visit the My Ads page and select the ad unit you'd like to update. Then, change the settings for 'Backup ads.'
  • Old AdSense interface: Visit the Manage Ads page under the My Account tab, and click 'Edit Ad Settings' for the unit you'd like to change.
If you'd like to discuss this change with other publishers or provide feedback to our team, join the conversation in our Forum. We'll be updating our Help Center entries and troubleshooters to reflect this change as well. Thanks for your patience as we complete this transition.

Posted by Yasser Abu-Ghdaib - AdSense Product Specialist
URL: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2011/02/upcoming-changes-in-backup-ad-options.html

[G] Western Union now in the Palestinian Territories

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 12:21 AM PST

Inside AdSense: Western Union now in the Palestinian Territories

As part of our ongoing goal to provide more payment options around the world, we're very excited to announce the arrival of Western Union Quick Cash® payments for the Palestinian Territories (Gaza & the West Bank).

For those of you who aren't familiar with this form of payment, Western Union Quick Cash payments are free and will reach you faster than checks. 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.

We're continually looking into the feasibility of introducing new forms of payment and new delivery options in different countries. Stay tuned to the blog as we work to improve the payments experience for publishers around the word!

Posted by Deborah Chang - AdSense Payments team
URL: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2011/02/western-union-now-in-palestinian.html

[G] New Interface Wednesdays: Monthly graphs of your account performance

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 12:21 AM PST

Inside AdSense: New Interface Wednesdays: Monthly graphs of your account performance

This is the second post in our 'New Interface Wednesdays' series. Every Wednesday for the next few months we will highlight something new you can do in the new AdSense interface. From time to time we'll also share stories directly from publishers who have been using the new interface as well as announce additional features we've recently added.

In the next few posts in this series, we'll focus on different types of reports you can quickly view in the new interface to monitor and gain insight into your ad performance. Today we're highlighting the ability to quickly view performance by month. We've chosen this particular feature because it's been a top request from publishers, but you can easily do the same by day or week.

Previously, the easiest way to view all account data by month was to export all reports to CSV, then post-process the data in a spreadsheet. Now you can get the same data with just two clicks without leaving your account. On the Performance reports tab, first click on 'More reports,' and then 'Entire account by month.' From here you can see a graph of your earnings. Immediately below the graph, you'll see data for your account by month. As we mentioned last week, you can easily select the metrics to appear on the graph.



Give it a try today! Navigate to the new interface and click on the Performance reports tab, 'More reports,' and then 'Entire account by month.'

Posted by Vincent Zanotti - AdSense Engineer
URL: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-interface-wednesdays-monthly-graphs.html

[G] AdSense Facts & Fictions Part VI: User-Generated Content

Posted: 11 Feb 2011 12:21 AM PST

Inside AdSense: AdSense Facts & Fictions Part VI: User-Generated Content

Fiction: I shouldn't be held responsible if users post content on my site or network that violates AdSense policies.

Fact: You are responsible for ensuring that all of your content, including user-generated content such as forum posts, blog comments or outside feeds, is in compliance with AdSense policies on any page or site for which you've enabled AdSense ads.

As we've discussed in previous posts in this series, we regularly review the content in the AdSense network to ensure that it's safe for advertisers, users, and publishers, as network quality is of premium importance. Just as you, our publishers, expect us to do all we can to remove undesirable ads, our advertisers expect high standards to be maintained; for example, a company using AdWords to market baby clothes doesn't want their ads to appear next to violent or mature content. In order to be transparent about what kinds of content violate our policies, we've published a complete list in our Help Center.

Making sure content complies with our policies can be complex when factoring in user-generated content. Keeping tabs on the hundreds (or even thousands!) of videos, blog posts, photos, tweets, and comments that can come in every day is a massive undertaking. However, you are ultimately responsible for all sites on which you have placed your ad code, regardless of whether you own or have produced the content. This blog post provides a few suggestions to help you prevent and monitor potential content violations.

In most cases, our first step after a policy violation is found is to issue a policy notification for the site. Exceptions include DMCA and egregious policy violations, more details here. After the initial notification, you need to take action, not simply respond to the warning, but implement solutions to proactively ensure that violating content is removed and new content added to the network or site complies with our policies.

We understand that it can take time to find the best solution to prevent problematic content from appearing on your site and we want to work with you to give you the time needed to find a fix. If it becomes evident that a publisher is unable to do so, or if the violation is continuing or egregious, then we will disable an account. We offer an appeals process, but the bottom line is, we can't partner with publishers that pose a risk to our advertisers (just as we won't partner with advertisers that could compromise you).

We know how hard you work to make sure that your sites are of the highest quality and free of adult content, unoriginal content, or anything else that may violate policies and we thank you for your efforts. When advertisers, publishers, and users know they can trust the integrity of our advertising environment, everyone wins.

Posted by Hannah Schlesinger - AdSense Policy team

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this post implied that an AdSense publisher has to proactively screen all content on his or her site. While publishers are required to take steps to keep the pages on which ads appear free from content that violates our policies, there are various methods that publishers can take to do this (see here for tips).
URL: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2011/01/adsense-facts-fictions-part-vi-user.html

[G] Google Code-In Final Statistics

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 07:52 PM PST

Google Open Source Blog: Google Code-In Final Statistics

Thank you to all of the participants in Google Code-In, a contest designed to introduce pre-university students from around the world to the many possibilities for participation in the open source community.

The contest was a great success with 361 students (ages 13-18) from 48 countries completing a total of 2,167 tasks during the 7 week contest period. The students completed 769 Easy tasks, 798 Medium level tasks and 600 Difficult tasks during Google Code-In. We are thrilled with the response and the quality of work completed for the contest and look forward to seeing more from these talented students in the future.

The top 10 countries with the highest number of participants were, in order: The United States, Romania, Bulgaria, The Russian Federation, India, Poland, Canada, Germany, Italy, and Australia.

We would also like to extend a huge thank you to our 20 mentoring organizations and administrators from all over the globe, who through their guidance and encouragement are introducing young coders to the numerous ways to contribute to diverse open source projects.

Please stay tuned as we announce the Google Code-In contest winners on Monday, February 14th.

By Stephanie Taylor, Open Source Team
URL: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2011/02/google-code-in-final-statistics.html

[G] Advanced sign-in security for your Google account

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 03:38 PM PST

Google Online Security Blog: Advanced sign-in security for your Google account

Posted by Nishit Shah, Product Manager, Google Security

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

Has anyone you know ever lost control of an email account and inadvertently sent spam—or worse—to their friends and family? There are plenty of examples (like the classic "Mugged in London" scam) that demonstrate why it's important to take steps to help secure your activities online. Your Gmail account, your photos, your private documents—if you reuse the same password on multiple sites and one of those sites gets hacked, or your password is conned out of you directly through a phishing scam, it can be used to access some of your most closely-held information.

Most of us are used to entrusting our information to a password, but we know that some of you are looking for something stronger. As we announced to our Google Apps customers a few months ago, we've developed an advanced opt-in security feature called 2-step verification that makes your Google Account significantly more secure by helping to verify that you're the real owner of your account. Now it's time to offer the same advanced protection to all of our users.

2-step verification requires two independent factors for authentication, much like you might see on your banking website: your password, plus a code obtained using your phone. Over the next few days, you'll see a new link on your Account Settings page that looks like this:


Take your time to carefully set up 2-step verification—we expect it may take up to 15 minutes to enroll. A user-friendly set-up wizard will guide you through the process, including setting up a backup phone and creating backup codes in case you lose access to your primary phone. Once you enable 2-step verification, you'll see an extra page that prompts you for a code when you sign in to your account. After entering your password, Google will call you with the code, send you an SMS message or give you the choice to generate the code for yourself using a mobile application on your Android, BlackBerry or iPhone device. The choice is up to you. When you enter this code after correctly submitting your password we'll have a pretty good idea that the person signing in is actually you.


It's an extra step, but it's one that significantly improves the security of your Google Account because it requires the powerful combination of both something you know—your username and password—and something that only you should have—your phone. A hacker would need access to both of these factors to gain access to your account. If you like, you can always choose a "Remember verification for this computer for 30 days" option, and you won't need to re-enter a code for another 30 days. You can also set up one-time application-specific passwords to sign in to your account from non-browser based applications that are designed to only ask for a password, and cannot prompt for the code.

To learn more about 2-step verification and get started, visit our Help Center. And for more about staying safe online, see our ongoing security blog series or visit http://www.staysafeonline.org/. Be safe!

URL: http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2011/02/advanced-sign-in-security-for-your.html

[G] Web Analytics TV #16 - Goals and ECommerce Tracking Edition

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 02:14 PM PST

Google Analytics Blog: Web Analytics TV #16 - Goals and ECommerce Tracking Edition

Welcome to our first Web Analytics TV episode of 2011!

Web Analytics TV is powered by your questions, in this episode we had questions from Australia, India, Russia, Germany, Israel, Poland, Argentina, Dubai, Cyprus and so many other places. It is amazing to see such an engaged audience from around the world. You all rock!
Our process is simple. Step 1: You ask, or vote on, your favorite web analytics questions via the Google Analytics Google Moderator site. Step 2: From a secret undisclosed location at the Googleplex Avinash Kaushik and Nick Mihailovski answer them. : )


In this episode our special guest is Sagnik Nandy, Engineering Lead for the Google Analytics back-end team. We are also thrilled to present Alan from Vancouver with the "Analytics Ninja of the Episode" award for his excellent question about sampling in Google Analytics. Alan, just send us an email and we'll send you an autographed, personalized, copy of Web Analytics 2.0.

Here is the list of last weeks questions.


In this action packed episode we discuss:
  • (0:34) Detecting new local search engines in Google Analytics
  • (1:11) Effects of browser Do Not Track features on Google Analytics
  • (2:50) Is there anything you can do to reduce sampling in reports
  • (4:56) Measuring visitors who have visited one page for more than 30s
  • (5:50) Is passing a random visitor id in a visitor level custom var allowed?
  • (7:03) Tracking Google Places paid ad referrals
  • (8:18) Using jQuery to track outbound links
  • (9:18) Ways to filter or segment on the day of week
  • (10:05) When will Google Analytics work on devices that don't support Flash
  • (11:06) How to track e-commerce and goals that happen on a 3rd party site
  • (12:37) Unique visitor metrics now available through the API
  • (14:38) Tracking Ecommerce transactions in one web property in different profiles
  • (15:45) Is it OK to track the name and email address with Google Analytics
  • (16:23) Can you use events to track outbound links on your site





Here are the links to the topics we discuss:
As always, if you need help setting up Google Analytics or leveraging the advanced configuration options, we recommend hiring a Google Analytics Certified Partner.

If you found this post or video helpful, we'd love to hear your comments. Please share them via the comment form below.


This series would not be possible without your awesome questions. Please submit them on our public Google Moderator site, and while you are there don't forget to vote for your favourite questions. Avinash and Nick will answer them in a couple of weeks with yet another entertaining video.


Thanks!
Posted by Nick Mihailovski, Google Analytics Team
URL: http://analytics.blogspot.com/2011/02/web-analytics-tv-16-goals-and-ecommerce.html

[G] Advanced sign-in security for your Google account

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 11:07 AM PST

Official Gmail Blog: Advanced sign-in security for your Google account

Posted by Nishit Shah, Product Manager, Google Security

(Cross-posted from the Google Blog)

Has anyone you know ever lost control of an email account and inadvertently sent spam—or worse—to their friends and family? There are plenty of examples (like the classic "Mugged in London" scam) that demonstrate why it's important to take steps to help secure your activities online. Your Gmail account, your photos, your private documents—if you reuse the same password on multiple sites and one of those sites gets hacked, or your password is conned out of you directly through a phishing scam, it can be used to access some of your most closely-held information.

Most of us are used to entrusting our information to a password, but we know that some of you are looking for something stronger. As we announced to our Google Apps customers a few months ago, we've developed an advanced opt-in security feature called 2-step verification that makes your Google Account significantly more secure by helping to verify that you're the real owner of your account. Now it's time to offer the same advanced protection to all of our users.

2-step verification requires two independent factors for authentication, much like you might see on your banking website: your password, plus a code obtained using your phone. Over the next few days, you'll see a new link on your Account Settings page that looks like this:


Take your time to carefully set up 2-step verification—we expect it may take up to 15 minutes to enroll. A user-friendly set-up wizard will guide you through the process, including setting up a backup phone and creating backup codes in case you lose access to your primary phone. Once you enable 2-step verification, you'll see an extra page that prompts you for a code when you sign in to your account. After entering your password, Google will call you with the code, send you an SMS message or give you the choice to generate the code for yourself using a mobile application on your Android, BlackBerry or iPhone device. The choice is up to you. When you enter this code after correctly submitting your password we'll have a pretty good idea that the person signing in is actually you.


It's an extra step, but it's one that significantly improves the security of your Google Account because it requires the powerful combination of both something you know—your username and password—and something that only you should have—your phone. A hacker would need access to both of these factors to gain access to your account. If you like, you can always choose a "Remember verification for this computer for 30 days" option, and you won't need to re-enter a code for another 30 days. You can also set up one-time application-specific passwords to sign in to your account from non-browser based applications that are designed to only ask for a password, and cannot prompt for the code.

To learn more about 2-step verification and get started, visit our Help Center. And for more about staying safe online, see our ongoing security blog series or visit http://www.staysafeonline.org/. Be safe!
URL: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/advanced-sign-in-security-for-your.html

[G] 7 Things You Didn't Know About Charles Dickens

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 09:37 AM PST

Inside Google Books: 7 Things You Didn't Know About Charles Dickens

Posted by Archi Sarkar, Google Books Associate

Charles Dickens
(Source: LIFE Magazine)

More than a century after his death in 1870, Victorian novelist Charles John Huffam Dickens, author of The Old Curiosity Shop, Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities, is one of the mostly avidly read authors today. Here's wishing a "Happy Birthday" to a literary stalwart who has captivated us with marvelously crafted stories and their intricately fascinating characters like Little Nell and Pip.

Aside from his work, however, there was much to the man himself. From being an fervent supporter for the abolition of slavery in America, to being a philanthropist and setting up Urania Cottage—a home for destitute women in England—Charles Dickens did it all.

  1. Dickens's first story was "A Dinner at Poplar Walk," published in the London periodical Monthly Magazine in 1833. He was only 21.

  2. Prior to becoming a famous novelist, Dickens was a political journalist for The Morning Chronicle in Britain, where he published a collection of his work in Sketches by Boz. He later moved on to become the editor of Bentley's Miscellany at the age of 24.

  3. Dickens had a pet raven named Grip, whom he loved so dearly that when it died, he had the bird stuffed and mounted in his study. It is also said that the bird not only inspired Dickens's talking raven in Barnaby Rudge, but also Edgar Alan Poe's memorable poem "The Raven."

  4. While renting hotel suites during his travels to the U.S. and other places, Dickens almost always rearranged all the furniture in the room until he was completely satisfied with the decor. He also insisted on his children keeping their nurseries extremely organized and rebuked them rather severely for untidiness. Literary and psychological experts have often conjectured that this behavior resulted from obsessive-compulsive disorder.

  5. Dickens's ten-year friendship with the fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen abruptly ended when he stuck a note in his guest bedroom, only days after the author of "The Ugly Duckling" had departed, that read: "Hans Andersen slept in this room for five weeks—which seemed to the family ages!"

    Charles Dickens's dream house.
    (Source: LIFE Magazine)

  6. Dickens published Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby in periodical installments, often sensationalizing and altering the plot after taking into account the public reception for each of the published episodes.

    One of Dickens's studies.
    (Source: LIFE Magazine)

  7. At his country home in Gad's Hill Place, Dickens had a faux bookcase in his study that concealed a secret door and was filled with bogus yet amusing titles like Hansard's Guide to Refreshing Sleep, Was Shakespeare's Mother Fat? and The Quarrelly Review.

URL: http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2011/02/posted-by-archi-sarkar-google-books.html

[G] More “I do”s, less “to-do”s: wedding planning simplified

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 09:28 AM PST

Google Photos Blog: More "I do"s, less "to-do"s: wedding planning simplified

Posted by Lisa Conquergood, Senior Product Marketing Manager

Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog and the Google Docs Blog

For many, your wedding day is one of the biggest, most momentous days of your life. The perfect dress, the right tuxedo, the proper shade of blue, the three-tier cake with chocolate fondant, and all of your closest family and friends—these are just a few of the many things you might think about for your special day. Although there's much to consider and a lot of work to do, the payoff is great: it's one of the happiest days of your life.

To help you plan this important day we've created wedding-specific templates in Google Sites, Google Docs and Picnik, and gathered tips and tricks for using these and other Google products at google.com/weddings. From wedding websites to save-the-date cards, these tools simplify wedding planning, letting you focus your time on the fun things—like tasting cakes!

We teamed up with renowned wedding planner Michelle Rago, who provided her insight and creativity to guide the designs you'll find on this new site. Michelle also shared her experience to provide tips and advice to keep your guests comfortable and you sane.
We're also hosting a wedding sweepstakes, so if you're getting married in the next year you can enter for a chance to win $25,000 towards your dream wedding (see Official Rules). Plus, Michelle Rago and her team will advise the winning couple on location, flowers, food and other design elements to create a day that is uniquely their own.

Visit google.com/weddings to start planning, or share the site with your favorite betrothed couple and help them on their way to wedded bliss.
URL: http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2011/02/more-i-dos-less-to-dos-wedding-planning.html

[G] More “I do"s, less “to-do"s: wedding planning simplified

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 09:15 AM PST

Docs Blog: More "I do"s, less "to-do"s: wedding planning simplified

Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog and the Google Photos Blog

For many, your wedding day is one of the biggest, most momentous days of your life. The perfect dress, the right tuxedo, the proper shade of blue, the three-tier cake with chocolate fondant, and all of your closest family and friends—these are just a few of the many things you might think about for your special day. Although there's much to consider and a lot of work to do, the payoff is great: it's one of the happiest days of your life.

To help you plan this important day we've created wedding-specific templates in Google Sites, Google Docs and Picnik, and gathered tips and tricks for using these and other Google products at google.com/weddings. From wedding websites to save-the-date cards, these tools simplify wedding planning, letting you focus your time on the fun things—like tasting cakes!


We teamed up with renowned wedding planner Michelle Rago, who provided her insight and creativity to guide the designs you'll find on this new site. Michelle also shared her experience to provide tips and advice to keep your guests comfortable and you sane.


We're also hosting a wedding sweepstakes, so if you're getting married in the next year you can enter for a chance to win $25,000 towards your dream wedding (see Official Rules). Plus, Michelle Rago and her team will advise the winning couple on location, flowers, food and other design elements to create a day that is uniquely their own.

Visit google.com/weddings to start planning, or share the site with your favorite betrothed couple and help them on their way to wedded bliss.

Posted by: Lisa Conquergood, Senior Product Marketing Manager
URL: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/02/more-i-dos-less-to-dos-wedding-planning.html

[G] More “I do”s, less “to-do”s: wedding planning simplified

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 09:14 AM PST

Official Google Blog: More "I do"s, less "to-do"s: wedding planning simplified

(Cross-posted on the Google Docs Blog and the Google Photos Blog)

For many, your wedding day is one of the biggest, most momentous days of your life. The perfect dress, the right tuxedo, the proper shade of blue, the three-tier cake with chocolate fondant, and all of your closest family and friends—these are just a few of the many things you might think about for your special day. Although there's much to consider and a lot of work to do, the payoff is great: it's one of the happiest days of your life.

To help you plan this important day we've created wedding-specific templates in Google Sites, Google Docs and Picnik, and gathered tips and tricks for using these and other Google products at google.com/weddings. From wedding websites to save-the-date cards, these tools simplify wedding planning, letting you focus your time on the fun things—like tasting cakes!


We teamed up with renowned wedding planner Michelle Rago, who provided her insight and creativity to guide the designs you'll find on this new site. Michelle also shared her experience to provide tips and advice to keep your guests comfortable and you sane.


We're also hosting a wedding sweepstakes, so if you're getting married in the next year you can enter for a chance to win $25,000 towards your dream wedding (see Official Rules). Plus, Michelle Rago and her team will advise the winning couple on location, flowers, food and other design elements to create a day that is uniquely their own.

Visit google.com/weddings to start planning, or share the site with your favorite betrothed couple and help them on their way to wedded bliss.

Posted by Lisa Conquergood, Senior Product Marketing Manager
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/more-i-dos-less-to-dos-wedding-planning.html

[G] Advanced sign-in security for your Google account

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 08:38 AM PST

Official Google Blog: Advanced sign-in security for your Google account

Has anyone you know ever lost control of an email account and inadvertently sent spam—or worse—to their friends and family? There are plenty of examples (like the classic "Mugged in London" scam) that demonstrate why it's important to take steps to help secure your activities online. Your Gmail account, your photos, your private documents—if you reuse the same password on multiple sites and one of those sites gets hacked, or your password is conned out of you directly through a phishing scam, it can be used to access some of your most closely-held information.

Most of us are used to entrusting our information to a password, but we know that some of you are looking for something stronger. As we announced to our Google Apps customers a few months ago, we've developed an advanced opt-in security feature called 2-step verification that makes your Google Account significantly more secure by helping to verify that you're the real owner of your account. Now it's time to offer the same advanced protection to all of our users.

2-step verification requires two independent factors for authentication, much like you might see on your banking website: your password, plus a code obtained using your phone. Over the next few days, you'll see a new link on your Account Settings page that looks like this:


Take your time to carefully set up 2-step verification—we expect it may take up to 15 minutes to enroll. A user-friendly set-up wizard will guide you through the process, including setting up a backup phone and creating backup codes in case you lose access to your primary phone. Once you enable 2-step verification, you'll see an extra page that prompts you for a code when you sign in to your account. After entering your password, Google will call you with the code, send you an SMS message or give you the choice to generate the code for yourself using a mobile application on your Android, BlackBerry or iPhone device. The choice is up to you. When you enter this code after correctly submitting your password we'll have a pretty good idea that the person signing in is actually you.


It's an extra step, but it's one that significantly improves the security of your Google Account because it requires the powerful combination of both something you know—your username and password—and something that only you should have—your phone. A hacker would need access to both of these factors to gain access to your account. If you like, you can always choose a "Remember verification for this computer for 30 days" option, and you won't need to re-enter a code for another 30 days. You can also set up one-time application-specific passwords to sign in to your account from non-browser based applications that are designed to only ask for a password, and cannot prompt for the code.

To learn more about 2-step verification and get started, visit our Help Center. And for more about staying safe online, see our ongoing security blog series or visit http://www.staysafeonline.org/. Be safe!

Posted by Nishit Shah, Product Manager, Google Security
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/advanced-sign-in-security-for-your.html

[G] Advanced security protection for your Google Account

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 08:38 AM PST

Google Public Policy Blog: Advanced security protection for your Google Account

Posted by Harry Wingo, Policy Counsel

From encrypted search to security alerts in Gmail, we're always looking at new ways to make your online experience more secure.

Building on that tradition, starting today we're offering an advanced sign-in security feature for Google Accounts called 2-step verification.

Most of us are familiar with 1-step verification, which requires a username and password to sign in. 2-step verification adds an extra layer of security to your Google Account by requiring two factors for authentication: your username and password, plus a unique code generated by your mobile phone.

It's an extra step, but it's one that significantly improves the security of your Google Account. Now, if someone steals or guesses your password, the potential hijacker still can't sign in to your account because he doesn't have your phone.

We first rolled out 2-step verification for our Google Apps customers last year, and now we're excited to bring the same advanced protection to all our users. To learn how to set up 2-step verification on your account, check out the Official Google Blog.
URL: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2011/02/advanced-security-protection-for-your.html

[G] City of Rochester Hills Goes Google to Save Servers, Dollars and Cents

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 06:12 AM PST

Official Google Enterprise Blog: City of Rochester Hills Goes Google to Save Servers, Dollars and Cents

Governments in 38 states have adopted Google Apps for Government. Today we'll hear from Kevin Krajewski, Deputy Director of MIS, and Rochelle Lyon, Systems Administrator for the City of Rochester Hills, Michigan.

Located in Oakland County, Michigan, Rochester Hills features a quality of life and a thriving commerce that few communities its size can match. The city features quality housing; award winning school districts; over 80 miles of linked pathways and a regional interlinking rails-to-trails system; and an abundance of cultural, historical, educational, medical and entertainment venues. Rochester Hills is situated in Automation Alley, Michigan's premier technology cluster, and one of ten SmartZones in Michigan.

Even with all of this going for us, we're no stranger to the budget issues facing governments everywhere. All city staff have been challenged by our Mayor and City Council to find ways to be more efficient and reduce operational costs. That's one of the reasons why we're so excited to go Google: Google Apps for Government will save us an estimated $50,000 over the next six years compared to upgrading and maintaining our Microsoft Exchange email system.

Google Apps also simplifies our IT infrastructure and reduces the support costs. We eliminated two servers and the associated operating system and application software. That translates into less equipment and software to patch and replace in the future, which makes our day-to-day maintenance less time consuming and our next network upgrade less complicated.

City employees benefit from easy access to the applications from anywhere they have an Internet connection. With a training portal built in Google Sites, staff can learn whenever and wherever they have the time. We expect to use Google Video in the near future to provide training and informational videos to staff allowing them to learn at their own pace.

Rochester Hills selected Onix Networking as our implementation partner. In order to keep the costs low, we did most of the implementation in-house, with Onix providing support during the process as needed. It took about three weeks last September to move all 200 employees to Google Apps and Postini for email filtering & archiving. We also trained our staff on the features of Google Apps and answered questions. Overall the transition went as smoothly as we had hoped it would.

After almost three months since going live on Google Apps for Government I can say that we are very happy with our decision move to the world of 100% web.


By Kevin Krajewski, Deputy Director of MIS, City of Rochester Hills, and Rochelle Lyon, Systems Administrator for the City of Rochester Hills

Posted by Wendy Wu, Google Apps for Government Team
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/02/city-of-rochester-hills-goes-google-to.html
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