Friday, June 3, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] Run Anywhere in the World With iFit Live Powered By Google Maps

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 02:58 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Run Anywhere in the World With iFit Live Powered By Google Maps

Posted by Natasha Wyatt, Google Earth and Maps Enterprise Team

Editor's note: From time to time we like to showcase how our customers are building fun and innovative products with Google Maps. Colleen Logan, VP of Marketing for Icon Health & Fitness, explains how a Google Maps API Premier powered treadmill helps exercisers reach personal fitness goals.

Most people use Google Maps for reasons of pure function: Where is that new restaurant? How do I get there? How long will it take? We thought Google Maps could be used for an entirely different purpose – as entertainment while working out on the NordicTrack home fitness equipment.

People buy fitness equipment for a range of reasons – train for a race, lose weight or simply stay in shape – but a universal challenge for most is staying motivated and finding the time to exercise. In order to reach their goals, more people are turning to technology for time-saving, motivating exercise. We thought the visuals provided by Google Maps, combined with our fitness products and iFit website might be so compelling, consumers would have more fun and stay on track. Even if the only time you can squeeze in exercise is in the evenings when kids are asleep in or in the early, snowy mornings of winter before a long day at work, the iFit exercise equipment can bring the experience of exercising on varied terrain into your home.



For example, if you wanted to experience a run through San Francisco's hilly terrain, you can go to the iFit website and draw a running route on Google Maps. When you get on one of our treadmills, such as the NordicTrack Elite 9500 Pro, the treadmill pulls up Google Maps on the screen with the newly drawn running route. The treadmill mimics the incline of the real world route you are running, thanks to the elevation service of the Google Maps API. The runner experiences a real life running route by seeing the runner's location move about Google Maps with Street View images flying by a she reaches new personal records.



To learn more about the Google Maps powered "smart fitness" treadmills visit the website of NordicTrack.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/06/run-anywhere-in-world-with-ifit-live.html

[G] Share your Google Docs product ideas with our team

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 02:58 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Share your Google Docs product ideas with our team

Posted by Teresa Wu, Community Manager

(Cross-posted from the Google Docs Blog.)

You make Google products what they are -- and the feedback you share with us every day helps shape the future of our products. We're always listening to your requests via blogs, Twitter, our forum, and other channels, and for the next two weeks, we're bringing back a more structured way to get your input on Google Docs by opening up our Product Ideas page.

On this page, you can submit your ideas, read other users' suggestions, and vote up your favorites. We'll use the top ideas to help us prioritize our development in the coming months. After the two-week period, we'll follow up with a blog post summarizing the results. While we may not work on all of the top ideas immediately, we'll let you know which of the ideas we're working on.

We hope you'll use this as an opportunity to help us prioritize the Google Docs features which are important to you -- for your business, in the classroom, or at home. Start submitting your ideas, big or small -- we look forward to hearing what you have to say!

Editors note: We're specifically looking to hear your Google Docs product ideas and suggestions. If you're seeking help, please post your support questions to the Help Forum. Off topic submissions may be removed.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/06/share-your-google-docs-product-ideas.html

[G] The curious guide to browsers and the web: now in 15 languages and open-sourced

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 12:37 AM PDT

Google Chrome Blog: The curious guide to browsers and the web: now in 15 languages and open-sourced

When we published the illustrated HTML5 web book, 20 Things I Learned about Browsers and the Web, late last year, we were excited by the positive response from teachers, web developers and many of you who shared in the joy of rediscovering how the web works.

Today, we've made this web book available in 15 languages, including Bahasa Indonesia, Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Spanish, and Tagalog. If you have family members and friends around the world who speak these languages, you can point them to the translated guidebook at www.20thingsilearned.com, where illustrator Christoph Niemann brings to life topics ranging from 什麼是網際網路？ ("What is the Internet?) to so schützen moderne browser vor malware und phishing ("How modern browsers protect you from malware and phishing") and otevřený zdrojový kód a prohlížeč ("Open source and browsers").



For those of you who want to tinker with the code and build your own web books, you can now dive into the HTML5, JavaScript and CSS used to build 20 Things I Learned with the fully open-sourced code. In developing this web experience, we took inspiration from the things we love about books and extended them to the world of bits and bytes with the capabilities of modern web technologies. We paid special attention to finding the right balance and weight in the cover and page flips; making the book available offline, easily searchable, as well as bookmarkable by allowing you to pick up where you previously left off; and implementing a "lights-off" mode to simulate reading with a flashlight under the covers.

20 Things I Learned was celebrated this year as an Official Honoree at the 15th Annual Webby Awards in the categories of Education, Best Visual Design (Function) and Best Practices. To learn more about the technical details behind some of the most-loved features of the book, see our post on the Google Code Blog.



We hope you'll continue to find this curious guide to browsers and the web useful and informative. 20 Things I Learned is best experienced in Chrome or any up-to-date, HTML5-compliant modern browser. For those of you who've previously read this web book, don't forget to hit refresh on your browser to see the new language options.


Posted by Cory Ferreria, Localization Lead and Min Li Chan, Product Marketing Manager
URL: http://chrome.blogspot.com/2011/06/curious-guide-to-browsers-and-web-now.html

[G] Practical steps towards a greener, energy-efficient cloud

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 03:37 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: Practical steps towards a greener, energy-efficient cloud

(Cross-posted from the European Public Policy Blog)

Data centers are very important to us—they're critical to the cloud services we deliver. Over the last 12 years, we've put a lot of effort into minimizing the amount of energy, water and other resources we use—because it makes financial sense, and because it's good for the environment too. That work means that today, we use half the energy of a typical industry data center.

Last week, we brought together more than 150 industry professionals in Zürich, Switzerland for our second conference on data center efficiency. Since our first conference two years ago in the U.S., the industry's come a long way, with large operators now very focused on energy efficiency.



With "free cooling" we can dramatically reduce energy consumption by using the local environment to cool servers, instead of energy-intensive chillers. In our data centers we use both air cooling and evaporative cooling—and we revealed the details of the seawater cooling system we've custom-engineered for our new data center in Hamina, Finland.



Google is lucky enough to have the resources and experts to continually improve efficiency. But around 70% of the world's data centers are operated by companies that probably don't.

That's why we shared five simple and low-cost steps that any company, large or small, can use. These include using plastic meat locker curtains to separate hot and cold air, or welding your own air-conditioning chimney out of cheap sheet metal. These techniques are proven to increase energy efficiency, reduce electricity consumption and improve environmental footprint.

We also announced that we're now participating in the European Commission's Code of Conduct for Data Centres, a framework for designing and operating data centers efficiently. It ties in closely with the way we build and run our facilities, and has a robust checklist of efficiency best practices that are well worth trying out.

The main take-away was that there is no magic in data center efficiency. With the right information and a bit of creativity, anyone can make their computing infrastructure efficient. If you operate a data center or server room, please visit our website and make use of the techniques we've outlined. Videos of all the presentations from the Summit will be available on the site next week.

Posted by Urs Hoelzle, Senior Vice President, Technical Infrastructure
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/practical-steps-towards-greener-energy.html

[G] The curious guide to browsers and the web: now in 15 languages and open-sourced

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 03:37 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: The curious guide to browsers and the web: now in 15 languages and open-sourced

When we published the illustrated HTML5 web book, 20 Things I Learned about Browsers and the Web, late last year, we were excited by the positive response from teachers, web developers and many of you who shared in the joy of rediscovering how the web works.

Today, we've made this web book available in 15 languages, including Bahasa Indonesia, Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Spanish, and Tagalog. If you have family members and friends around the world who speak these languages, you can point them to the translated guidebook at www.20thingsilearned.com, where illustrator Christoph Niemann brings to life topics ranging from 什麼是網際網路？ ("what is the Internet?) to so schützen moderne browser vor malware und phishing ("how modern browsers protect you from malware and phishing") and otevřený zdrojový kód a prohlížeč ("open source and browsers").


For those of you who want to tinker with the code and build your own web books, you can now dive into the HTML5, JavaScript and CSS used to build 20 Things I Learned with the fully open-sourced code. In developing this web experience, we took inspiration from the things we love about books and extended them to the world of bits and bytes with the capabilities of modern web technologies. We paid special attention to finding the right balance and weight in the cover and page flips; making the book available offline, easily searchable, as well as bookmarkable by allowing you to pick up where you previously left off; and implementing a "lights-off" mode to simulate reading with a flashlight under the covers.

20 Things I Learned was celebrated this year as an Official Honoree at the 15th Annual Webby Awards in the categories of Education, Best Visual Design (Function) and Best Practices. To learn more about the technical details behind some of the most-loved features of the book, see our post on the Google Code blog.


We hope you'll continue to find this curious guide to browsers and the web useful and informative. 20 Things I Learned is best experienced in Chrome or any up-to-date, HTML5-compliant modern browser. For those of you who've previously read this web book, don't forget to hit refresh on your browser to see the new language options.

Posted by Cory Ferreria, Localization Lead, Google Chrome Team
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/curious-guide-to-browsers-and-web-now.html

[G] Introducing schema.org: Search engines come together for a richer web

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 03:37 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: Introducing schema.org: Search engines come together for a richer web

(Cross-posted on the Inside Search Blog)

Today we're announcing schema.org, a new initiative from Google, Bing and Yahoo! to create and support a common vocabulary for structured data markup on web pages. With schema.org, site owners and developers can learn about structured data and improve how their sites appear in major search engines. The site aims to be a one stop resource for webmasters looking to add markup to their pages.

Search engines have been working independently to support structured markup for a few years now. We introduced rich snippets to Google search in 2009 to help people find better summaries of reviews and people, and since that time we've expanded to new kinds of rich snippets, including recipes and events. We've been thrilled to see content creators across the web—from stubhub.com to allrecipes.com—add markup to their pages, and today we're able to show rich snippets in search results more than 10 times as often as when we started two years ago.

We want to continue making the open web richer and more useful. We know that it takes time and effort for webmasters to add this markup to their pages, and adding markup is much harder if every search engine asks for data in a different way. That's why we've come together with other search engines to support a common set of schemas, just as we came together to support a common standard for sitemaps in 2006. With schema.org, site owners can improve how their sites appear in search results not only on Google, but on Bing, Yahoo! and potentially other search engines as well in the future.

In addition to consolidating the schemas for the categories we already support, schema.org also introduces schemas for more than a hundred new categories, including movies, music, organizations, TV shows, products, places and more. As webmasters add this markup to their sites, search engines can develop richer search experiences. With webmaster feedback, we'll be able to regularly publish new schemas for sites to use and, in turn, expand the list of queries with rich results. For webmasters who have already added microformats or RDFa currently supported by rich snippets, their sites will still appear with rich snippets on Google. You can learn more on our Webmaster Central Blog, Help Center and on schema.org.

Schema.org provides a wide variety of vocabularies webmasters can use to mark up their pages.

While this collaborative initiative is new, we draw heavily from the decades of work in the database and knowledge representation communities, from projects such as Jim Gray's SDSS Skyserver, Cyc and from ongoing efforts such as dbpedia.org and linked data. We feel privileged to build upon this great work.

We look forward to seeing structured markup continue to grow on the web, powering richer search results and new kinds of applications.

Posted by Ramanathan Guha, Google Fellow
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/introducing-schemaorg-search-engines.html

[G] The X Factor U.S. talent search comes to YouTube

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 01:08 PM PDT

YouTube Blog: The X Factor U.S. talent search comes to YouTube

Simon Cowell, the man who has made many an aspiring pop star's dream, is coming to YouTube in search of new talent.

Future singing superstars in the U.S. take note: you have one week, starting today until 11:59pm ET on June 9, to submit your X Factor audition video for a chance to compete on the show for a $5 million recording contract.



Here's the fine print. You can audition either as a solo artist or as a group, but you must keep your submission to two minutes or less and be sure to include a brief introduction (around 30 seconds) stating the name of your act and everyone in your group. Also, you must be living in the U.S. and all video submissions must have been created in the past two months, or you risk disqualification. Full rules and regulations can be found here.

If things go well, you could be performing in front of Simon Cowell, The X Factor judges and millions of viewers this Fall.

We know how much talent there is on YouTube — you've been showing us for years — and we're excited to be partnering with The X Factor to bring you more opportunities to shine.

Sara Pollack, Entertainment Marketing Lead, recently watched "3-Way (The Golden Rule) (feat. Justin Timberlake & Lady Gaga).


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/7YSU-sl6rig/x-factor-us-talent-search-comes-to.html

[G] Share your Google Docs product ideas with our team

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 09:11 AM PDT

Docs Blog: Share your Google Docs product ideas with our team

(Cross-posted to the Enterprise blog)

You make Google products what they are -- and the feedback you share with us every day helps shape the future of our products. We're always listening to your requests via blogs, Twitter, our forum, and other channels, and for the next two weeks, we're bringing back a more structured way to get your input by opening up our Product Ideas page.

On this page, you can submit your ideas, read other users' suggestions, and vote up your favorites. We'll use the top ideas to help us prioritize our development in the coming months. After the two-week period, we'll follow up with a blog post summarizing the results. While we may not work on all of the top ideas immediately, we'll let you know which of the ideas we're working on.

We hope you'll use this as an opportunity to help us prioritize the features that are important to you -- for your business, in the classroom, or at home. Start submitting your ideas, big or small -- we look forward to hearing what you have to say!

Note: We're specifically looking to hear your product ideas and suggestions. If you're seeking help, please post your support questions to the Help Forum. Off topic submissions may be removed.

Posted by: Teresa Wu, Community Manager
URL: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/06/share-your-google-docs-product-ideas.html

[G] YouTube and Creative Commons: raising the bar on user creativity

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 09:01 AM PDT

YouTube Blog: YouTube and Creative Commons: raising the bar on user creativity

Have you ever been in the process of creating a video and just needed that one perfect clip to make it pop? Maybe you were creating your own music video and needed an aerial video of Los Angeles at night to spice it up. Unless you had a helicopter, a pretty powerful camera and some fierce editing skills, this would have been a big challenge. Now, look no further than the Creative Commons library accessible through YouTube Video Editor to make this happen. Creative Commons provides a simple way to license and use creative works.

You can now access an ever-expanding library of Creative Commons videos to edit and incorporate into your own projects. To find a video, just search in the YouTube search bar or from within the YouTube Video Editor. We're working with organizations like C-SPAN, Public.Resource.org, Voice of America, Al Jazeera and others, so that over 10,000 Creative Commons videos are available for your creative use.

To get started, visit youtube.com/editor and select the CC tab:



Any video you create using Creative Commons content will automatically show the source videos' titles underneath the video player:



As part of the launch of Creative Commons licensing on YouTube, you'll also be able to mark any or all of your videos with the Creative Commons CC-BY license that lets others share and remix your work, so long as they give you credit. To mark your video with the Creative Commons license, select 'Creative Commons Attribution license' on the upload page or on the Video Description page:


You can learn more about Creative Commons on YouTube at our help center, and remember that all content must still follow the rules in our Copyright Center.

We're excited to see what you come up with!

Stace Peterson, Software Engineer, recently watched Conan - Acting Out The Oscar Noms: The Social Network


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/XLnpEVZ3ajc/youtube-and-creative-commons-raising.html

[G] Our plans to support modern browsers across Google Apps

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 06:36 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Our plans to support modern browsers across Google Apps

Posted by Venkat Panchapakesan, Vice President of Engineering

(Cross-posted on the Gmail Blog and Google Docs Blog.)

For web applications to spring even farther ahead of traditional software, our teams need to make use of new capabilities available in modern browsers. For example, desktop notifications for Gmail and drag-and-drop file upload in Google Docs require advanced browsers that support HTML5. Older browsers just don't have the chops to provide you with the same high-quality experience.

For this reason, soon Google Apps will only support modern browsers. Beginning August 1st, we'll support the current and prior major release of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari on a rolling basis. Each time a new version is released, we'll begin supporting the update and stop supporting the third-oldest version.

As of August 1st, we will discontinue support for the following browsers and their predecessors: Firefox 3.5, Internet Explorer 7, and Safari 3. In these older browsers you may have trouble using certain features in Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Docs and Google Sites, and eventually these apps may stop working entirely.

So if it's been a a while since your last update, we encourage you to get the latest version of your favorite browser. There are many to choose from:

As the world moves more to the web, these new browsers are more than just a modern convenience, they are a necessity for what the future holds.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/06/our-plans-to-support-modern-browsers.html

[G] Change Google Calendar’s default meeting length and more print options

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 06:36 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Change Google Calendar's default meeting length and more print options

Posted by Grace Kwak, Product Manager

(Cross-posted from the Gmail Blog.)

Today we're adding two features that make it easier to customize Google Calendar. First, you can now change your default event length from the standard 30 minute slot. If you frequently create 15 minute meetings, for example, you can now make 15 minutes the default length for all your events. This way, you don't need to click into the event page to change the duration every time.



You can change the default length of your events from the Calendar settings page. Next to the "Default meeting length" option, choose the length you'd like from the drop-down menu on the right. From there, you can also enable "Speedy meetings," which automatically shortens events that are 30 minutes or longer to allow you to prep for your next meeting or get to your next appointment if you have a packed schedule.



Second, for those of you who still prefer paper and print your calendar, you can now select a specific date range in the print dialog box. Google Calendar will automatically format your printout for the date range you choose.



We hope you find these new customization options useful. Let us know what you think in the Google Calendar Help Forum.

Editors note: These features are currently launching to all Rapid Release Google Apps accounts.

URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/06/change-google-calendars-default-meeting.html

[G] Updating the Maps of France, Monaco, and Luxembourg

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 06:36 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Updating the Maps of France, Monaco, and Luxembourg

Natasha Wyatt, Google Earth and Maps Enterprise Team

Today we announced changes to the data that powers Google Maps API Premier in France, Monaco and Luxembourg. We've already started using data from a variety of authoritative sources in the United States, Canada, and in Europe, Africa and the Pacific.

The new base maps will have greater features such as expanded geocoding coverage, more detailed bodies of water, university campuses and postal code coverage – all leading to better, more accurate maps for your employees and customers. As Google Enterprise customers, you can also now share direct feedback about our maps in these areas by using the "Report a Problem" tool in the lower right corner of the map – leading to quicker updates overall. We highly recommended that you re-geocode all of your data to take advantage of the new updated data.

Learn more about the Google Maps API Premier at google.com/enterprise/maps.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/05/updating-maps-of-france-monaco-and.html

[G] Introducing the people widget

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 06:36 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Introducing the people widget

Posted by Zohair Hyder, Software Engineer

(Cross-posted on the Official Gmail Blog)

Email is just as much about the people you communicate with as it is what you communicate about. We think it can be helpful to view relevant information in context, which is why over the next two weeks we're rolling out a new people widget located on the right hand side of your messages. The people widget surfaces content from colleagues and friends that is already available to you but may be hard to find and makes it easier to connect with them.




Next to every email message you can now see contextual information about the people in that conversation including recent emails you received from them, shared documents and calendar events. You also have quick access to a variety of ways to communicate with individuals, start a group chat or schedule a meeting with groups of people.


We hope the people widget will improve your Gmail experience and we're eager for you to try it out.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/05/introducing-people-widget.html

[G] Live Webinar: Introduction to Google Earth Builder

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 06:36 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Live Webinar: Introduction to Google Earth Builder

Natasha Wyatt, Product Marketing Manager, Google Earth and Maps Enterprise

Join the Google Earth and Maps Enterprise team on Thursday, May 26th at 9:00AM PST for an introduction to Google Earth Builder. Launched last month, Google Earth Builder is Google's cloud-based mapping platform. It is designed for organizations that own, license or manage large amounts of geospatial data. The product is particularly well-suited for those needing to get data out of the GIS department and into the hands of employees, constituents and the public at large.

During the webinar, we will review the workflow and intuitive user interface of Google Earth Builder. We'll show you how easy it is to store and manage your geospatial data, including publishing it to the end users.

What: Introduction to Google Earth Builder Webinar
When: Thursday, May 26th, 2011 9:00AM PST

Click here to register. We hope to see you there.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/05/live-webinar-introduction-to-google.html

[G] Another step in the browser-based desktop revolution

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 06:36 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Another step in the browser-based desktop revolution

Posted by Rajen Sheth, Group Product Manager, Chrome for Business

Two weeks ago at Google I/O, we unveiled the first Chromebooks, a new kind of computer built and optimized for people who live on the web. Chromebooks are fast, secure and easy to manage. With a monthly subscription that includes a Chromebook, a web-based management console and 24/7 support starting at $28 for businesses and $20 for schools, Chromebooks will delight users, reduce IT complexity and save money.

The best part is: most organizations can use Chromebooks today because they're already using web-based applications, or they're using browser-based apps and virtualization technology to remotely access any remaining desktop apps. In fact, a recent survey we commissioned found that two-thirds of companies could switch the majority of their employees to an exclusively browser-based computing environment like Chromebooks by using a combination of web apps and application virtualization.1 To this end, we've worked closely with Citrix to bring application virtualization to Chromebooks.

Today we're excited that Citrix has announced Citrix Receiver for Chromebooks, based on HTML5 standards - coming soon to the Chrome Web Store. This is great news for businesses and schools that want to take advantage of a modern browser-based operating system while preserving access to their existing desktop applications. At I/O for instance, we demonstrated Citrix Receiver running on Chromebooks and accessing a virtualized version of Adobe® Photoshop® right from the browser.

Now Chromebook users can not only access the huge number of business web apps and browser-based applications behind the firewall, but through Citrix Receiver they can also access an exhaustive set of desktop applications. This means that organizations don't have to repurchase or rewrite existing applications when moving to Chromebooks, and they can offer Chromebooks to a wider range of users. We're working to make the browser the platform for business computing, and we're happy to be collaborating with Citrix on this transformation. Learn more about Chromebooks.


1Google-commissioned 2011 Hall & Partners online survey of over 400 IT decision makers.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/05/another-step-in-browser-based-desktop.html

[G] HealthWarehouse.com delivers healthy growth with Google Commerce Search

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 06:36 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: HealthWarehouse.com delivers healthy growth with Google Commerce Search

Posted by Marston Alfred, Director of E-commerce, HealthWarehouse

Editors note: HealthWarehouse.com is America's largest and fastest growing, accredited online pharmacy, which boasts an inventory of over 4,000 unique prescription drugs. The company was recently featured in Consumer Reports as one of the top drugstores in the United States. We've invited today's guest blogger, Marston Alfred, Director of E-commerce at HealthWarehouse.com, to share why HealthWarehouse implemented Google Commerce Search. To read more, download the case study.

HealthWarehouse isn't your typical pharmacy. Instead of physical stores, we rely on a website where we sell and ship medications to tens of thousands of customers throughout the country. And while an online-only presence allows us to save on typical infrastructure and personnel costs, it also presents some unique challenges.

From the beginning, implementing quality e-commerce search was critical to our business. Medication names are complicated and difficult for pharmacists to spell – let alone the consumer (amlodipine benazepril as an example) – so it's necessary that we have a search and navigation experience that can interpret customer intent as well as a pharmacist could. But as we quickly found, e-commerce search can be very complicated.

To tackle the search problem we evaluated several third-party e-commerce solutions, but these providers would have required us to manually register thousands of common medication misspellings and synonyms – which wasn't feasible or scalable, and would have required constant fine-tuning. Providing relevant results for our audience was also an issue. In search, our customers demand the expertise and intuition of a pharmacist, and you can imagine how this would be difficult to provide without reams of historical data related to medicine and our business. Enter Google.

Google Commerce Search utilizes the same underlying spellchecker and thesaurus of Google.com (tried and tested on over one billion queries across every imaginable category each day) to automate the display of results on retail websites. Google Commerce Search uses these signals to provide a search and discovery solution that performs phenomenally out-of-the-box, and only gets better the more people use it.

We implemented Google Commerce Search, and results for complicated prescription names were instantly more accurate, providing a 40% decrease in call-center volume (literally overnight). Clearly, visitors are now finding and discovering products much better on their own. In line with this unexpected drop in customer support calls, actual searches increased 85%, unique visitors and page views doubled, and conversions rose 19%. Search became a much more valuable component of our website.

Switching to Google Commerce Search not only increased our revenues, but also allowed us to focus and scale our core business (which, believe it or not is affordable medication and not IT). More importantly, Google's search and navigation solution has significantly improved product discovery, putting affordable medication into the hands of more people.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/05/healthwarehousecom-delivers-healthy.html

[G] Directski.com goes Google

Posted: 02 Jun 2011 06:36 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Directski.com goes Google

Posted by Ronan Hughes, CTO at Directski.com

Editor's Note: Next up, we'd like to welcome Ronan Hughes, Chief Technical Officer at Directski.com, a web based travel company based in Dublin. Directski.com migrated to Google Apps six months ago with the help of Google Apps Authorized Reseller, Baker Security & Networks. Learn more about other organizations that have gone Google on our community map or test drive life in the cloud with the Go Google Cloud Calculator.

Directski.com have been in business for over ten years, with a mission to make ski holidays more affordable for all. As a 100% web based company, Directski.com doesn't have glossy brochures, expensive middlemen, high street shops or call centers. We've developed a market leading website that has been designed specifically for the sale of ski holidays. We have 30 full time employees and large numbers of seasonal staff that provide ski packages to over 200 European ski destinations.

Effective use of technology has been a key driver and cornerstone of our success. For example, we have used open source products to provide us with scalable, flexible and secure IT systems that have allowed us to grow rapidly but in a cost effective and pragmatic manner. We are always thinking about how technology can simplify and enhance our business processes so that we continually live up to our mission of helping our customers to "ski for less."

Recently we examined how cloud computing could help us keep this advantage over our competitors. One product that quickly caught our attention was Google Apps and we implemented it across our organisation. The migration to Google Apps was seamless and our employees love it. It's a huge improvement on our old system and it simply takes care of itself. Our employees find it very intuitive and the combination of Gmail, video sharing, chat and Google Docs allows for great team collaboration across our 5 offices.

Google Apps has numerous advantages for us; it has helped us control our costs, allowing us to focus on the core IT projects that will will add value for our customers, and, in turn, for our business. It is easy to use and offers cutting-edge functionality. Required training is minimal which is very important to us given the large number of seasonal staff we employ. Being a fast-paced, nimble travel company, accessibility is of paramount importance to our team and Google Apps provides this for us.

We're so impressed with our migration to Google Apps that we've put together a quick video to tell you more! We would recommend Google Apps to any faced paced, innovative company.



URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/05/directskicom-goes-google.html
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