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- [G] Golf Town tees off collaboration with help from Google Apps
- [G] Google Currents goes international
- [G] Toward a simpler, more beautiful Google
| [G] Golf Town tees off collaboration with help from Google Apps Posted: 11 Apr 2012 03:38 PM PDT Official Google Enterprise Blog: Golf Town tees off collaboration with help from Google AppsEditors note: Today's guest blogger is John Hur, Director of Information Technology at Golf Town, a destination for everything golf headquartered in Ontario, Canada. See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say. At Golf Town, we're all about the game. From footwear and apparel to clubs, bags and balls, we supply everything golfers need to play their best. Since we opened our doors in 1999, we've grown to over 60 stores and over 1000 employees across the U.S. and Canada. We've grown quickly, adding up to seven stores a year, and it became increasingly difficult to keep our employees connected to each other and the company. We needed to give our team a better way to communicate and collaborate across multiple stores so things didn't start to slip through the cracks. In 2009 we started to look at moving our email, documents and calendar to a better platform. We looked at Microsoft® Exchange and Google Apps, and found that Google Apps was more affordable and provided us with the best set of tools to improve communication and collaboration. Now that we've switched to Google Apps, we're able to see each other's availability through Google Calendar and keep each other in sync with group calendars. For example, The marketing team has implemented a calendar that shows which advertisements are running at each store location and their duration. The calendar is shared with floor managers so they can be prepared to answer customer questions and honor any promotions. Docs also helps regional managers streamline important daily processes. Each day, our regional managers compile sales reports from all of their individual store managers. Instead of compiling attachments sent from each store manager, regional managers can use one Google document to collect information quickly and easily. Plus, since Google Apps is web-based, employees can access this information from their Android mobile devices. This saves hours of time and energy each week, and it's just one of many processes that are simpler and easier with Google Docs. For us, Google Apps has been a hole in one. My IT team no longer needs to focus on supporting e-mail because everything is accessible via the web and Gmail is so intuitive. In fact, our support requests for email have gone down by over 95 percent. And, employees are happy because they can get to their information from anywhere and easily collaborate with their co-workers. Google Apps provides the tools that help our growing business run more efficiently. We're excited to have Google help us prepare for our next 60 stores.  URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2012/04/golf-town-tees-off-collaboration-with.html       |
| [G] Google Currents goes international Posted: 11 Apr 2012 03:38 PM PDT Official Google Mobile Blog: Google Currents goes internationalIn December we launched Google Currents, an app for Android and iOS devices that lets you explore online magazines and other content with the swipe of a finger. We're thrilled by how many readers and publishers are using the app in the U.S. -- nearly 400 publisher editions and over 14,000 self-produced editions are now available. After the U.S. launch, the top features readers requested were to make the app available internationally and to allow content to sync quickly. We've heard you, and today we're making Google Currents 1.1 available around the world. Hundreds of U.S. editions are now readable in your preferred language with a new publisher-selected translation feature, and local publishers can begin adding their content to the catalog through Google Currents Producer. Plus, a new dynamic sync feature improves your reading experience with fresh content wherever you are. Whatever you're interested in -- whether it's science (Popular Science, Scientific American, Space.com), sports (Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, Surfer), business (Harvard Business Review, Inc.), celebrities (Celebuzz, HollywoodLife, Now magazine, TMZ), health & wellness (Men's Health, Yoga Journal), design (Colossal, Dwell) or news (The Atlantic, PRI, Slate) -- it's easy to find a great edition to read in Google Currents. Read in more places With this update, we've made Google Currents available globally, wherever apps are available on Google Play and the Apple App Store. International publishers, using Google Currents Producer, can now begin adding local content for an international audience, choosing where to make it available globally and whether to enable auto-translation. For example The Guardian in the UK, LaStampa in Italy, Financial Times Deutschland in Germany, ABC News in Australia, Neue Zürcher Zeitung in Switzerland and Hindustan Times in India have already started publishing editions with local content. Readers can also add their favorite local blogs which are instantly converted into Currents editions.
Read in your favorite language To help you enjoy content in your preferred language, we've integrated Google Translate into Google Currents. Just press the globe icon while reading an edition, and you can automatically translate that edition to one of 38 supported languages. So it's easier than ever to keep up with Italian and German sports (Corriere dello Sport, kicker.de), or read Scientific American, in your preferred language.
Read fresh content, automatically With our new dynamic sync feature, you'll always have fresh content to read. As you open each edition, new content is dynamically delivered, using a minimum of your phone or tablet's battery, bandwidth and storage. Those of you who travel on planes and trains can choose which editions you would like fully packaged for offline reading, including images. Learn more about what's new in Currents here. Google Currents is now available for download on Google Play and in the Apple App Store, wherever apps are available. Whether you're a reader or a publisher, we hope that Google Currents helps you easily experience the best content on the web, now in even more languages. Posted by Mussie Shore, Product Manager  URL: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2012/04/google-currents-goes-international.html   |
| [G] Toward a simpler, more beautiful Google Posted: 11 Apr 2012 03:38 PM PDT Official Google Blog: Toward a simpler, more beautiful GoogleMore than 170 million people have upgraded to Google+, enjoying new ways to share in Search, Gmail, YouTube and lots of other places. It's still early days, and there's plenty left to do, but we're more excited than ever to build a seamless social experience, all across Google.A critical piece of this social layer is a design that grows alongside our aspirations. So today we're introducing a more functional and flexible version of Google+. We think you'll find it easier to use and nicer to look at, but most importantly, it accelerates our efforts to create a simpler, more beautiful Google. Navigation you can make your own One of the first things you'll notice is a new way to get around the stream. Instead of static icons at the top, there's a dynamic ribbon of applications on the left. This approach comes with lots of perks, but some of our favorites include:
Taken together, these powers make it easier to access your favorites, and to adjust your preferences over time. We've also built the ribbon with the future in mind, giving us an obvious (and clutter-free) space for The Next Big Feature, and The Feature After That. So stay tuned. Conversations you'll really care about Once you've upgraded to Google+, it's easy to share with your circles from just about anywhere. We're dreaming bigger, though. We're aiming for an experience that fuses utility with beauty—one that inspires you to connect with others, and cherish the conversations that unfold. Today's update is an important step in this direction, including:
Simply put, we're hoping to make sharing more awesome by making it more evocative. You know that feeling you get when a piece of art takes your breath away, or when a friend stops by with unexpected gifts? We want sharing to feel like that, every single time. A new home for hanging out Google+ Hangouts uses live video to bring people together, and the results range from heartwarming to breathtaking to music-making. Today we're adding a dedicated Hangouts page that creates even more opportunities to connect in person, including:
By highlighting all the hangouts you can join, all over the world, it's now easier to spend time together—even be there for each other. And with efforts like hangout apps already underway, you can expect more hangouts in more places in the future. Getting there from here Today's Google+ update extends beyond navigation, the stream and hangouts. For instance: there's a new Explore page that shows what's interesting and trending across the network. And a new profile with much bigger photos. And a new chat list that puts your friends front and center. And a whole lot more. We're rolling out all of these improvements over the next few days, so please check back if you don't see them yet. In the meantime, you can visit this overview to learn more. By focusing on you, the people you care about, and the stuff you're into, we're going to continue upgrading all the features you already know and love—from Search and Maps to Gmail and YouTube. With today's foundational changes we can move even faster—toward a simpler, more beautiful Google. Posted by Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President  URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/toward-simpler-more-beautiful-google.html   |
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