Thursday, February 11, 2010

Latest from Google Apps Team

Product Updates:

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If you'd like to be notified about product updates right as they happen, you can get alerts by email. To subscribe, visit http://www.google.com/apps/admin-updates.
Upload any file to Google Docs
We launched a upload any file feature that allows users the ability to upload, store and organize any type of file in Google Docs. we are rolling out the ability for Google Apps users to easily upload and securely share any type of file internally and externally using Google Docs. You get 1 GB of storage per user, and you can upload files up to 1 GB in size

You can also use the Google Documents List Data API to upload files to Google Docs in batch, or purchase applications offered by third parties that enable you to migrate and sync your files to Google Docs:
  • Memeo Connect for Google Apps is a new desktop application that offers an easy way to access, migrate, and synchronize files to Google Docs across multiple computers. (PC and Mac)
  • Syncplicity allows Google Apps users to synchronize, manage, and backup files across desktops and servers, making it easy to use Google Docs seamlessly with existing applications and files. (PC)
  • Manymoon is an online project management platform that makes it simple to organize and share tasks and documents with coworkers and partners, including uploading files to Google Docs.
We're always looking for ways to make it easier for you to access and organize your information online and we hope you find the ability to store, share, and collaborate on files in Google Docs helpful. In the coming months, we will enable Google Apps Premier Edition customers to purchase additional storage for $3.50/GB/yr (or €3.00/gb/yr in the EU).

Thumbnail view and spelling correction for Google Docs

We have added a new view option to your Documents List: thumbnail view. While the standard "list view" displays the item title and information like sharing state, the thumbnail view displays small previews of your files. We generate thumbnails for all Google Docs types and most common files (photos, PDFs, etc). You can toggle between the two using new buttons on the top right of the toolbar.

When combined with Search by Relevance, the thumbnail view makes it really easy to find the file you're looking for.
And for all us spelling-challenged and typo-prone folks, we added spelling correction in search. Never again will you need to wonder how your search for "agedna" (agenda) came up with zero results. :-)
Co-editor presence in Presentations
When you're co-editing in real-time, knowing where collaborators are making changes helps you avoid stepping on each other's toes. We already have visual indicators for co-editor presence in documents and spreadsheets, and now presentations sports this feature too. You can see which slides others are working on, and if you're editing the same slide together, colored indicators make it clear which text box, shape or other element they're modifying.
Default https access for Gmail
In the past, you had the option to always use https encryption in Gmail to help protect your data as it travels between your browser and our servers. After evaluating the trade-offs between security and latency, as of last week encryption is now the default in Gmail.

If you trust your network's security and want to disable always-on https for performance reasons, you can change your preferences in Gmail settings. Employees and students whose admins have not already defaulted their entire organizations to https will also see this option. The Gmail sign-in page will still always use https to help keep your password safe.
Easier duplicate contact merging
Over time, as friends and coworkers send you messages from different email addresses, your Gmail contact list can accumulate duplicate contacts. We recently made it easier to find and merge these duplicates. To get started, just just click the 'Find duplicates' button in the contact manager. Cleaning up your contact list is especially helpful if you sync your Gmail contacts with your phone.

Google Apps on Nexus One
Speaking of mobile phones, the new Nexus One Android device is a great way to take Google Apps with you everywhere. Nexus One not only syncs with multiple Gmail accounts, but it also syncs your contacts, with Google Calendar and with Picasa Web Albums. Nexus One lets you instant message using Google Talk and access voicemail — including handy message transcriptions — with the Google Voice app.

Automatic page translation in Google Sites
Building the same website in multiple languages is lots of work, even if you're multi-lingual. Withautomatic translation in Google Sites, sharing information with people who don't speak your language is much easier. Just create your site in your native language, and visitors can instantly translate your site into any one of 51 languages that they're more familiar with.

Administration tips

Deploying Google AppsHas your company, school or organization decided to "go Google" — but not yet fully "gone?" Perhaps you'd like more guidance on the technical, marketing or training details? Or maybe you could use some resources to help you deploy? Making the decision to go Google can be the easiest part, but we realize that it sometimes takes a little boost to finish the process, which is where we come in.
Our Google Apps Deployment team has assisted hundreds of organizations — large and small — make the switch to Google Apps. To ensure that your implementation is a success, we've developed step-by-step tools to guide you through the process, and best practices to make your transition as smooth and easy as possible. Here are some of the resources you can explore when going Google.

How are other customers going Google?

Learn how Fairchild Semiconductor, a $1.6 billion chipmaker, migrated 6,000+ users in 40 countries from Lotus/Domino to Google Apps as described by Senior Director of IT, Barry Driscoll.
Learn how Sanmina-SCI's IT team recently completed a phased migration for 15,000 email users to replace Microsoft Exchange as described by Elliot Tally, Director of IT Collaboration and Automation for Sanmina-SCI
Email Preferences: We sent you this email because you indicated that you would like to receive email notifications about Google Apps. To change your preferences, access your Google App's control panel (http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html - sign in required), click 'Domain Settings,' and then 'Account information'. Remove the check besides 'Email Notifications,' and click 'Save Changes.' 

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Mobile Device control and email message tracking

Google has releases significant updates the Google Apps and Message Security space.  Long awaited and a value add to the Google Apps communities.


Posted: 05 Feb 2010 02:07 AM PST

Message Security for Google Apps, powered by Postini, now provides Message Log Search. This provides administrators with visibility into how messages are processed, filtered and delivered, and insight in the traffic patterns for the domain.

Use Message Log Search to:
- Run searches on message log data using a variety of criteria and queries.
- View search results and details about groups or individual messages.
- Track what happened to an inbound or outbound message -- whether it was delivered, quarantined, archived, encrypted, or other disposition -- and see if the message triggered a specific filter.
- Track all messages for a specific sender, recipient, domain, or IP address.

Editions included:
Premier and qualifying Education Editions

Languages included:
English Only

How to access what's new:
- Log in to the Message Security Administration Console, and click the Log Search tab.
- From the Log Search page, you can run queries and view results.

For more information:
Message Security for Google Apps Administration Guide

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Posted: 05 Feb 2010 01:43 AM PST

New mobile device management capabilities have been released that allow administrators to:

- Remotely wipe all data from lost or stolen mobile devices.
- Lock idle devices after a period of inactivity.
- Require a device password on each phone.
- Set minimum lengths for more secure passwords.
- Require passwords to include letters, numbers and punctuation.

Editions included:
Premier and Education Editions

Languages included:
US English Only

How to access what's new:
- In the Google Apps Administrator Control Panel, go to 'Service Settings', then 'Mobile' to access the new options.
- Once your users start synching their devices with Google Apps, you can view, manage, or delete the device data remotely (remote wipe) from the user account page in the Control Panel. 

Monday, February 1, 2010

Here's the Latest from the Google for Non-Profits team


Google for Non-Profits Newsletter - January, 2010
We hope you enjoy this month's update from the Google for Non-Profits team. A reminder that you can find and search all of the old newsletters and other emails sent to this list at the Google group site. Also, please be sure to join the googlefornonprofits-discuss group. This group offers an email forum for members to ask and answer questions about Google tools for non-profits.

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Google Apps: browser changes, import old email
Upload any file to Google Docs
Expanding the Google Earth Outreach program to Africa
Google's privacy principles
Google Grants webinar recap
Google Voice: updates and stories
Knowing your organization's online presence

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Google Apps: browser changes, import old email

Modern browsers for modern applications - Google apps users: Google Docs and Sites will no longer work in IE6 and other older browsers after March 1st. The change is part of a plan to integrate new features into the products that will only work on modern browsers. If you are using IE 6, take this opportunity to upgrade to a newer version of the browser or visit www.whatbrowser.org to learn about the differences between the browsers that are out there.

Upload email to Google Apps - For those using Google Apps on a mac, you may have old emails stored on your computer that you have been unable to sync with your Google email...until now. The new Google Email Uploader for Mac is a free application that moves archives from Apple Mail, Eudora and Thunderbird to your Google Apps email account.

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Upload any file to Google Docs

Upload and Store any File using Google Docs - Google Docs recently enabled all accounts to be able to upload and store any file online using Google Docs. Now you can put your extra online storage space to use by keeping all of your important files stored in the cloud for easy access, wherever you may be. 

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Expanding the Google Earth Outreach program to Africa

Getting African NGOs on the Map - The Google Earth Outreach team announced that qualifying NGOs from almost all African countries now have access to the premier versions of Google Earth, Google Maps and SketchUp for free. Click the link above to learn more and see some exciting use cases of organizations putting these tools to work.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Latest Updates on Google Apps

Thumbnail view, Spelling correction and new Maximum File Size in Google Docs
Posted: 26 Jan 2010 10:56 PM PST

The following new features have been released in Google Docs:
- Thumbnail view in the Docs List which allows you to preview your Docs.
- Spelling correction when searching for a doc.
- Upload any file limit increased from 250MB to 1GB.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs

How to access what's new:
- Thumbnail view: This option is shown in the Docs List as a new button beside the view options in the top right.
- If you make a mistake when typing the search query for a document, you'll now get a suggestion for the correct word.
- When you upload any type of file that isn't being converted to a Google Document, the individual file limit is now 1GB.

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/01/thumbnail-is-worth-about-one-hundred.html

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New Google Sites Data API Features
Posted: 26 Jan 2010 10:36 PM PST

Create and share Google Sites using the Data API.

- The Site feed now allows you to list, update and create sites. It also allows you to copy sites and site templates.
- The ACL (Access Control List) feed allows you to manage permissions. Everything that you are able to do in the sharing settings for a site, you can now do with the API.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Here is the latest for Priemer Google Apps Users - Upload file types

As always, great news from Google and an addition to the Google Docs platform. Users will soon be able to upload any type of file their respective Google Docs space. Here is the release from Google.


New update information


Documents List API: Upload any file and more
Upload any type of file to the cloud with Google Docs
Update to the Google Apps Connector for Blackberry Enterprise Services released
Documents List API: Upload any file and more
Posted: 12 Jan 2010 01:53 PM PST

You will soon be able to upload any type of file to Google Docs using the Documents List API as well as some other improvements.

Upload any file type:
- Premier Edition only.
- Individual file size limit of 250MB.
- Ability to upload any type of file.
- 1GB storage limit for files you upload that are not converted to Google Docs format (i.e. Google documents, spreadsheets and presentations).

Other Features:
- Copy a document: Make a duplicate of a document.
- Publishing documents: Programmatically publish a document to the world.
- Change the owner of a document: Additional functionality to now also change the 'owner' of a document.
- Resumable uploads: Ability to pause/resume and upload which is useful for large file sizes.

Editions included:
Upload any file type: Premier Edition only
Other Features: Standard, Premier, Education and Partner Editions

How to access what's new:
http://code.google.com/apis/documents/overview.html
Note: The ability to upload any file type will be rolled out over the next few weeks.

For more information:
http://googlecode.blogspot.com/2010/01/documents-list-api-upload-any-file-type.html

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Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates


Upload any type of file to the cloud with Google Docs
Posted: 12 Jan 2010 12:37 PM PST

You will shortly have the ability to upload, store and organize any type of file in Google Docs.

Main features:
- Individual file size limit of 250MB.
- Ability to upload files such as CAD, HTML, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, RAW photos, ZIP or RAR archives.
- 1GB storage limit for files you upload that are not converted to Google Docs format (i.e. Google documents, spreadsheets and presentations).

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs

How to access what's new:
This feature will be rolled out to all domains gradually over the next few weeks.
To upload a file, simply click on the 'Upload' button just as if you were uploading a file into Docs as before and select the file to upload.

Premier Edition Only:
Premier Edition users can also use the Google Docs List API to upload files to Google Docs, or purchase applications offered by third parties that enable you to migrate and sync your files to Google Docs. More information about these applications in the blog post below.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

OffiSync - Powerful collaboarations tool.

Here's a great add-on to the Google Apps suite of tools. Closely integrating Google apps and Microsoft Office versions.  It further integrates to sharing files on Google Sites.

Take a look at this video for details.



Cheers,
Peter

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Here's the latest from the Google for non-profits.


As always, the Google Grants program is a must have for all non-profits.  If you are not already a qualified recipient, let me know and I will assist in you becoming qualified.  Cheers, PR

Google for Non-Profits Newsletter - December, 2009

Sorry for the delay! We hope you enjoy this month's update from the Google for Non-Profits team. A reminder that you can find and search all of the old newsletters and other emails sent to this list at the Google group site. Also, please be sure to join the googlefornonprofits-discuss group. This group offers an email forum for members to ask and answer questions about Google tools for non-profits.

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The year in review
Google Apps - tips for deployment and new features
Google Checkout for non-profits update
Improving your web presence
Picasa collaborative albums update
Google Grants - community and help resources
Cool new products

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The year in review

The end of 2009 saw many Google blog posts summarizing major accomplishments and the most exciting features released in the last 12 months. Be sure to check out the following posts to brush up on your product knowledge and catch some useful features you may have missed: Google Docs and Sites: 2009 in Review, Google Grants, Analytics, Youtube blog and YouTube top 10 launches, official Google blog, and Google Apps.

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Google Apps - tips for deployment and new features

The Google Apps deployment team has created a step-by-step guide to help make the transition to Google Apps for your organization as smooth as possible. Learn more about how to make the transition quick and seamless here.

Google Apps users can now create and manage Google Groups to help make sharing and collaboration much easier within their organizations. Click here to learn more.

You can now quickly clean up your entire address book by eliminating duplicate contacts. Simply click the new "find duplicates" button in Gmail. More details can be found here.

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Google Checkout for non-profits update

The Google Checkout for non-profits program, which offers free donation processing for Google Grantees using checkout, has been extended until January 1, 2011. Click here to learn more about how to take advantage of this program if you are already a Google Grantee. If your organization is not using Google Grants, visit this site to learn more and submit an application. 
 
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Improving your web presence

The new search-based keyword tool helps you discover keywords relevant to your website that are not yet included in your adwords campaign.

Browser size is a new tool to help you understand how users on different computers will see your website. This can be a huge help in making sure that all of the important information you want your visitors to see is visible on their computer screens when they first arrive at your site.

Google Analytics has added a new annotations feature. Using this new feature you can annotate the information in Google Analytics to help answer questions like: Was that dip in traffic because the servers went down? When did the new display ads campaign launch? Instead of tracking down people from the rest of the organization to get the answers, you can use the annotations feature to make sure that everyone has all of the information on what factors are influencing site traffic and user behavior. Click here to learn more.

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Picasa collaborative albums update

Back in August we shared a new feature of Picasa Web Albums that allows users to collaborate with one another in shared albums. While this feature was a great boon to many non-profits and other organizations, some people were frustrated by the limited number of photos an individual could upload using the site. The new version of Picasa now allows users to add photos to shared albums from the desktop application, making the process much faster and easier. Learn more about Picasa 3.6 with collaborative albums here.

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Google Grants - community and help resources

Review all of the ways you can get help to make the most of your Google AdWords account and maybe even discover some new features in the Google Grants support wrap-up.

Learn how some non-profits are recruiting volunteers using new technology and coming up with new strategies for fundraising in the December Google Grants resource round-up.

Learn the basics on how to use Google Grants and AdWords in the Google Grants webinar recap. 

Refresh your memory and learn more about the great and growing support resources such as the Google Grants workshop, Google Grants YouTube channel, online discussion forum, webinars, conferences and blog in Google Grants: building a community of Grantees.

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Cool new products

Introducing Nexus One: Yesterday Google announced the release of it's newest phone, which includes: voice-enabled keyboard, one-touch youtube recording, turn-by-turn navigation and more.  You can also see a demo at www.google.com/phone

Earth Engine. A new product that was unveiled at COP15 in Copenhagen will help researchers more easily find and analyze changes to the earth such as deforestation. This product is still being built and is not yet available, but you can learn more about it here.

PC users have been enjoying the speed and functionality of Google Chrome for over a year. The Mac version has now been released in beta. Learn more and try it for yourself here.

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That's it for this month's newsletter. As always, please send any suggestions for the newsletter or the Google for Non-Profits site our way.

Have a great week!

Jay from the Google for Non-Profits team