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Google Apps highlights – 6/10/2011
June 10, 2011
This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label “
Google Apps highlights
" and subscribe to the series. - Ed.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve made it easier to see recent interactions you’ve had with people in Gmail, added a set of customization options to Google Calendar and streamlined the discussions feature in Google documents. We also welcomed tens of thousands of new customers, including our largest governmental customer to date.
Gmail’s new people widget
The new
people widget in Gmail
shows up alongside email conversations and conveniently displays the contact information you have for people included on the message. When you click on someone in the widget, we’ll automatically show you a snapshot of the recent interactions you’ve had together, including email messages, calendar appointments and shared documents.
Calendar appointment slots
You asked and we listened: as of Monday, Google Calendar lets you set up blocks of
appointment slots
that colleagues, students and customers can reserve online. For example, professors can let students book time during office hours, and accountants can allow clients to make consultation appointments. It’s easy to embed an interactive calendar of your availability on any web page, so others can view and reserve your open appointments.
Default meeting lengths and more print options in Google Calendar
Last week, Google Calendar got two new customization options:
adjustable default meeting lengths and new print options
. If your typical meeting is longer or shorter than the default 30 minute appointment, you can tailor the default length once and spend less time changing the details of each meeting you create. If you prefer to have a paper printout of your agenda, Calendar now lets you print custom date ranges in addition to the standard day, week and month views.
Improvements to discussions in Google documents
A few months ago we introduced discussions in Google documents, and on Wednesday we improved the way you can
converse with collaborators in a document
. The discussion pane now shows the snippet of text being discussed, which adds context to each conversation, and you can view document statistics like how many people have recently viewed your document. We also made long discussions more compact by collapsing extended conversations and streamlined the format of email notifications for discussions.
Who’s gone Google?
Businesses and other organizations continue to migrate from legacy communication and collaboration technologies to Google Apps. Summer may be upon us, but
Directski.com
is preparing to help more people “ski for less” next winter by streamlining their operations with Google Apps.
LXR Luxury Resorts & Hotels
—with 7,000 employees and 20 hotel and resort properties—is moving to Google Apps to help their staff provide a more enjoyable guest experience. Among other uses, LXR’s human resources team is using video chat to conduct interviews instead of flying remote candidates to Florida.
This week we also gathered in Washington, D.C. with more than 100 government IT leaders to explore how state, local and federal agencies can increase productivity and conserve taxpayer dollars with our cloud-based solutions. As part of the
agenda
, we took some time to celebrate
dozens of agencies
that have selected Google Apps in the last few months, including the
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA). With more than 25,000 employees, contractors and associates who will use Google Apps for email, document collaboration, video chat and more, it’s the largest government agency to move to Google Apps yet.
I hope these product updates and customer stories help you and your organization get even more from Google Apps. For more details and the latest news, check out the
Google Apps Blog
.
Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager
Leading the charge toward an electric vehicle fleet
June 9, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
Green Blog
)
Over the last few years, several innovative electric vehicle (EV) technologies have emerged in the marketplace and we’ve been working to update our green transportation infrastructure. As a result, we’ve now developed the largest corporate EV charging infrastructure in the country. We’re also including the next generation of plug-in vehicles in Gfleet, our car-sharing program for Googlers.
When Google.org launched the
RechargeIt
initiative in 2007, there were no commercially available plug-in hybrid EVs on the market. So we bought several Toyota Priuses and had them retrofitted with
A123 Hymotion
batteries to create our own mini-fleet of plug-in hybrids to demonstrate the technology. It was the birth of Gfleet, which has since become a valued perk and makes it easier for Googlers to use our biodiesel shuttle system to commute to work by providing green transportation options for people after they arrive at the Googleplex. The new Gfleet will include more than 30 plug-ins, starting with
Chevrolet Volts
and
Nissan LEAFs
, several of which have already arrived and are available for Googlers to use today. We’ll be adding models from other manufacturers as they become available.
To juice up our new cars and provide more charging options for Googlers, we’ve been working with
Coulomb Technologies’
ChargePoint® Network
to continue to expand our EV charging infrastructure. We’ve added 71 new and faster
Level 2 chargers
to the 150 Level 1 chargers we’ve installed over the last few years, bringing our total capacity to more than 200 chargers, with another 250 new ones on the way. The ChargePoint Network provides us the charging data necessary to track and report on the success of our green transportation initiative.
Overall, our goal is to electrify five percent of our parking spaces—all over campus and free of charge (pun intended) to Googlers. Our expanded charging system has already helped several Googlers decide to buy new EVs of their own, and we hope others will, too.
All told, Gfleet and our biodiesel shuttle system result in net annual savings of more than 5,400
tonnes
of CO2. That’s like taking over 2,000 cars off the road, or avoiding 14 million vehicle miles every year! But we’re only one company, so we hope other companies think about how they can incorporate these new technologies into their own infrastructure. By supporting new, green transportation technologies, we’re enabling our employees to be green and doing our part to help spur growth in the industry.
Posted by Rolf Schreiber, Technical Program Manager, Electric Transportation
There’s a perfect ad for everyone
June 9, 2011
It’s been an exciting year in the display advertising business—the movement of media online and the emergence of new technologies are causing incredible growth, and we’re investing significantly to help improve display advertising for publishers, advertisers and users. But I believe we’re poised to make even greater advances in the years ahead. We’re at the beginning of a user-focused revolution, where people connect and respond to display ads in ways we’ve never seen before.
This was the subject of a keynote I gave this morning at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s
Innovation Days @ Internet Week
entitled “There’s a perfect ad for everyone.” You can view the recording at
google.com/watchthisspace
. In the speech, I made six predictions about how display advertising will change for the better by 2015:
The number of display ad impressions will decrease by 25 percent per person.
Today, people are bombarded by online ads, but they don’t connect with most of these ads in a meaningful way. I believe the trend will be for people to ultimately see fewer, but better ads.
Engagement rates across all display ads will increase by 50 percent.
As ads become less cluttered, more relevant, more engaging and more attractive, we’ll see the rate at which people interact with display ads (such as watching videos or playing games) increase dramatically.
People will have a direct say in 25 percent of the ads they see.
Whether by choosing to watch—or not watch—
video ads
,
updating their ads preferences
to customize the ads they see or actively subscribing to or choosing to receive particular ads, users will be more in control of when and how they see ads online.
35 percent of campaigns will primarily use metrics beyond clicks and conversions.
Technology is helping marketers measure their ads with new tools that look at factors like emotional engagement and impact on offline behavior (like in-store shopping choices). We see a longer-term future where these become the primary metrics used to measure the success of a campaign, meaning marketers will be able to deliver the ads that potential customers say they like the most.
25 billion ads per day will tell people why they are seeing them.
We believe it’s important to give people as much information as possible about why they see particular ads. That’s why we’ve always included an “Ads by Google” notice, and now the
AdChoices logo
, on ads across the Google Display Network. We strongly support the widespread use of this logo by members of the display industry and by 2015, believe that this sort of notice will become ubiquitous.
Over 40 percent of online Americans will name display ads as their favorite ad format.
We recently conducted a survey with
YouGov
of more than 1,000 U.S. Internet users, asking them what ad formats they liked. The number of people who said they preferred display ads trailed slightly behind the number who liked glossy magazine ads, cinema ads and even sky-writing—formats that have been around for more than 50 years! We think this will change. Display ads provide an incredible platform to engage, excite and inspire. If we as marketers, publishers and technology providers can deliver experiences that delight the user, we can take this industry to new heights.
I believe that display advertising will eventually grow to become a
$200 billion industry
. If we make users our focus as I described this morning, it will put us well on track to reach that goal. I can’t wait to see a future in which the full potential of display ads is realized, providing a universally positive experience for people online and helping grow the businesses of publishers and marketers.
Posted by Neal Mohan, Vice President of Display Advertising
A doodle for an instrumental inventor
June 8, 2011
The electric guitar brings back memories for me of exchanging riffs with friends and wearing out cassette tapes as I meticulously learned songs. Today, we’re attempting to recreate that experience with a doodle celebrating the birthday of musician and inventor
Les Paul
.
For the next 24 hours on the
Google homepage
, you’ll find an interactive, playable logo inspired by the guitar developed by the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee
that made the sound of rock and roll possible.
As well as his guitar work, Les Paul experimented in his garage with innovative recording techniques like multitracking and tape delay. In keeping with this spirit of tinkering, those of you in the U.S. can click the black “compose” button to record your own 30-second track. Just strum the strings or trigger notes with the letters or numbers on your keyboards. Clicking the button again will display a link to share the songs you’ve made. (For example,
here’s a little tune
I put together.)
If you’re curious, the doodle was made with a combination of JavaScript, HTML5 Canvas (used in
modern browsers
to draw the guitar strings), CSS, Flash (for sound) and tools like the
Google Font API
,
goo.gl
and
App Engine
.
I hope you have as much fun playing with and sharing the doodle as we did making it (special thanks to engineers Kristopher Hom and Joey Hurst and doodle team lead Ryan Germick for their work). Crank up your computer volume and make some music!
Update
Jun 17:
Wow—in just 48 hours in the U.S., you recorded 5.1 years worth of music—40 million songs—using our doodle guitar. And those songs were played back 870,000 times! We’re glad you enjoyed jamming out last week, and you can keep playing: the Les Paul doodle now has a
permanent home
.
Update
June 9, 8:29pm:
Due to popular demand, we're leaving the Les Paul doodle up in the U.S. through Friday for an encore. Thanks for jamming with us! ♫
Posted by Alexander Chen, Designer (and musician), Creative Lab
Know when your bus is late with live transit updates in Google Maps
June 8, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
Lat Long Blog
and
Mobile Blog
)
Often when I’m taking public transit, I arrive at my stop on time only to anxiously check my watch and look down the street for my bus, which is running late once again. Those extra minutes I’m forced to wait seem like an eternity, and the only information I can access on my phone is when the bus was
supposed
to arrive.
Starting now,
Google Maps for mobile
and
desktop
can tell you when your ride is
actually
going to arrive with new live transit updates. We partnered with transit agencies to integrate live transit data in four U.S. cities and two European cities: Boston, Portland, Ore., San Diego, San Francisco, Madrid and Turin.
When you click on a transit station or plan a transit route with Google Maps and there are delays or alerts related to your trip, you’ll now see “live departure times” (indicated with a special icon) and service alerts.
Live transit departure times after tapping on a station
Live service alerts when receiving transit directions
Live departures and alerts on desktop
We’re working with our public transit partners to help them provide live data to more people in more cities. You can get live transit updates in the latest version of
Google Maps for mobile
(requires Android 1.6+), as well as Google Maps on all supported desktop and
mobile browsers
.
Posted by Sasha Gontmakher, Software Engineer
Changes to the open Internet in Kazakhstan
June 7, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
European Public Policy Blog
and
Public Policy Blog
)
Update
June 14, 7:40pm: After we published this post, the Kazakhstan authorities issued
new guidance
stating that the order no longer applies to previously registered domains. In practice this means we can re-launch
google.kz
. While we’re pleased that we can once again offer our users in Kazakhstan customized search results, we encourage the Government of Kazakhstan to rescind this requirement for all future .kz domains as well.
The genius of the Internet has always been its open infrastructure, which allows anyone with a connection to communicate with anyone else on the network. It’s not limited by national boundaries, and it facilitates free expression, commerce and innovation in ways that we could never have imagined even 20 or 30 years ago.
Some governments, however, are attempting to create borders on the web without full consideration of the consequences their actions may have on their own citizens and the economy. Last month, the Kazakhstan Network Information Centre notified us of an
order
issued by the Ministry of Communications and Information in Kazakhstan that requires all .kz domain names, such as
google.kz
, to operate on physical servers within the borders of that country. This requirement means that Google would have to route all searches on
google.kz
to servers located inside Kazakhstan. (Currently, when users search on any of our domains, our systems automatically handle those requests the fastest way possible, regardless of national boundaries.)
We find ourselves in a difficult situation: creating borders on the web raises important questions for us not only about network efficiency but also about user privacy and free expression. If we were to operate
google.kz
only via servers located inside Kazakhstan, we would be helping to create a fractured Internet. So we have decided to redirect users that visit
google.kz
to
google.com
in Kazakh. Unfortunately, this means that Kazakhstani users will experience a reduction in search quality as results will no longer be customized for Kazakhstan.
Measures that force Internet companies to choose between taking actions that harm the open web, or reducing the quality of their services, hurt users. We encourage governments and other stakeholders to work together to preserve an open Internet, which empowers local users, boosts local economies and encourages innovation around the globe.
Posted by Bill Coughran, SVP, Research & Systems Infrastructure
World IPv6 Day begins 24 hours from now. Websites, start your engines.
June 6, 2011
Back in January, we joined the
Internet Society
and a handful of leading Internet companies to
announce
World IPv6 Day. The announcement was a rallying call for adoption of the new Internet Protocol; now, less than six months later, participation has grown to
more than 400 organizations
. We believe this is an important milestone, as IPv6 is the only long-term solution to IPv4
address exhaustion
, and its deployment is crucial to the continued growth of the open Internet.
About 24 hours from now, at midnight
UTC
on June 8 (Tuesday afternoon in the U.S., Wednesday morning in Asia), all the participants will enable IPv6 on their main websites for 24 hours. For Google, this will mean virtually all our services, including Search, Gmail, YouTube and many more, will be available over IPv6.
In all likelihood, you won’t even notice the test. The vast majority (99.95%) of people will be able to access services without interruption: either they’ll connect over IPv6, or their systems will successfully fall back to IPv4. However, as with any next-generation technology, there may be teething pains. We estimate that .05% of systems may fail to fall back to IPv4, so some people may find Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Bing and other participating websites slow or unresponsive on World IPv6 Day. This is often due to misconfigured or misbehaving home networking equipment, such as home routers, that can make a computer think it has IPv6 connectivity when in fact it’s not working.
Over the past few months, we’ve been working hard with other industry players to prepare. Operating system vendors and browser manufacturers have been releasing updates to resolve IPv6 connectivity issues—for example,
Google Chrome
now incorporates workarounds for malfunctioning IPv6 networks—and we’ve seen router manufacturers
test their devices
for robust IPv6 support as well. For our part, we’ve been busy adding IPv6 support to services that didn’t yet have it, and fixing minor issues with those that did. And since the best way to find bugs in your services is to hammer on them yourself, Google employees have been operating in “World IPv6 Day mode” for several months now.
We’ve also been thinking about how best to notify people who may have connectivity issues. To that end, we’ve run a prominent notice in Google Search for people who may not be able to connect, directing them to a new
test page
and
help article
. If you’re curious, you can test your connection now at
ipv6test.google.com
.
Update
5:37 PM:
The test flight was a success. World IPv6 Day is over, and IPv6 access to Google services remains enabled only for users in the
Google over IPv6 program
. We carried about 65% more IPv6 traffic than usual, saw no significant issues and did not have to disable IPv6 access for any networks or services. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be working together with the other participants to analyze the data we’ve collected, but, at least on the surface, the first global test of IPv6 passed without incident.
Posted by Lorenzo Colitti, Network Engineer and IPv6 Samurai
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