Official Google Cloud Blog

Schools are (almost) out for the summer...and in for Apps

2010年5月7日星期五

Editor's Note: Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog.

With school almost out for summer, things are hitting a frenzied end-of-year pace in classrooms; and life is similarly fast-paced for the Google’s Apps for Education team as we work with the schools adopting Google Apps in increasing numbers. Today we’ve reached another milestone — 8 million students, faculty and staff around the world have gone Google. To put this in perspective, the U.S. has about 16 million college students total. This new milestone has been keeping us especially busy since it comes less than 60 days after we announced 7 million active users.

It’s pretty cool to see adoption growing even as the school year wraps up, because it means more freshmen get to come to campus and dive into using Google Apps for email and collaboration next fall. Some of the new schools in this bunch are Morehouse, University of Rhode Island, University of Nevada Las Vegas, the Metropolitan State College of Denver and North Carolina State University. These colleges and universities join thousands of others that have gone Google, some of which you can see on this map. According to the Campus Computing survey, more than 80 percent of schools in the U.S. have moved to cloud computing or are considering it, and of those almost 60 percent choose Google Apps, so these new schools have plenty of company.

With this kind of growth, we expect a lot of quick change. Some schools choose Apps for students (UC Davis), and some migrate their faculty and staff, either with or after student deployments (like Boise State University). Some schools deploy for alumni (like Notre Dame) and some pilot Apps rollouts with their graduate schools (like Howard University). We always support pilots as they help schools check out how their productivity, or even server costs, can change with group collaboration and web-based tools and often lead to broader deployments down the line. Universities (like Googlers!) are experts at trying a lot of things and sticking with what works for them. As Apps for Edu heads toward its fourth birthday we expect we’ll see schools continue to develop personalized plans for piloting, deployment and of course, use. One cool example is from Temple University, which designated April Google Apps month and built a Google site to help students and faculty learn more about the tools and get their feedback.

Often schools will find that something that works for them, and continue to build from there. For example, after Vanderbilt University successfully deployed Google Apps for their students, they decided they wanted to improve search on their site, too — so they also rolled out Google Site Search. To hear more from Vanderbilt about how and why they did this, tune in to our webinar on Wednesday, May 12 (you can register here). Google Apps and search tools helped Vandy save $750,000 annually, and the student population is all about collaborating in the cloud: the student government takes meeting notes on Docs and also shares a campus-wide activity calendar. That’s Commodore efficiency at its best.

Even though our summer break won’t necessarily consist of exotic travel, summer school, or pool-side relaxation, we’ll keep busy working with schools as they deploy Google Apps. So, if you’ve done something neat at your school to “go Google”, we’d love to hear about it.

Posted by Miriam Schneider, Apps Edu Team

Google Apps Marketplace highlights – 5/7/2010

2010年5月6日星期四

Editor's note: This is the second in a series of posts on new apps in the Google Apps Marketplace that have caught our eye here at Google. We’ll do this every couple weeks or so. Look for the label "marketplace highlights" and subscribe to the series.
Businesses that use Google Apps not only get access to Google's applications, they also get easy access to some of the best business apps on the web through the Google Apps Marketplace. These Marketplace apps are easy to try and buy, and integrate with Google Apps "out of the box", making it even easier for businesses to run more of their systems in the cloud. You can learn more about the Marketplace and watch a short video on how it works here.

Checkfront - Online BookingCheckfront is a powerful booking platform that allows businesses to manage their inventories online, centralize reservations, and process payments.
Easily integrated into popular CMS products
Multi-currency, multi-gateway payment processing
Fully managed, secure Saas solution

LucidChart - Collaborative Diagramming
LucidChart provides collaborative online diagramming without the need for Flash, Silverlight, or any other
browser plugin. Draw flow charts, org charts, wireframes, site maps,
and more.
Easy, slick user interface
Seamless, real-time collaboration
No Flash plugin required

GQueues - Task ManagementA full-featured task manager for Google Apps with tagging,

assignments, recurring tasks, reminders, calendar integration,subtasks, mobile access and real-time collaboration.

BatchBook - Social CRM

BatchBook is a lightweight but powerful CRM that allows you to easily organize contacts, monitor social networks and track leads and deals.

Integrates with other small business web apps
Tracks contacts, communications and tasks
Highly customizable; custom fields and reporting

VerticalResponse - Email Marketing

Create, send and track email campaigns, direct mail postcards and online surveys -- no technical expertise required! Take a 30-day test drive and send 200 emails for free.

Create & send marketing messages in minutes
Build mailing lists using your Google contacts
Get real-time stats & Google Analytics tracking

Posted by Chris Kelly, Google Apps Marketplace team

More Google applications coming for Google Apps customers

2010年5月6日星期四

9 of the top 20 requestscore suitemuch moreHelp CenterPosted by Dennis Troper, Product Management Director, Google AppsUpdate:please fill out this form

Webinar: Improving operational efficiency with Google Apps and Smartsheet

2010年5月5日星期三

Last week, we shared the story of how LiquidConcrete has used Google Apps and Smartsheet, a Google Apps Marketplace app, to move customer and project management to the cloud, and significantly increased the efficiency of their manufacturing operation.
Next Tuesday, May 11, LiquidConcrete and Smartsheet will be joining us for a free webinar to discuss their story. The webinar will focus on extending Google Apps and running more of your business in the cloud with integrated apps from the Google Apps Marketplace. Please join us!
Increasing operational efficiency with Google Apps and SmartsheetTuesday, May 11, 201011:00 a.m. PDT / 2:00 p.m. EDT / 7:00 p.m. GMTRegister here
Posted by Chris Kelly, Google Apps Marketplace team

“Springing” into a new shopping season with Google

2010年5月4日星期二

It’s that time of year again. Brick-and-mortar stores are clearing out the sweaters and snow-mobiles and revamping window displays with sandals and scuba gear. We know that online retailers are painstakingly updating their virtual window space as well and (perhaps even more importantly) are thinking hard about how new technologies can bring a fresh edge to their website – and the bottom line.
To kick off the season, Google hosted “search summits” for more than 200 retailers in our London and New York offices last month. These summits allowed retailers to share their top priorities and concerns from a technology and business standpoint, and provided an opportunity for Google Product Managers, Engineers, Partner Managers, and customers to trade best practices in the industry.
We want to share the learnings with people who weren’t able to attend, so we’re extending an invitation to a live webcast on Friday, May 14 presented by Nitin Mangtani, Senior Product Manager for Google Commerce Search. We’ll cover all the basics of what makes good search on e-commerce sites, how improving search speed and usability can help improve customer satisfaction and increase sales, and how top online retailers have made the switch.
Join us to learn more – and bring your questions!
Google Commerce Search – Basics & BeyondFriday, May 14, 201010:00 a.m. PDT / 1:00 p.m. EDT / GMT 06:00Register here.
Posted by Anna Bishop, Enterprise Search Marketing team

New reset cookie functionality on Google Apps

2010年5月3日星期一

help pagePosted by Will Smit, Software Engineer, Google Apps

"Made-to-order” results with Google Site Search

2010年5月3日星期一

Recently, we showed you how Google Site Search Themes can help you customize the look and feel of your website’s search engine with just a few clicks. We know it’s just as important to be able to quickly and easily modify the format of search results so they appear exactly as you’d like.
With Google Site Search's new data rendering features, you can enable the return of search results in whatever format you’d like. You can control the size and position of images, personalize the attributes that are shown, insert lines of metadata into search results, and much more.

You can find more about the technical implementation details on the Google AJAX API blog, and can add Google Site Search to your website by visiting google.com/sitesearch.
Posted by David Gibson and Nicholas Weininger, Software Engineers

Official Blog

Schools are (almost) out for the summer...and in for Apps

Google Apps Marketplace highlights – 5/7/2010

More Google applications coming for Google Apps customers

Webinar: Improving operational efficiency with Google Apps and Smartsheet

“Springing” into a new shopping season with Google

New reset cookie functionality on Google Apps

"Made-to-order” results with Google Site Search

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