Official Google Cloud Blog

Old tool, new tricks

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

I like to think I can do practically anything in a spreadsheet. But it's probably more accurate to say that I like to *try* to do anything in a spreadsheet whether or not I can succeed.

Of course, my spreadsheet of choice is the kind I can access from anywhere and share in real time – in Google Docs. So, some would say that even when it makes no sense, I try to do things in a spreadsheet (case in point – my poker simulator – why'd I do that?) But there are some things I never thought possible, like sending an email or reading my calendar.

That's why we're excited to announce a limited test of a new feature which lets people add customization and automation to Google Apps, starting with spreadsheets in Google Docs. We call this feature Google Apps Script.

Google Apps Script provides the ability to automate a variety spreadsheet actions, such as reading and changing values in cells and ranges, changing formats and formulas, and creating custom functions. It also reaches outside of spreadsheets to allow you to send email or create calendar entries.

Check out the Google Apps Script overview, below, and watch our example of sending email from Google Spreadsheets.

As Google Apps Script is in limited test, we see it as a puppy who's still in training. In fact, just this week, he learned to fetch (URL content) and speak (translate to other languages). But we think he's ready now for some time outside his yard.

So we're inviting a limited number of Google Apps domains – about a thousand organizations – to start playing with Google Apps Script and giving us feedback so we can quickly understand which tricks would be the most beneficial to learn next.
If you're like me and like to stretch spreadsheets to their limit, and don't mind working with early release features, you can get involved in Google Apps Script now by applying to join this limited test phase.

Posted by Jonathan Rochelle, Product Manager, Google Docs

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Opening up Visualization

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Yesterday we released a complete data source implementation for the Google Visualization API open wire protocol in an open source Java library. This enables users of the Visualization API, including enterprises, SMBs and other web application providers, to easily customize their data sources and make them compatible with the Visualization API Open Wire protocol. For some data sources, integrating this library could be an order of magnitude faster and require less resources than having to do a full implementation out of the protocol specification.

As business data continues to grow, so, it seems, does the challenge of understanding it. Visualization, or the presentation of data in charts, graphs, tables, and other visual representations, is often the missing piece that people need to make sense of this information.

To address these growing needs, last year we introduced the Google Visualization API, a powerful API that enables anyone to build apps and display data from Google spreadsheets, as well as enabling visualization in the cloud from any data source connected to the web.
Companies can create and use reporting applications from the Google Visualization Gallery that can be integrated anywhere on the web. The gallery offers dozens of visualizations, from pivot tables and heat graphs to the celebrated motion charts and timelines.

We have also opened up the gallery so that any developer can include their new innovative visualizations and make them available to others. To facilitate multiple data sources, we have published an Open Wire protocol that specifies how to make any data source ready for use by the Visualization API. And we recently announced the Google Secure Data Connector (SDC), which enables to keep the data sources behind a company firewall, while serving visualizations and other apps in the cloud.
All of these abilities bring us closer towards Open Visualization in the cloud, and today we take one more big step in this direction. We believe that these enhancements will facilitate innovative and more accessible visualizations of business information, helping enterprises communicate with information in ever-better ways.
Posted by Nir Bar-Lev, Head of Analytics, EMEA, and Yossi Matias, Head of Israel Engineering Center

Webmaster tips: fighting back against hacks and spam

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

ringtones

One way to avoid SQL injection hacking is to escape all dangerous characters from input fields, with "dangerous characters" being those that can access and change the database behind your site.

For both SQL injection and XSS hacking, creating a layer between the user input data and your back-end systems creates a space where you can check inputs and make sure that a user is not entering malicious code.

Another potential exploit can occur if the root or any subdirectory of your site uses an open source CMS like Joomla or WordPress. In this situation, it is really important to make sure the CMS software is updated with every new release to make sure you are using the most secure version.

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/02/best-practices-against-hacking.html

Every time a user wants to add a profile or comment on the forum, require them to complete a CAPTCHA. This creates an obstacle for automated software to generate profiles and comments.

Add spammy keywords like "free ringtones" and "online casino" to a blacklist to block comments like this from showing up.

Install a plug-in that automatically detects and blocks spam posted to the forum. Akismet is an example of this.

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/09/keeping-comment-spam-off-your-site-and.html Resources http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/http://www.youtube.com/googlewebmasterhelphttp://google.com/support/webmasters/http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmastershttp://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

Google Apps Partners: helping organizations move forward

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Our ongoing partner momentum is directly benefiting the people and organizations who use Google services in the workplace. Examples and of these successful engagements can be found in our Solutions Marketplace Customer Success Stories Blog.

A recent post shows how one of our partners, LTech, helped migrate The Huffington Post to Google Apps Premier Edition in just four days. Whether you're a potential partner looking to learn more about our Apps Authorized Reseller program or a professional who wants to know more about what Google solutions deliver in the workplace, we hope you find LTech's story interesting.

For small and medium-sized businesses interested in learning more about the benefits of Google Apps and cloud computing, we invite you to join our webinar, co-hosted with Salesforce.com, on June 4.

How to Go Beyond CRM with Salesforce for Google Apps
Thursday, June 4, 2009
10:00 a.m. PDT / 1:00 p.m. EDT

The webinar is one in a four-part series on how organizations can get started with, and benefit from, cloud computing.

Partners or organizations interested in the latest plans for the Channel 2.0 Conference: visit their website for information.

Posted by Michelle Lisowski, Google Apps Partners team

Breaking down the language barrier: Instantly translate Gmail messages

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Google is truly a global company. With offices in more than 30 countries around the world, I find myself exchanging emails almost everyday with someone whose native language is different from my own. Many of our customers – from small ten-person companies to large global multinationals like Valeo – work in the same way and use email to communicate with co-workers or customers from all over the world. That's why I'm really excited about a new feature in Gmail that will help to break down the language barrier.

Today we're announcing automatic message translation between 41 languages in Gmail Labs. If you receive a message in a language you don't understand, Gmail will translate it into your language with just one click.

Better yet, if your entire company uses Gmail, email communications between people in your company can take place in the language that's most comfortable for them – each person can write messages in their native language and the recipients can translate the messages into their respective native languages.

While our translation system is quite good, machine translation is a challenging problem and we know it's not perfect. However, it can be quite useful in providing a quick gist of a message, especially if you receive a lot of emails that aren't in your native language. If the translation is awkward or not quite right, you can quickly return to the original message by clicking "View original message" link.

With the power of cloud computing, this feature is available to all Gmail users – without having to buy servers, install software, or write code to integrate translation into email applications. The cloud also makes possible our approach to machine translation in which thousands of computers process billions of words of monolingual and bilingual text to build statistical language and translation models.

The cloud has enabled us to not only achieve very good results with our approach but also to quickly scale to more than 40 languages in just a few years and support millions of users. In addition, we're constantly working on improving translation quality and adding new languages, so Gmail instantly benefits whenever we update our translation system.

This is a Labs launch, so to get started, click "Settings" within Gmail, then the "Labs" tab, and enable "Message Translation." Standard Edition users can follow these instructions immediately, while Premier and Education Edition users will first need their domain admins to enable Gmail Labs from the Google Apps admin control panel.

Posted by Jeff Chin, Product Manager, Google Translate

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Promoting search results: now easier with Google Site Search

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Studies consistently show that good website search keeps people "on site" longer and improves conversion rates when it's time for business. But even without the evidence, common sense suggests that people get more satisfaction out of their web experience when they find what they're looking for – the information that's most relevant to their search. Algorithms do a great job with this, but sometimes, site owners and admins know their customers – and their content – well enough to think beyond the algorithm and help searchers find that one link that delivers the goods.

That's where Google Site Search Promotions – the latest enhancement to Google Site Search – comes in, starting today.

Google Site Search Promotions allows website owners and admins to create special results that appear as the first result to a user's search, and define the search terms for triggering those results. That raises a specific page, or URL to the top of the search results when those search terms are used, presenting viewers with a more detailed, illustrated link that stands out among the other results. Any URL can be promoted – it doesn't need to be specified as an included site or page in your Sites tab.

Promotions are easy to manage, simply by creating and uploading a promotions file or using the promotions page in the GSS control panel. You can include of a brief description and image for each promotion, and you can add or edit these additional items as well as appearance elements such as border and background color, just by using the Promotion Design Settings menu.

As this screenshot shows, Promotions make it easier to highlight key events, announcements, services or product launches on your visitors' search results. In this example, eHealthInsurance.com's administrator "promoted" the most relevant link, added an image and a two-line description, and enabled the most relevant search result to be displayed first.

Although this functionality has been available to GSS users through subscribed links, today's changes make promoting the best links more speedy and intuitive, and allow admins to add multiple promotions for the same query.

Stay tuned to this blog for upcoming enhancements to Google Site Search (and more). We hope you like the business results that this new Promotions feature delivers.

Posted by Nitin Mangtani, Lead Product Manager, Google Enterprise Search

30,000 Valeo employees put Google Apps to work

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Tens of millions of people around the world have transitioned from software-based email and personal productivity tools to powerful web-based applications like Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar and Google Sites. Over the last couple years, businesses have been making the switch to our hosted solutions too, putting complex, expensive on-premises IT systems in the past. With Google Apps, employees are equipped with work productivity tools that they can access from anywhere, that provide enough email storage to keep everything important, and that enable more natural collaboration like document sharing without the hassles of attachments and integrated voice and video chat.More than a million businesses have moved to Google Apps, and Valeo – an auto parts manufacturer with 30,000 Internet-connected employees in 27 different countries – has joined the movement. You can read more about Google Apps and their deployment on the Google Blog and in Valeo's own announcement.Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing managerRSS feedemail alerts

Official Blog

Old tool, new tricks

Opening up Visualization

Webmaster tips: fighting back against hacks and spam

Google Apps Partners: helping organizations move forward

Breaking down the language barrier: Instantly translate Gmail messages

Promoting search results: now easier with Google Site Search

30,000 Valeo employees put Google Apps to work

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