November 19th, 2013 | by Jane Smith | published in Google Apps
Starting today, administrators will be able to find, manage and deploy third-party applications directly from the Google Apps Admin console. To start, over twenty third-party applications will be available in the Admin console. These applications all o…
November 19th, 2013 | by Jane Smith | published in Google Apps, Google Enterprise
Posted by Apoorv Saxena, Product Manager, Google Apps for Business There are thousands of third-party applications that integrate with Google Apps for Business to help people to do more on the web and accomplish specific business tasks. These include a…
November 19th, 2013 | by John A.Smith | published in Google Adsense
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November 19th, 2013 | by Jane Smith | published in Google Enterprise
Editor’s note: Today’s guest blogger is Antti Känsälä, director of products for Vilant Systems, a Finland-based provider of RFID (radio-frequency identification) information systems for manufacturing and logistics. This post is part of our series on the Transport and Logistics Industry and the ways they’re relying on Google Maps for Business to get people, products and assets to their destinations faster.
When my Vilant colleagues and I attended a trade show in Stockholm recently, we had to carry a bunch of posters, brochures, and giveaways on the plane, because an earlier shipment of duplicate material got lost in transit. To avoid this scenario in the future, we decided that from now on, we’d place a Vilant Tracker on all event packages, so that we could see their progress on a Google Map.
At Vilant, we’ve made it similarly easy for businesses to track the progress of shipments to their destinations using Google Maps and the Google Geolocation API, and for shipping companies to share this information with their own customers. Vilant technology makes shipping more efficient: Vilant’s Tracker devices use GSM (global system for mobile communications) technology, which means they are less expensive to operate and last longer than GPS devices. We also recently developed a unique Air Tracker for one of our customers, and it will be generally available in the future to help track progress of shipments by air.
To add even more efficiency to our Tracker systems, we looked at mapping solutions from several vendors, and we found that the Google Maps and Geolocation APIs were the easiest to customize for displaying the information we receive from our tracking devices. We considered some open-source products, but Google Maps’ image quality was much higher and the resulting maps were more reliable and faster to get online.
Vilant has developed a web-based tracker portal, built with Google Maps, where our customers can go to check on shipping status and create and share customized maps through unique URLs. Some customers also have large track-and-trace platforms, and we can easily integrate them with our trackers using the APIs.
The ability to generate and share maps helps businesses stay on top of shipments without time-consuming dialogue with shippers and warehouses. One of our customers, Tieturi, which provides business training and coaching, ships dozens of computers to training locations and needs to know that the computers will arrive before classes begin. The Google Maps API enables this by showing shipment locations practically in real time.
Another Vilant Tracker user, ABB, ships motors and generators and needs to tell customers when they will arrive. Instead of taking calls from customers and then calling trucking companies, ABB can simply email its customers a link to a Google Map showing the shipment’s location. It reduces administrative work, and sets ABB apart from the competition.
Like our customers, we see Google Maps as a big competitive advantage. The ability to visualize shipment locations and see delivery progress at a glance is sure to bring us new customers and help us win a larger share of the logistics market.
November 19th, 2013 | by Adam Singer | published in Google Analytics
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| AdSense and Analytics Integration (click for full size) |
You will be sent to your AdSense account in order to confirm the linking and then you will be sent back to Google Analytics to choose which profiles should include this data. If you have any problems or additional questions, take a look at the AdSense Help Center. After the integration is complete the following metrics will be available on your Google Analytics account:
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| Analyzing template performance using segments (click for full size) |
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| Table comparison metrics for different visitor segments (click for full size) |
Posted by Daniel Waisberg, Google Analytics team
November 19th, 2013 | by Sarah H | published in Google Student Blog
Editor’s Note: North America Google Scholarships deadlines extended to January 6, 2014! See google.com/students/scholarships for more details.
In 2013, we selected nearly 100 scholars who were all invited to attend our Scholars’ Retreat, held at Google’s office in New York City this summer. The Scholars’ Retreat brings together our scholarship recipients to attend technical and career development sessions and provide opportunities to network with one another and with Googlers while experiencing Google’s unique culture. In today’s post, Carolyn, one of our Anita Borg Scholars from Simon Fraser University, shares about her experience and learnings from the retreat.
On April 23, I received a congratulatory email from Google, naming me one of 30 recipients of the 2013 Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship! As a Google Scholar, I would be heading that summer to Googleplex East – Google’s New York City headquarters – for their annual Google Scholars’ Retreat!
I landed at JFK International Airport the morning of July 17. Here, I met up with a group of fellow Google Scholars as we headed to the hotel in Manhattan, located a few blocks from the Google office. Since check-in for the retreat wasn’t until later that afternoon, a few of us dropped our bags off at the hotel and took the opportunity to explore the city, visiting Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Mathematics!
After a few hours of sightseeing, we hopped onto the subway and headed towards the Google office. Here we met with all the scholars from Google’s scholarship programs. Once checked in and decked out with Google swag, we were greeted with a welcome talk from Alfred Spector, VP of Engineering and Research, who shared Google’s approach on research and innovation. Following the talk, we headed off to dinner. This was our first glimpse of eating at the Google office! The Water Tower room and cafeteria were just one of many themed venues we would visit during our retreat.
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| Alfred Spector, VP of Engineering and Research |
The next day we were treated to breakfast at the Google office, followed by a passionate tech talk by Justin Kosslyn, a Product Manager in Google Ideas. He engaged us in a deep discussion about serious issues prevalent in the world today that his group was working on, including human trafficking, mapping arms data, and using the Internet to counter violent extremism. Sitting amongst this audience helped me see exactly why we were selected to be there – we were young, bright minds, curious and eager to use technology to shape the world.
The rest of the morning consisted of interview and resume workshops, which provided us with useful suggestions to aid in our career development. Following this, I joined a group of fellow PhD students for an exclusive luncheon with existing Google researchers. Here, we shared our research areas and projects amongst the group, along with our future plans for positions in industry or academia. We also had the opportunity to find out more about working at Google!
One of the best sessions was the career panel, where four Googlers candidly shared their work experience at Google and addressed questions from the scholars about getting a foot in the door. Topics including academic credentials, GPAs, internships, work/life balance, and the ‘Google culture’. Following the panel discussion, we attended a poster session, and then headed over to the restaurant reserved for our dinner. The next day would be the start of our 24HoursofGood!
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| Scholars’ poster session |
24HoursofGood was the first hackathon at a Scholars’ Retreat. I was teamed up with three other scholars to solve a technical problem with a non-profit organization, LEAD (LEADership Education & Development) who provide communities for students to gain skills to work in business, computer science, and engineering fields. We started with a quick App Engine ‘bootcamp’ with Arun Nagarajan, Senior Developer at Google and worked our way through the next 24 hours (fuelled by more food, caffeine, and swag!). It was my first hackathon event ever, and Google made it especially memorable. Each of the 19 teams presented their work and Google judges picked the top teams. I especially enjoyed collaborating with three other team members whose areas of expertise in computer science were different from mine. We were each able to contribute to the task in our own ways and I had tons of fun learning from my group (the unlimited supply of candy was a bonus)! Although challenging to code for 24 hours, we managed through brief yoga sessions, midnight pizza, naps, and coffee. It was an absolute blast!
The retreat days flew by. I made new friends, networked with Googlers and enjoyed my 3-day retreat in NYC. My summer of 2013… Google Scholars’ Retreat in NYC = Food + Fun + Friends.
And then a surprise bonus! In September, Google offered to sponsor our travel and attendance to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Minneapolis, MN. Anita Borg Memorial scholarship winners were reunited (amongst 4,600 other women) and we had the opportunity to spend four days attending tech talks geared towards women in computer science. Especially memorable was our meeting with Google executives, including Alan Eustace, Senior VP of Engineering!
My 2013 year as a Google Scholar has been an absolute privilege and I look forward to future collaborations with Google.
Congratulations once again to all Google Scholars!
Remember to visit www.google.com/students/scholarships to find out more about our scholarships and apply by December 2!
Azusa Liu, Tech Student Development Programs
November 19th, 2013 | by Research @ Google | published in Google Research
Posted by Candice Reimers, Senior Program Manager
Research shows that professional development for educators has a direct, positive impact on students, so it’s no wonder that institutions are eager to explore creative ways to enhance professional development for K-12 teachers. Open source MOOC platforms, such as Course Builder, offer the flexibility to extend the reach of standard curriculum; recently, several courses have launched that demonstrate new and creative applications of MOOCs. With their wide reach, participant engagement, and rich content, MOOCs that offer professional development opportunities for teachers bring flexibility and accessibility to an important area.
This summer, the ScratchEd team out of Harvard University launched the Creative Computing MOOC, a 6 week self paced workshop focused on building computational thinking skills in the classroom. As a MOOC, the course had 2600 participants, who created more than 4700 Scratch projects, and engaged in 3500 forum discussions, compared to the “in-person” class held last year, which reached only 50 educators.
Other creative uses of Course Builder for educator professional development come from National Geographic and Annenberg Learner who joined forces to develop Water: The Essential Resource, a course developed around California’s Education and Environment Initiative. The Friday Institute’s MOOC, Digital Learning Transitions, focused on the benefits of utilizing educational technology and reached educators across 50 states and 68 countries worldwide. The course design included embedded peer support, project-based learning, and case studies; a post-course survey showed an overwhelming majority of responders “were able to personalize their own learning experiences” in an “engaging, easy to navigate” curriculum and greatly appreciated the 24/7 access to materials.
In addition to participant surveys, course authors using the Course Builder platform are able to conduct deeper analysis via web analytics and course data to assess course effectiveness and make improvements for future courses.
New opportunities to experience professional development MOOCs are rapidly emerging; the University of Adelaide recently announced their Digital Technology course to provide professional development for primary school teachers on the new Australian curriculum, the Google in Education team just launched a suite of courses for teachers using Google technologies, and the Friday Institute course that aligns with the U.S. based Common Core State Standards is now available.
We’re excited about the innovative approaches underway and the positive impact it can have for students and teachers around the world. We also look forward to seeing new, creative applications of MOOC platforms in new, unchartered territory.
November 19th, 2013 | by Justin Huskamp | published in Google DoubleClick
Search marketers managing multiple campaigns across multiple accounts have to visualize their data in many different ways and tailor reporting for each group of stakeholders. Often, this means spending time pulling and aggregating reports, building macro-enabled spreadsheets, and wrangling your data into a specific format for a specific presentation — only to do it all over again in a slightly different way the next time around.
DoubleClick Search believes in making search marketing faster — and over the past year we’ve invested in time-saving features like bulk editing enhancements, new scheduling options, and automated rules. Today, we’re excited to announce executive reporting, a fundamentally new way to report on and share your search campaign data.
With executive reporting, quickly get to the insights you need. Take the data from all your search campaigns, segment as needed, present it in an easily consumable visual format, and share with team members and stakeholders — all within the UI, without spending hours downloading, reconciling, and updating spreadsheets.
As we designed executive reporting, we worked closely with our clients to ensure our solution was built to address the unique needs of search marketers, agency account managers, and executives. Matt Grebow, Sr. Manager, Search Marketing at TSA, who participated heavily in our feedback sessions, shared his needs for richer export fidelity with the engineering team.
“Most reporting platforms let you export data in a raw format, but this means extensive formatting in Excel and a lot of coding. DoubleClick Search Executive Reporting is flexible enough to use across clients with different goals. We can create templates on the fly and export reports in a client-ready format.”
Three ways to get started with executive reporting
Keep an eye on the blog next week for a follow up “Success with DS” post on how the get the most out of executive reporting. In the meantime, give the new reports a try and let your account team know what you think. If you don’t see the ‘Executive Reports’ tab in the DoubleClick Search interface, ask your account team to enable it for you.
Over the coming months, we’ll continue to invest in easy, flexible reporting options for DoubleClick Search. If you have a data warehouse, business intelligence tool, or visualization software and you’re interested in seeing your search data alongside other metrics for reporting purposes, check out our reporting API, currently in open whitelist.
November 19th, 2013 | by Rob Newton | published in Google Adwords
The mobile experience matters
Recent research conducted with Nielsen shows that 48% of mobile consumers start their purchase journey with paid and organic search results. With mobile ads, the quality of your mobile landing page experience directly affects how your ad ranks (including whether it’s seen at all) and what you’ll pay per click. Mobile site experience factors can also directly affect your organic search rankings.
Getting more mobile traffic and lower CPCs is great. But after the click, your mobile landing page experience is even more important for converting visits into sales and building customer loyalty. According to 2012 research on what users want most from mobile sites, 67% of consumers say that a mobile friendly site makes them more likely to buy, and 74% say they’re more likely to return to that site in the future.
The experience of ProFlowers, a major US-based fresh flower retailer, confirms the benefits of offering a great experience on smaller screens. After launching its mobile-optimized site, Proflowers saw its conversion rate increase by 20-30%. It has also seen mobile contributing more to conversions that occur on other devices.
“Many users check us out on mobile, and then convert on our [traditional desktop] site… Regardless of where the final sale comes from, staying ahead in mobile is an invaluable part of our successful marketing and customer relationship strategies.”
- Leif Heikkila, senior director of online marketing, ProFlowers
Resources for making your site more mobile-friendly
We think every business can succeed at providing a great mobile experience. Here are some resources to help:
Posted by Adam Juda, Director of Ads Quality
November 19th, 2013 | by Jane Smith | published in Google Enterprise
Editor’s note: Our guest blogger today is Pedro Junqueira, CEO and COO at the Center of Operations (COR) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Established in 2010, COR monitors the daily activity of the city and potential crisis situations including traffic, major events and natural disasters. COR integrates the activities of 30 organizations. Today, 400 professionals work at COR in 3 shifts. See what other public institutions that have gone Google have to say.
Home to more than six million inhabitants, Rio de Janeiro is a vibrant city set in a tropical climate along the coast of Brazil. Rio is known for hosting large festivals and international events that attract hundreds of thousands of people, like the 2013 Confederations Cup, the recent Papal visit, and the beloved Carnaval. We’re currently planning for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games.
At the city’s Center of Operations (COR), it’s our job to keep the city running efficiently throughout the year, whether it’s during a major festival, when traffic is at peak levels, or during the summer rain, when flooding can create emergency situations. It’s no easy feat, but thanks to collaboration and teamwork, we’re able to get in front of potential crises and respond to emergencies when they do occur.
Technology plays a pivotal role in helping us do our job. We use Google Maps for Business to build and share geospatial data with partners that allows us to have a common operating picture and detect potential problems. We can act before they turn into real emergency situations. Each summer, for example, Rio is deluged by summer rains, leaving homes and streets flooded, inaccessible and damaged. With Google Maps for Business and a team that monitors meteorological conditions each day, we’re able to keep a close watch on flood-prone areas with dense populations. And when rain reaches a critical level, the team warns local officials to prepare for possible evacuation operations.
All the information needed to assess risks and take action is shared on one Google Map, enabling the various teams from the Municipal Guard, Civil Defense, Mayor’s office and others to easily coordinate and respond. We can even use Google Maps for Business to study preventative measures and minimize the impact of events that could affect the operational routine of the city. It’s all on a single map that combines data from a range of different agencies and sources.
Tracking the real-time state of the city and responding to emergencies immediately couldn’t be done without reliable technology like Google’s mapping solutions. Google Maps for Business integrates with our internal systems, and employees already rely on these tools in their personal lives, so using them for work comes naturally. Google helps COR make faster, better more informed decisions every day. It’s good for us, and it’s good for the people of Rio de Janeiro.
November 19th, 2013 | by Emily Wood | published in Google Blog
Not quite four score and seven years ago, I was an elementary school student, staring at a classroom map, gripped by the (mistaken) deduction that since Los Angeles was in the southern half of the country, Civil War battles must have clattered on the ground outside my home. While a teacher eventually helped me understand that California wasn’t in the Confederacy, the moment led me to understand the weight of history and that it has shaped the world into what it is today.
Today, on the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, we’re helping make the past come a little bit more alive. Three new exhibits now available on the Google Cultural Institute focus on President Lincoln and the 272 words that shaped a nation’s understanding of its identity. Thanks to our friends at the White House, the Lincoln Library, Cornell University, Dickinson College and the Library of Congress, you can browse high-resolution digital versions of all five Lincoln-handwritten copies of the address. You can also:
You can also contribute your own version of the Gettysburg Address to Learn the Address, a project by documentarian Ken Burns, who has also been reaching schoolchildren across the U.S. with Google+ Connected Classrooms.
Most of us will never stand in the Lincoln Bedroom and see the handwritten draft exhibited there. But now anyone with access to an Internet connection can explore all these artifacts from this defining moment in history—perhaps a bit more accurately than when I gazed at that map.
Posted by Amrit Dhir, Partner Development Manager
November 18th, 2013 | by Inside AdSense Team | published in Google Adsense
Another important area to look at is whether you have a complete monetization strategy in place. On average only 1-5% of traffic on an e-commerce site will convert to a sale, so it’s important to know what options are available to monetize the visits that don’t convert.
Tune in to our e-commerce Hangout On Air on Tuesday, November 26th, where we’ll talk through some of the steps you can take to ensure your site is well set up to capture the seasonal opportunity. We’ll also answer a few of your questions, which you can submit when you RSVP to watch the live stream. During this session, we’ll cover the following topics:
| Click here to RSVP |
November 18th, 2013 | by lcamtuf | published in Google Online Security
Posted by Michal Zalewski, Google Security Team About a month ago, we kicked off our Patch Reward Program. The goal is very simple: to recognize and reward proactive security improvements to third-party open-source projects that are vital to the health…
November 18th, 2013 | by Yamini Gupta | published in Google DoubleClick
Mobile screens are where it often gets tricky for business owners: How do I design for smartphones? What’s the right technology? What are the big mistakes to avoid?
That’s why we’ve created a new Multi-Screen Resources page. This site is loaded with help for anyone who wants to reach their customers on all kinds of devices. Resources include:
Get ready to delight your mobile and multi-screen users: visit the Multi-Screen Resources site today.
Also, don’t miss Building Multi-Screen Websites — our upcoming webinar on Tuesday, November 19th, at 1:00 EST.
November 18th, 2013 | by Rob Newton | published in Google Adwords
Mobile screens are where it often gets tricky for business owners: How do I design for smartphones? What’s the right technology? What are the big mistakes to avoid?
That’s why we’ve created a new Multi-Screen Resources page. This site is loaded with help for anyone who wants to reach their customers on all kinds of devices. Resources include:
Get ready to delight your mobile and multi-screen users: visit the Multi-Screen Resources site today.
Also, don’t miss Building Multi-Screen Websites — our upcoming webinar on Tuesday, November 19th, at 1:00 EST.
Posted by Nabil Haschemie, Product Marketing Manager
