Google Data

Google Compute Engine gives developers everywhere access to Google’s computing infrastructure. Now you can sign up online for Google Compute Engine with the purchase of Gold Support; you no longer need an invitation or a conversation with sales to get access. We’re also further reducing prices for all instance types by an average of 4%.

Starting at $400/month, Gold support gives you a direct relationship with our experienced support engineers to help you get started or troubleshoot issues across the Google Cloud Platform products.

Since announcing Compute Engine, we’ve expanded geographic coverage, added new instance types, released many new features, and made improvements behind the scenes. Sebastian Stadil of Scalr wrote, in a recent review:

“Google Compute Engine is not just fast. It’s Google fast. In fact, it’s a class of fast that enables new service architectures entirely.”

We’re inspired by the awesome projects being created every day with Google Cloud Platform and can’t wait to see what you create next. If you’re ready to try Compute Engine today, sign up today.

Editor’s note: Today’s guest blogger is Crystal Brenner, Administrative Assistant for the Macomb County Clerk / Register of Deeds. See what other organizations that use the Google Search Appliance have to say.

Last year, Macomb County set out to improve public real estate search, to help property owners reduce the risk of real estate fraud, and make it easier for Macomb County property owners to protect their property rights. Along the way we may have created one of the nation’s best and perhaps one of the first high-tech real estate records search and fraud detection tools. We were inspired to act by a CBS 60 Minutes exposé uncovering crucial ownership documents for real estate throughout the nation that are often bogus or even nonexistent.

In the past, Macomb County property records were available on paper or online in an electronic format that only allowed searching on a few, limited fields, such as owner name or property description, indexed differently throughout the years. Inconsistent indexing is an issue for registers of deeds throughout the nation, and it points to the need for a search solution that can find stored electronic deeds with ease.

In partnership with Xerox, we set out to do better and help owners detect potential fraud. We scanned every Macomb County real estate record – millions of public records, from dirt to present day. Because we wanted an intuitive, familiar search interface that would let us look quickly through millions of documents, we immediately chose the Google Search Appliance.

Called the “Super Index,” we launched a public prototype in September 2012. The Super Index currently includes millions of pages of public Macomb County real estate documents, going back all the way to 1818. And each year, we’ll add more than 180,000 new documents.

Users can search the Super Index at no charge. What makes it “super” is that searches may now include all recognized text on the documents, including witness and notary names. Once an individual finds the documents they’re looking for, and reviews a thumbnail to be sure it’s what they need, we either provide a link or send a PDF file of those public documents for $6 per document.

One user said, “This is great stuff! Once again, the Macomb County Clerk/Register of Deed’s office is providing the public with a useful tech-savvy resource to gain easy access to public information, with the convenience [of access] from one’s home or office.”

For many people, owning a home is a key part of the American Dream, and we wanted to give our citizens in Macomb the power to protect that dream. We took bold action to combat fraud and educate homeowners about their rights and property. With help from Xerox and the Google Search Appliance, Macomb County is making the search for the American Dream a little easier.

Join us for a Google Hangout On Air on April 24, 2013 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST to see for yourself how the Google Search Appliance is making a difference in our city.

You know the drill. Dreary two hour meetings you can’t wait to escape. Emails that go on forever without getting to the point. Another invite to a meeting with no clear purpose. Admit it: work can sometimes feel like a formidable opponent — the one thing standing between you and your action-packed weekends.

So today, we’re introducing the Levity Algorithm in Google Apps. Created in partnership with legendary improv comedians from Chicago’s Second City Communications, the Levity Algorithm is carefully tuned to help you spice up even the most boring of work days. Send happier emails, hold more engaging meetings, write more mind-blowing presentations — and above all, turn those frowns upside down.

Editor’s note: From the founding of Faneuil Hall in 1740 to the opening of Franklin Southie in 2008, Boston’s businesses have embodied an enterprising and entrepreneurial spirit. Today, we’re wicked excited to hear from Tim Luckow, founder of Boston-based GHouse, a record label, management and promotion company. See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

Photo by Christopher Evans, Boston Herald

One of the most enduring critiques of the record industry is, as Q-Tip rhymed in 1991, “Industry Rule No. 4,080: Record company people are shady.” While some things have improved since then, there are still plenty of ways the industry could be better. I started GHouse, a Boston-based music label, management and booking agency, to make that change happen.

Transparency reigns supreme at GHouse: we’re dedicated to showing our artists what happens behind the scenes on the business side so they can focus on their music. We want them to know exactly how much they’re making from digital sales, how many people are streaming their songs online and what each venue contract really means. It’s good both for the artists and for us: we’ve doubled our profits quarter-over-quarter since the start of 2012.

Google Apps makes that transparency – and the vision I have for my business – possible. The foundation of this clear communication sits in Google Sheets. We create, share and constantly update a spreadsheet for each of our artists that tracks performance across multiple channels, from the number of times their songs are live-streamed on certain sites to how many tickets they’re selling for upcoming shows. That way, the band can hop into the spreadsheet at any given time and know how much they can expect in royalties and sales.

As we’ve grown, so has the geographic distribution of our bands. Thanks to Google+ Hangouts, it feels like we’re still in the same neighborhood. Instead of having to venture down the Eastern seaboard on a bus each week, we’ll catch up with them over video conferencing. That’s eight hours I spend focusing on my business rather than commuting along I-95.

Most importantly, Google Apps has helped me prove the legitimacy of the business side of GHouse to the investors, who are an increasingly essential part of the company’s future. I track everything about the business in Sheets, including quarterly distribution and tour numbers, divided by artists and labels. The investors I’ve shared these with love how all this information is centrally located, impeccably organized, updated in real-time and accessible to the team at any time, from any device.

Google Apps is truly the core of my business. It’s helped GHouse function as a company for four years without an office, whether we’re updating our artists’ performance spreadsheets over lattes at a coffee shop or doing last minute planning for a SXSW showcase in Austin. I’m able to run a record label like I think it should be run. To me, that’s real success.

Editors Note: Our guest blogger this week leads the security efforts for the San Francisco 49ers. See how the security team uses Google Maps Coordinate as a way to more effectively manage pre-game logistics and protect one of San Francisco’s most beloved organizations.

For the San Francisco 49ers, team communication is everything. From third down plays to stadium security, being able to get in touch with the right people at the right time is critical. As Director of Security, I’m responsible for helping the 49ers get to where they need to be, as quickly and as safely as possible. Google Maps Coordinate, a workforce management tool, helps us run a smooth, safe operation behind the scenes, so our players, coaches and staff can focus on the game.

Our team relies on the Google Maps Coordinate mobile app to manage pre-game logistics. The app lets me use my phone to send accurate information to staff in a simple, straightforward way. When we’re on the road and one of the players needs a ride back from the workout facility to the hotel, Maps Coordinate shows me which of my drivers is available and nearby to complete the transportation task. Moreover, it provides a visual communication tool, showing the real-time location of our security team on a Google Map.

Using Google Maps Coordinate, I can easily assign or reassign jobs to team members, anytime, anywhere. When one of our team members accepts, checks-in or completes a task, I can immediately see details of the job and its status. This complements our existing radio network, saving airtime and providing an alternative way to relay information, give instructions or find out where people are.

While preparing for the biggest game of the year, Google Maps Coordinate provided us with the foundation for establishing a 24/7 control center in New Orleans. Within a two-week period, approximately 150 jobs were created to manage pre-game logistics of our designated security escorts. This enabled us to safely transport our players, coaches and staff to various locations across the city. Additionally, the familiarity and accuracy of Google Maps allowed our team to more efficiently maneuver in high-traffic and unknown areas.

NFL game days are a bit more intense for me than the average 49ers fan. But using Google Maps Coordinate lets me and the team focus on what really matters – another winning season.

Editor’s note: From the founding of Faneuil Hall in 1740 to the opening of Franklin Southie in 2008, Boston’s businesses have embodied an enterprising and entrepreneurial spirit. Today, we’re wicked excited to hear from Aimee Anderson, Vice President of Business Development at Daily Grommet, a Boston-based online marketplace for new, innovative consumer products. See what other companies that have gone Google have to say.

At Daily Grommet, we love finding the next new thing. Since we started in 2008, our site has launched more than 1,500 products from companies with innovative consumer product ideas, including luggage, solar-powered lights, funky watches, headphones and skin care products. We’re a fast-moving company that embraces the entrepreneurial spirit, both in our own culture and in the products we help go to market.

Building a business around a steady stream of product launches demands a strong technology platform that enables quick and constant collaboration for a team that works all sorts of hours from all over the country. Our office is in Boston, but we have remote workers in Colorado, California and Minnesota, and people often work from home or on the road. Whether it’s catching up on a project using Google Chat, firing off an email or collaborating in real-time with co-workers using Google Docs and Google Sheets, our employees are connected wherever they are. Our marketing team has even completely dumped wired phones and relies entirely on Google+ Hangouts. They may be dispersed geographically, but with video conferencing, they feel like they’re all in a room together.

While Google+ keeps us connected, Google Sheets drives our product launch cycle. We launch something new each day at noon, so getting each product ready to go live is an intense process that requires significant coordination and collaboration across multiple teams. Every ounce of information about all of our product lines is held in a shared spreadsheet, from purchase orders to contact information, manufacturing details to photos and videos. Each spreadsheet is shared with the discovery, marketing and development teams and gets updated as every product moves through the process to launch. Releasing a new product takes a lot of coordination and our teams need to know the information they’re working with is up to date and can be accessed anywhere by anyone. With Sheets, that’s never a question.

Finding the next new thing requires a technology backbone that lets us be nimble, fast, and always connected. Google Apps does just that. Right now, we’re celebrating National Craft Month by highlighting more than 30 cool pieces of jewelry, food, crafts tools and other amazing things our partners create. Google Apps helps us make good on our commitment to the companies we work with by giving them a springboard to build their business. That’s a commitment we take seriously and are proud to uphold.

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

For More Information:
http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=3017040
http://deployment.googleapps.com/Home/user-resources/documentation-templates/launch-drive

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Today we announced that Chromebooks are now available in six more countries around the world. Hand-in-hand with several reseller partners, we’ve worked so that you can also purchase Chromebooks for businesses and schools in these same countries.

More than 2,000 schools are now using Chromebooks for Education. Chromebooks help educators improve teaching and learning, whether it’s in one classroom like Mr. Hathorn’s History Class in Vermont or for 17,000 students in an entire school district in Richland Two, South Carolina. To start your school’s journey you can tune into one of the Hangouts On Air next week on the Google in Education Google+ Page. During these Hangouts we’ll provide more information about Chromebooks for Education and will answer audience questions.

• Australia – Event on March 28th at 10:00 EST
• Canada – Event on March 28th at 14:00 EDT
• France – Event on March 29th at 16:00 CET
• Germany – Event on March 28th at 17:00 CET
• Ireland – Event on March 26th at 17:00 GMT
• The Netherlands – Event on March 27th at 17:00 CET

Businesses around the world are also using Chromebooks where they need greater security and increased shareability. For example, Chromebooks enable employees like those on retail shop floors, manufacturing lines and out in the field, giving them access to central information and providing more timely updates on remote conditions. This is helping businesses to make better decisions faster.

We are excited to see what schools and businesses in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands do with Chromebooks. If you are interested in learning more about Chromebooks for your school or system you can visit the Chromebooks for Education website and click the “Contact Sales” button to complete the short form. Businesses can contact our business team to learn more.

Editor’s note: From the founding of Faneuil Hall in 1740 to the opening of Franklin Southie in 2008, Boston’s businesses have embodied an enterprising and entrepreneurial spirit. When we looked at several recent lists of the top startups in the Boston area – from Bostinno, Quora and the Boston Business Journal – we were pleased to discover that about 75% of these companies are running on Apps. 

Today, we’re wicked excited to hear from Mike Volpe, CMO of HubSpot, the industry leader in inbound marketing software and one of those top startups. See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

Back in 2006, two MIT alumni decided there had to be a better way to do marketing. Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan knew that loud, interruptive and unwanted advertising wasn’t the way to help businesses attract customers, not to mention that new technology like caller ID and spam filters was simultaneously rendering those legacy efforts less effective. So they started HubSpot, and with it, a new paradigm that would be better for both marketers and customers, replacing loud, interruptive advertising with marketing consumers actually love.

HubSpot has grown to 450 employees since launching in 2006, and along the way, we’ve settled on a core mantra when it comes to how we work: “use good judgment.” We don’t tell employees where they have to work or when they have to be here – we care most about results. It’s imperative, then, that we leverage enterprise tools that make work easy and accessible anytime and anywhere. That’s why we use Google Apps. It lets us work together whether we’re at our desks or halfway around the world. That, combined with the fact that it grows with us and is simple to use, makes it the perfect solution for our company.

Our employees use Google Apps every day on nearly every aspect of our business. With Docs, Sheets and Slides, we’re able to collaborate on our most important documents with our colleagues, no matter where we are. We can store all our files in one place with Drive, so each team knows they can find their templates and notes whether they’re sitting down with their laptops or traveling with their smartphones. And Google Forms makes tracking executive speaking requests simple and seamless. Any time an organization wants a HubSpot expert to talk at an event, we send them a form with a set of standard questions, and the information they submit about the opportunity is automatically populated into a spreadsheet that houses all other requests. It’s perfectly efficient.

Google Calendar helps us stay transparent, which we consider essential to empowering our employees. Many of our executives book office hours on Google Calendar and share them with our company. Any employee at any level can sign up for an hour with them, where they can bring up anything from product development ideas to problems they’re having at work.

Working for a fast-moving company isn’t easy, but with Google Apps, we’re not burdened by the hassles that can otherwise grind busy days to a halt without a strong technology platform. We don’t have to deal with attachments, version history screwups, email outages or fussing around with our phones to get our email to sync. We open up Google Apps and it works. It’s the same experience we offer with our software – simple, effective and lovable.

Editor’s note: Today’s guest blogger is Franck Barlemont, Director of Information Systems at Prisma Media, the second largest magazine publisher in France. See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

Prisma Media is a French magazine publisher with approximately 20 titles in subjects such as photography, art and travel. From how to take the best photos to how to properly cook a souffle, our titles, including National Geographic, Female Current and Current Kitchen, have been informing and entertaining readers for years.

As Director of Information Systems at Prisma Media, it’s my job to keep a finger on the pulse of how our employees are using technology. Just as the publishing industry has had sweeping changes the past few years, so too has the way our employees use technology. Last year, I discovered a few enterprising employees who were forgoing our hosted corporate email system in favor of Gmail. They had reached the limit of their email storage and needed a way to stay productive.

Traditionally, bringing outside, unsupported technology into the workplace is fraught with concerns around security, lack of manageability and control. Other companies might have quickly revoked access to Gmail for the employees in question and reminded them of the standard company policy when it comes to using unsupported technology at work. Instead, we chose to look at this as an opportunity and reevaluated our technology environment.

We decided to go with Google Apps for Business for a number of reasons. First, Apps requires much less support than our previous solution. Simply by going Google, we cut our IT support calls by approximately 30 percent, which saved us money and freed up our IT department for other tasks. The second reason was cost. By switching to Google we cut our email costs by approximately one-third, which is a lot, especially when you consider we’re getting access to a much better, more modern product. Lastly, the switch itself was seamless. By working with Google Apps Reseller GPartner, we were able to continue to manage and run our business without missing a beat, while GPartner handled the switch in approximately 45 days.

Google Apps gives us a more modern, robust and flexible platform at a third of the cost and frees up our tech support resources. It also allows us to do what’s most important: focus on our business. The only drawback is I wish we would have made the move sooner.