Google Data » Jeremy Milo

New Information Feed for Google Apps Updates

Jeremy Milo — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:05:00 +0000

Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager

Keeping up with the steady stream of updates and innovations can be a challenge for Google Apps administrators. Starting today there's a new source of information you can count on for details about every update. This info is available as an RSS feed. To subscribe to new updates and see a digest of past improvements, click this "Add to Google" button:

Let us know if there's something you'd like to see in a future update of Google Apps. Your feedback helps us focus our progress.

Survey Says….

Jeremy Milo — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 22:37:00 +0000

Posted by Amanda Kleha, Product Marketing Manager

Here at Google Enterprise, we're always wondering what's on the minds of IT professionals and end users. So we asked them. An annual tradition started by Postini, this year's survey on message security and compliance was conducted by a third party and involved 575 IT professionals. Questions ranged from "What productivity challenges does IT face?" to "Who is responsible for security and data leakage?"

Not surprisingly, the majority of respondents (53%) believe that IT holds ultimate responsibility for their organization's communications security and compliance, as shown below. They also realize that organizations need to have policies and mechanisms in place to help achieve this.

These results and more are now available in a white paper called the 2008 Communications Intelligence Report. The report also includes sections on Google's expectations for security in 2008 and security and compliance best practices.

We hope these findings will help shed light on the forces that are influencing the growing adoption of software-as-a-service (SaaS), which is taking the place of in-house solutions that tend to require significant internal resources to maintain. The results suggest that one reason SaaS is gaining momentum is that the problems it solves are top-of-mind for IT departments, such as spending too much time or money on troubleshooting and maintenance.

By using service providers, organizations can offload capacity challenges, get real-time updates, and benefit from the economies of scale of a large network. And there's more good news: With Google's recent launch of new security and compliance products, organizations of all sizes can afford and easily implement best-in-class security and compliance.

Introducing Google Calendar Sync

Jeremy Milo — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:23:00 +0000

Posted by Matt Kulick, Associate Product Manager

Google Apps users appreciate that their web-based Google Calendars are available anywhere and anytime, and packed with powerful sharing options. But people aren't always connected to the Internet, and they may prefer to use different applications (like Microsoft Outlook calendar) at their home or office. One of the biggest issues we hear from users is how hard it is to keep all of their calendars up to date.

Today, we're pleased to announce a tool to sync Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook calendar. If you add an event in your Microsoft Outlook calendar, it will automatically sync to Google Calendar and be accessible at any time, whether you're using a browser or a mobile phone. Similarly, if you schedule an event with a future pop-up reminder in Google Calendar, you will automatically see that reminder in your Microsoft Outlook calendar on your computer. Your Microsoft Outlook calendar and Google Calendar are automatically kept up to date, leaving you free to use whichever one you want.

We also want to ensure that your contacts see your calendar information only if you intend to share with them. You can set the default privacy level in Google Calendar to "private" so events synced from Microsoft Outlook calendar are marked private, and only you (or others who you've granted permission to view event details) will see them on Google Calendar. You can also choose to sync in just one direction if you prefer to keep your private data only in Microsoft Outlook calendar, or only in Google Calendar.

Google Calendar Sync is now available for free for all Google Apps users at http://dl.google.com/googlecalendarsync/GoogleCalendarSync_Installer.exe.

Google Sites Joins Google Apps

Jeremy Milo — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:48:00 +0000

Posted by Rishi Chandra, Google Apps Product Manager

Today, information is created in all types of formats, such as documents, presentations, and even videos, and one thing we hear a lot from our customers is how hard it is for a company to organize all that information in one place. We know that making information easily accessible is an essential part of knowledge-sharing, so we're excited to introduce a new addition to our Google Apps product suite: Google Sites.

Google Sites makes creating a team website as easy as editing a document. You (and any number of other people in your organization) can quickly gather a variety of content – videos, documents, presentations, spreadsheets, calendars and more – and securely share it for viewing or editing with a few colleagues, your entire organization, or the world.

At the same time, we give administrators the control and security they need to ensure private content is kept private. And you get the benefits of Google's hosted platform: no hardware or software to install or maintain, so your organization can focus on your core business tasks.

Google Sites is now available for free in the Team, Standard, and Education Editions of Google Apps, and comes with Premier Edition for no additional charge. Existing admins can enable Google Sites immediately from the Google Apps control panel. To learn more about Google Apps, including how Google Sites can help your organization, we have plenty more information for IT administrators.

And if you already have a Google Search Appliance to search your corporate network, you'll be happy to know that you can use it to instantly search across your organization's Google Sites pages too. To learn more about this integration, visit Google Enterprise Labs.

Google Apps Mobile Access Recap

Jeremy Milo — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:34:00 +0000

Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager

Doing email, checking your calendar and accessing documents from mobile devices have become essential as more people around the world go online primarily from their phones, and as we all develop higher expectations for being productive from anywhere.

I thought it would be helpful to give a quick recap of how employees and students can use Google Apps when they're not at a computer, organized by type of device. Here we go....

Google Apps on BlackBerry smartphones

Gmail – The fastest way to use Gmail on your BlackBerry is with the installable Gmail application. To download and install Gmail for free, visit m.google.com/a from your BlackBerry web browser. Then, launch the application with the blue "M" icon () from your BlackBerry home screen or from the applications folder. If you also have a personal @gmail.com account, there's a separate free application (with a red "M" icon) so you can be signed in to both accounts at the same time.

Google Talk – There's a handy Google Talk application that lets you see who's online and instant message with contacts from your BlackBerry. To download and install Google Talk for free, visit www.blackberry.com/GoogleTalk from your BlackBerry web browser. Then, launch the application with the Google Talk icon () from your BlackBerry home screen or from the applications folder.

Google Calendar – You can sync information in Google Calendar with your BlackBerry calendar, so whether you add new appointments from your phone or from your computer, you always have access to your up-to-date schedule. To download and install Google Sync for free, visit m.google.com/sync from your BlackBerry web browser.

Google Docs – To access your documents and spreadsheets when you're not at a computer, you can sign in to Google Docs from your BlackBerry web browser. Just visit docs.google.com/a/your-domain.com, but remember to replace "your-domain.com" in this address with your actual domain name.

Google Apps on the Apple iPhone

Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs – These apps are available with a streamlined web interface, where you can easily bookmark a single web address and seamlessly switch between applications. Bookmark http://www.google.com/m/a/example.com from your iPhone's browser, but remember to replace 'example.com' with your actual domain name.

Alternatively, you can connect to your iPhone's Mail application to Gmail using IMAP for free. Learn more here and here about how to configure the iPhone's Mail application to do this.

Google Talk – You can instant message from your iPhone with Google Talk, too. Bookmark http://talkgadget.google.com/a/example.com/talkgadget/m from your iPhone's browser, but remember to replace 'example.com' with your actual domain name.

Google Apps on most other smartphones

Gmail – If your phone is Java-enabled, you can use the fast, installable Gmail application. To give it a try, download and install Gmail for free by visiting m.google.com/a from your phone's web browser. Then, launch the application with the blue "M" icon () from your phone's home screen or in the applications folder. If you also have a personal @gmail.com account, there's a separate free application (with a red "M" icon) so you can stay signed in to both accounts at the same time.

If your phone doesn't use Java, you can run Gmail as a fast web application. Visit mail.google.com/a/your-domain.com on your phone's web browser, but remember to replace "your-domain.com" in this address with your actual domain name.

Google Calendar – To run Google Calendar as a fast web application, visit calendar.google.com/a/your-domain.com from your phone's web browser, but remember to replace "your-domain.com" in this address with your actual domain name.

Google Docs – To access your documents and spreadsheets when you're not at a computer, you can sign in to Google Docs from your phone's web browser. Just visit docs.google.com/a/your-domain.com, but remember to replace "your-domain.com" in this address with your actual domain name.

Google Apps on many other less powerful phones

Gmail – If your phone is Java-enabled, you can use the fast, installable Gmail application. To give it a try, download and install Gmail for free by visiting m.google.com/a from your phone's web browser. Then launch the application with the blue "M" icon () from your phone's home screen or in the applications folder. If you also have a personal @gmail.com account, there's a separate free application (with a red "M" icon) so you can stay signed in to both accounts at the same time.

If your phone doesn't use Java, you may still be able to run Gmail as a web application. Visit mail.google.com/a/your-domain.com on your phone's web browser, but remember to replace "your-domain.com" in this address with your actual domain name.

Google Calendar – Depending on the model of your phone, you may be able to run Google Calendar as a web application. Visit calendar.google.com/a/your-domain.com from your phone's web browser, but remember to replace "your-domain.com" in this address with your actual domain name.

Alternatively, you can check your calendar, add events and get appointment reminders with text messages. Learn more about how this works here, here and here.

Google Docs – Depending on the model of your phone, you may be able to access Google Docs from your phone's web browser. Just visit docs.google.com/a/your-domain.com, but remember to replace "your-domain.com" in this address with your actual domain name.

Note: all of these mobile web interfaces, installable applications and text messaging features are free, but carrier charges may apply.

Also, the BlackBerry, Java, Apple, Safari and iPhone product and service names are the trademarks of their respective owners.

Instant workgroup collaboration with Google Apps Team Edition

Jeremy Milo — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:01:00 +0000

Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager

It's exciting to see just how quickly technology is accelerating, but the pace of innovation poses a challenge for decision-makers in schools and businesses. It's tough for them to keep up with escalating expectations about how technology should empower everyone to do more. A 2007 Yankee Group study notes that about 50% of professionals say that they'd be more productive at work if they had access to the kinds of tools they use in their personal lives.

This is why we're launching Google Apps Team Edition. The idea is to provide instant access to collaboration tools so team members can be more productive. With Team Edition, co-workers and classmates have an easier way to share documents, spreadsheets, presentations and calendar information within work groups, using Google's applications. To get started, one team member just needs to sign up with their work or school email address. After confirming they belong to their company or school, he or she can invite other teammates who haven't joined yet and start collaborating. There’s no hardware, software or setup involved for users, and no burden on the IT department.

But organizations need a level of security and control that individuals might not consider. To this end, Team Edition provides options so people can share information just with other members of their organization, and not with outsiders. Also, by verifying ownership of the domain, IT admins can customize the experience for their users, including who should have access, which applications are available and much more. You can learn about all the administrative capabilities on the Google Apps site for administrators.

Here's a quick video overview of Team Edition.

Simplifying email security, archiving and discovery

Jeremy Milo — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:39:00 +0000

Posted by Sundar Raghavan, Product Marketing Manager

Managing email systems has never been easy, and for many businesses it only seems to be getting harder: Not only do you have to worry about increasingly complex email security threats, upgrades and patches, but archiving and e-discovery needs to meet regulatory requirements are also on the rise. We believe cloud computing can dramatically simplify this problem for our customers and reduce costs, and today we're taking another step to make it so.

We're launching three new security and compliance products on the Google Apps platform: Google Message Filtering, Google Message Security and Google Message Discovery. They're simple, powerful, and affordable for businesses of all sizes, and they work with any email system, from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange to Novell Groupwise. They also take the hassle out of IT -- you can buy them online, enable them in hours, and protect your business immediately. No more worries about upgrades and patches either -- they're automatic. We believe in giving our users choice, so you can pick the service that best suits your needs and budget.

* Google Message Filtering ($3 or €2.00 per user/year) provides basic spam filtering for any email server.
* Google Message Security ($12 or €8.00 per user/year) provides comprehensive email security and policy management for inbound and outbound messages.
* Google Message Discovery ($25 or €17.50 per user/year) provides comprehensive security, policy management, archiving, e-discovery for any email server.

Read more about these packages.

Note that the prices are annual, making them affordable for any budget. More importantly, they address many of the security and compliance challenges our customers face today. Here are some examples:

* If you're using an appliance and running into spam leaks and mail outages, you can front-end the appliance/software with Google Message Filtering and realize performance improvements immediately.

* If you're worried about sensitive information leaking via email accidentally, you can use Google Message Security and implement content filtering policies and be assured your outbound email will be policy compliant.

* If you're using tape-based archives and struggling with email storage growth and e-discovery requests, you can simplify your life with Google Message Discovery. You can manage archiving in the cloud without storage capacity worries and respond to e-discovery requests using a browser.

We've designed these products to make your life easier and your emails more secure and compliant. They allow you to focus on your business and deliver value, not waste time fighting spam and archiving.

But don't take it from us. Check out what our customers have to say in the videos here, here and here. They're a handful of the nearly 40,000 businesses that rely on our technology to keep them compliant and safe.

Access from anywhere

Jeremy Milo — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 19:18:00 +0000

Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager, from my mobile phone

Being focused on helping people access, create, and share information, I shouldn't still be surprised by the stats about how people get online, but I am. For example, the count of personal computers worldwide is about to cross the 1 billion mark. That's a big number, but did you know that around 3 billion people have mobile phones? Nearly half the world's population already can, or may soon be able to, have the world's information in their pocket. Let that sink in for a moment....

And lots of people who go online with their phones aren't doing it that way for lack of a computer. Even with its small screen and squashed keyboard, my phone has become my web-connected device of choice in lots of situations. Like when I'm visiting a new city and need directions, when I want to send a quick email from a ski lift, or when it's just easier to reach into my pocket than fire up my MacBook.

These are some of the reasons why Google is committed to improving the mobile experience. The latest example, launched today, is Google Sync for mobile. This application for BlackBerry® smartphones keeps your Google Calendar in sync with your BlackBerry® calendar. So whether you update your schedule from your mobile device or from your computer, your agenda will be up to date however you decide to access your information later on.

You can download Google Sync for mobile by going to http://m.google.com/sync on your BlackBerry® browser. And for more about the other ways Google Apps users – including those without smartphones – can access their information on the go, check out the Google Apps mobile access overview.

The past, present and future of email with Google Apps

Jeremy Milo — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:37:00 +0000

Posted by Gabe Cohen, Google Apps Product Manager

We're always looking to make it even easier for companies to move to Google Apps. And some customers are reluctant to step into the future without bringing along the email from their past.

Not long ago, we launched an email migration tool that lets administrators move email from their existing IMAP mail systems to Google Apps, so users didn't have to leave their old mail behind. Since then, more than a hundred million messages have been migrated. But this solution didn't solve the whole problem. If your existing solution didn't support IMAP, you were out of luck.

Today, we're excited to announce the new Google Apps Email Migration API, which can move email from anywhere – not just IMAP systems – to the Premier, Education or Partner Editions of Google Apps. If you need to migrate email from your users' desktops, migrate email from a server not supported by the IMAP migration tool, or do a push migration because of your security policies, a tool built on this API could be the perfect answer.

A growing network of partners now offer helpful and affordable migration solutions to organizations switching to Google Apps. For example, using the Email Migration API, LimitNone has already built a tool called gMOVE, which can move Microsoft® Outlook® calendars, email and contacts into Google Apps. You can find gMOVE and other migration solutions for your organization in our Solutions Gallery.

If you're interested in building an email migration tool yourself using this API, you can create an administrator or end user tool to migrate email extracted from any data source. The email migration API is based on GData, so it's easy to use, and you can learn all about it on the Google Code website. If you are a developer, and think organizations using Google Apps might be interested in what you've built, we could list your offering in our Solutions gallery. Please let us know by submitting your solution.

This API is just the latest in a stream (read, torrent) of innovations we've rolled out this year for Google Apps email. In case you missed any of those improvements, we'd thought we'd list some of the highlights here:

IMAP support, so you can use your favorite mail clients like Outlook®, Thunderbird® or your iPhone® with Google Apps
More email storage, up to a whopping 25 gigabytes per users (room for hundreds of thousands of messages)
99.9% uptime guarantee, so you can count on Gmail to be available when you need it
Policy management and message recovery, putting more security and compliance controls into the hands of administrators
Inbound email routing and email gateway support for pilot configurations, dual delivery and mixed messaging environments
Email migration tool for moving old mail from an IMAP server to Google Apps

Office 2.0 is growing up quickly

Jeremy Milo — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:05:00 +0000

Posted by Jonathan Rochelle, Google Spreadsheets Product Manager

This past week I attended the Office 2.0 conference, organized by It|Redux, for the second year in a row. Last year was a special year for me and the Docs & Spreadsheets team. We publicly launched the combined product—the Spreadsheets product in Google Labs came together with the Writely product we had acquired earlier that year. We’ve spent the last 11 months improving the product with great feedback from users, who are a combination of consumers and business groups. It’s hard to believe that the Docs & Spreadsheets product hasn’t even hit its first birthday yet.

That’s the main thing that struck me about this conference—it’s a quickly evolving space that is maturing beyond its precise chronology, like a precocious kid whose parents say, “She is four, going on 16.” That’s what web-based applications seem like. We feel the “watch this trick” excitement, but with high expectations and the anticipation of a fast-moving development cycle. In fact, during the “Death of the App” panel, in which our own Rajen Sheth participated, one attendee asked whether the space will cool off as the novelty of the technology diminishes. Ramana Rao of iCurrent responded matter-of-factly with, “The coolness is already gone"—which to me holds some truth. It certainly seems that businesses now expect the interaction and accessibility of the web in any new business app they procure—they aren’t enticed by just the "wow" factor any longer.

From left: Frank Zamani, Rajen Sheth, Ramana Rao, Greg Olsen, Danny Kolke, Mark Bagley, MC Greg Ruff

In that same session, Dan Farber asked the panel why there was so much optimism and confidence when all this activity “isn’t even a blip on [the] competitive radar yet.” The panelists had some good answers. My answer goes something like this: In any technology shift, there is opportunity for new ideas and new winners. The potential and reward for small, creative teams to build products and, hopefully, successful businesses, is thankfully greater than the fear of losing to the status quo or reliance on business-as-usual. That’s why this conference is so interesting—even as the space matures, there are still plenty of great ideas coming from new players.

Thanks to all of you who remind me that inertia and fear of change never bring improvements, and that the best ideas come from the optimistic and energetic pursuit of something better.

Google Apps for WordPress bloggers

Jeremy Milo — Wed, 30 May 2007 18:35:00 +0000

Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager

First off, congratulations to the WordPress team for recently hitting the one meeeeellllion blog mark. This is a great achievement for WordPress and another milestone for the whole blogosphere.

We were also thrilled to see that WordPress now recommends Google Apps for custom-domain email accounts to bloggers who have their own internet domains. This means that bloggers who use WordPress can send and receive email for free with Google Apps on the same domain where they publish their WordPress blogs.

If you don't happen to be one of WordPress' million bloggers but want fully customized email accounts and much more, Google Apps will work for you too. You can use Google Apps on an existing domain, or register a new domain when you sign up.