Now available with Google Apps: Picasa Web Albums

[Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog]

Editor’s note: We recently launched an improvement that makes over 60 additional Google services available to Google Apps users. This series showcases what’s new and how your organization can benefit.



Welcome to Picasa Web Albums
Sharing and collaboration are central to Google Apps with over 30 million users in businesses, schools, and government already using products such as Gmail, Google Docs and Google Sites to work together more efficiently. As part of the effort to enhance the tools available to our Apps users, we’re pleased to bring the the photo sharing capabilities of Picasa Web Albums to your Google Apps account.

Picasa Web Albums makes it easy to organize, share and edit your photos, and collaborate with others. You can create web albums to group your images, add tags for organization and searching, edit your photos using Picnik to ensure they look their best, add places to your photos with geotagging via Google Maps, and easily share your photos with colleagues.

Whether it’s photos from a recent corporate offsite or holiday party, or visuals for insertion in a document or blog post, Picasa Web Albums allows you to store your images in the cloud and access them from any browser on any device. Sharing with colleagues is easy as well using your Google Apps account with email address autocomplete linked to your existing Contacts list.


Uploading, storing and sharing your photos is just the beginning. Picasa Web Albums is also integrated with other Google products such as Google Docs, Google Sites and Blogger, which allows users to seamlessly insert images stored or shared with you in Picasa Web Albums into documents, sites or blog posts in just a few clicks. It’s never been easier to compose a multimedia document using nothing but the web.


Stop sending photos to colleagues as attachments and load them into the cloud instead. Just like Google Apps, Picasa Web Albums runs in your web browser so your photos are at your fingertips anywhere you have an Internet connection.

Learn more and get started
Picasa Web Albums can be enabled by your domain administrator from the Google Apps Control Panel at https://www.google.com/a/[your_domain.com] (replace [your_domain.com] with your actual domain name). If your organization isn’t using Google Apps yet, you can learn more and sign up today at http://www.google.com/apps/more.

You can learn more about Picasa Web Albums in our Help Center or you can stay up to date on product news as well as tips and tricks on our blog.


Posted by Lisa Conquergood, Picasa Team

Note: Picasa Web Albums may not be available in all areas.

Introducing the Big Small Business Plan

A few weeks ago we asked about your wishes for your business in 2011, and yesterday we shared what you said. Near the top of your list: growing your small business. As one of you put it, "I want to replace the word 'small' with 'biggest.'" At Google, we’re all for dreaming big. So today we’re introducing something we’re calling the Big Small Business Plan. If you haven’t yet tried AdWords, Google’s advertising program, just sign up by December 31 and spend $100 by February 15, 2011. When you do, we’ll match your $100 investment with a $100 investment of our own.

Need a little inspiration before getting started? Meet Shoes of Prey and Biztree, two small businesses that grew with the help of AdWords.

If you already use AdWords, the Big Small Business Plan works for you, too. Just install free AdWords Conversion Tracking and spend $100 by February 15, and we’ll give you the $100 credit. AdWords Conversion Tracking shows you which of your keywords and ads lead to sales (or whatever action you want customers to take on your site). This free tool will help you grow by making the most of your advertising investment. Get started by registering for this offer no later than December 31.

The Google Small Business team wishes you truly big success in 2011!

Posted by Gordon Zhu, Inside AdWords Crew

Lounge-y Pants

It's been a lounge-y week. Well a week that involved very little motivation to do anything since both of the kids were down with the flu last weekend and this week has been spent recovering. They are much better now, only a cough, which will last for a few weeks, according to the doc...(Whoopee!) So needless to say, my wardrobe has consisted of pj's for the past week. I have looked skank-tastic with wild unkempt hair, no make up and usually not getting around to brushing my teeth until bedtime...fantastic isn't it?  I feel really sorry for the paint guy right now who is here painting S.R.'s closet door. He must have thought, WOW! when he saw me...Oh yeah, it's that good!

Anywho....There is a blog that I follow called Whimsy Couture. They have some of the cutest patterns for sale and even have some free ones...all about some free stuff! Anyway, occasionally they send out a call for help in testing new patterns. I answered the call this time:o) Most of my pjs are 8 years old (or older) and have holes all in them. This was my chance to freshen up my jammie wardrobe. The pattern was super easy to follow and I was done in less than an hour on these puppies. I made the legs a little long just in case they shrunk in the dryer...not real big on pre-washing my fabrics b/c I am impatient:o)

So I will be sporting these for the next 8 years:o) You guys should check out all the patterns that are available. 

Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet? I have 3 more gifts to buy....thought I was done:o/

I will be working on E's teacher gifts this afternoon. Just waiting on the paint guy to get done so I can put the rug rats down for a nap. Hopefully I will have pics to share with you tomorrow!

Sending your customers holiday cheer with Google Maps

I love walking around my neighborhood during the holiday season and seeing all of the winter and holiday decorations adorning the storefronts. The neighborhood bakery is looking even more festive than usual, and the local boutique’s storefront is full of gift boxes and holiday lights.

The holiday season is a great time for local businesses to connect with customers as they do their shopping or stop by for a family meal. So to help you tell your customers how much you appreciate their business, or to let them know about any holiday events or in-store activities, consider sending them online holiday cards featuring Google Maps.

In addition to selecting from ten holiday card covers, you can add a specific place from Google Maps on the inside of the card - whether it’s your business listing, a Street View image of your store location, or directions from downtown. Just add a personal message and email address, and we’ll send the card on your behalf.

You can also spread the holiday spirit by sending these cards to friends and family, suggesting a place to go ice skating, or just to share holiday greetings.

To start sending these cards, visit googlemapsholidays.appspot.com. Happy holidays!

Posted by Katie Mandel, Product Marketing Manager, Google Maps

Now available with Google Apps: Google News

[Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog]

Editor’s note: We recently launched an improvement that makes over 60 additional Google services available to Google Apps users. This series showcases what’s new and how your organization can benefit.



Welcome to Google News
Staying up to date on all the day’s news is a challenge – even when that news might be absolutely critical to your business. Missing a story could mean missing an opportunity. That’s why we’re pleased to make Google News available with your Google Apps account.

Google News is a computer-generated news site that aggregates headlines from news sources worldwide, groups similar stories together, and displays them according to your personalized interests. You can customize Google News with topics you are interested in, and even indicate which publications you’d like to prioritize in your personalized news stream.


Google News will surface stories relevant to the interests you indicate and will aggregate articles from multiple news sources covering that story. For example, if a story about changes in the funding environment for small businesses shows up in your news stream, you’ll be able to click through to coverage from a variety of news outlets in order to get a spectrum of views on the issue.

Now that Google News is integrated with Google Apps, sharing the articles that you discover with coworkers is easier than ever. You can email a link directly from the News interface with address autocomplete linked to your existing Contacts list.


And Google News even makes it easy to stay current on the latest developments in the news when you’re away from your desk. When you connect to Google News on your smartphone with your Google Apps account, you will find an experience optimized for viewing on your mobile device and get the same personalized stream of news you see in the full browser version.


Now you can make the most of those spare minutes between meetings or the transit time on your morning commute by reading the latest news, complied and organized just for you.

Learn more and get started
Google News can be enabled by your domain administrator from the Google Apps Control Panel at https://www.google.com/a/[your_domain.com] (replace [your_domain.com] with your actual domain name). If your organization isn’t using Google Apps yet, you can learn more and sign up today at http://www.google.com/apps/more.

For answers to specific questions you can visit our Help Center or you can follow the latest updates on our product blog.


Posted by Chase Hensel, Product Manager, Google News

Note: Google News may not be available in all areas.

We Asked. You Told Us Your Wishes for 2011

Two weeks ago, the Small Business Marketing team asked about your aspirations for the coming year. You told us the biggest wish for your business, and the wish for expanding your business’ online presence. Today, we’d like to share what we heard.

We combined your responses from our blog, Facebook and Twitter and organized them into three main themes and then sub-themes. Of course, not all wishes fell neatly into these themes, so we did create a Miscellaneous category.

Before the drum roll, thanks to everyone that took time to share and participate. Some wishes were big and audacious and others more practical, but all with an underlying tone of passion for what you do and a focus on delighting your customers. On with the results…

Theme 1: Move my business online

Not surprisingly, you’re passionate about the business products you’re using and made very specific feature requests. Rest assured if they were Google product related, we’ve shared your wishes with our product teams. Additionally, you said you want more online resources to help your business grow. Your comments acknowledged that referrals are now happening online through social media channels and, as such, you want to understand how to use these online tools. You also want more out of your websites. Ultimately, you said you want to do more online to run your business more efficiently and spend more time concentrating on your customers.

Click for larger image.

Theme 2: Grow my business

We heard that you want to continue to grow your business with increased profits, more customers, or more people. Lots of wishes for more marketing tools to increase your business’ visibility – the range included the entire marketing mix. You want simple tools made specifically for you. There were wishes for funds to buy equipment, spend more on advertising, build e-commerce into your offering, and lease real estate – to name a few.

Click for larger image.

Theme 3: Love my business

Many resounding wishes to continue fueling your passion because you love what you do. You’d love to learn more – from social media, AdWords and Places to creating marketing plans. You prefer support face-to-face with people and training at a relatively low cost. Many of you want more opportunities to network and support your fellow business owners. Whether it’s help getting the most out of applications and tools, or navigating a healthcare plan, you’d like some expertise to assist.

Click for larger image.

We thank you again for telling us your wishes for the coming year. Stay tuned as we will use these wishes to build upon our plans to help small businesses succeed in 2011.

Posted by Leslie Hernandez, Product Marketing Manager, Google Small Business Team

Now available with Google Apps: DoubleClick for Publishers

[Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog]

Editor’s note: We recently launched an improvement that makes over 60 additional Google services available to Google Apps users. This series showcases what’s new and how your organization can benefit.



Welcome to DoubleClick for Publishers
For millions of online publishers—from the smallest blogger to the largest entertainment, news, e-commerce and information sites—online advertising revenue is vital. When publishers can maximize their returns, everyone benefits from more vibrant online content and websites. A publisher's ability to manage this process can have a significant impact on how much money they make from their online content, which is why we’re happy to bring our Google Apps customers our next generation ad serving platform to solve these problems: DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) from Google.

Imagine you're a major online publisher with a popular global surfing website and an ad sales team. Every second of every day, you have difficult decisions about what ads to show and how to measure their relative performance. For example:

• In the same ad space, a surfboard wax advertiser wants to run a static image ad for your Australian readers, while an airline offering flights to Hawaii wants to run an expandable interactive ad for your American readers.


• A fast-food restaurant wants to run its burger ads before noon and its pizza ads in the afternoon.


• You've sold 10 different surfboard makers a million ad slots at slightly different prices; now you have to allocate them across your various webpages to fulfill all these orders over the next two weeks.


• One of your surfing tournament reviews is linked to by a popular news site and you have a surge in traffic. Your sales team couldn't predict this, so you’re left without any ads for thousands of readers. You want to fill this ad space by selling it via an ad network that has ads available.

These examples illustrate how complicated it can be to optimize ad serving on your website, and they only scratch the surface.

DFP comes in two flavors, tailored for different publishers' needs: DoubleClick for Publishers, for the largest online publishers, and DFP Small Business, a simple, free version designed for growing online publishers. As a Google Apps user, you now have access to both versions of DFP with your existing Apps account.


With advanced features such as streamlined ad trafficking, inventory management and forecasting, revenue optimization, granular reporting, and an open API, DFP offers a complete toolkit to easily sell ads on your site directly to advertisers while also working dynamically to help you get the most money from inventory you sell through partners like AdSense and ad networks.

Just like Google Apps, DFP runs in Google’s cloud so you get the same reliability, flexibility, and easy access without any software to install or hardware for IT to maintain. Also, DFP is fully supported by Google so you don't have to worry about manual system updates or downtime.

Learn more and get started
DoubleClick for Publishers can be enabled by your domain administrator from the Google Apps Control Panel at https://www.google.com/a/[your_domain.com] (replace [your_domain.com] with your actual domain name). If your organization isn’t using Google Apps yet, you can learn more and sign up today at http://www.google.com/apps/more.

To learn more about how DFP can help you manage and grow all of your online ad inventory, please visit our website or follow along with the latest news and release updates at the DoubleClick for Publishers blog.

Share your story
Have you already started using Google Custom Search at your organization, or plan to now that it’s available? Please share your story and your organization could be featured in the next Gone Google ad campaign!


Posted by Stephen Kliff, DoubleClick Team

Note: DoubleClick for Publishers may not be available in all areas.