Twice the storage for a quarter of the price

<span style="font-style: italic;">(Cross-posted from the <a href="http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2009/11/twice-storage-for-quarter-of-price.html">Google Photos Blog</a>)</span><br /><br />People today have more personal data online than ever before. More and more people are starting to move the bulk of their data off the desktop and into servers "in the cloud," where it's accessible from any computer or mobile device and easily shareable with friends and family. At the same time, digital photo technology is making it easier and cheaper than ever to take a lot of pictures, and client software like <a href="http://picasa.google.com/">Picasa 3.5</a> makes it easier than ever to move photos from your camera to the cloud. That's why we've always given you lots of free storage in products like Picasa Web Albums and Gmail, and why for the past two years <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/simple-way-to-get-more-storage.html">we've offered</a> additional storage you can purchase if you need even more space.<br /><br />While the cost of hard drive storage has <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law">continued to drop</a> in these two years, we've also been working hard to improve our infrastructure to reduce your costs even further. Today we're dramatically lowering our prices to make extra storage even more affordable. You can now buy 20 GB for only $5 a year — that's twice as much storage for a quarter of the old price, and enough space for more than 10,000 full resolution pictures taken with a five megapixel camera. Since most people have less than 10 GB of photos, chances are you can now save all your memories online for a year for the cost of a triple mocha. If you need more than 20 GB, plans range all the way up to 16 TB, which is enough room for 8 million full resolution photos! And Google paid storage offers an extra level of security, protection and accessibility that you can't get with an external drive — at a similar cost per gigabyte.<br /><br />As always, extra storage acts as an overflow that you only start using when you reach the limit of your free storage, and people who have extra storage will be automatically upgraded. So if you need more space for thousands of photos of your toddler, or if you're running out of room in your overflowing inbox, visit <a href="https://www.google.com/accounts/PurchaseStorage">www.google.com/accounts/PurchaseStorage</a> to see all the plans and to buy more storage.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Elvin Lee, Software Engineer</span>

Twice the storage for a quarter of the price

(Cross-posted from the Google Photos Blog ) People today have more personal data online than ever before. More and more people are starting ...

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Liberate your Google Docs with Convert, Zip and Download

This past September, you may have heard about the launch of our <a href="http://dataliberation.blogspot.com/2009/09/welcome-to-data-liberation-front.html">Data Liberation</a> site, a central place on the web detailing how you can easily move your data into or away from Google's cloud. Today, we're adding another product to our growing list of liberations: the "Convert, Zip and Download" feature in Google Docs, which allows you to download a bunch — or all — of your Docs simultaneously.<br /><br />This new feature comes out of a collaboration between the Google Docs engineering team and Google's Data Liberation Front, a small team of engineers that aims to make it easy for you to transfer your personal data in and out of Google's services by building simple import and export functions.<br /><br />"Convert, Zip and Download" now joins dozens of other liberation features across our product offerings, ranging from Blogger's <a href="http://www.dataliberation.org/google/blogger">full blog downloads</a> to <a href="http://www.dataliberation.org/google/gmail">email export from Gmail</a> using IMAP and POP3. The feature lets you bundle your Google Docs in a format of your choice (MS Office, Open Office, PDF, etc.) and download them as a zip file. No longer do you have to download each document individually, which can take a lot of time if you have hundreds of documents like I do! All you need to do is select the relevant Docs, click on "Export" from the "More Actions" menu and download them in one go. (Check out the <a href="http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/10/data-liberation-mark-as-viewed-and-new.html">Google Docs Blog</a> for more details.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN0NgF-CVFFBAhiiSzpceFcNc3_dczLkdYVdu3bj70P8QNnWxWNuYZmzFOQ00qQ0Q38jH0n6BT524eQtJohJXnjkczHdjIP0vGox5eprl5l3qsCpvFOyKxDaPULJ09TyBV8bz_WLrVpg0u/s1600-h/ccs8p3jp_39s3ct2kg5_b.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397020504016073522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN0NgF-CVFFBAhiiSzpceFcNc3_dczLkdYVdu3bj70P8QNnWxWNuYZmzFOQ00qQ0Q38jH0n6BT524eQtJohJXnjkczHdjIP0vGox5eprl5l3qsCpvFOyKxDaPULJ09TyBV8bz_WLrVpg0u/s400/ccs8p3jp_39s3ct2kg5_b.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 168px;" /></a><br />We hope you find the new export feature useful. We strongly believe that you — not the products you use — should control your data, and be able to quickly and easily take that data out of any product without a hassle. We've already liberated more than half of our products, and are working hard to address the remaining challenges. Keep an eye out for more upcoming Data Liberations.<br /><br />You can also take a deeper look into product liberation at <a href="http://www.dataliberation.org/">dataliberation.org</a>, follow us on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/dataliberation">@dataliberation</a> or contribute suggestions for services that you think need to be liberated on our Data Liberation <a href="http://moderator.appspot.com/#16/e=43649">Moderator page</a>.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Brian Fitzpatrick, Engineering Manager, the Data Liberation Front</span>

Liberate your Google Docs with Convert, Zip and Download

This past September, you may have heard about the launch of our Data Liberation  site, a central place on the web detailing how you can easi...

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Reading gets personal with Popular items and Personalized ranking

<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(Cross-posted from the </span></span><a href="http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2009/10/reading-gets-personal-with-popular.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Official Google Reader Blog</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">)</span></span></div><div><br /></div>Today, we're launching two changes to <a href="http://reader.google.com/">Google Reader</a> to help you discover more interesting content faster. Just as the launch of <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/06/search-gets-personal.html">Personalized Search</a> improved search results based on your search history, these changes use your Reader Trends to improve your reading experience.<br /><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Explore section</span> - We're always trying to help you discover new stuff in Reader, and today we're introducing Popular items and Recommended sources, two ways to find interesting content from all over the Internet. We use algorithms to find top-rising images, videos and pages from anywhere (not just your subscriptions), collect them in the new Popular items section and order them by what we think you'll like best. Now you don't have to be embarrassed about missing that hilarious video everyone is talking about — it should show up in your Popular items feed automatically. And to make it easier to find interesting feeds, we're moving <a href="http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2007/11/attack-of-interns-recommendations-and.html">Recommendations</a> into the new Explore section and giving it a new name — Recommended sources. Like always, it uses your <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/view/#trends-page">Reader Trends</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/history/">Web History</a> (if you're opted into Web History) to generate a list of feeds we think you might like.</li></ul><ul><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbsZ6ttkLzpwHvZSeHQn5513pMX4gFce7bt8NWpBZc8j7BEDt2yjcX3pUFQZ0iGwZIpoiDGLAlbZ3N0BSJjB4IHG3dxfJM3gWRfWtUKvLkcCh0_dd8hJVxthGfzxWkq9wHRoX4RcI8D-xT/s1600-h/explore.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5395560149323462850" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbsZ6ttkLzpwHvZSeHQn5513pMX4gFce7bt8NWpBZc8j7BEDt2yjcX3pUFQZ0iGwZIpoiDGLAlbZ3N0BSJjB4IHG3dxfJM3gWRfWtUKvLkcCh0_dd8hJVxthGfzxWkq9wHRoX4RcI8D-xT/s400/explore.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 260px; height: 168px;" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Personalized ranking</span> - Only have a 10-minute coffee break and want to see the best items first? All feeds now have a new sort option called "magic" that re-orders items in the feed based on your personal usage, and overall activity in Reader, instead of default chronological order. Click "Sort by magic" under the Folder Settings menu of your feed to switch to personalized ranking. Unlike the old "auto" ranking, this new ranking is personalized for you, and gets better with time as we learn what you like best — the more you "like" and "share" stuff, the better your magic sort will be. Give it a try on a high-volume feed folder or All items and see for yourself!</li></ul><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFxPahh5xbE9CNQQgPZZZGlTGQFV5kMI24lJxe61Ng1mUWJC2qn4C-3QgkIAFY468N3VAf2Gv5KFRjO8ckU-Seg7Ur_tz-IMPuBd1KEUHP3TJsx_I72EvlThyphenhyphen1dkboNd6wWoStmLGeMlrr/s1600-h/magic.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5395560153703883890" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFxPahh5xbE9CNQQgPZZZGlTGQFV5kMI24lJxe61Ng1mUWJC2qn4C-3QgkIAFY468N3VAf2Gv5KFRjO8ckU-Seg7Ur_tz-IMPuBd1KEUHP3TJsx_I72EvlThyphenhyphen1dkboNd6wWoStmLGeMlrr/s400/magic.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 191px; height: 134px;" /></a>The goal of personalization at Google remains the same as ever: to help you find the best content on the web. We hope these new features help you do just that — go <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/view/#stream/pop/explore">Explore</a> for yourself.<br /><br />Finally, we'd love to hear your feedback — share your thoughts on <a href="http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/reader?hl=en">our help group</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/googlereader">Twitter</a> or the Reader section of <a href="http://getsatisfaction.com/google/products/google_google_reader">Get Satisfaction</a>, a third party support community.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Beverly Yang, Software Engineer, Search Quality</span>

Reading gets personal with Popular items and Personalized ranking

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Reader Blog ) Today, we're launching two changes to Google Reader to help you discover more inte...

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Shared folders and multiple file upload in Google Docs

Today, we are happy to launch one of the <a href="http://productideas.appspot.com/#25/e=220cb">most requested Google Docs features</a> — the ability to share folders. Shared folders make it easy for a team of people to collaborate on projects that require multiple documents, spreadsheets or presentations. If you have a group of items you want to share, all that you have to do is put them into one folder and share it.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKGJQ8hG3Y4qa7XJY54CG99Zka2MSh5ubtCRlBZXtMj8OH01qm3NSeT3Jp-UcvNp3tHnbbwHk0piWzvjQhZayXgCgm5FkrOAoaVNGM7WOph9Jl0sP9mRsgOZZKanbNqjxhHguAcKefPe3s/s1600-h/d1.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391768341405716082" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKGJQ8hG3Y4qa7XJY54CG99Zka2MSh5ubtCRlBZXtMj8OH01qm3NSeT3Jp-UcvNp3tHnbbwHk0piWzvjQhZayXgCgm5FkrOAoaVNGM7WOph9Jl0sP9mRsgOZZKanbNqjxhHguAcKefPe3s/s400/d1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 103px;" /></a><br />Once you've shared a folder, all of the items in the folder will be accessible to the group. You can also add someone to an existing shared folder to give them access to all of the folder's content. Likewise, each item you add to the folder will be automatically shared. Just like with sharing documents, you can <a href="http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=50085">specify edit and view-only access</a> for a folder.<br /><br />In addition to sharing folders, you can now upload multiple files to Google Docs at the same time, simplifying the process of transferring documents from your desktop to the cloud. Once your documents are in the cloud, you can access them from any device connected to the Internet or share them with people you choose.<br /><br />These features are currently rolling out and will be available to everyone by the end of the day. If you're interested in learning more, check out our post on the <a href="http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/10/shared-folders-and-more-in-google-docs.html">Google Docs blog</a>.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Vijay Bangaru, Product Manager, Google Docs</span>

Shared folders and multiple file upload in Google Docs

Today, we are happy to launch one of the most requested Google Docs features — the ability to share folders. Shared folders make it easy fo...

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Surf's up Wednesday: Google Wave update

Starting Wednesday, September 30 we'll be sending out more than 100,000 invitations to preview Google Wave to:<br /><ul><li>Developers who have been active in the <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/wave/">developer preview</a> we started back in June</li><li>The first users who signed up and offered to give feedback on <a href="http://wave.google.com/">wave.google.com</a></li><li>Select business and university customers of <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html#utm_campaign=wave-ext-pre&utm_source=en-na-us-googleblog-wave-ext-pre&utm_medium=blog">Google Apps</a></li></ul>We'll ask some of these early users to nominate people they know also to receive early invitations — Google Wave is a lot more useful if your friends, family and colleagues have it too. This, of course, will just be the beginning. If all goes well we will soon be inviting many more to try out Google Wave.<br /><br />Some of you have asked what we mean by preview. This just means that Google Wave isn't quite ready for prime time. Not yet, anyway. Since <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ">first unveiling</a> the project back in May, we've focused almost exclusively on scalability, stability, speed and usability. Yet, you will still experience the occasional downtime, a crash every now and then, part of the system being a bit sluggish and some of the user interface being, well, quirky.<br /><br />There are also still key features of Google Wave that we have yet to fully implement. For example, you can't yet remove a participant from a wave or define groups of users, draft mode is still missing and you can't configure the permissions of users on a wave. We'll be rolling out these and other features as soon as they are ready — over the next few months.<br /><br />Despite all this, we believe you will find that Google Wave has the potential for making you more productive when communicating and collaborating. Even when you're just having fun! We use it ourselves everyday for everything from planning pub crawls to sharing photos, managing release processes and debating features to writing design documents. In fact, we collaborated on this very blog post with several colleagues in Google Wave.<br /><br />Speaking of ways you could potentially use Google Wave, we're intrigued by the many detailed ones people have taken the time to describe. To mention just a few: journalist Andy Ihnatko on <a href="http://www.suntimes.com/business/1606282,ihnatko-google-wave-060309.article">producing his Chicago Sun-Times column</a>, filmmaker Jonathan Poritsky on <a href="http://www.candlerblog.com/2009/06/05/google-wave-for-filmmakers-a-concept/">streamlining the movie-making process</a>, scientist Cameron Neylon on <a href="http://blog.openwetware.org/scienceintheopen/2009/06/08/google-wave-in-research-the-slightly-more-sober-view-part-i-papers/">academic papers</a> and <a href="http://blog.openwetware.org/scienceintheopen/2009/06/08/google-wave-in-research-part-ii-the-lab-record/">lab work</a>, Alexander Dreiling and his SAP research team on <a href="http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/15618%3Fpage%3Dlast%26x-order%3Ddate">collaborative business process modelling</a>, and ZDNet's Dion Hincliffe on a <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=400">host of enterprise use cases</a>.<br /><br />The Wave team's most fun day since May? We invited a group of students to come spend a day with us at Google's Sydney office. Among other things, we asked them to collaboratively write stories in Google Wave about an imaginary trip around the world. They had a ball! As did we... <br /><br /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="400" height="267" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2FOgogster%2Falbumid%2F5386680766808884449%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCMK8n7WI5cKRkQE%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><br /><br />Finally, a big shoutout to the thousands of developers who have patiently taken part in our ongoing <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/wave/">developer preview</a>. It has been great fun to see the <a href="http://wave.google.com/help/wave/extensions.html">cool extensions already built or being planned</a> and incredibly instructive to get their help planning the future of our APIs. To get a taste for what some of these creative developers have been working on, and to learn more about the ways we hope to make it even easier for developers to build new extensions, check out this post on our <a href="http://googlewavedev.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-happened-in-wave-sandbox.html">developer blog</a>.<br /><br />Happy waving!<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Lars Rasmussen, Engineering Manager & Stephanie Hannon, Group Product Manager</span>

Surf's up Wednesday: Google Wave update

Starting Wednesday, September 30 we'll be sending out more than 100,000 invitations to preview Google Wave to: Developers who have been ...

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Back to school with Google Docs

As interns on the <a href="http://docs.google.com/">Google Docs</a> team this past summer, we were excited to be able to work on making Google Docs that much more useful for students like us. We've now added a bunch of back to school features which should help our fellow students make the transition from summer to school that much easier — and we hope they'll be useful to you non-students as well!<br /><br />We created an equation editor so you can easily complete problem sets online or write papers that include equations. If you're taking math, you can now take notes in class or answer questions using Google Docs.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji_4tIJnVHQAIM-GzzuBz09kVBrj3o7UH80t0fWUMiUqYiAC4mH0grSIFVaWxtNIriccNnxL9-T3vqFFXVkLgTNAgephrbMHnZPZRjOI8YJZYmULP6yGdxXpEqQUXLQPynNz97Nfh460u0/s1600-h/dcfknv9p_86ftfp26fj_b.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386583460730458354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji_4tIJnVHQAIM-GzzuBz09kVBrj3o7UH80t0fWUMiUqYiAC4mH0grSIFVaWxtNIriccNnxL9-T3vqFFXVkLgTNAgephrbMHnZPZRjOI8YJZYmULP6yGdxXpEqQUXLQPynNz97Nfh460u0/s400/dcfknv9p_86ftfp26fj_b.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 269px;" /></a><br /><div>In the same vein, we also added superscripts and subscripts — perfect for expressing chemical compounds or algebraic expressions:<br /><br /><iframe src="http://docs.google.com/present/embed?id=d7qpvbb_48cd8cr6d4" frameborder="0" width="410" height="342"></iframe><br /><br />For language enthusiasts, we integrated <a href="http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/08/translate-documents-sharing-across.html">translation features</a> into Google Docs. You can translate either a single word or an entire document — handy for making sure you're on the right track when writing those foreign language essays.<br /><br />For those of you conducting surveys, we added a "Go to page based on answer" option in Google forms, making it easy to show participants only those questions that are relevant to them.<br /><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:'Lucida Grande';font-size:11px;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi97u6kMz8a9dQzmhUKJFeXjJc2E9eWHmWKfGmuamOKTFTpDlxaiMMw-FX83zdi6AJ_NW6eHCAdAHxDHOtCW0a3Kq8ocH-mwINWk8kZJUF_ZIo1AfK-_OjrmaPIqQjLgdA5k0r8FTKmQ9wp/s1600-h/dcfknv9p_85srpm76gx_b.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386583473535480386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi97u6kMz8a9dQzmhUKJFeXjJc2E9eWHmWKfGmuamOKTFTpDlxaiMMw-FX83zdi6AJ_NW6eHCAdAHxDHOtCW0a3Kq8ocH-mwINWk8kZJUF_ZIo1AfK-_OjrmaPIqQjLgdA5k0r8FTKmQ9wp/s400/dcfknv9p_85srpm76gx_b.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 289px;" /></a></span><br /></div><div>We also came up with a few features for humanities buffs. To make outlining term papers more customizable, we made it easy to select different bulleting styles for lists by adding an option to the format menu. And when that paper is written and ready to turn in, you now have the option to print footnotes as endnotes for a cleaner-looking paper.<br /><br />We hope these new features make collaboration in Google Docs even more convenient, whether you're editing group presentations from across campus or collecting survey data from friends. In fact, we've created this video to show how collaboration can even help you out with your "extracurricular" activities:<br /><br /><object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/A7y7NafWXeM&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/A7y7NafWXeM&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Rita Chen and Stephanie Vezich, Google Docs Summer Interns</span></div></div>

Back to school with Google Docs

As interns on the Google Docs team this past summer, we were excited to be able to work on making Google Docs that much more useful for stu...

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Five million students going back to school are "going Google"

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(Cross-posted on the <a href="http://googleforstudents.blogspot.com/2009/09/five-million-students-going-back-to_08.html">Google Students Blog</a>)</span></span><br /><br />It's always tough to bid farewell to summer and hit the books again, but for a few million students this back-to-school season, things are looking up. As of this fall, over five million students at thousands of schools in more than 145 countries have "<a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/going-google-with-google-apps.html#utm_campaign=gonegoogleuni&utm_medium=blog&utm_source=en-ogblog-na-us-edugogoogle_0908">gone Google</a>" and are actively using <a href="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/index.html#utm_campaign=gonegoogleuni&utm_medium=blog&utm_source=en-ogblog-na-us-edugogoogle_0908">Google Apps Education Edition</a> on campus. Since this time last year the number of students using Google Apps on campus has increased by 400%. Because more schools sign up for Apps everyday, we wanted to celebrate the start of the 2009 school year by launching a<a href="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/appsatschool.html#utm_campaign=gonegoogleuni&utm_medium=blog&utm_source=en-ogblog-na-us-edugogoogle_0908"> </a><a href="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/appsatschool.html#utm_campaign=gonegoogleuni&utm_medium=blog&utm_source=en-ogblog-na-us-edugogoogle_0908">new site</a> that shows off some of these schools, provides product tips and tricks, introduces a community discussion forum and more.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.google.com/appsatschool#utm_campaign=gonegoogleuni&utm_medium=blog&utm_source=en-ogblog-na-us-edugogoogle_0908"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379161785424650018" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYwTy48MYcc1IUzcdpoPJ_OjT2stbUI8QzmjjszckLeyZssxcKokoEmpQgyHvpwoVm9mLDyEr1Gs2dpS2vm-8g9Ob4YTPG-cVrCElsdAMpTTKBWyh20U_aig4OOn1GA1CEDKH9URdY84Vs/s400/cf25nc3h_48ccrqm6fk_b.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 174px;" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">A snapshot of some of the thousands of schools "going Google" this fall. Every location in green indicates Apps users</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">.</span></span><br /></div><br />When you visit the site, you'll also find an interactive map packed with interesting trivia. For example, in addition to the 70,000 students using Apps at Temple University, their 5,000 staff and faculty were given a choice between Gmail and alternative vendor, and over 90% chose to go Google. Or when Kent State first deployed, they saw more than 700 students migrating each hour. And a single admin at Montana State successfully deployed over 30,000 accounts in less than 90 days. Or as we learned in the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuteocMftek#utm_campaign=gonegoogleuni&utm_medium=blog&utm_source=en-ogblog-na-us-edugogoogle_0908">recent webinar</a> from another school on the map — Notre Dame — they saved $1.5 million by switching to Apps. You can hear their full story in this video:<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PuteocMftek&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PuteocMftek&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />We hope more schools will continue to go Google and bring Apps to their campuses in an effort to improve communication and collaboration while cutting costs and resources. In the meantime, check out <a href="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/appsatschool.html#utm_campaign=gonegoogleuni&utm_medium=blog&utm_source=en-ogblog-na-us-edugogoogle_0908">our site</a> and find out what Apps has done for other schools and what Apps can do for your school — and if you're already a part of the movement, <a href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dElDTTBzTjJBejgzUXZFcVJGbHZLT1E6MA#utm_campaign=gonegoogleuni&utm_medium=blog&utm_source=en-ogblog-na-us-edugogoogle_0908">add yourself to the map</a>!<div><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Miriam Schneider and Jason Cook, Google Apps Education Edition team</span></div>

Five million students going back to school are "going Google"

(Cross-posted on the Google Students Blog ) It's always tough to bid farewell to summer and hit the books again, but for a few million s...

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Happy 10th birthday, Blogger

Much has changed since Blogger was released in August of 1999. Writing about Blogger's founding in his book <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.sayeverything.com/">Say Everything</a>, Scott Rosenberg describes the effect of Blogger simply: "It cleared the obstacles from the path between brain and Web page." As the phenomenon of blogging has grown and evolved over the past ten years, so too has Blogger, adapting to a world of fast-paced communication and allowing millions to tell their stories. When Google acquired Blogger in February of 2003, about 250,000 people visited Blogger per month. Today, that number is more than 300 million.<br /><br />In our <a href="http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/News/News-Item/Google-Buys-Pyra-Labs-and-Blogger.com--4069.htm">announcement</a> about the Blogger acquisition, we said (somewhat ironically, not in a blog post — the Official Google Blog was still more than <a href="http://www.google.com/tenthbirthday/#2004-official-google-blog">a year away</a>): "Blogs are a global self-publishing phenomenon that connect Internet users with dynamic, diverse points of view while also enabling comment and participation." We're proud that Blogger <a href="http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/08/giving-voice-to-digital-refugees.html">continues to be a force for free expression worldwide</a> and that it is growing quickly despite its maturity. In the past two years alone, the number of people contributing to a blog has more than doubled, and every second of every day, a new blog is created on Blogger.<br /><br />To commemorate Blogger's 10th birthday, we've been releasing <a href="http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/08/blogger-is-turning-10.html">birthday presents</a> as our way of saying thanks to the millions of users who have made Blogger what it is today. So far, we have released 5 presents and today we're announcing 2 more, courtesy of two Blogger partners:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/09/earn-charity-donations-on-blogger-with.html">Socialvibe</a>: When Socialvibe approached us about finding a way to empower the Blogger community to help raise funds for charities, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to leverage Blogger's reach to do some good. Starting this week, Blogger users can show their support for charities and raise funds by adding a gadget to their blog. The Socialvibe team has challenged us to raise $50,000 for charity by the end of the year, and we're pretty confident we can beat that.</li><li><a href="http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/09/theres-app-for-that.html">InfoThinker</a>: If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch and a Blogger blog, you're in luck. The team at <a href="http://www.infothinker.com/">InfoThinker</a> (makers of the iPhone app BlogPress) was eager to help celebrate Blogger's birthday. Earlier this week they submitted a free version of BlogPress that works only on Blogger to the iPhone App Store. Blogging on the go has never been so easy! Keep an eye out for the app. </li></ul>Here is the <a href="http://buzz.blogger.com/search/label/10th%20Birthday">full list of presents</a>. We have more in store over the next couple weeks, and we're just as excited about a number of developments planned for later in the year. With thanks to Blogger founders <a href="http://www.megnut.com/">Meg</a>, <a href="http://www.onfocus.com/">Paul</a> and <a href="http://www.evhead.com/">Ev</a> without whom we wouldn't have a 10th birthday to celebrate, and to the millions of people around the world who rely on Blogger to tell their story every day, here's to our next decade.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Rick Klau, Product Manager</span>

Happy 10th birthday, Blogger

Much has changed since Blogger was released in August of 1999. Writing about Blogger's founding in his book Say Everything , Scott Rosen...

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Sharing with Google Groups

As more and more businesses and organizations "<a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/going-google-with-google-apps.html">go Google</a>," we find that many of the features we develop based on feedback from large enterprises end up benefiting all of our users. We recently <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/08/sharing-with-groups.html">rolled out improvements</a> to the way <a href="http://groups.google.com/">Google Groups</a> interacts with several of our applications. Now, sharing <a href="http://calendar.google.com/">calendars</a>, <a href="http://sites.google.com/">sites</a> and <a href="http://docs.google.com/">documents</a> with multiple people is easy — instead of adding people one at a time, you can simply share with an entire Google Group.<br /><br />As an example, imagine you're organizing a local intramural softball team tournament. You use Google Docs to keep track of the rosters for each team as well as each team's performance.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbakI1Me2G_drSp9BSWu7u8GOiivtNEGEbOS1_TgpAN9OxHB-zFoSxzwTs1L08VV-3KDAa48TzTk5pomxJsCqODfMtWmClAGwRSStbSYU2MIWibFPzuBbC2zP0P5C8DjxKs9Ow9ComgGc9/s1600-h/1.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5371055130392786930" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbakI1Me2G_drSp9BSWu7u8GOiivtNEGEbOS1_TgpAN9OxHB-zFoSxzwTs1L08VV-3KDAa48TzTk5pomxJsCqODfMtWmClAGwRSStbSYU2MIWibFPzuBbC2zP0P5C8DjxKs9Ow9ComgGc9/s400/1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 345px;" /></a><br />You want all the players, but only the players, to have editing access. You already have a Google Group set up with the tournament participants, so you simply share the spreadsheet with the group itself, granting the group members permission to edit.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHJuGFxJv_l3vkDlwx5Lz27K154bxvH8V6kx3GuyGEsUUsjtok6EYWZVAnW2GT-PWhHxiOj3miC6hiABykkf7e38TvO2tSMTkV-Si7X9A99oxri9Xl1smqot0SPME4nmQBN7DMFulvfi8u/s1600-h/2.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5371055141565926946" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHJuGFxJv_l3vkDlwx5Lz27K154bxvH8V6kx3GuyGEsUUsjtok6EYWZVAnW2GT-PWhHxiOj3miC6hiABykkf7e38TvO2tSMTkV-Si7X9A99oxri9Xl1smqot0SPME4nmQBN7DMFulvfi8u/s400/2.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 280px; height: 218px;" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjIP3Ars5gkI-tqkhWjbpy1rG4dBtA6UrSzy1lL9TLPp5xP3qwFjP7aryVdsxjEqTE0bKYWLcVYH65XrlbV_moQu2xp7WVI_xakazcbzXp07-gCBZ9PF0hy4ye9gdYXVqc3bCNkV3gJCH7/s1600-h/3.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5371055143333679058" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjIP3Ars5gkI-tqkhWjbpy1rG4dBtA6UrSzy1lL9TLPp5xP3qwFjP7aryVdsxjEqTE0bKYWLcVYH65XrlbV_moQu2xp7WVI_xakazcbzXp07-gCBZ9PF0hy4ye9gdYXVqc3bCNkV3gJCH7/s400/3.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 274px;" /></a><br />Now, when people join or leave the Google Group, they will automatically gain or lose editing access to the spreadsheet. It's that easy.<br /><br />This was a feature that people wanted to "just work" — and now it does. Go ahead and try it out with your sites, calendars and documents!<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Jeffrey Chang, Associate Product Manager, Google Groups</span>

Sharing with Google Groups

As more and more businesses and organizations " go Google ," we find that many of the features we develop based on feedback from l...

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"Going Google" with Google Apps

Every morning, millions of people wake up to a very refreshing experience at work. They don't see "mailbox is full" errors in their email. They don't worry about backing up their data. They can get to any file they need from any computer, anywhere with Internet access and a browser. They can all access and edit the same documents and spreadsheets at the same time as their colleagues. They use Gmail and Google Calendar at work as fluidly and easily as they use their personal Gmail accounts. They video, voice and text chat with their peers globally as naturally as they send email.<br /><br />The IT people at these companies and organizations don't waste time or money buying, installing or managing email servers. They focus on the smart, innovative stuff they want to work on, because they never have to bother with expensive and painful software upgrades, hardware compatibility issues or managing data centers. They have left many IT frustrations and costs behind and moved on to something better.<br /><br />Here at Google, we have a term for the moment a company realizes there's a better way and goes for it: "going Google." Over 1.75 million businesses, schools and organizations have gone Google — including Motorola, University of Notre Dame, the Mercy Corps and many more — and each day, 3,000 more organizations join them. We want every organization to understand the benefits of going Google, so today we're telling the story in a new way. We're kicking off a series of outdoor billboards in four cities — Boston, Chicago, New York and San Francisco — that will change every weekday for the next four weeks. The billboards tell the story of an anonymous IT manager who gets so fed up with the typical IT status quo that his company eventually — you guessed it — goes Google. Here's a preview:<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QJ06e0SpNII&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QJ06e0SpNII&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Visit <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/gogoogle.html#utm_campaign=gogoogle&utm_source=en-na-us-ogblog-gogoogle&utm_medium=blog">www.google.com/appsatwork</a> to get more information about the benefits of going Google. Already gone Google? <a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=I%27ve+%23gonegoogle+-+here%27s+why%3A">Tweet your story</a> and check out our tools to help <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/spreadtheword.html">spread the word</a>.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Andy Berndt, Managing Director, Google Creative Lab</span>

"Going Google" with Google Apps

Every morning, millions of people wake up to a very refreshing experience at work. They don't see "mailbox is full" errors in ...

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Google tips for recent grads

Summer has arrived, and that means graduation. Our hearty congratulations to the class of 2009! Now that you've packed up your dorm room and picked up your diploma, what's next? This transitional time between college and "the real world" can be a bit chaotic. Luckily, we have some tools that can help you get organized as you start the next chapter in your life. We're posting tips and tricks for newly graduated students in our summer series, <a href="http://googleforstudents.blogspot.com/search/label/GradTips?utm_source=gradtips&utm_medium=blog">Grad Tips</a>, running on the <a href="http://googleforstudents.blogspot.com/">Google for Students Blog</a>. The series is a few posts in — look for more tips over the next couple of months!<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Joyce Sohn, Google Apps Team</span>

Google tips for recent grads

Summer has arrived, and that means graduation. Our hearty congratulations to the class of 2009! Now that you've packed up your dorm room...

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Google Apps is out of beta (yes, really)

We're often asked why so many Google applications seem to be perpetually in beta. For example, Gmail has worn the beta tag more than five years. We realize this situation puzzles some people, particularly those who subscribe to the <a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FBeta_version%23Beta&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFrqEzdhKpXBJCu-_h5oW0nnYDXlr-oCGQ">traditional definition</a> of "beta" software as not being yet ready for prime time.<br /><br />Ever since we launched the <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html#utm_medium=blog&utm_source=us-en-ogb-oob0707&utm_campaign=oob">Google Apps</a> suite for businesses two years ago, it's had a service level agreement, 24/7 support, and has met or exceeded all the other standards of non-beta software. More than 1.75 million companies around the world run their business on Google Apps, including Google. We've come to appreciate that the beta tag just doesn't fit for large enterprises that aren't keen to run their business on software that sounds like it's still in the trial phase. So we've focused our efforts on reaching our high bar for taking products out of beta, and all the applications in the Apps suite have now met that mark.<br /><br />Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk — both enterprise and consumer versions — are now out of beta. "Beta" will be removed from the product logos today, but we'll continue to innovate and improve upon the applications whether or not there's a small "beta" beneath the logo. Indeed, today we're also <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/07/paving-road-to-apps-adoption-in-large.html">announcing</a> some other Google Apps features that we think will appeal to large enterprises: mail delegation, mail retention and ongoing enhancements to Apps reliability.<br /><br />We have much more in store, and IT managers can read more about how to make the switch to Apps in our <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/switch_exchange.html#utm_medium=blog&utm_source=us-en-ogb-oob0707&utm_campaign=oob">Microsoft Exchange</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/notes.html#utm_medium=blog&utm_source=us-en-ogb-oob0707&utm_campaign=oob">Lotus Notes</a> resource centers. One more thing — for those who still like the look of "beta", we've made it easy to re-enable the beta label for Gmail from the Labs tab under Settings.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2dj1PkGFK20urrVq5C932uPUubzgn8eb0XH6UFhW6wr37LJh9qcb4ilJZ375g23eZp9tKnSVuGJ59p8JbB2J3oHZKGEvEe_UngAQXKMqOb4z1J9te9NVlZ09DAMEG0y3l622EGRZ13Sn3/s1600-h/Gmail+out+of+beta(2).png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355734772738780002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2dj1PkGFK20urrVq5C932uPUubzgn8eb0XH6UFhW6wr37LJh9qcb4ilJZ375g23eZp9tKnSVuGJ59p8JbB2J3oHZKGEvEe_UngAQXKMqOb4z1J9te9NVlZ09DAMEG0y3l622EGRZ13Sn3/s320/Gmail+out+of+beta(2).png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 168px;" /></a><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Matthew Glotzbach, Director, Product Management, Google Enterprise</span>

Google Apps is out of beta (yes, really)

We're often asked why so many Google applications seem to be perpetually in beta. For example, Gmail has worn the beta tag more than fiv...

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The evolution of Gmail labels

I love <a href="http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=118708">labels</a> in Gmail. Most email programs use folders, which only let me put mail in one place at a time. With labels, I can organize mail in multiple ways. Combined with <a href="http://mail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=12853">filters</a> to automatically label incoming messages, Gmail offers powerful ways to organize email.<br /><br />When I joined the Gmail team, I was surprised to learn that only 29% of Gmail users had created <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">any</span> labels. At first, I thought perhaps conversation threading and search made the need to organize our mail less important. But when we talked to people who use Gmail, we got a different story. People often asked us to add folders to Gmail, assuming no system of organization existed. As one person said in a usability study, "What are labels... and where are my folders?"<br /><br />We realized that if you didn't know about labels, it would be easy to assume Gmail had no way to organize your mail. Not only were "labels" unfamiliar, they were kind of hidden. So, we set out to make labels more accessible, as well as more powerful. Most of the changes have been in Gmail for a while, but we're adding some <a href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/labels-drag-and-drop-hiding-and-more.html">new features today</a>. We thought you'd enjoy a peek at the method to our madness.<br /><br />The first thing we did was make labels look more like the sticky notes you use in real life. Making the interface mimic things you interact with outside the computer can sometimes improve ease of use.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw72X-0RKEKGbW-A655kQBvL6gEs2TuPN-IDjSjvYp9cVIgkSF7BVuU04j78UG8wgLzkrQxnm_GfeQo_5OQRC1vjr-XFXUcgvfYEnxjzBxn-IvTYFaszMFbK9BYBrcjHARcFyhtQhG2yvT/s1600-h/colored_labels-short.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353528671185666642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw72X-0RKEKGbW-A655kQBvL6gEs2TuPN-IDjSjvYp9cVIgkSF7BVuU04j78UG8wgLzkrQxnm_GfeQo_5OQRC1vjr-XFXUcgvfYEnxjzBxn-IvTYFaszMFbK9BYBrcjHARcFyhtQhG2yvT/s400/colored_labels-short.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 66px;" /></a><br />We also made it easier to remove a label from an open conversation:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbONJBb_XxrUTRAadmd6naYfmtwAsgXPeitaNVPQMDSoH39HaFDyS-xxwo4YN8eXj94ZB4ClCvK_wnhmsRjq2x-ysqwTbvly9t-lIOGV-9dlwWyPjbTudkPeg__xnCL1FURzBv84LebiW1/s1600-h/remove_label.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353528679205882418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbONJBb_XxrUTRAadmd6naYfmtwAsgXPeitaNVPQMDSoH39HaFDyS-xxwo4YN8eXj94ZB4ClCvK_wnhmsRjq2x-ysqwTbvly9t-lIOGV-9dlwWyPjbTudkPeg__xnCL1FURzBv84LebiW1/s400/remove_label.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 111px;" /></a><br />Then we worked on the actions you take to apply and remove labels. Before, to put a label on a message, you had to look under "More actions> Apply label." Not only was this option hidden in a generic menu, but the language wasn't what people are familiar with when it comes to organizing mail. We explored several alternatives:<div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc5Qlk2Il5QbcHaqccA2MBup-xt_Q1DeD3W_ABx1GFyVvHbA6Dyzj3cwuHZKglAW9NUgYNbz9LvIc2BcnG4hsqG-Y0rdpsrBMfsNapey5DMOeSsh372vjgyY_39HxISIy4X-2EgJfpkWSK/s1600-h/move_to.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353528677914360114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc5Qlk2Il5QbcHaqccA2MBup-xt_Q1DeD3W_ABx1GFyVvHbA6Dyzj3cwuHZKglAW9NUgYNbz9LvIc2BcnG4hsqG-Y0rdpsrBMfsNapey5DMOeSsh372vjgyY_39HxISIy4X-2EgJfpkWSK/s400/move_to.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 292px; height: 400px;" /></a><br />We also learned that if we made labels sound too much like folders, people got confused. For instance, while "Copy to" and "Add to" were easy to use, these terms made people think they were creating multiple copies of a message. "Move to" was familiar but didn't lead people to think they were creating copies. And people seem to have picked it up fast! Since the launch of the <a href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-ways-to-label-with-move-to-and-auto.html">new menu buttons</a> in March, we're seeing a 50% increase in new Gmail users trying labels in their first 2 weeks. And overall usage of the "Move to" menu surpassed that of the "Labels" menu within 7 weeks of launching:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmz9RKTAmBIHPdmN8R5dO_0YpBimdi45oTJZ5maotNdSXvAb41NsaWvr89tr3uwqKbKzxlC7PDeFBYKF5FiVjmgX3F_wngjjrYZ6LyRDCt262Yd2fpDVv-DNMioWphU6WrjaKRMYQRJLca/s1600-h/label_vs_moveto.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353528684682428098" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmz9RKTAmBIHPdmN8R5dO_0YpBimdi45oTJZ5maotNdSXvAb41NsaWvr89tr3uwqKbKzxlC7PDeFBYKF5FiVjmgX3F_wngjjrYZ6LyRDCt262Yd2fpDVv-DNMioWphU6WrjaKRMYQRJLca/s400/label_vs_moveto.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 324px;" /></a><br />For our latest set of changes, we looked at how you access labels on the left side. In other email applications, folders get the royal treatment and are given a seat at the top near your inbox. But in Gmail, labels were stuck in a box below Chat — almost like we were telling people, "you don't want to use these." In testing, we discovered that it worked best to remove the terminology altogether and just place custom labels right under the system labels (e.g. "Inbox"):<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfHcdeq0XmfND3fzYE9BJjMDUXw7GkaUr9jEawVQzkZtc_L49C9qyK5baatOVMp4cCGt-I7iCPxGU7IwihG0WcKk_f1Eg-DLMqOM1VQTd3pP6krisVV8ePM1_y6VJ9dk5ELV989ZZPtC1G/s1600-h/left_nav_compare.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353529498975279442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfHcdeq0XmfND3fzYE9BJjMDUXw7GkaUr9jEawVQzkZtc_L49C9qyK5baatOVMp4cCGt-I7iCPxGU7IwihG0WcKk_f1Eg-DLMqOM1VQTd3pP6krisVV8ePM1_y6VJ9dk5ELV989ZZPtC1G/s400/left_nav_compare.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 272px;" /></a>The last step was to add drag-and-drop. Now, you can drag mail into a label, or even drag a label directly onto a message:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bAAX3oramrsBAnPiMF31vB0_6A34bqXOVDUeY-KfzOEAPrCwhcAdM2S31QQCJE1eYsaqgthudfVgJvSRL0QG4gM6DxcchLpt5pRj7buqCNf9_pj-qronv8dbdgJXmxblrFPHKOVLftv9/s1600-h/drag.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353528677554646418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bAAX3oramrsBAnPiMF31vB0_6A34bqXOVDUeY-KfzOEAPrCwhcAdM2S31QQCJE1eYsaqgthudfVgJvSRL0QG4gM6DxcchLpt5pRj7buqCNf9_pj-qronv8dbdgJXmxblrFPHKOVLftv9/s400/drag.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 72px;" /></a><br />Making it easier to process and organize your mail requires more than just labels, but we hope these changes start to improve the process. We have much more in store, so stay tuned and keep the <a href="http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail/label?lid=613f70d9ff743405">feedback</a> coming.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Michael Leggett, Gmail User Experience Designer</span></div>

The evolution of Gmail labels

I love labels in Gmail. Most email programs use folders, which only let me put mail in one place at a time. With labels, I can organize mai...

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Google heads to grade school: New resources for K-12 teachers and students

We use the Internet all the time: at home, at work (especially at Google!), on the move, and, increasingly, at school. We believe that the Internet and cloud-based tools are a key part of a 21st century classroom, helping students learn and teachers teach in collaborative and innovative ways. Students use Google Docs to work on group projects; classrooms use Google Sites to show off their work; and teachers use Forms in Google Docs for instant grading and Google Calendar for lesson planning. <a href="http://www.google.com/a/edu/">Google Apps Education Edition</a> is helping schools build online communities for students, teachers and parents, and we now have 4 million students using Google Apps Education around the world.<br /><br />This week the Google Apps Education team is launching a few new ways to make it easier for K-12 schools to use Google Apps, and attending the National Education Computing Conference (<a href="http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2009/">NECC</a>) in Washington D.C. To help address schools' email security needs, <a href="http://www.google.com/postini/email.html">Google Message Security</a> (GMS) will be offered free to current and new eligible primary and secondary schools globally that opt in by July of next year. GMS filters out email messaging threats, and education IT departments can customize the filtering rules and group messaging lists to suit their schools. We're also launching the <a href="http://edu.googleapps.com/">Google Apps Education Community site</a> for educators and students to share tips and ideas for using Google Apps in their classrooms, as well as the <a href="http://www.google.com/educators/p_websearch.html">Search Education Curriculum</a> and a <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/eduresources">Google Apps Education resource center</a> with more than 20 classroom-ready lesson plans for teachers. We'll be adding more to these resources going forward.<br /><br />If you're at NECC this year, come visit the Google team in booth #3148. If not, the teaching and learning continues with some cool <a href="http://edu.googleapps.com/tutorials-and-tips/necc-presentations">presentations and lesson plans</a> on the Google Apps Education Community site, or you can learn more at <a href="http://www.google.com/a/edu">google.com/a/edu</a>.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Dana Nguyen, Google Apps Education team</span>

Google heads to grade school: New resources for K-12 teachers and students

We use the Internet all the time: at home, at work (especially at Google!), on the move, and, increasingly, at school. We believe that the I...

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The Day in the Cloud Challenge has begun

Today, we invite you to take part in the <a href="http://www.dayinthecloud.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=ogb">Day in the Cloud Challenge</a>, an online scavenger hunt that's being played simultaneously on the ground and in the air aboard Virgin America flights across the U.S. The Day in the Cloud demonstrates how people can use <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/">Google Apps</a> to stay connected with friends, family and co-workers when they're away from their homes — even at 35,000 feet in the air.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1okR5FMDKhZzof8y_cD1_jawsFmevVmntFZSaXo6GZH7hXsYUhcEXQlYLVzbhDn5IfKTtNvDJyAzvaRSJsPafeRhY6-RLp8DwWeLjIOXcN_5l6hmCF5ZuR9y9GME-wS9fAINcPX1SLVVs/s1600-h/Game_Play_Screen.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350913163529906818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1okR5FMDKhZzof8y_cD1_jawsFmevVmntFZSaXo6GZH7hXsYUhcEXQlYLVzbhDn5IfKTtNvDJyAzvaRSJsPafeRhY6-RLp8DwWeLjIOXcN_5l6hmCF5ZuR9y9GME-wS9fAINcPX1SLVVs/s400/Game_Play_Screen.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 237px;" /></a><br />The <a href="http://www.dayinthecloud.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=ogb">online game</a> will be available until 11:59pm PDT today, so find a quiet spot, do some finger stretches, and take the challenge.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Vivian Leung, Google Apps Team</span>

The Day in the Cloud Challenge has begun

Today, we invite you to take part in the Day in the Cloud Challenge , an online scavenger hunt that's being played simultaneously on the...

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Free webinar: Google Apps Education Edition

Around the world, schools and universities continuously face the difficult challenge of reducing costs while improving the quality of education they provide. This challenge becomes even more critical in turbulent economic times. Not to mention the fact that this next generation of students – the "<a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=rM0&ei=oHUpSt6pDJXktAPE9tW5Cw&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=millennials&spell=1">millennials</a>" – brings a different set of expectations to campus. For example, they expect the ability to work together without sitting in the same room, they want to take their data with them wherever they go, they want to chat (over voice and video) with friends and family, and they expect instantaneous and unwavering access to the Internet.<br /><br />By harnessing the power of technology, we think we can offer the education community the means to meet these expectations. <a href="http://www.google.com/a/edu">Google Apps Education Edition</a> is a free suite of hosted tools including mail, calendar, document, and site creation that helps campuses save money while providing a rich set of technology tools that will enable schools to better meet the demands of savvy students. Millions of students, staff, and faculty are using Google Apps today, with more signing up every day. A big welcome to some of the schools we've recently welcomed to the Google Apps family, including:<br /><ul><li>Allegheny College</li><li>Beloit College</li><li>Boise State University (for faculty and staff)</li><li>Clemson University</li><li>Cornell University</li><li>Georgetown University</li><li>Pittsburgh State University</li><li>Southern Illinois University Carbondale</li><li>Temple University</li><li>Truman State University</li><li>University of Alaska</li><li>University of California at Davis</li><li>University of Minnesota</li><li>University of Sunderland</li><li>Wagner College</li></ul>To share info about these latest innovations, we'd like to invite you to a free live <a href="https://googleonline.webex.com/googleonline/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=572458080">customer webinar</a> on <span style="font-weight: bold;">Thursday, June 25</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">at 10:00 a.m. PDT</span>. In this session you'll hear directly from Arizona State University, the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/score-one-for-sun-devils.html">first school</a> to deploy Google Apps Education Edition, back in 2006. Key administrators will talk about their decision to go with Google Apps, the results they've seen so far, and their future plans for Apps. Whether you're a student, work at a school, or went to school, we hope you'll join us to hear about how Google Apps can help institutions like ASU save money and IT resources, plus make students' lives easier with a set of tools for working together.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Miriam Schneider, Apps EDU Marketing Team</span>

Free webinar: Google Apps Education Edition

Around the world, schools and universities continuously face the difficult challenge of reducing costs while improving the quality of educat...

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The state of cloud computing

Earlier today at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco, we convened a group of journalists, partners and customers for a discussion on <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html#utm_medium=et&utm_source=us-en-ogb&utm_campaign=en">Google Apps</a> in the enterprise. We're pleased to report that the "state of <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/04/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about.html">the cloud</a>" is strong, and we've taken a number of steps to make it stronger.<br /><br />At the event we discussed the growth of our business, introduced some new customers, and announced a feature that makes switching to Apps even easier. The Clift was a particularly appropriate venue because it's a member of the <a href="http://www.morganshotelgroup.com/">Morgans Hotel Group</a>, which is deploying Google Apps to its 1,750 employees. <a href="http://www.johnsondiversey.com/cultures/en/default.htm">JohnsonDiversey</a>, a global provider of commercial cleaning and hygiene products and solutions, has also gone Google. Choosing Apps helped JohnsonDiversey migrate its 12,000 employees to one communications platform while lowering its IT costs and furthering its commitment to sustainability through the elimination of a number of energy-intensive email servers.<br /><br />Of course, when big companies like Morgans move all their employees from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps, there are often a few folks who aren't ready to give up Microsoft Outlook right away. To help them make the transition, today we also introduced <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/outlook_sync.html#utm_medium=et&utm_source=us-en-ogb&utm_campaign=en">Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook</a> to our Premier and Education edition customers. It lets Outlook work easily with Apps and — like <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/01/announcing-offline-access-in-gmail-labs.html">offline Gmail</a> and the <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/mobile.html#utm_source=en_US-blog-gbes&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=gbes">Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry® Enterprise Server</a> — is another example of how we're making it dead simple to switch to Google Apps.<br /><br />To read more about Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook and hear why 1.75 million companies are now running their business on Google Apps, check out the <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/06/use-microsoft-outlook-with-google-apps.html">Google Enterprise Blog</a>.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Matthew Glotzbach, Product Management Director, Enterprise team</span>

The state of cloud computing

Earlier today at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco, we convened a group of journalists, partners and customers for a discussion on Google App...

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Picasa Web Albums stays big, gets faster

I use <a href="http://picasa.google.com/">Picasa</a> to manage the photos on my computer in part because it's the fastest way to manage all of the pictures I take. When I started working on <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/">Picasa Web Albums</a>, the speed and responsiveness of the desktop program were a tough act to follow. Typically, when you move your photos from the desktop to the web, you have to choose between viewing high resolution photos that take forever to download, and tiny photos that lack any detail. For Picasa Web Albums, we thought we could do better.<br /><br />We chose to show large images, the very biggest we can fit into your browser window. If you open up a slideshow or full-screen view, we can fill your entire monitor. But it wasn't snappy enough for us, so we had a choice to make: either use smaller images, make the Internet faster, or make our code smarter. We think large images are important, because seeing a photo's little details can make a big difference, and as much as we wanted to, making the whole Internet faster was a little impractical in the short term. So we went deep into the code and gave it a thorough tune-up.<br /><br />The results, I hope, speak for themselves. Take a look at any album or slideshow on Picasa Web (<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/startled/MesaVerdeNationalPark#5343594568426354866">here's one of mine</a>) and you should notice that browsing photos is significantly faster. Give <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/startled/MesaVerdeNationalPark#slideshow/5343594568426354866">full-screen</a> mode a try to see even bigger photos. If you've got a reasonable connection to the Internet, you should be able to hold down one of the arrow keys and zip through the entire album at a pretty good clip, flip-book style. Of course, while you <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">could</span> zoom past entire albums at ludicrous speed, we hope you'll enjoying spending your time looking at the photos themselves, rather than navigating between them.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Shawn Brenneman, Software Engineer</span>

Picasa Web Albums stays big, gets faster

I use Picasa to manage the photos on my computer in part because it's the fastest way to manage all of the pictures I take. When I star...

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The Day in the Cloud Challenge featuring Google Apps on June 24th

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZUXnbLKmon5FnhTlyMCUpqtVV8zldj7cwWpM8Q1mym32Gqx8t_8YY8dsd2l7uol_OWOvi3zfvCyko5VLnHKcwLhdlKQF3Ljeu-Zk6hf2QUZ_zRZqw4UQwr0VhDTmZ84mzLPq2jWitw_qL/s1600-h/DIC_Logo.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342371620736381266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZUXnbLKmon5FnhTlyMCUpqtVV8zldj7cwWpM8Q1mym32Gqx8t_8YY8dsd2l7uol_OWOvi3zfvCyko5VLnHKcwLhdlKQF3Ljeu-Zk6hf2QUZ_zRZqw4UQwr0VhDTmZ84mzLPq2jWitw_qL/s200/DIC_Logo.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" /></a>You're invited to take the <a href="http://www.dayinthecloud.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=ogb">Day in the Cloud Challenge</a>, the first-ever online scavenger hunt to be played simultaneously in the air and on the ground. We've teamed up with <a href="http://www.virginamerica.com/">Virgin America</a> to sponsor this challenge on June 24, 2009, the "Day in the Cloud." At Google, we've gathered a small group of gamers extraordinaire to come up with unique puzzles, trivia, and brain teasers, many of which use Google Apps. So if you're game, get ready for the Day in the Cloud Challenge.<br /><br />More and more people are storing their data (such as documents, calendars, email, and photos) online "in the cloud" with services like <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/">Google Apps</a>. All that you need is an Internet connection to access and share that information with friends, family, and co-workers. With airlines like Virgin America offering in-flight Wi-Fi, it's now even easier to stay connected while you travel, even when you're flying through the sky.<br /><br />Those of you paying close attention might remember that we've held a <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/can-you-crack-code.html">puzzle extravaganza</a> in the past. The Day in the Cloud Challenge will be different in that each contestant will have just <span style="font-weight: bold;">one hour</span> to play the game. Everyone is encouraged to take on the challenge between 12:00am and 11:59pm PDT on Wed, June 24, 2009. And if you happen to be flying on Virgin America, in-flight Wi-Fi service will be complimentary on June 24th so that you can play during your flight.<br /><br />The top five scorers in the challenge will receive a "Year in the Cloud" <a href="http://www.dayinthecloud.com/challenge/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=ogb">prize package</a>, which includes a year of free flights and free in-flight Wi-Fi from Virgin America, an HP netbook computer, and 1 terabyte of Google account storage for all of your photos and email. Not a puzzle fanatic? Don't worry. The questions come in various difficulty levels so there will be some easy puzzles and others that might drive even the most experienced competitors crazy. A final note on eligibility: You must be a legal resident of the U.S. and at least 18 years of age to be eligible for a prize.<br /><br />Check out <a href="http://www.dayinthecloud.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=ogb">www.dayinthecloud.com</a> for more information. While you're there, sign up for an email reminder to receive practice clues and tips.<br /><br />We'll see you in the cloud.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Boris Debic, Physicist and Google Software Engineer (and puzzle creator)</span>

The Day in the Cloud Challenge featuring Google Apps on June 24th

You're invited to take the Day in the Cloud Challenge , the first-ever online scavenger hunt to be played simultaneously in the air and ...

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Netlog integrates with Google Friend Connect

When we started building <a href="http://www.google.com/friendconnect/">Friend Connect</a>, we wanted to provide a fully open system — one that lets you join any website and interact with the people there in a meaningful way, regardless of where they come from. To enable this kind of engagement, we used open standards like <a href="http://openid.net/">OpenID</a>, <a href="http://oauth.net/">OAuth</a>, and <a href="http://www.opensocial.org/">OpenSocial</a> as underlying technologies, enabling any other service to plug into Friend Connect.<br /><br />Today, we're excited to share that <a href="http://www.netlog.com/">Netlog</a> has used these open standards to integrate their social networking service with Google Friend Connect. Now, Netlog's more than 45 million users across Europe can:<br /><ul><li>Sign into any of the millions of sites and blogs using Friend Connect with their Netlog credentials</li><li>Use their Netlog profiles on these sites</li><li>See if any of their friends are already members of the same sites and invite other Netlog friends to join</li><li>Share their Friend Connect activities with their friends on Netlog, and</li><li>Send messages back to their Netlog friends</li></ul>Additionally, for sites that are already using Friend Connect, one of the benefits of this standards based model is that they can take advantage of any new service that chooses to join this open ecosystem, like Netlog, without any additional work. The new network option simply appears.<br /><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqwxKAM7cRs1HJuyX2KmJjNIugJrJn8xr4whJ_e5dOLBu_4qhufqgjirEifz4DivG_0t4EqGLpoqsmkFjPnyys86HegUjDs0-hum9EFQhUTGgdvH8TTP3fGYQ4qGTfbuHyy9DNoBg2HAcV/s1600-h/blog_post_netlog.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338341913176005730" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqwxKAM7cRs1HJuyX2KmJjNIugJrJn8xr4whJ_e5dOLBu_4qhufqgjirEifz4DivG_0t4EqGLpoqsmkFjPnyys86HegUjDs0-hum9EFQhUTGgdvH8TTP3fGYQ4qGTfbuHyy9DNoBg2HAcV/s400/blog_post_netlog.gif" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 361px; height: 333px;" /></a><br />Any social network or service, whether they are large or small, regional or global, niche or general audience, is welcome to take advantage of these open standards to integrate with Friend Connect, and participate in an open social web.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Mussie Shore, Product Manager</span></div>

Netlog integrates with Google Friend Connect

When we started building Friend Connect , we wanted to provide a fully open system — one that lets you join any website and interact with th...

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