Posts filed under 'Google'
Google today announced a series of security products Powered by Postini™ that deliver message filtering, encryption and archiving for any business environment. Google’s new security services work with any mail system, including Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, and Novell Groupwise, and with pricing starting at $3 per user per year can accommodate the budget of any business. Customers can sign up online and immediately begin to improve the security of their email.
“As threats rise in volume and complexity, and compliance requirements pile up, IT is struggling to find the resources to keep up,” said Scott Petry, director of product management, Google. “Now, Google can take care of this for you. Organizations of all shapes and sizes can get access to Google’s industry leading security and compliance technologies.”
Companies of all sizes are seeking solutions to the challenge of security and compliance. For instance, outbound message filtering helps prevent sensitive data from going outside the company firewall, which could result in identity theft or compromise a client’s personal information. Also, increasing industry regulations are creating demand for better message storage, with quick and easy retrieval.
Businesses can choose the Google security and compliance services that best suit their needs:
Google Message Filtering™
- Postini’s industry-leading service for filtering incoming spam and malware
- for companies looking to handle the growth of spam, virus and other email threats, and want to shift the burden off of on-premises resources
- $3 per user per year
Google Message Security™
- includes Google Message Filtering, plus enhanced virus detection, outbound processing, and content policy management
- for companies worried about growing external security threats and internal risks, such as email data leaks or content compliance violations
- $12 per user per year
Google Message Discovery™
- includes Google Message Security, plus one year of message data archiving, retention, and discovery
- for companies seeking to reduce security exposure, and improve legal discovery readiness and message compliance
- $25 per user per year for one year of archived data (additional years of data retention available separately)
The new packages are part of the Google Apps platform and are available immediately at www.google.com/a/security, direct from Google, and through channel partners, and can be deployed within hours. The Google Apps suite also includes Gmail™ email services, Google Docs™ for documents, spreadsheets and presentations, Google Calendar™ shared calendaring, Google Talk™ instant messaging, and the Start Page feature for creating a customizable home page. Policy management and 90-day message discovery services are also available at no additional charge to Google Apps Premier Edition users.
February 6th, 2008
Today, Google announced the release of the iGoogle Themes API, which allows for user-generated iGoogle Themes. Now, anyone who can build a webpage can design an iGoogle Theme. Opening themes gives users more options for personalizing iGoogle pages, whether that be through creating new themes, or through choosing a user-created theme.
Developers are an important part of our innovation ecosystem and we’re always striving to release tools to help them innovate in new directions that will ultimately make the web richer for all users. With the iGoogle Themes API, developers can design and share a theme with the tens of millions of iGoogle users around the world, providing even more options for users to customize their iGoogle experience.
To jumpstart the development of iGoogle Themes, we’ve released custom themes from innovative designers Yves Behar, Mark Frauenfelder, Troy Lee and John Maeda. These themes are great examples of creative, high-quality themes and we hope will inspire theme designers.
Along with the release of the iGoogle Themes API we’ve also created a themes directory. Similar to the Google Gadgets directory, this directory allows users to find and select a theme for their iGoogle page.
To learn more about iGoogle Themes API, go to: http://code.google.com/apis/themes/
January 17th, 2008
Today, the first day of Macworld, Google announced new improvements to the integrated Google experience on iPhone. The previous version, launched just over a month ago, brought together our suite of web applications — including Search, Gmail, Calendar, Reader, and more — into one easy-to-use interface. Since then, we’ve streamlined the interface even further, making the applications faster and improving their usability. Some of the improvements announced today include:
- Improved UI: The applications look and feel slicker, and they are easier to activate, navigate and use via a touch-screen.
- Customization of default tabs: Now Google users can have easy access to their favorite applications by customizing the applications that appear on the Google.com menu bar. Users simply choose their favorite Google applications to bring them to the front menu, ensuring that they’ll be close at hand whenever they’re needed. Switching between applications is effortless, as users only need to sign in once to access their Gmail, Calendar, Reader, Docs, and Picasa accounts.
- Speedier Gmail: New emails will automatically show up so there’s no need to manually refresh inboxes. And the new auto-complete feature for contacts makes composing emails faster than ever.
- Speedier Calendar: With our new month view, users can glance at an entire month of appointments.
- iGoogle: Now Google users can access their iGoogle gadgets on the iPhone. Everything they’ve customized on their iGoogle homepage including weather, stocks, and news feeds now appear on their iPhones. To go to iGoogle, simply click on the iGoogle link on the Home tab. You can customize your iGoogle page on your computer at www.igoogle.com.
These new features provide iPhone users with a desktop-like Google web application experience in terms of ease-of-use, speed, and feature richness but optimized for the iPhone. This experience is made possible by the iPhone’s general usability and the capabilities of its web browser, combined with Google’s innovative mobile web applications. We plan to expand this experience to international versions of the iPhone and to other platforms that offer similar usability and browser capabilities. One of our goals is to support platforms that are fulfilling the promise of the mobile web - like the iPhone - and to ultimately deliver unique and compelling mobile experiences that improve people’s daily lives.
To get the new Google experience on the iPhone, users simply navigate to www.google.com on the iPhone Safari browser. To see the full range of mobile products and services available from Google, visit mobile.google.com. If you’d like to learn more about today’s announcement, Google’s mobile initiatives or if you need screenshots, just let us know. And if you’re at Macworld please stop by our booth (number 1268 in the South hall) for a live demo! We’ll be there at 11:30 am on Tuesday and 10:30 am on the other days.
January 14th, 2008
Google announced today the expansion of the Conversion Optimizer bid management feature. The Conversion Optimizer is a new feature that allows advertisers to meet their ROI objectives by automatically managing their cost-per-click (CPC) bids according to a maximum cost-per-acquisition (CPA) goal. The AdWords system makes adjustments with the aim of keeping the cost of each conversion below the specified maximum CPA bid, showing ads when conversions are most likely to occur. Advertisers can save time while achieving more conversions and a lower CPA. Since the Conversion Optimizer first became available as a beta feature in September 2007, many advertisers who have used it have been pleased with the ability to more effectively promote their products and services online.
“The Conversion Optimizer is a great new bidding option for Steve Madden, as it’s both time and cost-efficient in helping us manage our online advertising budget to meet specific ROI goals,” said Frank Siano, internet marketing manager at Steve Madden. “Now that our bids are adjusted automatically, advertising with AdWords is even simpler than before. And because our ads only appear when they’re likely to convert into sales, we’ve seen very high results, such as increasing our daily conversions by 60 percent.”
Starting today, advertisers whose campaigns have enabled AdWords Conversion Tracking and accrued at least 200 conversions in the past 30 days will be eligible to use the Conversion Optimizer. The Conversion Optimizer is ideal for advertisers and agencies who want to manage their advertising costs around clear, defined conversion goals.
By using this free feature, advertisers gain more precision and greater control over their advertising budgets. It allows them to simultaneously increase ROI, receive more conversions and save time by automating the bidding process. Ads using the Conversion Optimizer participate in the standard ad auction and are able to show on both Google’s search and content networks.
To learn more about the Conversion Optimizer, which is now available to qualified advertisers worldwide, visit http://www.google.com/adwords/conversionoptimizer.
January 11th, 2008
This morning at the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas, Google Engineering Director Andrew Moore announced a new version of Sky in Google Earth. Sky now includes several new features that provide scientists, students and amateur stargazers with new tools to explore the millions of stars and galaxies visible in Sky, get up to date on current sky events, learn basic concepts of astronomy, see historical sky maps and much more:
Earth & Sky Podcasts: podcasts about stars, galaxies, planets and events coming up in the sky from the NPR program Earth and Sky
Current Sky Events: provides timely updates on recent cosmological events from VOEventNet
Featured Observatories: images from NASA observatory satellites including x-ray images from NASA’s Chandra satellite; infrared images by the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS); ultraviolet images by the GALEX Satellite; and a microwave map of the sky by the Wilkinson Microwave Anistropy Probe (WMAP)
Historical Sky Maps: a favorite in Google Earth, David Rumsey’s historical maps of the sky date back to 1792 and illustrate how conceptions of the sky have changed over time. Also available is a beautiful Constellations Art layer based on engravings by astronomer Johannes Hevelius from 1690 Grand tour of the sky: the best of Sky imagery in a tour that takes the user through 100 of our favorite spots in the Sky
Sky community: The best content published by the Sky community on the Sky discussion forums
To access Sky, users need only click “Switch to Sky” from the “view” drop-down menu in Google Earth, or click the Sky button on the Google Earth toolbar. The interface and navigation are similar to that of standard Google Earth steering, including dragging, zooming, search, “My Places,” and layer selection.
Also introduced today, the Sky API will enable developers to develop their own sky mashups using the extensive sky imagery. Already several partners have implemented the API: Night View from the folks at www.heywhatsthat.com and a version for the iPhone from Alasdair Allan
January 10th, 2008
Google today welcomed the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s clearance of its planned acquisition of DoubleClick Inc., a premier provider of display ad serving technology and services. Google announced in April 2007 a definitive agreement to acquire the company for $3.1 billion in cash from San Francisco-based private equity firm Hellman & Friedman along with JMI Equity and management.
“The FTC’s strong support sends a clear message: this acquisition poses no risk to competition and will benefit consumers,” said Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO, Google. “We hope that the European Commission will soon reach the same conclusion, and we are confident that this deal will deliver more relevant ads for consumers, more choices for advertisers, and more opportunities for website publishers.”
The acquisition was approved earlier this year by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and was recommended for approval by one of three Brazilian regulatory agencies. Google cannot close the acquisition until the European Commission, which is still examining the transaction, grants clearance of the deal.
In its clearance opinion released today, the FTC explicitly rejected any current or potential competition concerns. Google and DoubleClick are complementary businesses and do not compete with each other. Google’s current business primarily involves the selling of text-based ads, while DoubleClick’s core business is delivering and reporting on display ads. DoubleClick does not buy ads, sell ads, or buy or sell advertising space. Rather, it provides technology to enable advertisers and publishers to deliver ads once they have agreed to terms, and to provide advertisers and publishers statistics relating to those ads.
The FTC’s opinion also noted the robust competition in the online ad serving space, and Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick is just one of several recent transactions that underscore this strong competition. In recent months, several major transactions in the online advertising space were announced, including Yahoo’s acquisition of Right Media; AOL’s acquisition of ADTECH AG and TACODA; WPP Group’s acquisition of 24/7 Real Media; and Microsoft’s $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive and acquisition of AdECN Inc.
While the FTC’s opinion reaffirmed the law by noting that privacy concerns played no role in its merger review, Schmidt reiterated the company’s commitment to user privacy.
“For us, privacy does not begin or end with our purchase of DoubleClick,” Schmidt said. “We have been protecting our users’ privacy since our inception, and will continue to innovate in how we safeguard their information and maintain their trust.”
December 20th, 2007
Today, Google announced its 2007 End-of-Year Zeitgeist. This year’s Zeitgeist reflects both the most popular and the fastest-rising global search terms that people have typed into Google.com. We mined millions of search queries to discover what captured people’s attention this year. To see the results of this research, both serious (news makers, presidential candidates, etc.) and light (movies, lyrics, ringtones, etc.), visit http://www.google.com/zeitgeist.
December 13th, 2007
Today Google announced the latest version of Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer. The beta version is now available in US-English at http://toolbar.google.com/T5. This release is about improving the way the millions of Toolbar users can engage with content on the web and personalize the browser experience.
Google Toolbar now lets you:
- Add Google Gadgets
- Fill in forms with a single click
- Access your Toolbar from any computer
- Clip and collect content as you browse
- Get suggestions for broken links
- Add your favorite Google Gadgets
Google made a number of announcements over the last few months about Google Gadgets to make them universally available and today’s release is no exception. Universal Google Gadgets now work from Google Toolbar and give users access to additional tools, functionality and content right from the browser. For developers, Google Toolbar is now an additional channel to distribute gadgets, especially ones designed to interact with the websites users visit.
For example, one is the Google Product Search gadget. After adding this gadget, users can select the name of a product on any web page, hit the ’shopping cart’ button on the Google Toolbar, and see purchase options for that item sorted by price. Users can click on any search result link to go directly to the merchant’s site.
Fill in forms with a click
Holiday online shopping is also easier with the Toolbar’s AutoFill feature, which lets users fill out web forms with a single click using address and contact information saved with the Toolbar. This new version has better accuracy, allows users to preview the filled-in form and even maintain multiple profiles. For example, someone who gets packages shipped to both home and office can set up a different profile for each address.
Access your Toolbar from any computer
Now Toolbar settings are not locked to a single computer: users can save them online and access bookmarks, custom buttons and other preferences from any Google Toolbar. Users who move between home and office, or are installing Toolbar on a new computer, can retrieve all their settings instantly by signing in to their Google Account.
Clip and collect content as you browse
Saving links is a great way to be able to keep track of key pages, and now with Google Notebook as part of Toolbar, users can collect, organize and share more information from the web including text and images. This integration makes it easier and more efficient to do all kinds Internet research from planning a vacation to comparison shopping.
Get suggestions for broken links
Instead of getting the usual 404 or DNS error page if they mistype a web address or if a site is down, users will see suggestions for top related pages. This feature is similar to the “did you mean?” function when you do a Google search.
This new version of Google Toolbar 5 also includes full keyboard access and support for Windows accessibility API’s.
December 12th, 2007
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