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Most every business, including ours, starts small. These days, technology is giving businesses even more ways to grow bigger... faster.

In our recent Small Business series on the Official Google Blog, a handful of real-life entrepreneurs have shared their experiences building companies from scratch and embracing Internet tools that have taken their businesses to the next level. We’ve received fantastic feedback about these posts, and realized that there’s a healthy appetite among small- and medium-sized business owners who want to know all about the latest web tools and tricks. Fortunately, we have lots more to share with you, too!

That’s why we’re introducing the Google Small Business Blog, a central hub that brings together all the information about our products, features and projects of specific interest to the small business community. Rather than having to sleuth around in many different locations for details about templates for creating video ads on YouTube, tips for your employees using Gmail or how to respond to the business reviews on your Place Page, you can find all of this helpful information right here in one place.

Of course, we’ll continue to post relevant news about individual services such as AdWords, Apps, Google Places and YouTube on their respective “home” blogs, but feel free to visit or subscribe to the Google Small Business Blog to get everything relating to your small business needs. We’re starting small today, but who knows what tomorrow will have in store!

Posted by Deanna Yick, Small Business Blog Team
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Earlier today, the Los Angeles city council voted unanimously in favor of completing the City’s move to Google Apps. More than 10,000 City employees are already using Google Apps for Government, and Los Angeles taxpayers are expected to save more than $5.5 million.

Within a few months and in less than a year since the project began, we expect that all 30,000 city employees, including the 13,000 members of the Los Angeles Police Department and other public safety officials, will be migrated to Google Apps. LA’s move to the cloud is the first of its kind, and it’s not surprising that it’s taken a little longer than anticipated to identify and address all of the City’s unique requirements. We’re very pleased with the progress to date, and are committed to making this a great success for Los Angeles and a milestone for cloud computing.

Posted by Jocelyn Ding, Director of Operations
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Soon we’ll be giving Google Apps customers access to many more Google services. In the meantime, we want to share an update on Google Wave, a web app for real time communication and collaboration, which has been available to customers in Labs since May. Since we first showed Wave as a developer preview at Google I/O last year, it set a high bar for what was possible in a web browser. But despite its compelling features for particular tasks, such as discussing and developing content in small groups, Wave has not grown as quickly as we would have liked. For that reason, we don’t plan to continue to develop Wave as a stand-alone product, though we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year. We have already open sourced several components related to Google Wave, so our customers and partners can continue the innovation. In addition, we will work on tools so that users easily "liberate" their content from Wave.

You can read more on future plans for Wave on the Google Blog. We are proud of the work the Wave team has done, which has pushed web technology forward, and we will extend the technology for use in other Google projects. Finally, we are hugely thankful to those who have been testing Google Wave with us over the past couple months.

Posted by Matt Glotzbach, Product Management Director
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We're pleased to announce the release of new imagery data across the globe within Google Earth Pro.

International coverage is a key feature in this release, including parts of Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, India, and China, to name a few. See the crowds gathering for an soccer match in Johannesburg, or marvel at the rapidly-changing Shanghai skyline.


The United States imagery updates feature key urban sites, such as Boston, San Francisco, El Paso, Des Moines, and Portland, Maine. With the release of exclusive data layers in Google Earth Pro 5.2, professionals can leverage the new imagery with exclusive access to parcel outlines, traffic counts, and demographic data.

Blue car icons offer users historical traffic counts for thousands of locations across the United States, dating back to the 1960’s in some locations. Civil engineers in El Paso can leverage the new imagery in addition to analyze traffic counts to determine the best location for a new stop sign.


Parcel data is also available for most urban areas. With the new imagery, a realtor in, say, San Francisco can use parcel data to spec out a property site, determine parcel zoning, market value and parcel number.


The new imagery and exclusive data layers make Google Earth Pro the right choice for industry professionals looking to leverage state-of-the-art imagery with compelling data analysis.

To learn more about the new Google Earth data layers, check out this Google Lat Long blog post.

Posted by Coleman Rusnock, Google Earth Pro team

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As a Google Apps trainer, I’ve spent more than two years working with Google Apps customers on deployments, researching how they use resources provided by Google or from our professional training partners.

I always learn a lot from “Go Live” week – the first days of deployment, when users start to discover Apps’ features and capabilities. But for me, the real “aha” comes a month or so later, when users are familiar enough with Apps that they want to dive in and do more. I often see people beginning to seek out and share power tips and tricks for using Apps around that time.

To help with that sharing, we’re announcing a new addition to the Google Apps Deployment Site: a center for Google Apps Tricks and Tips. This center contains a collection of ideas and suggestions that that users can try to take their Apps use to the next level. The first collection of tips focuses on Gmail, but insights on using Docs and other features are in the works.

View this image in detail here.

The tips are short, easy to understand, and incorporate step-by-step graphics to walk the user through the tip. They’re designed to encourage users to discover features of Google Apps they may not have known existed, and to educate them when new functionality is incorporated into the products.

We’ve made it easy for Google Apps administrators to use these resources. Our Tips and Tricks Getting Started Guide walks you through the process of incorporating the tips and tricks in your training site. (If you haven’t created a launch or training site, check out our support site templates for an easy way to get started.)

Give Google Apps Tips and Tricks a try and watch how quickly your users become more collaborative, productive, and proficient as they incorporate the newly learned features into their daily routine.

Posted by Gary Giurbino, Google Enterprise Training team


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Editor's note: Continuing our “Going Google Everywhere” series, we’re pleased to welcome Roberto Cavalli. Roberto Cavalli, the globally renowned Italian fashion house, has chosen Google Apps to consolidate their IT, boost productivity and support the company’s global workforce in a more efficient way. Carlo Di Biagio, Cavalli’s Group Chief Operating Officer, tells their story.

We were looking for a solution that would allow us to consolidate all the communication systems currently used by the group into one single system. Having analysed the cost implications and a range of benefits – such as reliability and the 99.9% uptime service level agreements, we selected Google Apps as our new communication and collaboration technology.

We started by adopting Gmail but quickly discovered the power of other applications included as part of Google Apps Premier Edition, such as Sites and Google Video for Business which allow us to easily share videos, pictures and presentations. For people working with product catalogues, picture archives of collections and picture archives for press, accessing those files without overloading their PCs or slowing down their systems while sending large attachments is a great advantage.

The next phase of adoption will use Google Sites to create an intranet to organise, search and share the entire picture archive of collections and catwalk shows within the group. Thanks to Google’s technology, our employees will no longer need to send large images via email or to search for them in archives and folders – the pictures will be stored and organized on customised Google Sites and located within seconds thanks to the integrated Google search.

And, going forward, we will use Google Video for Business to upload catwalk videos, making them instantly available to all of Roberto Cavalli’s boutiques across the world.
So what is the value of all of this? We estimate that by adopting the tools which simplify our work and allow us to cut down on the time we spend on non-critical tasks, such as searching for old e-mails or organizing meetings, we can save up to 40,000 Euros per year in overhead costs and through increased productivity. However, there is another extremely important point we should not forget, even though more difficult to measure: the satisfaction of our employees who appreciate the technology that helps them work better and more creatively.


Posted by: Malgosia Rigoli, Google Enterprise
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The Google Enterprise team is excited to be participating in the International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS), on August 2nd-5th, at Fordham University in New York City. ICCS brings together global leaders in emerging cyber threat analysis, operations and enforcement. More than 700 IT, business and law enforcement professionals from over 50 countries will gather to discuss the most significant emerging cyber threats and how the security and law enforcement communities are responding to them.

Eric Davis, Policy Manger and Director of Anti-Malvertising at Google will be giving a talk entitled: “Welcome to Malvertising” on Thursday, August 5th at 1:30 PM. “Malvertising” is the intersection of malware and advertising, where ads install malware or redirect users to sites that install malware. Eric will discuss how malvertising occurs over ad networks. He will discuss incident response, as well as available systems, tools and best practices for preventing malware in ads.

If you'll be at the conference, please join us for our talk and stop by our booth to learn more about Google’s cyber security efforts as well as to learn more about how Google secures the data stored in our data centers. If you’re not going to be at the conference, you can find lots of information about cyber security in our Online Security Blog and information about the security of our data centers here.

Posted by Adam Swidler, Sr. Manager – Google Enterprise

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Editor's note: This is the latest in a series of posts on apps in the Google Apps Marketplace that have caught our eye here at Google. We’ll do this every few weeks or as we see things that we'd like to share. Look for the label "marketplace highlights" and subscribe to the series if you'd like to stay tuned.

Businesses that use Google Apps not only get access to Google's applications, they also get easy access to some of the best business apps on the web through the Google Apps Marketplace. These Marketplace apps are easy to try and buy; once more, they integrate with Google Apps "out of the box," making it simpler for businesses to run more of their systems in the cloud. You can learn more about the Marketplace and watch a short video on how it works here.

For this highlights post, we decided to focus on the top seach term for installable apps in the Marketplace: CRM. The lifeblood of all businesses, customers come in all shapes and sizes, and have different needs when interacting with businesses. We’re excited to have 13 different installable CRM apps in the Marketplace that can integrate with Google Apps in just a few clicks, each with a unique approach to helping you manage customer relationships. And because things are easier to digest when they come in 3’s, we’ve taken the liberty to present them in 3 different groups: CRM, Social CRM, and Project-based CRM.

>> CRM: apps with a focus on internal processes around selling and serving customers.

Zoho CRM is a complete customer relationship management solution for managing leads, contacts, customers, marketing activities and more. Integrations include:
  • single sign on from Google Apps
  • Gmail
  • Google contacts import
  • Google Docs attaching and sharing
Applane CRM is an enterprise grade CRM that supports complete sales cycle and customer relationship through an efficient user interface and advanced features. Integrations include:
  • single sign on from Google Apps
  • Google contacts import
  • Gmail (contextual gadget)
  • view actions in Google Calendar
Capsule CRM is a simple, flexible CRM for small businesses and sales teams that makes it easy to keep track of customers and other contacts, sales opportunities and follow-ups. Integrations include:
  • single sign on from Google Apps
  • Google contacts auto-update
  • Google calendar sharing
TimetoNote is a simple, fast, elegant tool to collaborate and share contacts, emails, notes, tasks, projects and more with your co-workers. Integrations include:
  • single sign on from Google Apps
  • Gmail (contextual gadget)
  • Google contacts synchronization
  • Google Docs attaching and sharing
Tactile CRM is an easy to use CRM to track the people and companies you do business with, the opportunities in the pipeline, and what needs to be done next. Integrations include:
  • single sign on from Google Apps
  • Google contacts import
>> Social CRM: apps with a focus on collaborative customer conversations via social web sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Google Buzz. (For more on Social CRM, see posts by Brent Leary, Paul Greenberg, and Michael Faucette)

Batchbook is a lightweight but powerful CRM that allows you to easily organize contacts, monitor social networks and track leads and deals. Integrations include:
  • single sign on from Google Apps
  • Google contacts synchronization
Bantam Live provides a social CRM workspace for business teams to collaborate internally and build relationships across the web. Integrations include:
  • single sign on from Google Apps
  • Google contacts import
  • Google calendar sharing
  • Google Docs attaching and sharing
  • Google Buzz feeds in contact records
Gist provides the full view of the contacts in your professional network by creating a rich business profile for each one that includes news, status updates, and work details. Integrations include:
  • Gmail (contextual gadget)
Rapportive searches the social web to find information which helps you establish rapport, grow your network, and be more productive.
  • Gmail (contextual gadget)
Etacts is a complete customer relationship management solution for managing leads, contacts, customers, marketing activities and more. Integrations include:
  • Gmail (contextual gadget)
>> Project-based CRM: apps with a focus on project collaboration before and after the sale.

Insightly lets you track leads, proposals, opportunities, projects and manage files, all through an easy to use interface.
  • single sign on from Google Apps
  • Google contacts import
  • Google calendar sharing
  • Google Docs attaching and sharing
Solve360 CRM is a modern CRM that integrates features to manage client projects that is ideal for small teams in service based companies that need a flexible solution.
  • single sign on from Google Apps
  • Google contacts synchronization
  • Gmail
Smartsheet pipeline gives you the core features of a CRM built into a familiar Google Spreadsheet format or with one of their sales, service, and marketing templates.
  • single sign on from Google Apps
  • Google contacts import
  • Google calendar sharing
  • Google Docs attaching and importing
If you’re looking to improve the way you manage and converse with prospects and customers, we encourage you to evaluate these apps. But also know we’re adding new apps to the Marketplace all the time, so check back if these don’t suit your needs.

Posted by Kevin Gough, Sr. Product & Marketing Manager, Google Enterprise
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Editor’s Note: We’ve invited U.S. Navy Captain Douglas Wied to share the story of how Google Apps is being used to improve coordination in disaster relief efforts. Captain Wied currently leads the Navy’s effort to develop and foster Non-Classified data sharing among the U.S. and its many international partners focused on improving regional maritime security.

The United States Navy’s Maritime Domain Awareness program focuses on improving maritime security around the world. As part of this initiative, the U.S. collaborates with international governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to increase maritime security capabilities in different regions in order to prevent threats like piracy and terrorism, as well as to respond to natural disasters.

Sharing information is critical to maritime security. And most of this information is public – or sensitive but unclassified, as the government calls it. In summer 2008, we began InRelief to improve our collaboration capabilities using Google Apps. InRelief supports the Navy’s humanitarian assistance and disaster relief mission. We use email, chat, shared documents, calendars, sites, and other Google applications to support our information sharing needs.

Previously, on U.S. Navy ships, the unclassified network was a U.S. network only, so NGOs or foreign governments could not access it. We set up a Non-Classified Enclave (NCE) as a way to give our partners access. The NCE is a network of virtualized servers located in Miami, Florida that provide secure connectivity. InRelief is basically a cloud-based implementation of NCE.

Our team saw several advantages to building InRelief on Google Apps, including security, scalability, reliability, and other powerful features we didn’t have to build ourselves. As part of the military, gaining familiarity the security controls of Google Apps was of critical importance. Our security team met with Google’s team and went through in detail how Google implements security. We came away with the understanding that Google Apps is very secure. The fact we’re hosted on a FISMA-certified environment allows our team increased flexibility and assurance when collaborating and sharing unclassified but sensitive content and documents.

In the event of a major crisis when we would need a lot of accounts for a short period of time, Google Apps lets us scale easily to as many users as necessary. We can turn them off again when we no longer need them. That’s a tremendous asset. It would be really tough – and not cost-effective – to resource a system ourselves that could scale up and down like this.

As for reliability, with Google Apps data is replicated in multiple data centers, so we can be assured we’ll have access to our data. Having a single point of failure is a constant challenge with other systems. Particularly when dealing with disasters, knowing the system will be available is a big plus.

Some of the built-in features of Google Apps were critical to our needs. For example, real-time collaborative editing of documents, spreadsheets and presentations supports crisis response planning efforts using multiple personnel who are geographically dispersed. Also, real-time translation in chat can be extremely helpful when we’re trying to coordinate efforts with a coalition of people who speak multiple languages.

Another issue we are always concerned about is the training requirements new tools impose on our users. With InRelief, we can give an account to a foreign government representative or NGO and it doesn’t take much time for them to get started. Earlier this year, we put Google Apps to test in coordinating a response to the Haiti earthquake. When the Haiti effort kicked off, our team was dispersed. We used the Google collaboration tools – email, chat and shared documents – to get things moving. Even the remote team members could review and contribute to the team’s work. Half the people in the group hadn’t used Apps before our efforts got underway – they just did it, with no learning curve. Our team is currently using the same capabilities to support relief efforts for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.

Finally, the concern for developing cost-effective solutions that maximize the benefits of tax dollars spent, our overall costs were hundreds of thousands versus millions of dollars; a significant savings when compared to what we spend to host traditional stovepipe type systems requiring network connectivity, software, hardware, system administrators, information assurance testing, and certification & accreditation.

With InRelief.org, we have a collaborative environment easily accessible with a secure and reliable infrastructure that allows us to respond rapidly to crisis.

– Captain Douglas C. Wied, Assistant Program Manager
Non-Classified Enclave, U.S. Navy

Posted by Dan Israel, Google Enterprise team
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Last September, we announced our intent to create a Google Apps environment dedicated to our government customers, and to complete United States government security certification for Google Apps. Today, we’re delivering on both.

Today, we’re pleased to introduce a new edition of Google Apps designed specifically for the needs of U.S. government entities. It’s called – appropriately enough – Google Apps for Government. This new edition is available now to federal, state and local governments in the United States.

Google Apps is also the first suite of cloud computing applications to receive Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) certification from the U.S. government. With this federal government certification of our security controls, government agencies can use our cloud services with confidence.

A wide range of U.S. government customers are already taking advantage of Google Apps, from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Berkeley Lab to the U.S. Navy’s InRelief program, to the City of Los Angeles, to smaller governments across the country like Panama City, Florida and the City of Wooster, Ohio.

You can learn more about how U.S. Government customers can benefit from this new edition in today’s Official Google Blog post.

– Kripa Krishnan, Technical Program Manager, Google Apps for Government

Posted by Dan Israel, Google Enterprise team
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