[G] WWDC 2010 Journal, Day 0

Official Google Mac Blog: WWDC 2010 Journal, Day 0

By Mike Morton, Google Mac Team

As regular readers know, every year, Google engineer Mike Morton becomes intrepid reporter Mike Morton as he ventures to Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco. Except for the contents of Steve Jobs's keynote address, Apple doesn't allow attendees to disclose the technical bits of the conference, so he writes about other important observations and details, such as flights, food, lines, and plans (successful and otherwise). Here's the first part of Mike's 2010 journal.

Summer is here, and that means ice cream, hay fever, swimming in the pond, and — for people who develop Apple software — the annual gathering of the faithful called the Worldwide Developer Conference, known as WWDC to everyone.

I planned a short hop from my New Hampshire home down to Boston’s Logan airport, then to San Francisco just in time to get a few hours of sleep and head to the conference on Monday. Developers want to be in line early for the Steve Jobs keynote, because… well, actually, I don’t know why. We just always do. Some want to sit up front, but good camerawork and big screens throughout the room mean you can see from anywhere.

To my amazement, one die-hard Apple developer emailed me today that he plans to skip the keynote, and instead go eat pancakes and watch the live-blogging. (I won’t name him, because I worry he’ll lose friends over this.) He’s just tired of waiting in long lines. Personally, I enjoy the line. It's a chance to catch up with people, to see and be seen.

As I write this from my transcontinental flight, it’s about 11 PM Pacific Time, and we’re going to land around 1:15 AM. I think that’s 4:15 AM on my biological clock, which is the time I normally wake up. We’ll see how much sleep I get when I check in to the hotel.

One big discussion point this year: some Mac engineers have grumbled that Apple’s schedule of sessions seems tilted toward iPhone and iPad — and away from Mac OS X. Me, I see at least two sessions I want to attend in nearly every time slot, so I’m happy, no matter what the overall emphasis.

Time to see if I can catch some sleep before we land.

URL: http://googlemac.blogspot.com/2010/06/wwdc-2010-journal-day-0.html

[G] The New AdWords Reports in Google Analytics

Google Analytics Blog: The New AdWords Reports in Google Analytics

Last month, we made a number of announcements around the Google Analytics ecosystem. Along with launching the Google Analytics Application Gallery and making the new, faster page tag the default, we released a major update of the AdWords reports in Google Analytics. As of today, all Analytics users now have access to the new AdWords reports. With this update, you have access to three new reports, 10 new dimensions, and more AdWords metrics.

Three Brand New Reports

Three new reports give you the ability to dig into all aspects of your AdWords campaign performance.

Day Parts Report

Curious to know the best day of the week for your ads or the best hours of the day for your campaigns? See your ad performance broken down by day of the week and by hour of the day using the Day Parts report. The Day Parts report can help you find the most profitable times of day for your ads. Then pair it with the Ad Scheduling feature in AdWords to automatically adjust your bid to capture the right traffic at the right time.

Destination URLs Report

What are your best landing pages? The Destination URLs report lets you dive into the performance of each of your Destination URLs. You can break out performance at the Campaign, Ad Group, or Keyword level. Apply a secondary dimension like Keywords and see your top Destination URL/Keyword pairs.

Placements Report

The Placement Performance Report in AdWords shows you the performance of your ads on the Google Content Network. With the Placements Report in Google Analytics, you can get rich post-click performance data about your campaigns and find the best sites to target your ads. Or, either exclude the sites that don’t send you engaged traffic or identify the top performers to create a targeted display campaign.

10 New AdWords Dimensions

Dive deep into your AdWords performance using 10 new AdWords dimensions. For example, try Match Type to see performance between Broad, Phrase, and Exact Match. Love the search query report in AdWords? Segment by Matched Search Query to see exact user queries that triggered your ads and post-click performance.

Clicks Tab in Campaigns and Keywords reports

The Clicks tab brings your AdWords performance metrics into Google Analytics. From the Clicks tab you can get an overview of AdWords performance at the Campaign, Ad Group, or Keyword level. Combined with Goals or eCommerce tracking you can see a complete picture of your AdWords performance.

How to Get Started with the New AdWords Reports

To start using the new AdWords reports in Google Analytics you need a linked AdWords account. You also need to make sure that Destination URL auto-tagging is turned on. Start from your AdWords account, select the Reporting tab, then Google Analytics. To access the reports from Google Analytics, select Traffic Sources, then AdWords.

You can see the new reports in action in this video:

Hope you enjoy the new reports! Let us know what you think in the comments.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Google Analytics Team

URL: http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/06/new-adwords-reports-in-google-analytics.html

[G] Google Maps previews in Gmail and Google Buzz

Official Gmail Blog: Google Maps previews in Gmail and Google Buzz

Posted by Mark Knichel, Software Engineer

I often receive emails containing addresses in them &mdash where to meet for dinner, the location of my friend's new apartment, etc. To find out where these places actually are, I have to copy the address, open up Google Maps, and paste it in. Today, we're making it easier to see maps of all the addresses you receive in Gmail and Google Buzz.

Enable "Google Maps previews in mail" from the Gmail Labs tab under Settings, and any time you receive an address or a Google Maps link in an email, a preview will appear containing an interactive Google Map of that location. Any Google Maps URL will work, but we currently only extract US addresses (we're working on making addresses around the world work).


Additionally, when you paste a Google Maps link into the post box in Google Buzz, it'll automatically fetch an image preview of that location that you can associate with your post.


Please let us know if you have any feedback.

URL: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/google-maps-previews-in-gmail-and.html

[G] YouTube answers your questions about partnerships (and next topic announced)

YouTube Blog: YouTube answers your questions about partnerships (and next topic announced)

YouTube is a big place, but we’re trying to make it feel a little bit smaller. That’s why in April, we announced a new initiative in which you submit questions on a broad topic and then several employees who work in that area answer the most popular questions on video. It’s an opportunity to ask us anything you like relating to the subject at hand and to get to know many of the faces working at YouTube.


Our first topic was partnerships, and there were 2,017 votes on 96 questions from 223 people. After reviewing your questions, rehearsing, applying a little more makeup than usual, and rehearsing some more (because we’re not naturals at this like you are!), two members of our partnerships team -- Shenaz Zack, Product Manager, and Camille Hearst, Product Marketing Manager -- made this video response:



















We hope the video helps to demystify any burning questions you may have had about being a YouTube partner.



Next up, head over to our YouTube channel where we’re using the nifty new Moderator tool to collect questions on the next topic: “YouTube Worldwide.” This is a good opportunity to ask about what goes into localizing the site, how to find cool content in your language, translation features, and lots more. We’ll be taking questions until Sunday, June 13, and then we’ll be back as soon as possible afterward with two new staffers in the hot seat.


Mia Quagliarello, Product Marketing Manager, Community, recently watched “Mike Tyson’s Tea Time.”

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/IoFp_ShDv3U/youtube-answers-your-questions-about.html

[G] Search engines make the best picture frames

Google Photos Blog: Search engines make the best picture frames

Posted by Jon Emerson, Software Engineer

Photos can be displayed in all sorts of places; on a wall, on your desk or in a Picasa Web Album. We recently announced yet another place — the Google homepage, where you can use your favorite photos or images as a background. If you store your photos in Picasa Web Albums, you can choose a photo right from your existing albums. There is also the option to upload a photo from your computer or choose one from a public gallery of featured photos hosted by Picasa.


When you visit google.com, you’ll see a link in the lower left-hand corner inviting you to "Change background image." For those of you outside of the U.S. we will begin rolling this out to you within the next few days. If you don’t see the link yet, please check back soon.

Once you’ve customized your homepage with a fun personal photo we’d love to see what it looks like. Tweet a picture of your page with the hashtag #myGooglepage to share it with us.

Have fun customizing your new photo frame!

URL: http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2010/06/search-engines-make-best-picture-frames.html

[G] Tips & Tricks: Embedding Google Docs in Google Sites

Official Google Docs Blog: Tips & Tricks: Embedding Google Docs in Google Sites

Embedding a Google document, spreadsheet, presentation, or form in a Google site can help you easily publish and share information in one central location. Embedding is different from simply copying and pasting information into a site because if you make a change to any of your embedded documents while using Google Docs, the changes will be reflected on your site.

Embedding a form
Let’s say I’m planning a wedding and I’d like to create a Google site as a centralized place for my guests to RSVP and gather all of the information they need. First, I need to create my site. I visit sites.google.com and click Create site.


After choosing one of the many wedding site templates, I’m ready to begin personalizing it. I’d like to include the RSVP form on my wedding site because even though I sent paper invitations, embedding a form in my site makes collecting RSVPs easier and more streamlined. When guests visit the site to RSVP, they can also find out more about the bride and groom, the registry, and event details, among other things.

To collect RSVPs, I’ll want to create a form in Google Docs. Once I do this, I go back to my site and create a new page on my wedding site where I want to embed the RSVP form.

I can add a title or any additional text to the page I’ve just created. Next, I go to the Insert menu and select Spreadsheet form. I’d like to select the RSVP form I’ve just created to embed on this page of my site.

My guests can now visit my site to RSVP to the wedding and simultaneously get all of the information they need about the ceremony and reception.

Embedding other types of Google Docs
You can embed any Google document, spreadsheet or presentation in a Google site using the Insert menu. On my wedding site, for example, I can embed a Google document outlining travel and accommodation for wedding guests or a fun slide presentation about how the bride and groom met. Embedding Google Docs in a Google site helps you easily deliver information to your friends, family, colleagues or students in a centralized and organized way.

Posted by: Julia Harter, Consumer Operations Associate

URL: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/06/tips-tricks-embedding-google-docs-in.html

[G] Brady Corp. Goes Google—the best-in-class in the cloud

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Brady Corp. Goes Google—the best-in-class in the cloud

Editor's note: We're excited to announce that Brady Corporation, a $1.2 billion international manufacturer and marketer of complete solutions that identify and protect premises, products, and people, has gone Google with 7,800 employees across 90-plus locations.

Today we welcome a trio of guest bloggers from Brady's IT team – Steve Hasbrook, Luke Leonhard, and Matt Vandenbush – to share some of their experiences from managing Brady's "Big Bang" migration to Google Apps. All three are cloud veterans with years of experience in supporting users in the manufacturing industry, and they'll be discussing Brady's deployment in more detail and answering your questions on a live webcast later this week.

Brady Corporation's IT team will speak at a live webcast on Thursday, June 10, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. EDT, 11:00 a.m. PDT, or 6:00 p.m. GMT. Register today.

We went live on Google Apps a few months ago, and since then, we've seen a series of new features in Google Apps. That kind of innovation would have taken years on our previous platform. Google Apps is nimble and agile, and it fits with our need to support a dispersed, global manufacturing operation.

When we told our power users we were going to Google Apps, the reaction from most of them was "That's great!" The majority are using web-based applications at home already – and they expect the same in the office environment. The transition to cloud-based applications is a bit tougher for people weaned on client software, but people who've grown up in the web era expect the latest, greatest, most agile tools.

Think about it: nobody calls Amazon if the home page changes. Shopping carts are different from site to site, but people intuitively know how to use them. It's the whole trend of consumer technologies influencing corporate technologies, and for Brady Corp., it's a great thing for many reasons:

• Cloud computing makes it easy to support 90+ locations through a central IT organization
• We can integrate acquisitions with ease, including a recent one with 2,500 user accounts
• We get collaboration functions like chat and document sharing
• Our costs are lower, yet we have more advanced tools

We went with a “Big Bang” rollout for our 6,000+ users, and it’s been a great success. We chose Google Apps for cost savings over other solutions, but more importantly because we believe it's the strongest platform to take advantage of future advancements on the Internet.

We would be happy to tell you why we chose Google Apps over other cloud solutions, and why the cloud makes so much sense for a local IT staff supporting regional operations. We also can share tips for a successful Big Bang rollout. Please join us for our upcoming webinar:

Choosing Google Apps as the Best-in-Class Cloud Solution
Thursday, June 10, 2010
2:00 p.m. EDT / 11:00 a.m. PDT / 6:00 p.m. GMT

Posted by Serena Satyasai, the Google Apps team

Find customer stories and research product information on our resource sites for current users of Microsoft® Exchange and Lotus Notes®/Domino.

URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/06/brady-corp-goes-googlethe-best-in-class.html

[G] This week in search 6/6/10

Official Google Blog: This week in search 6/6/10

This is one of a regular series of posts on search experience updates. Look for the label This week in search and subscribe to the series. - Ed.

We work hard to consistently develop new tools, features and algorithmic changes to help us better understand what you mean when you enter a query into the Google search box—and we ultimately use that understanding to get you the information you're looking for as fast as possible. Understanding is core to our mission—particularly as we strive to be as useful in your everyday tasks. For example, if you search for a local sports team, and there's been a recent game, we'll show you scores. If you're visiting Boston and looking for a restaurant, you'll find tailored search suggestions based on the best Beantown spots. It's these features that enhance the experience of searching and help you find exactly what you're looking for. This week, we've made a few changes that we hope will make Google search even better for you.

Spelling Corrections in Suggest
Since we first launched Google Suggest, we've offered spell-corrected search completions to provide you with similar search queries from other users. With this feature, not only does Suggest help you rest your fingers because you don't have to type out a full query—you can also catch a mistake quickly and easily.

An example of old spelling correction in Google Suggest

This week we launched an update that makes Google Suggest even more intuitive and simple. If you're typing a query for which there are no search completions to offer, and yet some of your search terms do seem to be misspelled, Google Suggest will now offer a "Did you mean" suggestion for your query—giving you an option to correct your spelling right away and get on with your search. These spelling suggestions already exist on the results page, but by moving them to an earlier point in the search process, we hope we've made it faster and easier to get to the results you're looking for. Right now, this feature is offered only for google.com in English, but we're working to roll this out internationally in the near future.

Google Suggest with the new spelling corrections feature

Mobile app results in mobile search
With tens of thousands of apps available for both Android and iPhone phone, there are plenty of options to choose from when you're looking for new apps. And it makes sense that if you hear about a great new app while you're out and about, you'll want to download it then and there. In an effort to make apps even easier to find, this week we launched a new feature for mobile search that helps users on Android-powered devices and iPhones find and download mobile apps. So the next time you're looking for the latest action game, multimedia app or travel tool on your phone, we'll show you a special result at the top of your mobile search results showing basic information about the app you're looking for, including title, price and publisher. You'll also find a link that will take you directly to the app's installation page in the Android Market or Apple's App Store.

Example mobile searches on your iPhone or Android device: [download pandora] or [bank of america app]

A new look for the Google homepage
Search is more fun when it's personalized. That's why I was delighted to announce our new feature that allows you to personalize your Google homepage with a favorite photo. Whether you choose a picture from your computer, your own Picasa Web Album or a public gallery of photos hosted by Picasa, Google is now yours to personalize. To get started, head to google.com and look for the "Change background image" link in the lower left-hand side of the page. Keep an eye out for more fun announcements with this feature!

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more next week.

Posted by Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience

URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-week-in-search-6610.html

[G] Next Thursday: free webinar on AdWords Conversion Products

Inside AdWords: Next Thursday: free webinar on AdWords Conversion Products

With the recent launch of Search Funnels, we wanted to have a webinar showing off these new reports and offering you a refresher on AdWords Conversion Tracking and Conversion Optimizer. We'll give overviews of these features, showing how they work and how they can help you, and do a deep dive into the Search Funnels reports.

At the webinar, you’ll learn:

• How tracking conversions can take you beyond clickthrough rate and help you focus your spend on the ads and keywords that drive sales and leads
• How the data in Search Funnels can take you a step further and tell you which ads and keywords are assisting your conversions
• How Conversion Optimizer can use your conversion tracking data and cost-per-acquisition goals to help you focus your spend on the clicks most likely to convert

We’ll hold the webinar next week, on Thursday, June 10th at 9am PST / 11am CDT / 12pm EDT. Register here if you’d like to attend, and please submit or vote on questions related to Conversion Tracking, Conversion Optimizer or Search Funnels that you'd like answered during the webinar by Wednesday, June 9.

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew

URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/06/next-thursday-free-webinar-on-adwords.html

[G] Street Soccer through Africa and on YouTube

YouTube Blog: Street Soccer through Africa and on YouTube

Five years ago, Dutch professional footballer Edgar Davids gathered a talented group of Dutch street soccer players and travelled across Europe, the United States and Latin America to take on the best local teams, on their own streets. After numerous matches in five countries, Edgar and his boys were victorious over their many challengers and claimed the title "The Street Legends." That journey became known as "The Legends Tour."

This year, Edgar Davids and his Street Legends are hitting the road again to see if they’re still worthy of the title...and this time you can watch their journey on YouTube. The team started in Amsterdam before heading on to London and Paris. They've hit Senegal, Kenya, Ghana, and will finally end up in the bustling townships of Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa, where the World Cup festivities will start next week. Along the way, the best local street players from their respective countries will attempt to de-throne Davids and The Street Legends. As they traverse the globe, Edgar will also encounter some of his famous football friends, like Ryan Babel, Michael Essien and Marcel Desailly, all of whom will be showing off their footwork to locals.

In Africa, The Street Legends and Edgar are also embarking on a personal voyage of discovery to understand how street soccer influences people and how it thrives across Europe and Africa every day. Edgar will be visiting grassroots projects providing healthcare, education and hope to thousands of people. Check out some inspiring moments from their visits to Senegal and Kenya:





















Subscribe to www.youtube.com/streetsoccertour to see how their exciting journey wraps up!

Anat S. Amir, Head of Marketing, Google Africa, recently watched "#12 Ghana Freestyle."

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/8FKSQntb1o8/street-soccer-through-africa-and-on.html

[G] Changes to the WebM Open Source License

The WebM Open Media Project Blog: Changes to the WebM Open Source License

You'll see on the WebM license page and in our source code repositories that we've made a small change to our open source license. There were a couple of issues that popped up after we released WebM at Google I/O a couple weeks ago, specifically around how the patent clause was written.

As it was originally written, if a patent action was brought against Google, the patent license terminated. This provision itself is not unusual in an OSS license, and similar provisions exist in the 2nd Apache License and in version 3 of the GPL. The twist was that ours terminated "any" rights and not just rights to the patents, which made our license GPLv3 and GPLv2 incompatible. Also, in doing this, we effectively created a potentially new open source copyright license, something we are loath to do.

Using patent language borrowed from both the Apache and GPLv3 patent clauses, in this new iteration of the the patent clause we've decoupled patents from copyright, thus preserving the pure BSD nature of the copyright license. This means we are no longer creating a new open source copyright license, and the patent grant can exist on its own. Additionally, we have updated the patent grant language to make it clearer that the grant includes the right to modify the code and give it to others. (We've updated the licensing FAQ to reflect these changes as well.)

We've also added a definition for the "this implementation" language, to make that more clear.

Thanks for your patience as we worked through this, and we hope you like, enjoy (and most importantly) use WebM and join with us in creating more freedom online. We had a lot of help on these changes, so thanks to our friends in open source and free software who traded many emails, often at odd hours, with us.

Chris DiBona is the Open Source Programs Manager at Google.

URL: http://webmproject.blogspot.com/2010/06/changes-to-webm-open-source-license.html

[G] Hello from the Hiveplex

Official Google Blog: Hello from the Hiveplex

I’ve always thought that beehives are organized similarly to how we do things here at Google. Bees have a flat management structure and they adapt quickly and change roles throughout their career (nurse, guard, foragers, quality control, etc.) depending on demands. And the bees that collect nectar from the forager bees at the entrance to the hive also scrutinize it for quality. If it’s not high enough, they send the foragers back out to get a fresh start... it reminds me a bit of a Google code review!

If Google’s a beehive, then I’m what you might call a forager. I work on the culinary team and we strive to serve food that’s produced locally and grown in a sustainable manner. But we wanted to take the effort to the next level. So, with help from the Marin Bee Company, we’ve installed four hives of bees to help us be as self-sufficient as possible.

The four hives—collectively known as the Hiveplex, of course—are each painted in one of Google’s colors. We’ve placed them close to large areas of wild flowers on our campus, far enough away that anyone who isn’t fond of bees can easily avoid them, but close enough that anyone who wants to can walk over and watch them at work. Many Googlers have signed up to contribute to beekeeping and honey extraction efforts, and, come the harvest in the fall, we’ll round the season off with a series of cooking classes and candle-making sessions for all those who have signed up to help.

With this project, we’re also hoping to raise awareness of impact of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)—a phenomenon in which worker bees abandon the hive for reasons that aren’t fully understood. This has has become a cause of global concern and in some parts of the world more than 50 percent of the hives have been found abandoned. This has grave implications for us all as bees are responsible for pollinating approximately 70 percent of the fruit and vegetables we eat. The loss of bees has serious consequences for plants, wildlife and human survival. (You can read more here.)

To see our newest colleagues at work, check out the album below. Someday we might create a Buzz account for our bees so you can all track their progress and follow our bee keeping activities—but we promise not to drone on.



Posted by Marc Rasic, Executive Chef

URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/hello-from-hiveplex.html

[G] Security First: Protecting your data with Google Apps

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Security First: Protecting your data with Google Apps

For most companies, trying to keep ahead of new security threats every day feels like gripping a handful of sand. No matter how hard you tighten and squeeze, some still manages to slip through your fingers. IT departments often face these challenges alone despite parallel responsibilities to support other core operational functions. As thousands of businesses discover every day, companies and organizations can depend on the technical expertise of Google to help them better manage their security needs when they sign up for Google Apps.

Feeling comfortable storing data in the cloud involves trusting a cloud services provider and the practices and policies they have in place. In today's ultra-connected, web-capable world, understanding how data will be protected is ultimately more meaningful than knowing it is physically located in one data center or another. We know that our customers expect us to be transparent, and we work hard to do just that. For example, earlier this year we disclosed a cyber attack against Google and at least twenty other large companies from a variety of industries.

As a next step toward increased transparency, today we're releasing a new Google Apps security white paper to help customers learn more about the security practices, policies, and technology that support Google Apps. We are always improving and evolving the security of our systems, and we work every day to help protect against new threats.

Google Apps offers a strong and extensive security infrastructure to support these and other benefits:

• Our data centers are protected by advanced physical security controls, and access to information is monitored at multiple levels.
• We store customer data in fragments across multiple servers and across multiple data centers to both enhance reliability and provide greater security than can be achieved by storing all data on a single server. When only fragments are kept in any one place, the chance that a possible physical or computer-based compromise could result in the loss of meaningful information is greatly reduced.
• We perform software patching rapidly across identical server stacks to help keep users updated with the latest patches. This significantly reduces the deployment workload for IT administrators.
• Administrators can set fine-grained access controls for documents, calendars, and other types of information commonly stored in the cloud.
• Operations at vast scale can help detect security threats across the web early and prepare appropriate defenses.
• System redundancy involves data replication across disparate data centers for availability and disaster recovery.
• We have strong teams of security professionals dedicated to protecting customer data.

Visit this new page to learn more about security and privacy protections for schools.

We appreciate feedback as we continue to work hard to earn and maintain the trust that is placed in us.

Posted by: Eran Feigenbaum, Director of Security, Google Enterprise

URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/06/security-first-protecting-your-data_04.html

[G] How to Make a Hit Viral Video

Official Google CPG Blog: How to Make a Hit Viral Video

Posted by Vannie Shu, Account Planner, CPG

Everyone wants to know how to make a hit viral video. Do cute puppies, kittens, and babies automatically make a successful video? No, but they probably do help.



What are the elements of hit viral videos? At the very least, successful viral videos are unique and interesting. Is the video like nothing people have ever seen? Does it stand out? Authenticity, humor, and the element of surprise are common characteristics of viral videos. People want watch videos that seem real and not staged. They don’t want to watch brands that try too hard. Often, overbranding a video may decrease its authenticity to viewers. One analysis shows that users are two times less likely to engage (e.g. rate or comment) and four times less likely to share video content that is excessively branded.[i] Branded videos can make up for loss of authenticity through other characteristics. For instance, humor is the key to many viral successes. Does the video make people laugh or smile? Videos with an element of surprise are also popular. These videos shock viewers with an unforeseen twist or with something they have never seen before. These are just a few of the many elements that can make up a viral hit.

The Evian babies video is a perfect example of these characteristics. The video is not excessively branded. It is clearly a commercial, but we do not see Evian bottles and logos throughout the whole video. Babies on roller skates dancing in synchrony to hip hop music. The concept is hugely funny and surprising!

More and more CPG marketers are leveraging the power of video. 5 out of the 10 Top Viral Videos for the week ending May 27, 2010, according to Visible Measures, are CPG brands. Without a kick-start could these videos have hit it big? Given that 24 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, it could be tough to find your aspiring viral video hit. A video discovery strategy is key. Marketers should employ SEO tactics and spread their video onto blogs, forums, and social networks. YouTube Promoted Videos ads, similar to Google Search text ads, can promote your video next to keywords of your choosing. Without viewers, even the best video content can’t go viral.

---
Sources:
[i] AdAge "How to Earn Capital Engagement on YouTube." Retrieved May 28, 2010.

URL: http://google-cpg.blogspot.com/2010/06/how-to-make-hit-viral-video.html

[G] Google Apps highlights – 6/4/2010

Official Google Blog: Google Apps highlights – 6/4/2010

This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label “Google Apps highlights" and subscribe to the series. - Ed.

Over the last couple of weeks we continued to improve the new versions of Google documents and spreadsheets, introduced some features to Gmail and made it easier for businesses and schools to switch to Google Apps.

Advanced sorting in Google spreadsheets
We added some powerful data sorting controls to the new version of Google spreadsheets. Rather than sorting an entire worksheet by values in a single column, you can now sort any range of cells and sort by the contents of multiple columns.

Formula highlighting in Google spreadsheets
We also made it easier to write formulas in the new version of Google spreadsheets by adding visual indicators to show which cells a particular formula references. These color-coded highlights will help you keep track of your formulas at a glance. This feature works with Google Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer; Firefox support is coming soon.

Improvements to Google documents
The new version of Google documents also got a few upgrades last week, including improvements to make finding content in your documents, applying text styles and linking to sections within your documents with bookmarks faster and easier.

“Move Icon Column” now in Gmail Labs
Our set of experimental Gmail features has a new addition: the “Move Icon Column” Lab. This Labs feature moves the icons for messages with attachments, chats and calendar invitations from the right side of your inbox to the left, keeping those icons next to your stars. You can enable this feature and many others from the Labs tab under Gmail Settings.

“Reshare” in Google Buzz
As of last week, Google Buzz lets you reshare posts that you find interesting without having to copy and paste the original content. Just click the new “Reshare” link beneath public buzz posts, type up anything you want to add and click “Post.” You can choose to reshare publicly on the web or privately to a select group.

Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Outlook®
We offer an array of migration tools to help businesses and schools move email, calendar and contacts data from their old systems to Google’s cloud. Customers have used these utilities to migrate more than 2 billion email messages to Google’s cloud, and last week we introduced the new Google Apps Migration tool for Microsoft Outlook®. This is a new end-user tool that moves email, calendar and contact data from Outlook® profiles, PST files and Exchange accounts to Google Apps.

Who’s gone Google?
In the spirit of National Small Business Week, we recently profiled a few small businesses doing big things with Google Apps. Revenue Spark is using Google Apps to build up a global presence to help bring green technology products to market. Yola counts on Google Apps to help their business grow fluidly as they bring on more software developers and business employees around the world. Smart Furniture turned to Google Apps to free up precious resources, improve productivity and remove barriers to growth. These are just a few of the millions of businesses that have gone Google. If your company has a story to share, add yourself to the map!

We continue to see more and more schools beginning to use Google Apps as well. A warm welcome to Georgetown University McDonough School of Business, SUNY Oswego, Elon University, Anderson University and Oxford Brookes University.

Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager

URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/google-apps-highlights-642010.html

[G] Help Us Improve Blogger

Blogger Buzz: Help Us Improve Blogger

We're working hard to make Blogger better and need your help. Sign up for a usability study and give us feedback on some exciting new ideas currently in development. These study results will help us better understand your needs and refine our features before they launch.

Interested? Sign up here.

URL: http://buzz.blogger.com/2010/06/help-us-improve-blogger.html

[G] Gmail sweatshirts

Official Gmail Blog: Gmail sweatshirts

Posted by Arielle Reinstein, Product Marketing Manager

When Gmail came out of beta, we embroidered the Gmail logo onto sweatshirts for the team. Any given day in the office, a couple of people are wearing them. When other people asked us where they too could get their very own Gmail sweatshirt, we didn't like replying with "Oh...they're not really available, it was just something we did for the team," so we made them available in the Google Store.

URL: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/gmail-sweatshirts.html

[G] Make the most of football fever, quicker than stoppage time

Google LatLong: Make the most of football fever, quicker than stoppage time

People all over the world already use Google Maps to search for pubs, bars and restaurants in their local area. And with football’s (soccer, to all you Americans) biggest event right around the corner, millions of fans will be looking for the perfect venue to enjoy the tournament. So for all you business owners, this could be the ideal time to create your entry on Google Maps for free or make sure your current entry is still up to date. You can even specially indicate that you'll be showing games at your establishment.

Once you’ve signed up for this campaign you will get a couple of things to help you stand out more during the games. When people search for places to watch the games we’ll highlight businesses that have flagged themselves as viewing locations (both on Google Maps and Google Maps for mobile) and you’ll also get a special football badge on your Place Page.

What else can you do to make sure you’re ready for football fever? We’ve provided a quick checklist with stuff you can do:

• Add additional information people looking for places to watch soccer will appreciate (ie: how many & what size screens you have). Read more here.
• Let people know which games you are showing and let them know if you have any special football promotions by posting a live update to your Place Page. Read more here.
• Got lots of satisfied customers post-game? Ask them to add valuable feedback or recommend you on Google Maps. Read more here.

Make sure you join before June 11 to be certain your local football-loving customers can find you in time for their big match. You can learn more on this site: http://www.google.com/showsoccer.

Have fun and may the best team win! I can't wait to find the best place in London to go cheer my team to victory.

Posted by Kenzo Fong Hing, Maps Product Marketing Manager, London

URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/06/make-most-of-football-fever-quicker.html