2008 was an action-packed year for Google Apps for Education. We grew by 300% since last year, released two new products: Google Sites and Google Video, heard directly from thousands of students on our cross-country road trip across the U.S., celebrated our two-year anniversary, and fostered new relationships with schools across the globe who have decided to make the move to Google Apps.

Posted by Miriam Schneider, Google Apps for Education Team

We are excited that our 10th Enterprise Labs experiment in just over a year is also the 5th experiment (see others like our Google Apps Integration) that lets Google Search Appliance users reach securely into the cloud, tapping into the vast resources of the internet and Google's latest and greatest technologies.  Many of our enterprise search customers have dozens of offices all over the world with tens of millions documents indexed in a host of different languages.  Before today, when users searched for a topic, the search only returned documents that were in the same language as the query.  Cross-Language Enterprise Search instantly translates your Google Search Appliance query from one language to one or more other languages using Google's best-in-class translation engine.

It's amazing to think that just a little over ten years ago, the Internet was a technological toddler with only the most basic of networks, a limited number of users and an offering of information that today we would call mediocre. Following its expansion into popular use in the 1990s, the Internet has had a dramatic and positive impact on culture and commerce worldwide. Education, in particular, has benefited as people have discovered the strengths and uses of the Internet as it continues to grow and develop. A vast array of information now available to anyone with a connected computer and can be searched, added to, and developed collaboratively.

Laurie Wales, a Google Certified Teacher from the Catholic Schools Office in Newcastle Australia is well versed in the value that online tools can deliver in the classroom. In a presentation at the recent Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association Conference, Laurie discussed how "adopting a collaborative approach alongside an inquiry learning process allows educators to re-balance their roles as both leader/director and facilitator."

Laurie's well-received workshop, titled "Connect - Construct - Collaborate," included an overview of a wide range of Google applications available for educators. In her workshop, Laurie demonstrated how Google Sites can be used to create an e-portfolio allowing students to record, archive, and share their work with peers, parents, class, school, and the world – and showcased how developing projects using Google applications has the potential to bring teachers and students together by making them part of a "global community."

Google Docs, a set of free online collaborative tools for creating and sharing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, is also very popular in classrooms around the globe. Fendalton School in Christchurch, New Zealand uses Google Docs extensively to help staff collaborate on team meeting agendas, track meeting minutes, and manage their budgets. Fendalton School uses Google Docs in the classroom to help children as young as seven get organized and receive immediate peer feedback on class presentations through online forms.

Blogs are also used extensively across the school, allowing students to discuss key events and helping parents break through the typical "What did you do at school today?" silence. Fendalton School's new web site, FOS Live, is driven through Google docs and pulls in RSS feeds from class blogs to share learning as it happens in classrooms.

This has the potential to reduce traditional barriers between home and the school. In the video below, Fendalton School's Rob Clarke describes some of the uses of Google tools by Fendalton teachers and students.

If you're interested in learning more about using Google Apps in the classroom, you can find a number of online resources, including class plans, here. Or visit the Google for Educators Discussion Group to engage with other educators and share information about Google in education.

Posted by Andrew Mitchell, Google Apps Online Operations Senior Strategist

Google Apps provides powerful messaging and collaboration tools that people anywhere can use simply by accessing a browser. With no hardware to set up or software to install, many businesses are comfortable using Google Apps right out of the virtual box.

But some businesses with more complex IT scenarios prefer to work with an expert on issues like data migration and sync, or they need additional features to meet their business needs. Fortunately, Google's growing network of solution providers – developers, system integrators, and professional IT consultants – can help these businesses. They provide information on their services in the Google Solutions Marketplace.

One of our more active partners so far is SADA Systems, Inc. SADA is involved in many Google Apps projects, most recently helping Virgin Mobile USA develop a custom hosted Single Sign-On solution in just three days.

SADA also assisted Kings, Krebs, and Jurgens, a New Orleans-based law firm, in their recent deployment of Google Apps. Working side-by-side with the firm's IT staff, SADA ensured that the Google Apps deployment complied with the firm's legal requirements for retaining old emails. They also implemented a dual delivery email configuration that continues mail delivery to the legacy system as the firm evolves to Google Apps.

Finally, SADA helped Kent State University provision accounts and migrate data to Google Apps Education Edition for more than 120,000 students, faculty, and staff.

SADA is not alone in helping businesses succeed with Google Apps. Over the past eight months, hundreds of vendors have showcased their products and services on the Solutions Marketplace. They've shared descriptions of their setup and support services, products, training, and custom development work for businesses of all sizes. Migrating users from legacy systems, syncing data with programs and devices, and helping users get the most out of the collaborative features of Google Apps are just a few examples of the products and services these solution providers offer.

Curious about what a solutions provider might do for your business? Visit the Marketplace for contact information, or read more customer stories on the Solutions Marketplace blog.


Posted by Jimmy Caputo, Enterprise Partners Team

Do you ever wonder what it would feel like to be free – really free – of spam? Many businesses, it seems, are so busy keeping email threats at bay that they can't even imagine what things might be like if they didn't even think about spam. What would it be like to forget about email threats entirely and just get things done?

Steve Comeau, Rutgers University Athletics' IT Manager, shared a glimpse of that freedom with participants in Google's recent Cloud Camps. Walking participants through Rutgers Athletics' implementation of Google Message Security, powered by Postini, Steve made it clear: things really do get better when workgroups stop worrying about spam.

Facing high threat levels (more than 93% of incoming email was unwelcome), concerns with compliance and NCAA regulations, and slow performance as server-based solutions struggled to keep inboxes clean, Steve surveyed a range of options before choosing Google. Seeing email as "a lifeline" for his teams and coaching staff, he knew that he had one chance to get it right – and Google's hosted approach made the cut.

Citing ease of setup, price, security and "greenness" (Steve values the "no new hardware, no extra power" approach that Google's hosted solution delivers) as key decision factors, all at Rutgers Athletics cheer for the reliability and results that Google Message Security have enabled.

Steve shares the full story here:



Anyone interested in understanding how spam prevention really can create strategic value should tune in to Steve's play-by-play look at Rutgers' spam defense. He also weaves in a bit of sports trivia, for those of you who enjoy that. All in all, it's a great view of how Rutgers launched a winning strategy in a high-stakes game...and scored big in the fight against spam.


Posted by Sundar Raghavan, Google Enterprise Team

As we continue to expand the capabilities of Google Maps API Premier, such as offering access over https and supporting unlimited address-level reverse geocoding, we see that our users increasingly host applications across a large number of domains. In the past, Google Maps API sites have required that an an associated key be provided whenever the API is used, which required managing multiple keys for various domains. We've heard that this process can be cumbersome, and in response, we've introduced maps without keys, exclusively for Premier users.

What does this change? First, it's no longer necessary for Google Maps API Premier customers to supply a key when using the API. Second, we will no longer issue keys to new customers. In place of the key, we will now validate requests against a list of domains that we'll maintain for your client ID.

This change arrives in conjunction with the launch of our new site for technical documentation specific to Google Maps API Premier. Check it out for more details on how to update existing applications and take advantage of key-less mapping. For more information on adding Google Maps API Premier to your site, please contact us here.

Posted by Thor Mitchell, Technical Solutions Engineer, Google Maps API Premier

As employees increase their use of the web to be more productive at work, you want to be sure that your network is protected from the web malware that is also increasing to match. That's where Google Web Security comes in. Google Web Security uses the power of the cloud to proactively protect your network from the latest threats, without relying on outdated approaches like web filtering alone.



Posted by Tim Johnson, Google Enterprise Team

The countdown to the end of the year has begun and you may be searching for creative but low cost ways to spread a little holiday cheer. Today we shared some tips on the Official Google Blog (Part I) to show you how templates in Google Docs can help your business save time and money when sending cards and gifts to customers and colleagues. Here we share 5 more tips to help you promote your business, organize the holiday office party and make sure you stay within budget: