Posted by Patrick Ryan, Policy Counsel, Open Internet and Sarah Falvey, Sr. Policy Analyst

We recently returned from the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Nairobi, Kenya with Vint Cerf and several others to talk about the future of the Internet, with more than 2,000 representatives from 125 governments, civil society, academia, and private industry in attendance. We hosted a panel on Putting your Trust in the Clouds, and we participated in other workshops and showcased our economic studies on the value of the Internet to economies worldwide. The IGF isn’t just a conference; it was set up by the United Nations as the primary place for governments, civil society and the private sector to discuss the future of the Internet.

This year, one of the hottest topics was cloud computing. Attendees increasingly showed an understanding that the “cloud” and the Internet are intertwined -- changes to one ultimately impacts the other. We recently detailed the same principles discussed at IGF in a paper presented to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, where we also outlined some principles for cloud regulation.

We're encouraged that participants at the IGF are increasingly realizing that regulation of the cloud and regulation of the Internet are essentially the same thing. After all, cloud computing involves almost any two-way interaction between users and computers, and it's virtually impossible to regulate cloud computing without regulating the Internet itself. Legislation in any country that takes a one-size-fits-all approach to the cloud (and thus, the Internet) is not the solution. A lighter touch can help promote innovation while allowing users to take advantage of reduced costs.

Posted by Jim Ambras, Founder and CEO of JobFlo

Editor’s note: Today’s guest blogger is Jim Ambras, founder and CEO of JobFlo (previously NotchUp). JobFlo helps small to medium-sized businesses recruit top talent through its free social-media recruiting platform. See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

JobFlo came into existence to address a problem I’d dealt with for over 14 years—how to find and recruit top talent who may not be actively seeking a job. I wanted to provide employers with a creative new way to reach happily employed people without resorting to the same traditional recruiting methods. This desire has led us to provide employers with a free recruiting platform that taps into the power of social networking sites.

I started JobFlo three years ago knowing we would take full advantage of cloud computing technologies and not be tied to a traditional business model that required servers and lots of IT complexity. I knew our business model was viable and was more concerned with how to set up and run a streamlined, efficient company. Having served as Vice President of Engineering for a bunch of start-ups, I knew setting up an infrastructure for our business ourselves could be really difficult and time-consuming. In previous jobs, I would often spend my days engineering and my nights managing our IT. Starting my own company, my first rule of business was that any communication and collaboration solution we used would not rely on in-house servers.

And with that, all the problems I had had before went away. With Google Apps, IT was one less thing we had to worry about, and it just worked and worked well. We had high email quotas, great spam-filtering, and real-time collaboration. It was really important that we had a good infrastructure for collaboration. As a company with four employees all working from home, the ability to share and work together online was critical.

While we started with Gmail and Google Docs, we have since included the use of many other tools such as Google Voice and apps from the Google Apps Marketplace. We have adopted tools such as FreshBooks for invoicing and MailChimp for email marketing. JobFlo is doing great, and we’ll be integrating even more of Google’s product suite into our business as we continue to grow.

Posted by Ronald Ho, Product Manager

Google Apps fans, today we’re ready to add you to our circles. Google+ makes sharing on the web more like sharing in the real world, and now Google+ is available to people who use Google Apps at college, at work or at home.

Starting now you can manually turn on Google+ for your organization. Once Google+ is turned on, your users will just need to sign up at google.com/+ to get started. For customers who use Google Apps for Business or the free version of Google Apps and who have chosen to automatically enable new services, Google+ will automatically become available to all of your users over the next several days.*

Google Apps users will have access to the same set of features that are available to every Google+ user, and more. In addition to sharing publicly or with your circles, you’ll also have the option to share with everyone in your organization, even if you haven’t added all of those people to a circle.



Google+ at home, at work and at college
You use Google Apps in lots of different ways, and we expect the same for Google+. Apps users from artists to doctors to parents to students to teachers have told us that they are ready to join the 40 million people already sharing on Google+.

Circles is a great way to share relevant content with the right people. With Circles, your photography crew doesn’t have to get an update about your morning workout, your triathlon team doesn’t have to see all your thoughts on the latest camera gear, and your project teams can be kept separate from all of this.



Hangouts with extras, which combines multi-person video chat with screen sharing and collaboration in Google Docs, lets you work together on projects even when your team can't be in the same room. Whether you’re out of town, working on a project with a distributed group, or just don’t feel like walking to the next building for your meeting, Hangouts with extras can give your team the productivity boost it needs.



Google+ coming to a campus near you
Many students and teachers have sent us their ideas about how they can use Google+ to teach, learn, work, and play. These are a few Google Apps for Education universities from around the world that are bringing Google+ to their campuses today:

• Abilene Christian University
• American University in Cairo (Egypt)
• Arizona State University
• AT Still University
• Boise State University
• Central Piedmont Community College
• Dublin City University (Ireland)
• ESSEC Business School (France)
• Leeds Metropolitan University (United Kingdom)
• Loughborough University (United Kingdom)
• Saint Louis University
• Strathmore University (Kenya)
• Universidad Panamericana (Mexico)
• University of Ferrara (Italy)
• University of Maryland Baltimore County
• University of Minnesota
• University of Notre Dame
• University of Pavia (Italy)
• University of Portsmouth (United Kingdom)
• University of Washington
• Vanderbilt University
• Wake Forest University

Just the beginning
For those of you who’ve already started using Google+ with a personal Google Account and would prefer to use your Google Apps account, we’re building a migration tool to help you move over. With this tool, you won’t have to rebuild your circles, and people who’ve already added you to their circles will automatically be connected to your new profile. We expect this migration option to be ready in a few weeks, so if you’d like, you can go ahead and get started with your Apps account today and merge your connections once the tool is available.

It took more technical work than we expected to bring Google+ to Google Apps, and we thank you for your patience. This integration is just the beginning. We’ll continue to add features and improve the way that Google+ works with Google Apps, and we encourage you to share your ideas.


* Google+ requires Picasa Web Albums for photo sharing and Google Talk for chat, so if these services are not enabled then Google+ will not automatically become available, even if your domain has chosen to automatically enable new services. The option to automatically enable new services is controlled in the Domain settings tab of the administrator control panel. More information about using Google+ with Google Apps is available in the Help Center.


Update: For Google Apps for Education customers, we're starting with higher ed institutions and are looking into making Google+ available to K-12s at some point in the future.


Update 2: The Circles migration tool referenced in this post is now live at google.com/takeout. You can learn more about how to use the tool in the Help Center.

Posted by Marc Crandall, Senior Manager of Global Compliance, Google Enterprise

More than 4 million businesses and 40 million users trust us with the data they store in Google Apps. We work to be responsible stewards of that data, and transparency is one important aspect of that. Last year, we posted a Transparency Report to provide the Internet community with more insight about how often governments ask for user data. Earlier this week, we published an update to the report. For the first time, we’re not only disclosing the number of requests for user data, but we’re showing the number of users or accounts that are specified in those requests, too.

We would like other cloud providers to join us in the effort to provide more transparency. We hope the Transparency Report will not only be insightful for Google Apps users concerning the number of requests we receive, but also provide customers with information they need to help trust their data with Google Apps.

Posted by Sam Srinivas, Product Management Director, Google Information Security Team

Editors note: This post is part of a series that explores the top ten reasons why customers trust Google with their business data. A complete top ten list can be found here.

As you compose a message in Gmail or collaborate on a document in Google Docs, you probably don’t often think about what we do to protect the data in that email or document. But behind the scenes we have an information security team that makes protecting your information its highest priority.

Information security is something that is important to every business. As Internet use has become widespread in the business world, attacks on applications and systems are becoming pervasive and sophisticated. Increasingly, monitoring and protecting applications and users against these attacks requires a great deal of infrastructure and technical expertise — usually more than one person or a small team can manage. Our information security team includes hundreds of full-time members working in close cooperation with the engineers developing Google applications. Some of the world's leading security researchers are members of our team, allowing Google to stay at the forefront of detection, response, and security software best practices.

We monitor our applications and systems continuously, using sophisticated automated systems that are designed to detect unusual activity and block it or flag it for immediate analysis by our monitoring team. We provide end-user features including 2-step verification, which defeats many common attacks such as trying to break into an account using a stolen password. Our Safe Browsing service helps protect users against malware and phishing. All of this technology and expertise comes together to enhance the security of your Google Apps data, allowing your IT staff to focus more of their attention on your business’s strategic needs.

“As the threats in the external environment change, [Google is] at the forefront of preventing, responding and anticipating. That’s one of the great things about partnering with Google - you have some of the best minds in the world working on those problems, which really frees me up to work on the problems that are unique to me and that I can really specialize in.”

- Todd Pierce, CIO of Genetech

Finally, we work to educate users about online safety. To that end, one of the most important things you can do to improve the security of your Google Apps accounts is to start using 2-step verification. We encourage you to set it up and start exploring other ways to better protect your information.

Posted by Tom Mills, Director of Education

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)

This time last year, we were tailgating with the USC marching band at the EDUCAUSE conference—an annual gathering of the higher-education IT community. Last week, with more than 15 million people now actively using Google Apps for Education, we ventured to Philadelphia for a few jam-packed days at EDUCAUSE 2011. Our time in the city of brotherly love included a booth with 30+ Googlers and a woodsy backdrop for our fireside chat series; meeting with hundreds of CIOs from universities using and considering Google Apps for Education; a party at the Academy of Natural Sciences; and of course liberty and the lifelong pursuit of the Philly cheesesteak. Here’s a glimpse:



The Campus Computing Project released its annual report at EDUCAUSE, too. This year’s survey named Google as the leading provider of outsourced cloud-based campus email services. According to the survey, 89 percent of higher education institutions are either already using or considering switching to cloud-based solutions. Of four-year colleges and universities (including community colleges) that have already moved to the cloud, more than 56 percent have gone Google—including 64 percent of public universities and 66 percent of private universities.

Last month we shared that 61 of US News and World Report’s top 100 Universities are using Google Apps for Education. That number’s now up to 62, and is still just a snapshot of the thousands of institutions using Apps on campus. Schools that have recently selected Apps for Education as their collaboration platform include Harvard University, University of Texas at Austin, Wellesley College, University of Amsterdam, Stanford Graduate School of Business, University of York and University of Bristol.

In addition to these new schools, we’re also bringing some new integrations to Apps:

• OpenClass: Pearson has developed a free cloud-based Learning Management System that is tightly integrated with Google Apps and provides a new kind of learning environment that stimulates social learning. This is available in the Apps Marketplace.
• SlideRocket EDU: This presentation software integrated for cloud-based collaborative education enables you to unleash the creation, sharing and communication of ideas with an online application that connects with content in Google Apps for Education and is available on any device or browser. This is available in the Apps Marketplace.
• Blackboard Bboogle: Last year, Northwestern University presented their popular Bboogle (Blackboard + Google) application at our EDUCAUSE booth. Bboogle has now been certified by Blackboard and is available to other universities as a Building Block through Blackboard’s Extensions website. Bboogle enables instructors to link Blackboard course sites directly to Google Docs, Calendars and Sites without requiring a second login. And by automatically setting permissions for editing, it helps encourage and facilitate collaborative instruction.
• Desire2Learn: Users will soon be able to add widgets to Course Homepages that make it easy to view unread email messages in Gmail, keep track of upcoming events in Calendar, and submit assignments created in Docs.

If you weren’t able to join us in person at this year’s EDUCAUSE conference, you can check out some of our photos, and we’ll hope to see you next year.

Posted by Glenn Wilson, product manager, Chrome for Business & Education

Four months ago we launched Chromebooks for businesses and schools, and we’ve been inspired by our customers embracing this new way of computing. Over that time we’ve learned a lot about what they need to make this device a great fit in their organizations. One piece of feedback we’ve heard from some customers is that they work with yearly budget cycles. To meet these customers’ needs, in addition to our 3-year subscription model, today we are introducing an alternative payment option. This new option gives schools and businesses a choice to pay upfront for Chromebooks with one year of access to the web-based admin management console, phone support, and hardware warranty coverage. After the first year, customers can choose to pay a monthly fee for years two and three for management console access and support.

Education:

Posted by Dylan Lorimer, Google Earth and Maps for Business Product Manager

Since 2008, Google has worked with GeoEye to publish millions of square kilometers of satellite imagery to Google Earth and Maps users. In addition to the imagery the company shares with Google, GeoEye also collects satellite imagery for licensing by numerous governments and business customers around the world.

Google Earth Builder is designed to make it easy for a geospatial data provider to securely publish its data to specific users or developers. For example, during a crisis response effort such as a forest fire, a government agency might need a particular group of employees to be able to access recent satellite images of the forest on their tablets or smartphones in real time.

Today we’re delighted to announce that GeoEye is the first commercial satellite imagery provider to adopt the Google Earth Builder platform. By using Google Earth Builder, GeoEye will rely on Google's cloud infrastructure to process, host, and securely publish their satellite imagery and mapping layers. Doing so will make it easy for their customers to access GeoEye’s geospatial data from their computers, tablets and other internet-connected devices.

This also means GeoEye will be able to create new business models around hosted, subscription access to their data, and will be able to provide Google Enterprise customers with the option to license additional imagery from GeoEye for use within Google Maps, Google Earth and APIs.

We’re really excited to have GeoEye using Google Earth Builder and looking forward to them publishing a host of new subscription imagery layers to our Google Enterprise Maps and Earth customers. Learn more about GeoEye’s plans to create subscription imagery services with Google Earth Builder here.

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog and the Google Docs Blog.)

A year and a half ago, we released completely new document, spreadsheet and drawing editors. Google Docs has been picking up speed ever since with more than 60 new features and millions of new users. Today we’re rounding out the suite by previewing a new version of presentations with faster collaboration and more features.


A collaborative approach
Presentations are made to be shared—whether it’s presenting your thesis to your professors or inspiring colleagues at a conference. And the best presentations are made together, collaborating with others to build a compelling story that captivates your audience. Creating presentations together is easy because you can:

• See exactly what others are working on with colorful presence markers
• Edit with your team members simultaneously from different locations
• Use revision history to see who made changes or to revert to earlier versions
• Say hello, start a conversation or share new ideas using built-in chat

More than 50 new features
In the new presentations, we’ve added many of your most requested features, including:

• Transitions to move between slides with simple fades or spicier 3D effects
• Animations to add emphasis or to make your slides more playful
• New themes to create beautiful presentations with distinct visual styles
• Drawings to build new designs, layouts, and flowcharts within a presentation
• Rich tables with merged cells and more options for adding style to your data

What’s next
We’re gradually rolling out the new presentations. To get an early start, click on the gear icon in your document list, and select Document settings. Then, from the editing tab, check the box to “Create new presentations using the latest version of the presentation editor.” Learn more about getting started with the new presentation editor over at our Help Center.

Many of the new features were built using technologies that are only available in modern browsers. If you’re using an older browser you’ll be able to view, but not edit, the new presentations.

With today’s launch, the Google Docs suite is now built on a single, solid foundation. Now that the groundwork is in place, you can expect more useful and collaborative features, delivered faster than ever before.

Posted by Patrick Ryan, Policy Counsel, Open Internet

This year, Google is a private sector, Platinum Sponsor of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the premier economic organization in the Asia-Pacific region which includes trade ministries from 21 member economies that account for 55 percent of global GDP. Like most trade-related organizations, APEC has traditionally focused on trade in goods -- things like manufactured products and agriculture that are shipped across borders. Free trade builds on the law of comparative advantage: that trading partners mutually gain from free, nontariff trade of goods and services. Increasingly, cloud computing is getting attention as a trade matter. At the most recent APEC meeting, on September 20, 2011, U.S. Ambassador Phillip Verveer talked about the economic advantages that cloud computing can bring to small and medium-sized enterprises, and encouraged governments to be careful about the effect of regulations that could slow adoption of the cloud:

“In these circumstances, we would expect every economy to welcome cloud services without regard to the national origin of their producers. But there are complications. One of the big ones is the limitations on trans-border data flows . . . [i]t is very important, however, that we not unnecessarily sacrifice the economic advantages inherent in cloud computing in our arrangements to protect personal privacy. Stated more directly, we should not let our quest for effective privacy mechanisms become a barrier to international trade in cloud services.”

We applaud Ambassador Verveer for his statements on cloud and we are encouraged that cloud computing is increasingly considered in the trade context. We agree with Ambassador Verveer that protections of personal privacy are important, and that’s why we offer our users clear information on our data security and privacy page. While privacy is critical to any environment -- it shouldn’t be used a trade barrier in favor of local industry and prevent small and medium-sized enterprises from taking advantage of the enormous cost savings that cloud services can provide. By analogy, under free trade principles, a country shouldn’t condition the sale of rice in their country on the purchase of a rice farm in that country. Similarly, it could be a trade barrier to condition the provisioning of cloud services in a country on the purchase of a server farm in that country. That’s not how the Internet was designed, and we hear at APEC and elsewhere an increased appreciation for broader transnational data flows--coupled with enhanced appreciation for privacy and security--and are encouraged by that movement.

Posted by Lena Furr, MIS Director, Mid-Atlantic Door Group. and Tom Ronayne, General Manager AIRO Tech.

Editors note: Today’s guest bloggers are Lena Furr, MIS Director for Mid-Atlantic Door Group and Tom Ronayne, General Manager of AIRO Tech, a technology services subsidiary of Mid-Atlantic Door Group, a 38-year-old specialty contracting company based in Washington, DC area. A PDF version of their case study is also available.



At Mid-Atlantic Door Group, we distribute and install everything from industrial overhead doors, door operation systems and loading dock equipment for commercial customers to garage doors and retractable awnings for residential customers. We have approximately 240 associates and operate together with our subsidiaries in Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania. In 1987 we created a technical services company, AIRO Tech, which designs and develops web-based business applications for outside specialty contracting companies as well as our own.

Recently, we were looking for ways to reduce IT license and maintenance costs and we wanted to get to our data easily from different devices, especially mobile ones. We had some experience building our own operational applications and our focus had been on clean, optimized interfaces developed for speed and mobility. So when it came time to upgrade our email and productivity applications we looked for solutions that embraced those elements.

Our previous environment included Microsoft® Exchange, Outlook and Office, but we found ourselves spending too much time and money on licenses and server maintenance. We had different versions on different machines and we were continually updating software on our desktops and laptops. Google Apps allowed us to to break free from those high-cost, high maintenance applications.

Our users are getting their email on a variety of devices and we’ve seen effective use of Google Docs especially for collaboration between our users. It’s just so easy to use, the collaboration comes naturally since it’s built right in. We also deployed Google Message Discovery, an email archive that provides an audit trail for our compliance needs.

By deploying Google Apps we were able to avoid $43,000 in upgrade costs we were facing in our old environment. The ability to access email in a browser also allowed us to transition many of our users to Linux-based desktops which also helped reduce our costs. Together with other license and application reductions, we saved nearly $60,000 in total.

Google Apps gives us the ability to work from anywhere on a wide variety of mobile devices. We are looking at deploying more mobile devices including smartphones, Chromebooks and tablets in the near future. Based on our encouraging experience so far, we anticipate that our Google Apps deployment will make it easy for us to do that.

Posted by Naveen Viswanatha, Product Manager, Google Commerce

Two years ago in November, we launched Google Commerce Search, which provides the search quality of Google to e-commerce websites with interactive user features such as Suggestions, Search As You Type and Product Recommendations. With Google Commerce Search, retailers such as GNC, L’Occitane and Forever21 are powering fast, interactive and relevant search and navigation for their customers. Simple integration with mobile and local search results allows shoppers to find products in physical stores nearby, helping retailers offer a great shopping experience from start to finish.

We’ve grown both in product features and user adoption in the past two years, but we’re not done yet. In fact, we want to make it even easier for retailers to adopt Google Commerce Search to help them achieve amazing results and meet their customers’ needs.

So today we’re announcing that we’re growing the Google Commerce Search family with the launch of the Google Commerce Search Reseller Program. Through this new program, technology providers can bring the unique capabilities of Google Commerce Search to their retail clients.

We’ve been working with some leading technology providers who have developed solutions around Google Commerce Search for the web and for mobile, and we’re excited to formalize the program and invite even more technology providers to come on board with us.

Our first new reseller is Branding Brand, a leader in the mobile commerce space who works with large multi-channel retailers to develop mobile and social commerce applications. The firm sought out Google when they heard about Google Commerce Search, as they knew it would deliver additional value to their customers. “Mobile users are often action-oriented--whether they’re locating a store, seeing what products are available nearby, or searching for a specific item–so it’s important to quickly provide relevant information in the proper context. Google Commerce Search allows us to do exactly this,” says co-founder Chris Mason. GNC was Branding Brand’s first client to launch with Google Commerce Search earlier this year, and here is what their CMO Jeff Hennion has to say about the results:



In fact, with Branding Brand we’d also like to announce our newest retail customer: Timberland. With Branding Brand and Google Commerce Search, Timberland has been able to make their mobile vision a reality, both in the core site experience but also in integrating the critical search capabilities provided by Google Commerce Search. Timberland makes quality and environmentally-responsible products, so we couldn’t be happier to welcome them to our family.

“At Timberland, the consumer always comes first. Our priority in developing our mobile website was making sure customers had the best experience possible,” said Chris Hardisty, director of Timberland Global E-Commerce. “Shoppers today expect fast and relevant results especially on mobile where speed and interactivity matter most. Since we launched our mobile-optimized website, we have seen mobile sales grow 20 times faster than our desktop site sales.”

We’re also happy to welcome Perficient, a leading technology integrator specializing in e-commerce. Perficient was keenly interested developing solutions around Google Commerce Search given the capabilities it can provide to their clients. “Google Commerce Search brings retailers of all sizes the advanced Google search features that were previously only available to the biggest players in the space, including Search As You Type, local product availability, and engaging mobile experiences,” says Sameer Peera, Principal of Perficient’s National Commerce Practice.

If you’re interested in becoming a Google Commerce Search reseller, please let us know by getting in touch.

Posted by Jessie Jiang, Group Product Manager

Google’s cloud services allow you to host your applications in the cloud and leverage the same infrastructure that power Google's own applications.There are more than 200,000 developers who have created apps on Google’s cloud services. Today, we are announcing several enhancements to our services targeted at businesses looking to build applications in the cloud.

New enterprise level service and support option for Google App Engine

When choosing a platform for your most critical business applications or standardizing on one across your organization, we recognize that uptime guarantees, easy management and support are just as important as product features. So today, we are launching Google App Engine Premier Accounts. For $500 per month, you’ll receive premier support, a 99.95% uptime service level agreement and the ability to create unlimited number of apps on your premier account domain.

To sign up for a premier account, email our sales team at appengine_premier_requests@google.com.

Google Cloud SQL - Your database in the cloud

Last week, we announced the limited preview of Google Cloud SQL. It powers your App Engine applications with a familiar relational database in a fully managed cloud environment. This allows you to focus on developing your applications and services, free from the chores of managing, maintaining and administering relational databases.

Cloud SQL is available free of charge for now. It will continue to evolve as we work out the kinks during the preview. Let us know if you’d like to take it for a spin.

Google Cloud Storage is out of Code Labs, with new features and lower price

Last year, we introduced Google Storage for developers, a service that lets you store data on Google’s infrastructure with very high reliability, availability and performance. You can use it for your online archives, storing and serving static content (e.g. images and video), sharing data with your customers and partners, as well for use with other Google services like App Engine, Prediction API and BigQuery.

Today, Google Storage for Developers is out of Labs, and has a new name - Google Cloud Storage. In addition to leaving Labs, we are announcing several new features. You can now read and write files to Google Cloud Storage via the App Engine Files API. We are also making detailed usage information, including access analytics and storage use data, available to all our customers.

Finally, we are lowering the prices for storage and bandwidth across the board. We are not charging for ingress and introducing volume discounts for our larger users. Depending on your usage patterns, you could save over 40% of your monthly bill. Please see our updated pricing here.

Google Prediction API graduates from labs, adds new features

Since the general availability launch of the Prediction API earlier this year, we have been very excited about giving you access to machine learning in the cloud to build smarter apps. Today, we are announcing the latest release of Prediction API - v1.4. With the release of this version, Prediction API is graduating from Google Code Labs. The new release will also includes two of your most requested features: PMML v4.01 support and data anomaly detection.

Prediction API has a variety of use cases from helping increase fuel economy to creating movie recommendation services. It is one of the services which provides a clean and simple API to  machine learning that anybody can understand. At the same time, it is hosted in the cloud and ideally situated for integration with your web application.

We are enabling our enterprise customers to build business solutions that take advantage of the computing power and scalability of Google’s cloud services without all the hassles of deployment of applications. We have been making great progress on Google App Engine, Cloud Storage, and Prediction API. There is more to come, stay tuned.

Let us know if you are interested to talk to a Google representative to get more details. We are always happy to hear from you, so feel free to leave your comments below.

Posted by Adam Swidler, Senior Manager, Google Apps

Editors note: This post is part of a series that explores the top ten reasons why customers trust Google with their business data. A complete top ten list can be found here.

Google Apps allows you to be productive anywhere. For example, you may want to check your email or work on a document in a coffee shop, airport or hotel using a public wireless network. Google Apps protects your data in these situations by establishing an encrypted connection while you work. Without it, an unauthorized person could potentially hijack your session and gain access to your account. Using an Internet standard known as HTTPS, we encrypt your data as it travels from your browser to our servers. This makes it much harder for an imposter to access your account this way. We’ve supported encrypted connections from the day Google Apps launched over five years ago, and we made it the default setting for all users at the beginning of last year.

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month and we’ve introduced a new Google Security center with more information on encrypted connections and other ways you can stay safe online.

Posted by Rich Rao, Director of Enterprise Online Sales and Operations

When Business Insider recently released its 20 Silicon Valley Startups to Watch, we were curious how Google Apps ranked among these businesses’ IT solutions of choice. The answer turned out to be: really well. We found 97% of these companies from the last two years were running on Google Apps.

We built Google Apps to help businesses improve how they work together with the power of the web, so we were thrilled to learn that the hottest startups in a community as dynamic as Silicon Valley are running on Apps.

Posted by: David Loxton, Product Manager

(Cross-posted from the Google Docs Blog.)

Earlier this year, we introduced the Google Docs app for Android. Since then, many users have downloaded the app and enjoyed the benefits of being able to access, edit and share docs on the go.

Today’s update to the app makes Google Docs work better than ever on your tablet. With an entirely new design, we’ve customized the look to make the most of the larger screen space on tablets. The layout includes a three-panel view, which allows you to navigate through filters and collections, view your document list, and see document details, all at once.

Looking at the details panel on the right side, you can see a thumbnail to preview a document and its details before opening it. From the panel, you can see who can view or edit any doc.

New 3-panel view for improved browsing

Autocomplete makes sharing with others on the go even easier

These features are now available in 46 languages on tablet devices with Android 3.0+ (Honeycomb) and above.

You can download the app from the Android Market and let us know what you think in the comments or by posting on the forum. Learn more by visiting the help center.

Posted by: Ashley Chandler, Google Apps team

Editor's note: The Google Apps Adventures series features stories from the people and organizations that use Google Apps to explore, discover and push the boundaries. These businesses truly embody the freedom enabled by the cloud.

Back in January we shared the story of Berlin-based multimedia agency Traffic Konzept + Film, and award-winning polar explorer Børge Ousland as they set out to film a record-setting expedition to document global warming in the Arctic. Ousland’s goal was to be the first to sail through both Passages of the North Pole in a single voyage, and the first to circumnavigate the Arctic in a single season – a feat other explorers have tried and failed to do for 500 years. Unfortunately, due to global warming, such a journey is now possible.

To stay connected and coordinate the expedition, the explorers and Traffic relied on Google Apps and YouTube. They also outfitted their boat with a special GPS tracker, so everyone could follow the voyage in real time via Google Maps.

To capture the adventure, Traffic created a short documentary that combines exclusive footage from the expedition with the first post-voyage interviews of Børge Ousland and co-captain Thorlief Thorliefsson. While the film will be aired at the 2011 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival today, you can enjoy a preview right here.

Google technology helped bring the journey to life as it happened. Børge Ousland tells us, “The film allows viewers to look back and get a real sense of the climate change effects that everyone witnessed and documented.”