Posted by Meghdutt Brahmachari, Product Marketing Manager, Google Enterprise

No wonder the customers of Speedway Motors love the retailer so much. The world’s largest manufacturer of specialty hot-rodding and racing products is using Google Search Appliance (GSA) to help car-racing fanatics quickly find and buy the hard-to-find parts they need from among thousands of items. Fast, relevant search creates loyal customers, including a handful who have been getting their parts from Speedway Motors for more than 30 years.

In our upcoming Hangout On Air with Speedway Motors - taking place Thursday, September 19th at 10 a.m. PT - you can hear Chris Chance, Speedway’s Director of IT, chat with Joe Davidoff, North American Sales Manager for Google Commerce Search. Also, Dwayne Remekie, Practice Director for enterprise solutions consultant GroupBy, will show a demo of GroupBy's product that uses Google’s relevance model to provide a best-in-class merchandising tool that integrates with GSA.

Chris and Joe will talk about the role that Google Search Appliance plays in the Speedway customer service story, and Chris will also share his insights on these questions:

• How has better search helped Speedway increase conversions by 45%, and boost search revenue by 116%?
• Why is search relevance so important to customers?
• What search features help customers quickly find the products they need?

If you missed our previous Hangout On Air with Ocado, the world’s largest online grocer, you can catch up on the details.
RSVP for the Speedway Motors Hangout On Air, and take part in the Q&A by posting your questions on Google+ or Twitter using the the hashtag #GoneGoogle.

Posted by Guy Willoughby, Executive Director, the HALO Trust

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)

Editor’s Note: Today’s guest blogger is Guy Willoughby, Executive Director of the HALO Trust, a UK-based nonprofit dedicated to landmine clearance in post-conflict areas. Hear how HALO is using Google Maps for Business to fight the war against mines, clearing more than 1.4 million landmines worldwide.

When conflicts end, making communities safe and livable often means removing dangerous remnants of war. “Getting mines out of the ground, for good,” as we say at the HALO Trust, has been our mission over the last 25 years. We work in more than a dozen countries and regions across the globe, clearing landmines and other explosives, many of which have been buried underground. While we’ve been in operation for almost three decades, there is still more to be done.

In Kosovo, where people are reclaiming their homeland after the conflict in 1999, we’re working in close cooperation with the government and local population to collect and share information about where mines are located. It’s a true community effort—farmers tell us where they’ve seen signs of mines and where accidents have occurred. It’s our job at the HALO Trust to take this data and make it usable, accessible, and visually compelling, so clearance becomes more efficient and happens faster.

One of our biggest challenges is keeping our field teams safe. We need easy-to-use tools that can help us find, map and clear hazardous areas without putting our operations at risk. Over the years, we’ve continuously improved our mine clearance techniques, including the deployment of Google Earth Pro.
Google Earth Pro makes it easier for the HALO team to do the dangerous and detailed work of finding and mapping at-risk areas. Because it’s based on the same technology as Google Maps and Earth, it’s easy for our teams to use and create maps without IT or GIS expertise. It’s a tool that is familiar to our employees and something they use in their daily lives, so we can start mapping right away.

The information we gather, including GPS references to landmines in the field, is imported into Earth Pro so that we can plot mine locations. We also use the incredibly detailed satellite imagery in Google Earth to identify and map hazardous areas. These high-resolution maps serve many people: from families who live near mines, to crews who clear them, and donors and other organizations that support us. When donors view the vivid interactive maps of our project areas—with mines so close to schools, farms, and houses—they understand why the HALO Trust’s work is so critical.

Learn more about HALO's work in Kosovo.

Accurate maps from Google Earth Pro mean safer working conditions for our local teams, and faster progress toward our goals. In Kosovo alone, we’ve removed thousands of landmines, cluster munitions and other explosives. And with the help of Google’s mapping tools and our donors, we’ll be able to declare the country mine-free.

Posted by Benito Martinez, Senior Manager, Online Marketing at TIM

Editor's note: Today’s guest blogger is Benito Martínez, Senior Manager of Online Marketing at TIM Brasil. TIM is Brazil’s second largest telecom provider and has 1,800 stores and sales points located in different states around the country. See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.


In August 2012, Brazil's National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) demanded Brazil's national service providers to improve the quality of service and support for mobile phone customers. We responded by developing a three-year action plan funded with R$9,5 billion. In order to communicate the plan to customers and society, we designed a mapping service to reinforce the transparency and allow over to 70 million customers to keep track of our services.

We chose the Google Maps API and Google Maps Engine for this mapping project, because they would provide our workers and customers with a familiar service, a very easy and understandable user experience, and a manageable tool to monitor and update all the information regarding the coverage of our services. Using Google Maps, we can show the location of all the company’s antennas and WiFi Hotspots, so both TIM and our clients can locate our services. We can also display where there is 2G, 3G or 4G coverage. The map details the spots that are covered by the company, as well as those where there is no coverage, and informs transparently clients on the current and future activities like antennas installed recently and those that will be installed in the future.

Since deploying these tools three months ago, we’ve been impressed with the results. We’ve increased the number of visits to our web site from 500 visits per month to over 300,000 queries on the Google mapping tools, showing the increase in customers searching for the coverage range and services we are providing them in their respective areas. We update our data monthly, so we expect this number to grow as we add more and more information. This project also generated a tighter integration between the different areas of the company. For example, the marketing and network technical departments are now working together cooperatively to offer richer information about the service to ensure the constant flow of information for our customers.


We also developed a smartphone app which provides consumers fast access to all the services that are available online. This mobile app offers more customers the tools available from our “Open Doors” website on their smartphones and tablets. We are using Android OS as one of the main development platforms due to the widespread availability of Android smartphones in Brazil.

In the future, we plan to expand the Google Maps usage in our CRM initiatives in order to communicate in a more personalized way with our customer base by offering segmented maps. Overall, we’ve seen very positive benefits from adopting Google Maps Engine and the Google Maps API.

Posted by Caesar Sengupta, Product Management Director, Chromebooks

(Cross-posted on the Google Chrome Blog)

It’s been amazing to see the broadening of the Chromebook spectrum and we look forward to continued advances in both the hardware and software. Now more than ever, a new Chromebook truly offers something for everyone.

Posted by James Lambe, Head of Enterprise, Canada

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Canada Blog)

Last week all across Canada, students started a new school year. Educators everywhere have been getting ready for that first bell to ring and for classrooms to fill up. In the spirit of kicking off a new year, we talked with teachers in several provinces who are empowering their students with Chromebooks and Google Apps. We discovered some really inspiring work going on, so we’re sharing a few of our favorite stories here with you.

Grade four students Gabriel and Emily in Edmonton work on their e-portfolio sites. Photo credit: Edmonton Public Schools

Bill MacKenzie is an Information Communication Technology Consultant for the Upper Grand District School Board just outside Toronto. He first introduced Chromebooks and Google Apps to the district’s 34,000 students two years ago. In deciding between platforms, MacKenzie noted, “What’s different about Google is the collaborative piece. More than one student can work on a project at the same time and share their work with others in the classroom or across the globe. That’s an absolute game changer for us.” Currently, 4,000 shared Chromebooks are deployed throughout the district’s elementary, secondary, and high schools.

IT Director Philippe Lemieux was equally excited about bringing Google Apps and Chromebooks to his French-language public school district in Canada. This fall, all 13,000 students and 38 schools in the Eastern Ontario French Public School Board will be using Google Apps, and over 3,000 Chromebooks will be deployed across the wide-spread school board. While Lemieux was blown away by the potential in Google’s collaboration platform, IT staff benefit too: “Chromebooks are the only thing I can deploy massively without adding staff, without adding resources, without a lot of preparation. It is so easy. We purchase them, we enroll them in our domain, and give them to schools.”

To the west, in Edmonton, Alberta, more than 96,000 students, staff, and teachers are using Chromebooks and Google Apps. Terry Korte coordinates Technology Integration Planning Services for Edmonton Public Schools, where dedicated labs have been replaced by class sets of Chromebooks. Students have access to the technology right in the classroom, and “they’re writing more, editing more, accepting feedback more. Google Apps is a real leveling force across our district.”

We’re excited about what educators in Canada are doing with Google technology and can’t wait to share more about their and others’ work with you throughout this school year.

To learn more about Chromebooks you can contact the Google Education Team through our website. Or learn from some educators: Scott Monahan and Jim Jamieson are Digital Literacy Resource Teachers for the York Region District School Board in Ontario. As part of their board's roll out of Google Apps for Education to over 120,000 users, the two have organized a “Google Camp” for more than 500 of their teachers next month; join their G+ community to get in on the conversation.

Posted by Meghdutt Brahmachari, Product Marketing Manager, Google Enterprise

Attending our new Hangout On Air series with the world’s most innovative retailers is like having a super-smart business consultant sitting at your desk. Over the next several weeks, we’ll be talking to companies like Ocado, the world’s largest online-only grocer, and Speedway Motors, an online retailer of street racing products, to find out how they’re ramping up business productivity and winning the love of their customers.

Our first Hangout features Ocado on Thursday, September 12, at 8 a.m. PT, with Paul Clarke, Ocado’s Director of Technology, and Rhonda Stites, Head of Industry for Google Enterprise. Ocado offers same-day delivery of groceries to UK households and ships more than 150,000 orders per week. They use Google Apps for Business, Google Cloud Platform, and Google Maps for Business to stay agile and collaborate on projects, easily create and test new apps, and inform customers about shipping and delivery.


Paul will cover these questions:

• How is Ocado using technology to drive innovation and business productivity?
• How do you manage and use all the data you’re collecting to make better business decisions and direct strategy?
• What are you doing to create amazing customer service?

RSVP for the Hangout On Air – and post your questions on Google+ or Twitter using the hashtag #OcadoGoneGoogle since there will be opportunity for Q&A.

Posted by Elynn Lee, Software Engineer, Google Forms

(Cross-posted on the Google Drive blog.)

From classroom pop quizzes to RSVPs for your team offsite, you can use Google Forms in tons of different ways -- which is why it's important to be able to customize each form to fit your needs. Starting today, you’ll be able to take advantage of four new features to create your perfect form: progress bars, data validation, embedded YouTube videos, and custom messages.

Guide respondents through your survey with a progress bar
Sometimes it’s helpful to give respondents a sense of how much of a survey still needs to be completed, and now you can by turning on a progress bar in your form.
To turn it on, just check the progress bar box in the Form Settings tab.
Get results the way you want them with data validation
Let’s say you’re using Forms to collect sign ups for an email newsletter. With data validation, you can now ensure that the email addresses are formatted correctly, and consequently avoid those unpleasant bounce-back messages.

To get started, create a new Text question in Forms, then click on the Data validation tab. Click the checkbox and select “Text,” then “Email address,” and voila, the survey taker will see an error message if they don’t enter an email address.
You can also set up data validation for maximum character count, numbers, zip codes, and more.

Embed YouTube videos
You can now embed a YouTube video right inside a form -- perfect if you want to get feedback or ask questions about a video.

This works really well for quizzes in class, especially if paired with data validation and the progress bar. Embed a video and then use data validation to give hints when students enter incorrect answers, and add a progress bar so they know how far along they are in the quiz.
Add a custom message to closed forms
Sometimes when a form is closed, you still want to make information available for respondents who weren’t able to complete it in time.

Posted by Tyler Carr, Production Manager, Leon Speakers

Editor's note: Today’s guest blogger is Tyler Carr, Production Manager at Leon Speakers. The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan and specializes in high-performance, on-wall loudspeakers. Find more info about Chromebooks and see what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

Fifteen years ago, a few art and music graduates from the University of Michigan founded Leon Speakers because of their passion for art and audio, technology and design. Leon Speakers now has roughly 40 employees and we meticulously handcraft a full range of high-fidelity, elegant loudspeakers.

We devote the majority of our time to building great audio experiences, and so we have spent less time optimizing our processes. Although we had developed a custom software platform to manage orders, we were still using paper notes and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for much of our information exchange. Our production technicians on the floor created manual checklists to track projects and, at night, I’d print out dozens of updated lists for the next day’s tasks. Even though we were able to produce custom speakers for hundreds of customers at breakneck speeds, for a cutting-edge audio company, our processes were pretty laborious and inefficient. And, as a rapidly growing company (it's our third year on the Inc. 500|5000 List), I knew we had to transform our approach to the manufacturing process.

We decided to make a leap into the future, rather than taking a few small steps. Our requirements were specialized. We’re an assembly manufacturing shop – there is a lot of wood being cut and dust everywhere – and we have skilled craftsmen who may not have a lot of computer training. We knew that from a productivity standpoint, Google Apps would fit our needs. We would no longer have to pay constant licensing costs and wait for upgrades. Instead, we would get continual innovation and have virtually no upkeep. Google Drive would also be a great way to store and share our large 3D design files, which we typically create in CAD programs like SolidWorks. Plus, I could put the entire build schedule on a shared spreadsheet that could be updated in real time by all of my employees.

Then came the question of devices. We looked at Panasonic Toughbooks and several other hardware options, but couldn’t justify the upfront costs and ongoing maintenance expense. Then we found Chromebooks. They were the perfect way for us to inexpensively deploy fast and easy-to-use laptops on the floor. We bought dozens of Chromebooks for our employees to share. It was a third of what we would pay for buying everyone an individual laptop due to the easy sharability factor.

The startup, resume and processing speed of Chromebooks has been phenomenal. It’s very easy for technicians to view their tasks and get their jobs done faster by accessing their lists and tasks in Google Drive. The Chromebook Management Console allows us to push out our corporate websites and apps to the Chromebook app launcher, making it a no-brainer for anyone on staff to pull up job-relevant information. Not to mention the savings in paper and printing costs: everything is now virtual, and if I need to change something based on a customer request, it’s as easy as hitting Enter.

As a production manager, I don't want to spend my time managing IT. Because Google Apps and Chromebooks are so easy to manage, I can spend less time as an IT administrator and more time doing what I love.

Posted by Daniele Schillaci, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing for Toyota in Europe

Editor's note: In today’s guest blog post Daniele Schillaci talks about Toyota's Touch 2 with Go technology, launching in January 2014. Hear how the company is bringing premium map features from Google to drivers.

At Toyota, our vision is to change the future of mobility, helping people get around in ways that can enrich their lives. Over the years, we’ve built our brand on the foundation of quality, safety and affordability. As we roll-out new in-car technologies, we’re working to maintain these core values, as well as exceed expectations for our brand.

Starting in January 2014, Toyota drivers will have access to Google Street View and Panoramio via the Toyota Touch 2 with Go connected technology. The newest in-dash system provides direct access to Google-sourced imagery and geo-tagged photos, allowing drivers to see a realistic view of their surroundings on a map.

By having access to street-level imagery of a final destination, such as a store entrance or a parking lot, Touch 2 with Go users can experience easier door-to-door navigation. Additionally, Google imagery and user-generated photos will be displayed on Toyota’s second generation Touch unit, which has four times the number of pixels and screen sizes of up to 8 inches. This brings strikingly clear visual-based cues to users within seconds.

While the latest in-car technologies have traditionally been available in luxury vehicles, we’re bringing best-in-class connectivity to our mainstream brands. We’re giving Toyota owners a one-year, free subscription to the Touch 2 with Go infotainment system, allowing drivers to access Google Street View and Panoramio, plus real time traffic, weather, parking and fuel prices - all from a bluetooth connection from inside their cars.

We’re excited to bring premium map features from Google to even more drivers and their passengers. Not only will this guide them to nearby places, it’s a step forward for raising expectations around Toyota innovation and the future of mobility.

Posted by Daniel Thommen, Managing Director, LOSTnFOUND AG

Editor's note: Our guest blogger this week is Daniel Thommen, Managing Director of LOSTnFOUND AG, a Swiss-based company that makes tracking systems for the transportation and health care industries. See what other companies that have gone Google have to say.

With 20 employees and offices in Germany, France, Switzerland and Poland, LOSTnFOUND sells telematics systems that enable companies to keep track of goods all the way from the warehouse to the store using GPS technology. Our company was the first to develop this technology for the transportation industry in 2009 and is one of the leading companies using this technology in Europe. We realized these systems could be used not just to help track packages, but also to find people who are lost and need help. So LOSTnFOUND used Google Maps and Geolocation APIs to develop a product called guard2me that helps people keep track of their loved ones who suffer from Alzheimer’s Disease.

Millions of people around the world every year are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, which is characterized by dementia. Getting lost is a common problem for people with the disease because their memory is impaired and they easily get confused and wander off. Patients can quickly find themselves in dangerous situations and have no idea what their address is or how to contact their care provider or family.

guard2me has a GPS sensor embedded in a watch worn around the patient’s wrist to track the location of the patient at all times, allowing care providers and family members to locate a patient who is lost or in an emergency situation. The GPS is complemented by an innovative Cell-Locate technology which triangulates signals to determine positions when satellite coverage is not available. So guard2me does not lose coverage when used indoors. GSM availability keeps it ‘live’ when a GPS signal is out of range. This means that the patient’s location can be pinpointed even within a building.

Care providers and family members can see exactly where the patient is on an online map, as well as access the Web-based system. Care providers looking after multiple patients can use an iOS mobile app to see where each patient is at any time.

There is a huge need for digital aids that can help medical providers monitor patients remotely, respond faster to emergencies and provide more attention to patients without interfering with their lifestyle and activities. guard2me helps keep Alzheimer’s patients safe from harm and provides loved ones peace of mind that if a family member gets lost or falls, help will be on the way quickly. This allows patients to maintain their independence and freedom, rather than forcing them into care facilities and 24-hour care. And that makes everyone happier.