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Google Apps Highlights
Friday, December 16, 2011
(Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
)
The elves got an early jump on the holidays this year by leaving us some surprises in Google Apps over the last few weeks. Sharing from Gmail got a whole lot easier, and Google Calendar can make better use of precious screen space. We also have 10 new Google Apps customer stories to share from the tens of thousands that have gone Google in recent weeks.
Gmail gets more social
Last week we sprinkled a touch of
Google+ into Gmail
, making it easier to connect and share with people from your inbox. You can add people to circles right from an email thread through Gmail’s people widget, share photo attachments with friends and family on Google+ without leaving Gmail, and view a filtered version of your inbox only showing messages from people in your circles. We also improved Gmail’s address book by incorporating contact information shared by your friends, family and colleagues in their Google+ profiles.
New features in the Gmail iOS app
Just yesterday we added several new improvements to the
Gmail app for iOS 4+
. Now you can set up a custom email signature for mobile messages, manage your vacation responder, and view nested labels from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. We also added scribbles, a fun way to spice up messages by adding a quick hand-drawn sketch. You can create scribbles using a range of colors, brush sizes, lines, erasers and spray paints from your touchscreen device.
More free calls right from Gmail
Last year we introduced free domestic calling in Gmail within the U.S. and Canada, and we’re extending this free service for
the whole year of 2012
. We’re happy to help you keep in touch with those special people in your life, for free.
Hide morning and night hours in Calendar
If you don’t often have appointments early in the morning or late at night, a new trick in Google Calendar might be useful. Now you can
hide morning and night hours
, leaving more screen real estate for the times of day when most of your events take place. Give it a try in Calendar Labs.
Who’s gone Google?
Businesses and schools are switching to Google Apps in droves these days. From tiny startups to large enterprises and nonprofits to college campuses, we love hearing the inspiring stories that our customers share. Here’s a new batch of stories for your reading pleasure:
TripIt
,
IPSEN
,
Ebby Halliday
,
Ticket River
,
VigLink
,
HeyZap
,
The Great Books Foundation
,
Utah K-12 schools
, the
U.S. Coast Guard Academy
and
UC Santa Cruz
. Welcome one and all!
For more details and the latest news, check out the
Google Apps Blog
, and keep an eye out for this series here after the holidays. We launched more than 150 improvements to Google Apps in 2011, and we have a ton more in store for 2012!
Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Team
Giving Back In 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
(Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
)
As the holiday season approaches we thought it was a good moment to update you on some grants we're making to support education, technology and the fight against modern day slavery.
STEM and girls’ education
Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) open up great opportunities for young people so we've decided to fund 16 great programs in this area. These include Boston-based
Citizen Schools
and
Generating Genius
in the U.K., both of which work to help to expand the horizons of underprivileged youngsters. In total, our grants will provide enhanced STEM education for more than 3 million students.
In addition, we're supporting girls’ education in the developing world. By giving a girl an education, you not only improve her opportunities, but those of her whole family. The
African Leadership Academy
provides merit scholarships to promising young women across the continent, and the
Afghan Institute of Learning
offers literacy classes to women and girls in rural Afghanistan. Groups like these will use our funds to educate more than 10,000 girls in developing countries.
Empowerment through technology
We've all been wowed by the entrepreneurial spirit behind the 15 awards in this category, all of whom are using the web, open source programming and other technology platforms to connect communities and improve access to information.
Vittana
, for instance, helps lenders offer loans to students in the developing world who have have a 99 percent repayment rate—potentially doubling or tripling a recipient's earning power.
Code for America
enables the web industry to share its skills with the public sector by developing projects that improve transparency and encourage civic engagement on a mass scale. And
Switchboard
is working with local mobile providers to help African health care workers create networks and communicate for free.
Fighting slavery and human trafficking
Modern day slavery is a multi-billion dollar industry that ruins the lives of around 27 million people. So we're funding a number of groups that are working to tackle the problem. For instance, in India,
International Justice Mission (IJM)
, along with
The BBC World Service Trust
,
Action Aid
and
Aide et Action
, are forming a new coalition. It will work on the ground with governments to stop slave labor by identifying the ring masters, documenting abuse, freeing individuals and providing them with therapy as well as job training. Our support will also help expand the reach of tools like the powerful
Slavery Footprint calculator
and
Polaris Project’s National Trafficking Hotline
.
To learn more about these organizations and how you can get involved, visit our
Google Gives Back 2011 site
and take a look at this video:
These grants, which total $40 million, are only part of our annual philanthropic efforts. Over the course of the year, Google provided more than $115 million in funding to various nonprofit organizations and academic institutions around the world; our in-kind support (programs like
Google Grants
and
Google Apps for Education
that offer free products and services to eligible organizations) came to more than $1 billion, and our annual company-wide
GoogleServe
event and related programs enabled individual Googlers to donate more than 40,000 hours of their own volunteer time.
As 2011 draws to a close, I’m inspired by this year’s grantees and look forward to seeing their world-changing work in 2012.
Posted by Shona Brown, SVP, Google.org
Grow Your Organization Through Google+ This Holiday Season
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
We know you must be really busy right now trying to wrap up your year-end goals, especially fundraising targets, before everyone heads out for the holiday season. The Google for Nonprofits team would like to help. We’ve seen nonprofit organizations doing great work on Google+ to reach new people and build relationships with their audiences, and so wanted to provide you with a “holiday gift” of tips on turning your new Google+ followers into active contributors to your organizations this holiday season.
This booklet
is posted on our
Google+ for Nonprofits community page
where you can find lots of resources to get started.
In addition, you may have noticed that in the past couple days, a group of entertainers and individuals have started drawing attention to their favorite charities with the phrase
#CauseILoveEm
, and creatively showing their followers what they love about these nonprofit organizations.
+Russell Brand
is asking fans to volunteer for two hours of charity work at
+Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles
,
+Los Angeles Animal Alliance
or one of four other local LA charities. In exchange, he and Sarah Silverman will give fans two hours of live comedy.
+Usher
and student participants in his New Look Leadership Academy asked people to do an international act of kindness and post descriptions of their acts including photos and videos as comments on
+Usher's New Look Foundation
. The acts with the most "+1"s will be re-posted by Usher and highlighted on the
New Look Foundation website
.
+Linkin Park
posted a new video asking people to spread the word about
+Music For Relief
and their new
Power the World Give Light
campaign, which encourages people to donate to provide solar-powered light bulbs for families in Haiti without electricity. People who share
their website
online and drive the most clicks will be eligible to win prizes.
+Dolly Parton
and
+Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
, her early child literacy program that provides 700,000+ free books every month, are sharing
Champion Spotlight
stories about their community leaders and are posting the 20 most inspiring
Imagination Moments
submitted by families who have benefited from this gift of reading.
Co-founder
+Hugh Jackman
and
+Laughing Man
Coffee & Tea asked people to share photos of themselves with Laughing Man's fair trade products (the profits of which go to charity) and to sound off on living their motto, "All Be Happy," using #CauseILoveEm to be included in a thank you photo album.
+Josh Groban
and
+Find Your Light Foundation
announced the
Fulfill-a-Wish
campaign, spotlighting the needs of nonprofit arts organizations from across North America in videos and posts and asking for your help fulfilling these holiday wishes.
We’d love for you to take advantage of this movement to generate more awareness for your nonprofit. Ask your Google+ followers to share your organization publicly and with their circles using
#CauseILoveEm
, and letting people know why they love you in the most creative ways possible. Consider starting a quick campaign to engage new people ready to “share their love.” For example, give people something that they can do to get involved this month like posting a video about your cause, sharing a story related to your organization, or volunteering to be eligible for a Hangout for your program recipients. Please also join the open circle we’ve started on our
+Google for Nonprofits
+Page so we can suggest your organization to people wondering which nonprofits they can connect with and showcase.
We hope these tips and this viral program help you a bit towards achieving your year-end goals this holiday season.
Posted by Mimi Kravetz, Google.org Team
More Support For Grantees
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Do you have a question about Google Grants that you can’t find an answer to, even in our newly updated
Help Center
? Would you just rather talk to someone directly?
We’re happy to say that you can do both.
If you have a question about Google Grants and you want a good answer fast, the
Google Grants Help Forum
is the place for you.
We’ve just re-launched the forum with
the new look and fee
l that you might already be familiar with from using other Google products like Gmail, and we think you’re really going to like it. It follows the same principles as the other products: focus, elasticity and effortlessness, but most importantly, it’s designed to get your questions answered fast.
We have dedicated Top Contributors (you’ll know them by
the blue icon
next to their name), Google employees (you’ll know them by
the Google icon
next to their name) and many active nonprofit participants ready with answers to your Google Grants questions. Plus, there are already lots of answered questions for you to browse. Your question may already have been answered!
But what if you just want to ask a real live person about your AdWords account? Well, you can do that, too.
Back in April,
we announced free phone support
for US and Canadian-based AdWords advertisers, and we thought this would be a good time to remind you that, as Google Grantees, this resource is available to you, too.
Just call 1-866-2Google between 8am and 8pm EST Monday-Friday and have your AdWords
customer ID
ready. If you’re outside the US and Canada and want to talk to an AdWords specialist, check
this list
for your local support phone number.
Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team
A Nonprofit Goes Google To Further Enjoyment Of Reading And Learning
Monday, December 5, 2011
Editor's note: Today’s guest blogger is Mark Gillingham, Vice President of
The Great Books Foundation
, a nonprofit educational organization whose mission is to promote reading, thinking, and the sharing of ideas for people of all ages. The Foundation's 60 employees have been using Google Apps for over two years.
For the past 60 years, the Foundation has helped millions of students and adults make the reading and discussion of literature a lifelong source of enjoyment, personal growth, and social engagement.
We offer courses for teachers in person and online. The Foundation also publishes books, anthologies, and materials for all ages to provide quality texts to discuss.
We have a history of using free and open-source applications on our desktop computers and servers that are more flexible and powerful than the paid applications we had been using. Once we learned that Google Apps was available at no cost
for nonprofits under 3,000 users
, I gathered our IT planning committee to plan how to migrate 60 users from our existing system.
We had been using an onsite email system for years because it was part of our file system. Although we upgraded the system every two years, it never seemed up-to-date. We had issues reading certain types of documents and viewing images and web sites. Using the system away from the office caused problems because we needed special applications, which varied by operating system. The calendar was not compatible with our mobile devices and the document repository was difficult to manage. As a result, most staff did not utilize the IT solutions we were offering.
We planned our deployment with a local developer Rachel Baker, whom we met through NTEN (
Nonprofit Technology Network
). She helped us understand what was required for a successful deployment and guided us through the process. We also used the
Google Apps Marketplace
to find a Google Apps reseller,
Cloud Sherpas
, whose specific migration knowledge and software helped us move all of our data.
At launch in 2009, our staff was thrilled to finally use a modern email program with highly reduced spam. Years later, some of us have still not gotten over this giddy feeling. More teams are using Google Docs to share internal and external documents. Google Calendar is the official way we schedule our meeting rooms.
Now in 2011, we're excited to try out
Google+
in our organization to find new ways to collaborate. We are considering using Google+ to provide technical support for our employees. Also, we think our remote workers could use Google+ as an easy way to communicate with their peers and home base while travelling.
Part of my job is seeing the future so I can help direct the Foundation toward technology that will work for them. Google is always improving its products and launching new features. I love it when I can show someone the next new thing. It makes them smile, which makes me smile too.
If you are a U.S. 501c3 nonprofit interested in using Google Apps, please apply for our
Google for Nonprofits program
. If accepted into the program, you can receive up to 3,000 users for free, or a 40% Business discount on more than 3,000 users.
Non US-based organizations can sign up for a
free Google Apps account with 10 users
, or you are welcome to purchase
Google Apps for Business
.
To help you setup Google Apps quickly, Google provides
many deployment resources
, plus a simple in-product
Setup Wizard
.
Posted by Chris Cheng, Google Apps Team
Share Your Story
Monday, November 28, 2011
With the launch of the
Google for Nonprofits
program, we created a place for organizations to share stories of the powerful work they are doing to change the world. Our
Make a Change
website collects lots of big and small changes made by people at nonprofits. We are inspired by these organizations and want to continue to share these stories so we invite you to share your organization’s story with us via
this webform
. Tell us about how Google products have helped you make a change with your organization. We would love to hear more about what you’re doing and we may even feature you on our
Make a Change
website.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Posted by Janelle Kuhlman, Google Grants Team
Join Presidents Bush, Clinton, plus Bono and Alicia Keys this Worlds AIDS Day on YouTube
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
(Cross-posted on
the Official YouTube Blog
)
Did you know there are now 6.6 million people receiving treatment for HIV, compared to just 100,000 in 2002? Still, more than a thousand babies are born every day with HIV and there are 34 million people living with the disease.
This World AIDS Day, you can join the discussion about how to help bring about the beginning of the end of AIDS. We’re partnering with
ONE
and
(RED)
to bring you a panel of experts who will talk about the progress we’ve made, where we're falling short, and what it's going to take to end this disease for good. They’ll also answer some questions from the YouTube audience. Starting today, you can submit your questions to the panel, which includes Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton; Bono, co-founder of ONE and (RED);
Alicia Keys
, co-founder of
Keep a Child Alive
; and other leaders in the fight against AIDS, including representatives from the Tema Clinic in Ghana, the
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
and the Saddleback Church.
On December 1, World AIDS Day, these leaders will answer some of the top-voted questions live on YouTube at a special event hosted by ONE, (RED) and an impressive list of partners and influencers.
According to ONE, if we recommit to the fight against AIDS, by 2015 we could end mother-to-child transmission of HIV, provide treatment to the 15 million people who need it, and drastically reduce new infections. With the support of donors, African governments, organizations, and the private sector the beginning of the end of HIV/AIDS is within our reach.
Submit your question today
and become part of the beginning of the end of AIDS. The deadline to submit is November 28.
Posted by Ramya Raghavan, YouTube Team
Google Apps Highlights
Friday, November 18, 2011
(Cross-posted on
the Official Google Blog
)
The last few weeks have brought a fresh new look in Gmail, more mobile access options and simpler meeting scheduling tools. Millions of organizations using Google Apps can now use Google+ on their business and university accounts, and we launched a couple Apps-related Google+ Pages ourselves.
Gmail’s new look
Back in July we
previewed
Gmail’s new look, and a couple weeks ago we started letting people
switch to the new design
with one click. The refreshed interface makes it easier to follow conversations and spot the sender with profile pictures for each message. The new look also supports
dynamic screen densities
, so Gmail displays properly whether you’re viewing on a large desktop monitor or a smaller mobile screen. We also added a selection of beautiful
HD themes
to the existing gallery. Finally, we made it easier to perform advanced email searches using a panel of powerful search options that reveals with a single click.
Gmail app for iOS devices
This month we introduced the
Gmail app
for
the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
, complete with mobile alerts for new mail, a responsive touch screen interface and Gmail mainstays like fast search, conversation view and address auto-complete.
Suggested meeting times in Google Calendar
We’ve heard how frustrating it can be to spend 15 minutes finding a good time for people to convene for a 30 minute meeting, so we made it easier to find a good meeting time in Google Calendar. The
suggested times
feature automatically reviews the availability of meeting invitees, and proposes event times that work for the whole group.
Google+ for organizations using Google Apps
Businesses, schools and organizations with Google Apps can now
use Google+
. Employees and students can create profiles, +1 things they like on the web, share interesting content with their circles and have live multi-person video chats with classmates, colleagues and friends. Organizations can also
create their Google+ Pages
—an organization’s identity on Google+ for customers, students or fans. We’re using Google+ Pages ourselves, so take a look at the
Gmail
and
Google Enterprise
pages, and circle us if you’d like to stay in the loop.
24x7 telephone support and improved mobile device management
This week, we introduced a couple other new benefits for Google Apps customers. Organizations of all sizes around the world can now
call our support hotline
at any time for all core service issue. Also new this week, we improved our
mobile device management
capabilities with an interface for administrators to view and deny mobile devices connecting to Google Apps, granular mobile policy controls, and the ability to visualize mobile usage trends across the organization.
Who’s gone Google?
Organizations large and small continue to amass around Google Apps. We’re thrilled to welcome a whole host of new customers including the Trinity Mirror Group (Britain’s largest newspaper publisher), startups such as
JobFlo
and
UserTesting
, organizations including the
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
, and colleges like the
University of Michigan
and
UT Austin
. Welcome to all!
Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Team
More Google+ Resources For Your Nonprofit
Friday, November 11, 2011
Now that you’ve created a Google+ Page for your organization, tested how to tailor your messaging to different audiences that you care about with Circles & Hangouts and have told everyone that you’re on Google+, we wanted to wrap up our
week-long series
on Google+ for nonprofits with a few additional resources:
If you’re looking for help creating your Google+ page or about Google+ in general, check out the
Google+ Help Center.
If you want to pose a question about Google+ Pages, head over to
Google+ Page Discuss.
If you have general, nonprofit-related questions, explore the
Google for Nonprofits Help Center.
If you have support-related questions, you can ask them in the
Google for Nonprofits Discussion Group.
And we’re on Google+ too! So if you haven’t already added the
Google for Nonprofits Google+ page
to your circles, head over and check us out. We hope this series was helpful to get your nonprofit started with Google+ and look forward to learning more about how your organization is using Google+ to further your goals. Make sure to share your Google+ best practices on our page so other nonprofits can learn from you.
Posted by Leslie Hernandez Dinneen, Google.org Team
Get The Word Out That Your Organization Is Now On Google+
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Now that you’ve put a ton of work into
your organization’s Plus Page
, let people know about it! There are lots of ways to tell the world that your nonprofit is on Google+.
1. Tell everyone you’re on Google+: Tell donors, volunteers & clients in your newsletters, on your website & anywhere else that users go to learn about your organization. We’ve created some starter language for you to add to your next email, newsletter or social media update. You can customize this language for your organization:
Newsletter & Email copy: We’re now on Google+! [link to your Google+ page] We’ll be posting regularly about what we’re up to and will be trying a few Hangouts. So come check us out on Google+. And if you love us, add us to your Circles so you can get all of our Google+ updates directly in your Google+ stream. Leave a comment on our Google+ Page and let us know what you think.
Social media update: We’re now on Google+! [link to your Google+ page] Come hang out with us and hear the latest on what we’re up to. You can follow us here: [add a link to your nonprofit’s Google+ Plus Page]
2. Connect your Google+ Page to your website
Let users know they can find you on Google+ by connecting your Google+ page to your nonprofit’s website.
Learn more about linking your +Page to your website.
3. Add the +1 button to your website
Help your message circulate by installing the +1 button on your website. You can easily
grab a snippet of code
and work with your webmaster to add it to your website. You know your page and your users best, so we recommend putting the button wherever you think it will be the most effective.
Learn more about the +1 button.
By telling everyone that your nonprofit is on Google+, you can let volunteers, friends, donors, board members & more know that they can have a customized conversation with your nonprofit on Google+.
Posted by Leslie Hernandez Dinneen, Google.org Team
Engaging Your Constituents On Google+
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Do you ever wish you could tailor your social media communications to all of the different audiences your nonprofit communicates with? For example, you probably speak to volunteers differently than how you speak to the board. As part of our
week-long series
to get nonprofits up and running successfully on Google+, here are a few ways for you to start sharing your Google+ page with key audiences for your organization.
1. Continue posting to keep people up-to-date
You can post content publicly so people can find it using search, or use Circles to tailor your message to more specific users. Regularly posting interesting content, engaging with your users by asking questions, and sharing photos and videos are all ways to keep people coming back for more.
Learn more technical tips on how to share content with others.
2. Launch Hangouts
Nothing beats having a live, dynamic gathering around a topic that your organization works on or cares about. Hangouts let you set up one-click video conversations with volunteers, donors, and recipients -- whoever you want to have a conversation with. Just let your followers know when you’ll be hanging out and what topic you want to discuss. You can get face-to-face interaction in real time -- all over high-quality, easy-to-use video chat.
Starting a hangout from your +Page is easy, just make sure you’re looking at your +Pages stream, and click “Start a Hangout” on the right hand side of your stream. Check yourself out in the “powder room” to make sure your mic works and you look great. Then, add the circles you would to join the hangout, and click “ Hangout.”
Learn more about Hangouts with +Pages.
3. Manage your circles
Different people have different interests, and Google+ allows you to easily share relevant content with the right people. For example, you could create a circle for volunteers and share information with them about upcoming events.
Learn more about managing Circles on Google+.
4. Monitor the conversation
It’s important to stay updated about what is happening on your page and what the general tone is. Whether negative or positive, make sure to stay engaged with your Google+ page by responding to comments. Some comments, even if negative, may still serve as a gateway for richer dialogue about important issues. Consider how you can leverage a difficult comment to have a conversation.
Try searching for your organization’s name in Google+ to learn what people are saying publicly about your Google+ page. Also make sure to monitor other +mentions of your page by looking in your notifications stream.
Check back tomorrow for more information about how you can tell the world that your organization is now on Google+.
Posted by Leslie Hernandez Dinneen, Google.org Team
Create A Google+ Page For Your Nonprofit To Connect With People Who Care About Your Cause
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
As part of our
week-long series
to help nonprofit organizations get up and running on Google+, we wanted to share some more details about how you can successfully create your Google+ page.
Your Google+ Page is the home of your organization on Google+; make it yours with photos, success stories, information about volunteering and donating, project locations and more. You can follow the steps below to get your organization up and running on Google+.
1. Create your profile
You’ll need to have a Google Account and a personal Google+ profile to create a Google+ Page. Once logged into your Google+ profile, on the right hand side of your stream, you will see “Create a Page” to begin creating your page.
When you create your page, you’ll be asked to select a category, make sure you select “Company, Institution or Organization” to indicate that you’re a nonprofit.
To get started, walk through the dialog boxes to set up the basics of your profile including a profile picture and a tagline for your organization.
Want more help?
Learn more about creating your Google+ Page and editing your profile.
2. Start posting
Want to start the conversation? Make your page engaging so that users want to come back and check what new content you’ve added. You can choose which circles you share info with, so people are only seeing the updates that are the most relevant and interesting to them.
Learn more about sharing on Google+.
3. Grow your Circles
Whenever someone adds you to their Circles, you can add them right back, so spreading the word and encouraging people to add you is a key component of talking to the people who want to hear from you. To view people and pages who aren’t already in your circles but have added you, review your followers on your Google+ page.
Learn more about adding people to your circles.
4. Follow and Interact with helpful Google+ Pages
Follow
the latest on Google+ and in the Google for Nonprofits community by adding our official
Google+ team page
and the
Google for Nonprofits Google+ page
to your circles.
Interact
with our Google+ page by dropping by for a hangout, reading and commenting on our tips, and letting us know how you’re liking Pages by sharing a post with us.
Check back tomorrow for more tips and tricks to engage with people who care about your nonprofit on Google+.
Posted by Leslie Hernandez Dinneen, Google.org Team
Google+ Pages Now Available For All Nonprofits
Monday, November 7, 2011
We’re committed to building online tools that help your nonprofit grow and thrive. One of our goals is to make it easier for you to connect with the millions of people who come to Google each day looking for organizations and causes to connect with. An important part of that connection is the lasting relationship you develop with your various constituents.
We want to make sharing online more like it is in the real world. That’s why the Google+ team introduced
Google+ Pages
- a new way to have customized conversations and interactions with your constituents - volunteers, donors, fans & more. Google+ is a great place for you to connect with consumers who are passionate about your cause.
With the launch of Google+ Pages, any cause, nonprofit or organization can now have a presence on Google+. We’ve compiled a few
Google+ tips
to help your
create your Google+ profile, start posting, grow your circles, start a hangout, monitor the conversation and tell the world that your nonprofit is on Google+.
A few organizations,
Pencils of Promise
,
Save the Children
and
Museo del Prado
, have started their own Google+ Pages. We hope their early work gives you some ideas & inspiration for your nonprofit’s Google+ page.
The Google for Nonprofits team is on Google+ too! Check out our
Google for Nonprofits Google+ page
and add us to your circles. We'll post community questions, host hangouts so you can meet the team & hear from experts, share tips & engage users in an ongoing conversation about nonprofits and technology.
There are also many resources to help you stay up-to-date on the latest news from Google+. We’ll post new information about Google+ for nonprofits on the
Google for Nonprofits blog
. Check back this week for more information about how nonprofit organizations can utilize Google+. You can also follow the
Official Google blog
to keep up with the latest Google+ product news and updates. If you need additional help with your Google+ page, check out the
Google+ Help Center
or post a question in the
Google+ Page Discuss
.
We look forward to connecting with you on Google+.
Posted by Leslie Hernandez Dinneen, Google.org Team
The Google For Nonprofits Program Launches New Application And Account Management Features
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
We’re happy to announce that we recently launched a series of new features to improve the process of applying for and managing your Google for Nonprofits membership account. Members are now able to do the following:
1. Organizations can now switch the Google Account linked to their Google for Nonprofits application from a personal to an organization-wide Gmail account.
Learn More
2. Branches of umbrella organizations that share Employee Identification Numbers (EIN) with their parent organizations can apply for individual membership accounts.
Learn More
3. New account managers are able to request ownership of their organization's pre-existing membership account.
Learn More
Please make sure to visit the Help Center links listed above to learn about these new features.
We also want to thank the members who have provided input in the Google for Nonprofits forum. We hope you enjoy the new features.
Posted by Carolyn Wendell, The Google For Nonprofits Team
Google Online Marketing Challenge NGO Impact Award Winners 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
We’re pleased to announce the winners of the
NGO Impact Award
, a new award that recognizes
Google Online Marketing Challenge
student teams that made an outstanding difference to their nonprofit partners via superb online marketing campaigns. The deciding factors for these winners were the effectiveness of the campaign and a 200-word report on how the advertising impacted the nonprofit. The reports were judged by an
independent panel
of nonprofit leaders.
Prizes for the winners include:
1st place
- $15,000 donation to the nonprofit partner
2nd place
- $10,000 donation to the nonprofit partner
3rd place
- $5,000 donation to the nonprofit partner
Congratulations to the following winners!
1st Place
Michael Albrecht
and
Christian Pfeifhofer
taught by
Dr. Horst Treiblmaier
from
Vienna University of Economics and Business
worked with
TrashDesignManufaktur
. TrashDesignManufaktur is a non-profit organization in Vienna which offers unemployed persons the opportunity to learn new skills by up-cycling electronic waste and discarded machines into high-quality design objects, such as jewelry and furniture.
2nd Place
Sebastiano Comin, Simone Dolci, Elena Merazzi, Elena Moriondom
and
Giuseppe Scampa
taught by
Dr. Nicoletta Vittadini
from
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
collaborated with
Istituto Oikos
. Istituto Oikos works in Europe and in developing countries to advocate for and promote environmental conservation.
3rd Place
The team of
Erin Blatzer, Lauren Davis, Carolina Thomas,
and
Jeffrei Clifton
taught by
Professor Steven Koch
from
University of Houston
partnered with the Houston Symphony. The Symphony is one of America's oldest performing arts organizations and performs approximately 170 concerts each year for more than 350,000 Houstonians.
If you’re interested in being involved in next year’s Google Online Marketing Challenge NGO Impact award, stay tuned to
our website.
Posted by Jessica Schwartz, Google AdWords Team
Google Person Finder Launched In Turkish
Monday, October 24, 2011
(Cross-posted on
the Google.org Blog
)
After the earthquake in Van, Turkey, Google Person Finder has launched in Turkish for people looking for their loved ones in the region. Through Google Person Finder, people can enter a new record in the list for a person they're looking for. Anyone who has information for the missing people on the list can update the data. All data entered will become publicly available, viewable and usable by anyone. And you can help search and rescue teams by updating the status of missing people. To use Google Person Finder, visit
this site
:
http://turkey-2011.googlepersonfinder.appspot.com/
.
Google Person Finder was developed after the Haiti earthquake in January 2010 to help people who were trying to reach their friends and families, and to reunite them. We hope Person Finder helps people get the latest information on missing persons using one common source. After the Japanese tsunami, 600,000 persons records were entered into Google Person Finder. For more information about how it works,
click here
.
The Google Crisis Response Team
Google Apps Highlights
Monday, October 24, 2011
(Cross-posted from
the Official Google Blog
)
In the spirit of helping people work better together, over the last few weeks we made big improvements to Google presentations, introduced a version of Google Docs optimized for Android tablets, and enabled more dynamic content in Google Sites. We also celebrated the fact that Silicon Valley has gone Google!
Google presentations reloaded
On Tuesday we launched a completely rebuilt version of our web-based presentations application, so you can
build more beautiful presentations
together with colleagues and classmates. Google presentations now lets you make great-looking slides with animated builds, advanced slide transitions and better support for drawings, tables and themes. Plus, we made it easier to create presentations with others, without the hassles of attachments. Your whole team can work together in the same version of a presentation at the same time, and you can see who’s doing what, chat with others, and see a full revision history at any moment in time.
Google Docs on Android tablets
We’ve made it faster and easier to work with
Google Docs on Android tablets
with a new version of the Android application that takes full advantage of larger screen real estate. The three-panel view lets you browse filters and collections, see your document list and view file thumbnails and details simultaneously. You can get the Google Docs Android app for free from the
Android Market
.
Charts in Google Sites
Charts are often created in spreadsheets, but sometimes you want charts to appear in other places, like your
team or project sites
. In Google Sites, now you can select “Chart” from the “Insert” menu, and navigate to the Google Spreadsheet where your chart or data is located. You can also choose to have your site’s chart update in real-time when someone updates the underlying spreadsheet.
New look for Google Docs and Sites
We started rolling out a new look in Google Docs a couple months ago, and now this new design is available
throughout all our collaboration tools
. In addition to a cleaner, simpler design, we’ve made it more clear when your files are being auto-saved and added new icons to help you see at-a-glance who your docs are shared with. You can also customize the overall “density” of screen information, a great feature if you want to fit more onto a smaller display.
Who’s gone Google?
Successful small businesses tend to stay laser-focused on improving their core businesses, without getting distracted by peripheral activities that don’t make them more competitive. For example, most small businesses don’t want to spend time or money developing in-house expertise to run email and other IT systems. Case in point:
97 percent of Business Insider’s “Silicon Valley Startups to Watch” use Google Apps
.
More than 5,000 businesses and thousands of other organizations start using Google Apps every single day, and more of our customers have shared their stories recently so you can hear why. A warm welcome goes out to
Philz Coffee
,
Mid-Atlantic Door Group
,
Bradford & Barthel, LLP
and the
City of Mesquite, Nevada
.
I hope these product updates and customer stories help you and your organization get even more from Google Apps. For more details and the latest news, check out the
Google Apps Blog
.
Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager
Document Hosting With Google Products
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Part Two Of A Two Part Series
Last week
we told you about Children’s Radio Foundation and how they use Google Docs to act like a file server for their organization. This week, we’ll talk about another nonprofit, Grassroot Soccer who uses a different Google product - Google Sites - to host files for their organization.
Also headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa,
Grassroot Soccer
is a nonprofit organization that uses the power of soccer to educate, inspire, and mobilize communities to stop the spread of HIV. Located in approximately 15 countries, Grassroot Soccer uses Google Sites to allow its dispersed employees to access important organizational wide documents. But how exactly do they do this?
The staff has created a number of sites to organize and share information. The organization is made up of various departments including Communications, Programs, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Curriculum & Development. Here’s a snapshot of the nonprofit’s site dashboard.
Let’s dig deeper into a few of the individual sites and see what Site features they utilize. Under the Programs category, there is a site dedicated to one of GRS’s most popular program types called a Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) Tournament. Essentially these are large youth soccer tournaments where there is a testing center on site for youth and spectators to be tested for HIV. You can imagine how much planning goes into one of these events, and the VCT Google Site is a repository for all the key documents needed to put on this event.
The programs team uses the
File Cabinet
feature of Google Sites to host all the document templates needed when running a VCT. Using a File Cabinet allows GRS to:
Create folders to categorize their documents for easier organization.
The File Cabinet holds everything from vendor contact lists, to letters to schools informing them of the tournament, to the surveys used for monitoring and evaluation at the event, being able to categorize these templates into folders makes them easier to find.
Allows them to add, delete, or move files within the cabinet.
The File Cabinet allows the easy ability of editing what’s included in the File Cabinet, by doing so directly in the site. Your changes are reflected on the site and anybody can subscribe to receive emails when a change is made to the cabinet.
For more details on how GRS users the File Cabinet see the screenshot below:
Google Sites, like Google Docs, can also store more than just documents, so if you want an eclectic range of file types together, it’s possible. Under the Communications category, Grassroot Soccer has a site called the “Brand Book.” This site holds documents, photos and videos related to their marketing, communications, and branding strategy. Let’s say for example, a GRS staff member in Zimbabwe is curious as to what letterhead to use to write an official document to the ministry of health, or they want to order business cards for themselves, they can check the “Brand Book” to access the most up-to-date templates for letterhead or business cards. Grassroot Soccer uses
Attachments
to simply attach the relevant documents to the bottom of the sites page. Because hosting your documents on sites allows you to easily mix documents with other media, on the Brand Book site you’ll also find top GRS photos and videos.
In terms of site management, the staff members of each departments manage their departments’ sites, and everyone within Grassroot Soccer can see every site.
Now that you’ve seen how Grassroot Soccer uses Google Sites to host their files and documents, try it out and let us know if it’s working for your organization by posting on the
Google Discussion Forum.
Posted by Carolyn Wendell, Consumer Operations Team
Nonprofit Industry Benchmark Report For Mental Health And Crisis Intervention
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Last year we asked participants in the Google Grants program to submit surveys about their experience with Google Grants, AdWords and other products. Of the responses we received, we were able to glean a bit of insight into the industries that make up the nonprofits in our program and would like to share those insights with you for the purposes of creating your own benchmarks and metrics in this
monthly benchmarking series
.
This month we’re featuring the Mental Health and Crisis Intervention category of the nonprofit industry. Look to future months for other
NTEE nonprofit categories
.
Grantees in the Mental Health and Crisis Intervention industry
were most likely to track “new volunteers”
as their most important metric, state
"reaching new constituents"
as their
main mission objective
served via their Grant and state
"raising awareness" as the main marketing objective
served via their Google Grant.
With regard to the performance of their Grants AdWords account, they received an average of
35% of their total site visits from their Grants AdWords account
and an average of
2,100 conversions
over the last year (11/2009 - 11/2010).
An average of
9.5%
of Mental Health and Crisis Intervention organizations who responded to the survey report that they currently
use an agency, SEO or SEM
to manage their Grants AdWords account.
We hope that, as an organization focused on mental health and crisis intervention, you will be able to use these industry benchmarks to gauge your own performance with online marketing and begin to understand the trends of your particular vertical within the nonprofit industry.
Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team
Document Hosting With Google Products
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Part One Of A Two Part Series
Recently, I’ve been hearing a fair amount of buzz amongst nonprofits about wanting Google products to act as a “file server” for their organization. Google Docs and Sites can allow for storage and access by all different computers, providing a lot of similar functionality as nonprofits rely on from "file servers”. Children’s Radio Foundation and Grassroot Soccer have used Google Docs and Sites in two very different ways to provide document hosting and sharing across their organization.
We sat down with these two organizations to learn more about how Google has provided a free and easy alternative to server hosted solutions. This week we’ll focus on the Children’s Radio Foundation (CRF). We interviewed Tom Henry, CRF Board Member to learn more about how the organization uses Google Docs to host their files.
The Children’s Radio Foundation
(CRF) is a nonprofit based in Cape Town, South Africa that focuses on using the rich subtext of radio media to give young people a voice, and empower them to contribute to individual and social change.
Tom Henry, a volunteer for CRF has greatly helped the organization by designing a method for them to host and share files using Google Docs. One of Tom’s favorite Google Docs features is
collections
, which allows him to label related files and group them into folders that can then be
shared
with others across the organization.
What benefits does Tom see of using Docs and collections?
Advanced Sharing Options
: With collection’s advanced
sharing options
, Tom can choose who can view, comment and edit the various collections.
Multiple Collections
: Tom can create multiple collections, each representing a key part of the organization (eg. Legal information, Board information, etc.), and program-related collections named by the country where the program exists.
Multiple file types
: Collections can include files of all types including PDF’s, spreadsheets, and text documents.
Direct upload or Convert to Google Docs
: When uploading docs to collections, Tom most frequently uploads text documents and spreadsheets and then
converts them into Google Docs
, allowing employees the ability to edit and collaborate on these docs online, upon upload. However, at times, Tom would prefer to upload them in the original PDF format, without conversion to the Google Doc equivalent, making sure he is holding the integrity of the document.
The most useful feature to Tom was the
Advanced Sharing Options
offered by collections. Tom would share the collections and give people across the organization access, assigning them privileges that made sense for their job role. For example, he would give his admin view access to several of the collections, whereas he would give the other directors edit access to the collection. Everyone could edit or view collections shared with them by going into their Google Docs account and looking in the left hand column under “Collections Shared with me.”
Now that you’ve seen how CRF uses Google Docs, try it out and let us know if it’s working for your organization by posting on the
Google Discussion Forum
.
Posted by Carolyn Wendell, Consumer Operations Team
The New Look Of Google For Nonprofits Help
Friday, October 7, 2011
Every nonprofit wishes signing up for Google for Nonprofits was as easy as just clicking a button, but we know this isn’t always the case and occasionally nonprofits need help.
That’s why we just launched the
Google for Nonprofits Help Center
, a one stop shop where you can find support for the Google for Nonprofits Program and all associated products without having to dig through multiple help centers to find the support you need.
You’ll notice that close to 50 new articles have been added to what used to be the Google for Nonprofits FAQ page, and that we have cross-published articles from the Google Apps, Google Earth, and SketchUp help centers. Additionally, you may have noticed that the Google Grants Help Center has moved to the Google for Nonprofits help center.
A few extra special things to point out about the new help center:
There’s information to help you enroll in offerings
Confused about enrolling in Google Apps?
Visit the
Enroll in Products > Google Apps section
of
the help center
and check out
the Sign up Guide
.
Confused about setting up your AdWords account?
See the
Enroll in Products > Google Grants section
to check out the
Grants Account Creation Guide.
There are contact forms to support top issues
We now have contact forms in place to support top issues for the general Google for Nonprofits application process and to support each product. See the
Contacting Us
page for
more details.
We have new troubleshooters
Is something not working the way it’s supposed to?
Check out the
Fix a Problem
section
that includes troubleshooting content for both the enrollment process and post-enrollment product support.
Let us know what you think about
our new help center
! Take a spin, explore the new resources and start up a discussion in the
Google for Nonprofits Discussion Forum
.
Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team
Google Earth Outreach And Canadian Nonprofits Connect Over Mapping Tools
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Last week
Google Earth Outreach
launched our program in Canada, offering support to non-profits and aboriginal communities that wish to leverage Google’s mapping tools to improve understanding of critical issues facing Canada today. Our team spent the week in Vancouver inspiring and empowering these groups to spread their message through geographic visualizations.
Google Earth Outreach team member Tanya Birch works with a participant on Fusion Tables.
We kicked off the week with a 3-day workshop co-hosted with our partner
Tides Canada
. With their help, we were able to gather developers, communications and technology professionals from over 50 organizations to be trained on
Google Earth
,
Google Maps
and
Google Fusion Tables
. We met folks from a diverse set of organizations, such as
Ecotrust Canada
,
Social Alterations
,
Living Oceans Society
, and
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami
.
These groups came into the
workshop
with varying levels of familiarity with Google’s geo tools. While some participants leveraged the time to master the basics, others focused on advanced coding using the Maps APIs. Non-profits developed and worked on their project ideas with Earth Outreach staff on hand for guidance and technical help. Our team was amazed by some of the projects that came out of these sessions, including a Google Fusion Table map of Inuit communities and a Google Earth tour of the path of a migrating whooping crane.
Whooping crane migration path visualized in Google Earth by Matt Hanneman of
Global Forest Watch Canada
.
Our activities in Vancouver culminated in an event on Wednesday for the wider Vancouver non-profit community. We were honored to have David Suzuki, an influential Canadian scientist, author, broadcaster and co-founder of the
David Suzuki Foundation
, on hand to share his thoughts on how philanthropy, public engagement and technology can advance the reach, scope and impact of Canadian civil society. Our team’s founder, Rebecca Moore, also took the stage to demonstrate how the rich variety of environmental and social issues in Canada can benefit from geographic visualizations as powerful tools for environmental advocacy and social justice. Afterwards, our team got to interact with the community face-to-face at demo stations featuring Google Earth, Google Maps, Google Fusion Tables,
Open Data Kit
as well as already developed Canadian mapping projects.
Inspiring examples of Canadian organizations already using mapping tools to communicate their work.
We are very excited about the next steps for these non-profits who have started their mapping initiatives and we can’t wait to see what comes next! For Canadian organizations looking to learn more, please take a look at our new Canadian website in
English
or
French
.
Posted by Raleigh Seamster, Program Manager, Google Earth Outreach
We Asked, You Answered
Thursday, September 29, 2011
A few weeks ago,
we asked you
to share how you currently use Google products and how you find educational resources for those products. We were excited that hundreds of you took the time to provide a lot of great input. We wanted to highlight a few of the main themes, and alert you to some new educational resources that we’ve created based on your feedback.
What we heard:
Nonprofits go online primarily for communication and driving awareness
We asked you for which tasks you’ve sought out online resources or support. Many of you go online to communicate with others in your organization. You also go online to find resources for fundraising, online marketing, driving awareness for your cause, volunteer management and project management. Needless to say, there are a wide variety of tasks that you go online to complete!
Nonprofits want more info about nonprofit-specific Google tools
We asked you which Google tools you’d be interested in learning more about and it was clear to us that you’re most interested in the nonprofit-specific product offerings. AdWords (Google Grants), YouTube for Nonprofits and Google Apps for Nonprofit are at the top of the list of tools that you want to learn more about.
Nonprofits prefer online tutorials, step-by-step checklists and online videos as educational formats:
We also asked you about your preferred formats for additional educational resources. You want online resources that are broken down into meaningful steps, such as online tutorials or checklists. You also said that you want more multimedia educational resources, such as online video.
We wanted to take quick action on your feedback, so we’re launching a new set of educational checklists designed to help nonprofits get started with the Google tools that are available through the Google for Nonprofits Program. You can find this information here:
http://www.google.com/nonprofits/tips.html.
Additionally, we’ve launched a series of new Google Docs templates to help you with volunteer management. We have two Google Forms, a
Volunteer Database Template
& a
Volunteer Event Registration Form Template
to help you automate collecting volunteer information online. With these templates you can build an online database of general volunteer interest and get volunteers registered for specific events. We’ve also created a
Volunteer Management Google Sites Template
to help you communicate with volunteers, share key documents and publish a calendar of upcoming events. You can customize them to fit your organization’s volunteer management needs.
We’ll continue to develop additional resources to help save you time and increase your effectiveness with Google tools. If you have additional thoughts or feedback on the educational content we’ve shared today, please take a moment to share your perspective in the Google for Nonprofits forum
here
.
Posted by Leslie Hernandez Dinneen, Google.org Team
Ann Arbor Launches Google Product Office Hours for the Nonprofit Community
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Next week, Google’s Ann Arbor, Michigan office is piloting Community Office Hours for local nonprofits. As a proud member of the Metro Detroit community, Google Ann Arbor is eager to help southeast Michigan nonprofits achieve their goals by providing extra support on Google tools.
Ann Arbor’s Community Office Hours will provide nonprofits with an opportunity to sign up for 20 minute appointments to receive one-on-one help with Google product questions. Google volunteers will be on-hand to answer questions related to Google AdWords, Google Analytics, Google Places, Google Apps, and Google+.
The inaugural session will take place on
Thursday, September 29
from 11:00a.m.-1:00p.m. with recurring sessions every Thursday through the end of October. Office hours are located at the McKinley Towne Center (201 S. Division Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104) in downtown Ann Arbor.
Interested in making an appointment?
Registration is required. To sign up, first
select the Google product
you have a question about, then register for a 20 minute appointment.
If you have any questions, please send them to a2communityofficehours@google.com.
We look forward to seeing you at Community Office Hours!
Posted by Colby Chilcote, Google AdWords Team
Google Earth Outreach Launches In Canada
Monday, September 26, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
Lat Long Blog
)
We are excited to announce the launch of the
Google Earth Outreach
program in Canada. To celebrate the Google Earth Outreach team is directly engaging the Canadian non-profit and aboriginal communities through a week of exciting workshops and activities in Vancouver, BC. The program has been successful in helping non-profits around the world bring their stories to life through the use of Google’s mapping tools. To date, the Google Earth Outreach team has facilitated the use of mapping tools to
stop mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia
,
documented Darfur
with USHMM, highlighted
climate change with Al Gore
, and most recently took
Street View to the Amazon
, just to name a few.
Both as a Canadian and Google Earth Outreach team member, I’m thrilled to bring these exciting opportunities home. Canada currently faces a wide variety of environmental and social issues that can benefit from powerful geographic visualizations.
With the launch of the program in Canada, the team aims to support the use of online mapping tools by public benefit groups seeking to address Canada’s most pressing concerns, such as the protection of the Boreal forest and Arctic regions, as well as other humanitarian and cultural issues. We are enabling organizations to quickly and easily get the resources they need to use
Google Earth
and
Google Maps
to tell visually compelling stories about their causes to millions of users. Watch the video below for a preview highlighting
the work the David Suzuki Foundation is doing
to protect Canadian oceans.
David Suzuki Foundation’s
I Am Fish video is a great example of a Canadian organization using Google Earth to communicate their cause to a large global audience.
Eligible
members of the Canadian non-profit community are now able to apply for grants of Google's tools and services including
Google Earth Pro
and
SketchUp Pro
. The launch of our
Canadian website
gives our Canadian users access to a plethora of resources to help them better develop their mapping projects through
tutorials
, a
showcase of great non-profit maps
, and an online community of other non-profit Google Earth and Google Maps users.
To jumpstart these mapping initiatives in Canada, the Google Earth Outreach team has partnered with
Tides Canada
to engage with Canadian non-profits face-to-face with two very popular and fully-booked events. Starting today, the Google Earth Outreach team will be teaching a technical, interactive three-day
workshop
and facilitating mapping projects among the participating non-profits and aboriginal groups. We’ll cap off our activities on Wednesday night with an exciting event for the larger Canadian non-profit community, with a keynote talk by our very special guest
Dr. David Suzuki
. This event will give attending non-profits a sneak peek at how other groups have used Google Earth and Google Maps to make a powerful impact on their communities.
To hear more about what we’re up to in Canada this week, check out our
homepage
for a different Canadian mapping example every day and
follow us on Twitter
. We hope these early Canadian partners will inspire you to use Google Earth and Google Maps to help tell your own story!
Maryam Ghofraniha, Google Earth Outreach
From the desert to the web: bringing the Dead Sea Scrolls online
Monday, September 26, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
Official Google Blog
and the
Google.org Blog
)
It’s taken 24 centuries, the work of archaeologists, scholars and historians, and the advent of the Internet to make the Dead Sea Scrolls accessible to anyone in the world. Today, as the new year approaches on the Hebrew calendar, we’re celebrating the launch of the
Dead Sea Scrolls online
; a project of
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
powered by Google technology.
Written between the third and first centuries BCE, the Dead Sea Scrolls include the oldest known biblical manuscripts in existence. In 68 BCE, they were hidden in 11 caves in the Judean desert on the shores of the Dead Sea to protect them from the approaching Roman armies. They weren’t discovered again until 1947, when a Bedouin shepherd threw a rock in a cave and realized something was inside. Since 1965, the scrolls have been on exhibit at the Shrine of the Book at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Among other topics, the scrolls offer critical insights into life and religion in ancient Jerusalem, including the birth of Christianity.
Now, anyone around the world can view, read and interact with five digitized
Dead Sea Scrolls
. The high resolution photographs, taken by
Ardon Bar-Hama
, are up to 1,200 megapixels, almost 200 times more than the average consumer camera, so viewers can see even the most minute details in the parchment. For example, zoom in on the
Temple Scroll
to get a feel for the animal skin it's written on—only one-tenth of a millimeter thick.
You can browse the
Great Isaiah Scroll
, the most well known scroll and the one that can be found in most home bibles, by chapter and verse. You can also click directly on the Hebrew text and get an English translation. While you’re there, leave a comment for others to see.
The scroll text is also discoverable via web search. If you search for phrases from the scrolls, a link to that text within the scroll viewers on the Dead Sea Scrolls collections site may surface in your search results. For example, search for [
Dead Sea Scrolls "In the day of thy planting thou didst make it to grow"
], and you may see a link to
Chapter 17:Verse 11
within the Great Isaiah Scroll.
This partnership with The Israel Museum, Jerusalem is part of our larger effort to bring important cultural and historical collections online. We are thrilled to have been able to help this project through hosting on Google Storage and App Engine, helping design the web experience and making it searchable and accessible to the world. We’ve been involved in similar projects in the past, including building the
Yad Vashem Holocaust photo collection
and collections at the
Prado Museum in Madrid
. We encourage organizations interested in partnering with us in our archiving efforts to enter their information in
this form
. We hope you enjoy visiting the Dead Sea Scrolls collection online, or any of these other projects, and interacting with history at your fingertips.
Posted by Eyal Miller, New Business Development and Eyal Fink, Software Engineer, Israel Research and Development Center
Google Apps Highlights
Friday, September 23, 2011
(Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
)
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.
It’s back-to-school season, and we’ve made Gmail, Google Docs, Calendar and Sites easier to use and more powerful for students and non-students alike—including some important accessibility improvements to help blind users be productive in our apps.
Multiple sign-in and other new preferences in Gmail for mobile
On Wednesday, we added some
helpful new features
for people who use Gmail on a mobile browser. You can now sign in to more than one Gmail account at a time, and toggle between them easily from the account switcher menu at the bottom of the mobile inbox. This can be a good time saver if you have multiple accounts or share a mobile device with family members. Gmail for mobile also now enables you to set up mobile-specific email signatures and create vacation responders right from your phone to let people know when you won't be available by email.
Calling credit auto-recharge
Now you can
automatically add international calling credits
for phone calls in Gmail when your balance gets low. Just visit the "Billing" area of the Google Voice settings page and click "Add credit" to put your account on cruise control.
Allow people to comment but not edit in documents
Sometimes, you might find yourself in situations when you’d like to share a document for feedback, but don’t want to make the document's content fully editable. The
comment-only level of access
launched last week is a nice option for these scenarios. You can let others discuss and add their thoughts to your document—without allowing them to change your work. You can allow document comments from specific individuals or groups, from anyone belonging your organization or from the general public.
Format painter, Fusion Tables, drag & drop images and vertical cell merge
Comment-only access isn't all that we've added to Google Docs over the last few weeks. Other
notable improvements
include a text format painter in documents, which is a fast way to copy and paste font, size, color and other text styling. Spreadsheets now support vertically merged cells (in addition to horizontal merges). In drawings, you can drag images from your desktop to the drawing canvas, then continue editing your graphic. We also added Fusion Tables as a new document type in the documents list.
Fusion Tables
are a powerful way to gather, visualize and collaborate on large data sets that might be unwieldy in a typical spreadsheet.
Fusion Table data visualized on an interactive map
Accessibility improvements in Google Calendar, Docs and Sites
We think technology can do a better job getting out of people’s way and helping you be more productive with less complexity and fewer frustrations. In this spirit, we’ve recently made a series of improvements to make our applications more accessible to blind users. We have more work to do, but Google
Calendar
,
Docs and Sites
now offer better support for screen readers and improved keyboard shortcuts. We hope these changes make our applications more useful to all users.
Who’s gone Google?
Organizations are moving to Google Apps for a diverse set of reasons—including cost savings, streamlined teamwork and better mobile access. We’ve even started hearing from schools and businesses who have made the switch to
reduce their impact on the environment
. No two organizations choose Google Apps for the exact same reasons, but in total, the momentum of Google Apps keeps growing.
We recently shared the news that
61 of the top 100 universities
ranked by
U.S. News and World Report
have gone Google. On the business side, there are now more than
4 million companies
using Google Apps, and businesses are joining at a rate of over 5,000 per day. In all, there are more than 40 million users that regularly use Google Apps in their organizations.
I hope these product updates and customer stories help you and your organization get even more from Google Apps. For more details and the latest news, check out the
Google Apps Blog
.
Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager
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