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 non-profits in our program and would like to share those insights with you for the purposes of creating your own benchmarks and metrics in this ...Read More

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 non-profits 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 Animal-related category of the non-profit industry. Look to future months for other NTEE non-profit categories.

Grantees in the Animal-related industry were most likely to track “adoptions” (animal adoptions) 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 11,000 conversions over the last year (11/2009 - 11/2010).

An average of 4% of Animal-related organizations who responded to the survey report that they currently use an agency, SEO or SEM to manage their Grants AdWords account.

Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

We’ve added more than a dozen new features to Google Apps so far in July. Read on to learn about a few of our favorites: a new look for Gmail and Google Calendar, ways we’ve made Gmail safer and easier to use, a couple new mobile capabilities and more.Read More

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

We’ve added more than a dozen new features to Google Apps so far in July. Read on to learn about a few of our favorites: a new look for Gmail and Google Calendar, ways we’ve made Gmail safer and easier to use, a couple new mobile capabilities and more.

Preview new looks for Gmail and Google Calendar
A couple weeks ago we began rolling out a visual refresh to Gmail and Google Calendar, which is consistent with design changes happening across many other Google products. The idea is to make the interfaces even more focused, elastic and effortless. If you’d like to see the new look, you can try it out in Gmail and Google Calendar now.

Pick your favorite inbox style
In addition to Gmail’s new look, we added new options to let you choose an inbox layout that best suits your email habits. You can decide between Priority Inbox, important messages first, starred messages first or unread messages first—or stick with a classic inbox style.

Make multiple calls in Gmail
A while back we added the ability to place phone calls to land lines and mobile phones from your Gmail browser window for free or at greatly reduced calling rates. On Wednesday we made this feature better by allowing multiple simultaneous calls. You can place a second call by putting your first call on hold, or put your first call on hold to pick up another incoming phone call.


View ZIP and RAR contents from Gmail attachments
Before last week, when you received a ZIP or RAR attachment you had to download the file and extract its contents to view what someone sent you. Now you can simply view the contents of ZIP and RAR in your browser without the hassle of downloading and extracting. This is a faster, safer and more affordable way of viewing attachments than opening potentially harmful files with software on your computer.

Phishing detection
Gmail has also started keeping you safer by displaying more information about the origin of certain messages. Email coming from senders who aren’t in your contact list will display the sender’s full email address. We’ll also show you when messages come from an email-sending service (like a news site’s article sharing system) and display a warning when it looks like the sender may have spoofed a Gmail address.

Read receipts for business and government customers
Many organizations that use Gmail have asked for a way to tell if important sent email has been opened, and since Tuesday, Google Apps for Business and Government administrators can activate read receipts from the control panel. Administrators can control which users can request or return read receipts, and whether receipts are issued automatically or manually by recipients.

New spreadsheet keyboard shortcut menu and PPTX support
In Google Docs, this week we added a handy keyboard shortcut cheat sheet to help you work more quickly in spreadsheets. Just hit Ctrl+/ (or Cmd+/ on a Mac) to bring up the keyboard shortcut guide. We also launched support for PPTX conversions, so now you can bring all those PowerPoint files from your desktop into Google Docs, and edit them with your classmates and colleagues from the browser.


More options for videos in Google Docs
Recently we made it easier to work with videos that you upload Google Docs. Now you can embed Google Docs videos into Google Sites pages, embed them on other webpages and even add text captions to your videos.

Share files from the Google Docs Android app
In April we introduced the Google Docs app for Android devices, making it easier to find and open Google Docs files on your phone or tablet. A couple weeks ago we added the ability to share files right from the Google Docs app, so now you’re covered when you need to give others access to a document, spreadsheet, presentation or any other type of a file when you’re on the move.


Five new mobile site templates
The Google Sites mobile experience also got an upgrade. We added five new mobile site templates to make it easy to build and launch a site that looks great on the small screen. This video explains how:



Who’s gone Google?
It’s been another banner few weeks for new customers. A hearty welcome goes out to Aperam, Nexteer, Premier Salons, Quality Distribution and tens of thousands of other businesses that moved to Google Apps since our last update. We also welcome our new education and government customers, including the University of Connecticut and the City of Pittsburgh!

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

(Cross-posted from the Inside AdWords Blog)

If you write your ads in any language other than English, you may have wished that you could make your display URL consistent with the rest of your ad by showing your internationalized domain name. Today, we’re announcing that we now support non-ASCII characters, including non-Latin characters and Latin characters with accents and diacritics, in display and destination URLs.

When you create an ad in AdWords, you can now enter Unicode characters in the display and destination URL fields. To ensure that users will be able to reach your site, we’ll verify that the URL works properly in both Unicode and Punycode.

We also want to make sure that users are not shown URLs in any language other than their own, so we’ll render the display URL in Unicode characters only if its language matches the user’s Google interface language. In all other cases, it’ll be shown in Punycode.

Remember that all of our AdWords policies regarding display and destination URLs still apply. In particular, the domain of the display and destination URLs must match, so if you use non-ASCII characters in the display URL, make sure to do the same in the destination URL.

Additionally, if you include multi-byte characters, please note that the character limits may vary. For more information, please visit our Help Center.

Posted by Lisa Shieh, AdWords TeamRead More

(Cross-posted from the Inside AdWords Blog)

If you write your ads in any language other than English, you may have wished that you could make your display URL consistent with the rest of your ad by showing your internationalized domain name. Today, we’re announcing that we now support non-ASCII characters, including non-Latin characters and Latin characters with accents and diacritics, in display and destination URLs.

When you create an ad in AdWords, you can now enter Unicode characters in the display and destination URL fields. To ensure that users will be able to reach your site, we’ll verify that the URL works properly in both Unicode and Punycode.

We also want to make sure that users are not shown URLs in any language other than their own, so we’ll render the display URL in Unicode characters only if its language matches the user’s Google interface language. In all other cases, it’ll be shown in Punycode.

Remember that all of our AdWords policies regarding display and destination URLs still apply. In particular, the domain of the display and destination URLs must match, so if you use non-ASCII characters in the display URL, make sure to do the same in the destination URL.

Additionally, if you include multi-byte characters, please note that the character limits may vary. For more information, please visit our Help Center.

Posted by Lisa Shieh, AdWords Team

(Cross-posted from the SketchUp Blog)

April Phelps is a LEED-accredited designer who works at the New England Aquarium creating new exhibits and enhancing existing ones. Boston’s New England Aquarium is one of the many non-profit organizations to which we’ve granted SketchUp Pro licenses as part of the SketchUp for Nonprofits program.Read More

(Cross-posted from the SketchUp Blog)

April Phelps is a LEED-accredited designer who works at the New England Aquarium creating new exhibits and enhancing existing ones. Boston’s New England Aquarium is one of the many non-profit organizations to which we’ve granted SketchUp Pro licenses as part of the SketchUp for Nonprofits program.

SketchUp Pro has been a big help to us in the New England Aquarium Design Department. The Aquarium was founded in 1969 and attracts over 1.3 million visitors a year to our waterfront location. Recently the Aquarium’s capital improvement plan called for a complete renovation of our changing exhibits space, and we decided to part with the Aquarium’s traditional design aesthetic and embark on a new path.

Families touching the rays in our new shark and ray touch tank exhibit

The newly completed exhibit we designed in SketchUp Pro is called The Trust Family Foundation Shark and Ray Touch Tank. It features sharks and rays in a mangrove-themed tank surrounded by shallow edges and viewing windows, allowing visitors to experience a close encounter with these animals.

The exhibit presents these incredible species in a way that highlights their importance in a healthy ocean ecosystem. It also emphasizes the value of conserving essential coastal habitats, such as mangroves and lagoons. During evening hours the new space is also used as an event venue for private functions.

View from the entrance of the shark and ray touch tank. On top is our design phase
rendering; below is an opening day photograph.

The Aquarium provides unique challenges for designers. We have a variety of internal clients with different needs, and we need a modeling program that works quickly and accurately to convey our ideas. SketchUp’s quick modeling capabilities provided me the extra time needed to explore multiple design options on this project.

SketchUp also enabled our design team to give everyone at the Aquarium a sense of the new exhibit’s aesthetics quickly and easily. In addition to quickly creating renderings, we imported actual material samples into our models. This allowed staff and visitors to get a sense of scale and of how significant the interaction with animals would be.

View from inside the exhibit towards the Lagoon and Cassiopeia tanks. Above is
our design phase rendering; below is an opening day photograph.

Our traditional design aesthetic for the Main Building is to make the visitor feel like they are submerged underwater, looking through portals to all the fish. The new exhibit needed to be airy and bright, allowing visitors to feel that they are no longer submerged but at the beach level interacting with the animals. To achieve this we revealed the once covered up skylights and installed a significant amount of energy efficient lighting. With natural and artificial lighting we simulated the feeling of wading around a beach touching sharks and rays.

View of The Trust Family Foundation Shark and Ray Touch Tank Gift Shop. The top image is our design phase rendering; below it is an opening day photograph.

This “no surprises” methodology allowed us to receive design input from different departments quickly. Given our very tight schedule and lack of resources, it proved to be most helpful. We’re excited to continue to use SketchUp Pro on future projects and renovations at the New England Aquarium.

Posted by Chris Cronin, SketchUp Sales Team

Media is an integral part of how people understand, access, and share information about the world around them. Communication channels including newspapers, television, blogs, and online videos have tremendous potential to empower and influence individuals across the globe. Yet, millions of people still face barriers that limit them from tapping into these resources. They are marginalized by political and economic situations and other limitations that deprive them of the full citizenship made possible by access to news, information, and connections to people outside of their immediate environments. That’s why we’re working with ...Read More

Media is an integral part of how people understand, access, and share information about the world around them. Communication channels including newspapers, television, blogs, and online videos have tremendous potential to empower and influence individuals across the globe. Yet, millions of people still face barriers that limit them from tapping into these resources. They are marginalized by political and economic situations and other limitations that deprive them of the full citizenship made possible by access to news, information, and connections to people outside of their immediate environments. That’s why we’re working with Ashoka to find and support the best, most innovative ideas out there that will help people around the world unlock the power of media and participate more fully in society.

Today marks the beginning of a new initiative run by Ashoka’s Changemakers, with support from Google, to source innovations that will boost media access and participation globally: Citizen Media: A Global Innovation Competition. What do we mean by this? Well, we’re waiting for you to tell us, but here are some initial ideas for what strong entries might hope to achieve:

• Give voice to underserved, vulnerable populations, introducing them to media creation and distribution, and showcasing their messages
• Equip journalists and publishers with tools or channels to report important news that otherwise gets missed
• Advance free speech and privacy protections
• Address the financial sustainability of quality news
• Help people better navigate information and ascertain content reliability and authenticity

Nominate your idea or suggest another innovation starting today! Submissions are due on September 14th, and finalists will be selected by a panel of expert judges including Michael Maness, VP of Journalism and Media Innovation at the Knight Foundation, Esther Wojcicki, Vice Chair for Creative Commons, and Jared Cohen, Director of Google Ideas. Then, Ashoka will invite the public to vote on four winners who will receive cash prizes of US $5,000. Top qualifying entrants will also be considered for an Ashoka Fellowship — complete with a living stipend, international recognition, and access to a network of systems-changing social entrepreneurs. To encourage a breadth of global applications, the competition is being launched in nine languages: Arabic, Mandarin, English, French, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Thai.

We’re excited to see the ideas submitted to this competition and to help social entrepreneurs advance their innovations.

This competition is run by Ashoka with sponsorship from Google. Submit your idea on: http://www.changemakers.com/citizenmedia

Posted by Mimi Kravetz, Google.org Team

You may have seen our launch post back in March, with information about the Google for Nonprofits program and all of its moving parts. One of those moving parts, and a resource we hope you can take advantage of, is the ...Read More

You may have seen our launch post back in March, with information about the Google for Nonprofits program and all of its moving parts. One of those moving parts, and a resource we hope you can take advantage of, is the Google for Nonprofits Marketplace.

The Google for Nonprofits Marketplace is where you can connect with Google Certified Partners - Google tool experts that offer their services for free or discounted rates to NGOs.

There are Google Certified Partners for products ranging from AdWords and Android to Earth, Sketchup, and Website Optimizer - just to name a few. So, whatever your organization’s needs, it’s likely that there is a Certified Partner available to help.

To find the right partner for your organization’s needs, simply visit the Marketplace page, choose the product you’re interested in and your local region from the drop-down menus and then review your choices from the results.

If your company is a Google Certified Partner and offers services to NGOs at a free or discounted rate, you can apply to have your company listed in the Google for Nonprofits Marketplace.

Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team

Last week, the Google Earth Outreach and Google.org teams, in collaboration with the Global Canopy Programme, hosted partners from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for the first gathering of the Community Forest Monitoring Working Group. The goals of the working group are to provide a platform for groups engaged in community forest monitoring activities - across continents - to share knowledge and experience. Equally important is for these groups to provide recommendations for the development of tools, methodologies, and common protocols. For example, the Surui tribe in the Brazilian Amazon is using ...Read More

(Cross-posted from the Google.org Blog)

Last week, the Google Earth Outreach and Google.org teams, in collaboration with the Global Canopy Programme, hosted partners from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for the first gathering of the Community Forest Monitoring Working Group. The goals of the working group are to provide a platform for groups engaged in community forest monitoring activities - across continents - to share knowledge and experience. Equally important is for these groups to provide recommendations for the development of tools, methodologies, and common protocols. For example, the Surui tribe in the Brazilian Amazon is using modern technology to implement their community’s Surui Carbon Project.

This effort isn’t isolated, as many NGOs and stakeholders support community-based approaches to forest monitoring for their efficiency, cultural relevance, and reliability. Community Forest Monitoring will play a role in the United Nations’ Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) effort which aims to incentivize developing countries to adopt a low-emission path to development. In thinking about best methods for data collection, this working group is looking to tackle a host of data collection issues including usability, security, accountability, cultural relevance, and scalability.

These are all concerns that the team at Open Data Kit (ODK), an open source suite of data collection tools, have fleshed out and iterated upon. ODK was born in 2008 as a Google sabbatical project of University of Washington computer science professor Gaetano Borriello. Borriello wanted to take advantage of Google’s data collection tools: maps, visualization, databases and has said that his team saw a gap in mobile data collection. Thus, Borriello’s team developed ODK Build, ODK Collect, and ODK Aggregate, mobile tools that have attracted thousands of users and dozens of active developers.

As ODK iterates and evolves, the Public Sector Engineering team is learning about the challenges and opportunities in mobile data collection and exploring how we can contribute to this space. ODK already gives users the option to visualize data in Google Earth and Google Fusion Tables, and we are exploring how to make use of some of Google’s other tools (what if photos collected on the ground could be easily posted to Picasa, or videos to YouTube?) It’s our goal to make sure that all meaningful data is effectively organized and made discoverable, accessible and usable.

Ultimately, community forest monitoring represents just one slice of the potential that effective data collection tools create. ODK was initially motivated by the needs of community health workers and has proven flexible enough to be used to track everything from human rights violations in the Central African Republic to water quality in Ghana. As the nature of scientific research diversifies and the volume of data collected increases, reliable, flexible, and lightweight tools will become more and more crucial.

What’s next? As the engineering teams continue to work on improving mobile data collection tools, the working group will convene policymakers at the next workshop to discuss standards and best practices. “The greatest barrier isn’t a technological one, but the challenge of leveraging this data so that communities can help ensure better governance for their forests,” says Niki Mardas, Head of Strategy and Communications for the Global Canopy Programme and theredddesk.org. As with many other public data collection efforts, it will become the job of advocates and analysts to shape meaningful narratives and press for the change the world needs. We’re glad to be a part of this effort and we’re committed to working with our partners to transform data collection from a passive process to an active and empowering practice.

Posted by Tanya Keen, Google Earth Outreach Team and Jenny Ye, Public Sector Engineering Team