Google Sites lets users instantly create collaborative workspaces to share all kinds of information, including attachments and content from other Google applications.
Editions impacted: Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions
Languages impacted: US English
How to access what's new: Sign in to Google Sites and click 'Create a site' to get started.
Posted by Michael Fisher, Mobile Strategic Partner Development Manager
If you're one of the millions of people with an Opera Mobile or Opera Mini browser on your phone, you may be pleased to know that Google will soon be the default search engine on the browser start page. We're certainly excited about it -- it will now be even easier for Opera's new and current mobile users to get the information they need, whenever and wherever they need it.
For more details about our new collaboration with Opera, please check out their press release. To learn more about Opera or to download one of their mobile browsers, head here. As always, you can read more about Google mobile products on our website.
Posted by Robert Hamilton, Product Manager, Google mobile team
At Google we like things that are fast: fast search, fast email, fast everything. In fact, we're so in love with speed that we don't even like the time it usually takes to launch a browser, head to Google and perform a search on our favourite Nokia smartphones. So, we decided to do something to speed it up.
From today, if you have an N-series or an E-series Nokia phone you can download a small search shortcut directly to your phone's homescreen. Once that shortcut is in place, you'll be able to bring up a Google search box (without opening your browser), type in a query and get straight to the results.
For those who are counting, that means fewer clicks and less time waiting for pages to load. Judging from our research, there is as much as a 40 percent reduction in the average time to complete an initial search. You can see just how much faster it is in this video:
So, don't take our word for it -- head to mobile.google.com on your Nokia device now, download the Google search shortcut and give it a try.
Posted by Sumit Agarwal, product manager, Google mobile team
The days when mobile phones were just for making and taking calls are far behind us as more and more of us are using these sleek little bundles of silicon and plastic as a key access point for information. That's why we are always working to bring our fast and comprehensive mobile search experience to as many different mobile devices as possible.
With that in mind, we announced today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that we're going to be working with Nokia to provide access to Google search on Nokia devices via Nokia Search. (Nokia Search is an application that combines web search services like Google with the ability to search for applications and files on your device.)
Beginning with the Nokia N96 and N78, 6210 Navigator, and 6220 classic, Google search will be available on Nokia devices in more than 100 countries, serving mobile users in 42 different languages. The collaboration will expand over time to include access to Google search on many more Nokia handsets. Here's more about how we'll be working with Nokia.
Posted by Michael Fisher, Mobile Strategic Partner Development Manager
Pretty soon you'll be able to find Google search and Google Maps for mobile pre-installed on more smartphones around the world, making it easier for some of you to start using these applications immediately after purchase. There are various ways that Google mobile applications can be installed on phones before they land in your hands. Usually, this convenient service is brought to you through collaboration with our partners in the wireless industry.
Today we announced an agreement with Brightpoint to pre-install Google Search and Google Maps for mobile on a wide range of smartphones, including those running Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Palm, and Symbian. These applications will be distributed through Brightpoint’s 25,000 B2B customers around the world. To give you a little background, Brightpoint is a leading provider of cell phone distribution and customized logistical services for the wireless industry. For example, Brightpoint can take phones from a device manufacturer, configure them for a network, and then package them and efficiently deliver them to the retail stores where they can be sold.
Read more about the agreement with Brightpoint in today's press release.
Google Docs now supports US English, UK English, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese. Hebrew and Arabic are also supported for documents and presentations, but not spreadsheets.
Editions impacted: Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions
Languages impacted: Arabic and Hebrew
How to access what's new: Sign in to Google Docs, click 'Settings', and select the interface language you prefer.
Posted by Alexandra Kenin, Product Marketing Manager, Mobile Ads
You may have heard a lot of talk about mobile advertising, but it might still be hard to make sense of this rapidly growing and constantly changing market. To help us all understand this industry, its trends, and Google's part in the market, I wanted to start this column -- and hopefully a dialogue -- about mobile ads.
First, let's define what exactly mobile advertising is. In its simplest form, mobile advertising may be an SMS or an MMS sent to your phone. On phones with data plans, mobile advertising is more likely to be text or display ads on the mobile web's search and content pages. On more sophisticated devices, you may also see broadcast TV or video advertising.
The mobile ad market, however, faces a number of challenges. While industry leaders like Japan have the technology and scale for mobile ads to thrive, other markets face a chicken-and-egg phenomenon in the development of the mobile web. Some potential mobile website owners aren't sure how much they will be able to monetize a mobile website, or whether WAP will soon be replaced by HTML. And since the mobile web remains smaller than the regular web, mobile advertisers may not feel they have enough places to put their ads -- or enough viewers to see them.
The times are changing, though. The combined impact of mobile advertising promises to be huge -- and is projected to reach some $4B by the end of 2008. By 2011, this number is expected to increase to $11.3B. There are a few key reasons this market holds a lot of potential. For one, there are nearly more cell phones in the world than televisions, telephones, and personal computers combined. Secondly, smartphones that offer unlimited data plans and easy mobile web browsing are becoming increasingly popular. Smartphones already account for a majority of data traffic and are gaining in sales. Finally, mobile ads are still cheaper than their online counterparts right now.
Now employees and students can bring Google Apps to their businesses and schools without burdening their IT departments for support. Team Edition includes Google Docs, Google Calendar and Google Talk.
Editions impacted: Team Edition
Languages impacted: US English
How to access what's new: Employees and students who aren't already using Google Apps can visit the Team Edition homepage to sign up with their work or school email address.
Administrators can now add security and compliance services to their existing messaging solutions, even if they don't use Google Apps for Gmail. Inbound message filtering for spam, virus and phishing protection is available, as are outbound message policy controls and long term message archiving for compliance purposes.
Editions impacted: Message Filtering, Message Security and Message Discovery
Languages impacted: US English
How to access what's new: Visit the Google Apps Security and Compliance homepage to learn more. (see link below)
Users can set up and share online forms where form submissions automatically get fed into a Google Spreadsheet. Users can also freeze rows and columns to prevent them from scrolling off the page.
Editions impacted: Standard, Premier, Education and Partner Editions
Languages impacted: US English
How to access what's new: Sign in to Google Docs, open a spreadsheet and click the 'Share' tab. Select the option to invite people 'to fill out a form'. From there, configure your form and send it out to your list of recipients. To freeze a row or column, drag the row or column bar to the point where you want your spreadsheet to be frozen.
