Embrace the Cloud

Why businesses use Google Video for secure, private video sharing

1. Share rich video information – Video sharing makes important communications like internal trainings and corporate announcements more personal, engaging and effective.
2. Keep videos secure and private – Employees can securely share videos with select coworkers or everyone at the company without making confidential information public.
3. No large files or complex infrastructure – Google securely hosts and streams your videos, so employees don’t need to share videos over email, or burden IT for a video solution.
4. Everyone at your company can contribute – Employees can share videos instantly. Viewing and annotating doesn’t require any special software, just a standard browser.

Google Video for business: How we use it at Google

How customers are using Google Video for business

Technorati Tags: google apps, video

Google on Google Chrome

Here is a link to a cartoon that helps to explain Google’s new browser idea called Google Chrome. Now seems to be a great time to build a new browser combining all the great features of IE and Firefox, and adding a few new concepts. Being able to close individual tabs when there is a bug in a process is sweet. I have had to close the whole browser many a time and start all over.

Technorati Tags: google, chrome, browser

10 Reasons I love GMail

1. Less spam. I used to use Yahoo Mail and I got 40-50 spam emails each day. I get much less with GMail, sometimes only 3-4 per day.
2. The search feature is awesome. I have to use Lotus Notes at work and it is absolutely cumbersome. I have to search folders over and over. I had the same issues when I used to use Microsoft Outlook.
3. I love the conversation view in GMail. Getting just a bit on in age, I don’t remember like I used to (OK, I was never very good). Anyway, the whole conversation is right there when I open an email.
4. I use Google Talk all the time. I can chat real-time with my contacts. I can also archive the chats and make them searchable too. Who would have thought that Google would be good at search? Tip 4a - You can also send a Voicemail with Google Talk! Tip 4b - You can send files too!
5. I have figured out how to use labels, filters and stars for my emails. These features have become my favorites. When I had to stop putting things in folders, I thought I’d be lost. Ha…did I have an awakening.
6. The amount of storage space that you get with a GMail account means you really never have to delete anything…ever! Just archive and go.
7. GMail on the go. You can use GMail with your mobile phone quite easily. Just go to google.com/m
8. Privacy. I can sign in using HTTPS. I appreciate that feature.
9. I can store all my contacts in GMail. Back to that memory thing being not so good…wait a minute, what was I talking about?
10. FREE. GMail accounts are FREE. Did I mention that it doesn’t cost anything?

Technorati Tags: gmail, google apps

Google’s tough sell to Corporate America

This is an informative article by Yi-Wyn Yen. Discussed are the pro’s and con’s of using Google Apps for large enterprises.

Enterprises have reservations (cons) for a variety of reasons including:

• Security
• Confidentiality
• Downtime
• Converting software is time consuming
• Cost
• Advanced features

Reasons they may consider switching to Google Apps (pros)

• Education edition is free for .edu’s
• Ability to work in team’s
• Collaboration and sharing
• Working across company boundaries
• Redundancy (info is shared on many servers)
• Lower cost
• No backups
• No IT person needed

I’d be interested in hearing from any companies that are using Google Apps. If you’re not using Google Apps, what are your companies concerns about switching?

Locate addresses on Google Maps right from Firefox

Another great Firefox add-on called Locator. Simply highlight the address, right click with mouse, select ‘Locate on Google Map’ in popup menu and your address will be shown on a Google map. Pretty awesome. I used to open a new tab, type in Google Maps, then cut and paste the address. This is way faster.

Access all Google applications from your Firefox Toolbar

This Firefox Add-on (GUtil! 2.3.2) lets you access all Google applications from your toolbar. I tried it, and I really like it. There are just so many applications, that sometimes it’s hard to remember what you need. No problems with that anymore. Let me know what you think.

Send Voicemail to a GMail account using Google Talk

If you’d rather leave someone a more personal message than an email, try using the Voicemail feature in Google Talk. Just open Google Talk and chose Send Voicemail from the menu. Then leave a message after the beep using your computers microphone or a headset. The recipient will get notification that a voicemail has been left, and they can then stream or download it right out of their GMail account.

Google Reader in Plain English

Lee Lefever of Common Craft comes through again with a great video explanation of how to use Google Reader. If you are not using RSS feeds to organize your web content, you are really missing out on a great time saving tool.

Please explore the Common Craft site…there are links to many other great videos there as well.

Technorati Tags: google reader, common craft, lee lefever

Google Apps + Salesforce.com

Here is a link to a great review of Google Apps used with Salesforce CRM software by Hugh Durkin.

Salesforce for Google Apps

Running a business successfully is hard! Having the right tools makes it much easier. That’s why the combined power of Salesforce and Google Apps is transforming businesses by helping you run your business with software as a service. Salesforce for Google Apps is a simple, yet powerful combination of business applications that work together and make it incredibly easy for users to communicate, collaborate, and share business information. Now you can run your favorite desktop applications and your CRM applications side by side by accessing Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, and Google Docs all from within Salesforce.