Google has brought the natural search capabilities of Google Search to Drive, making it easier and more intuitive to find your company files. Google is rolling out Natural Language Processing (NLP) worldwide and immediately so that people can search Drive in the same manner as they search the internet. With over 240 million users of Google Drive (as of 2014), even small changes have a big impact on productivity.
“Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a fancy way of saying “search like you talk,” said Josh Smith, the Product manager for Google Drive, in a blog announcement. “You can type things like “find my budget spreadsheet from last December” or “show me presentations from Anissa.” Drive will understand what you mean and give you the option to click for those specific search results. Drive NLP will get better with each query — so keep on searching.”
Google has also added spelling correction to Google Drive searches, also something very familiar in Google search. “When you’re trying to find a doc fast, it’s easy for typos to slip into your search,” Smith says. “Drive now has a new autocorrect feature that suggests corrections to misspelled search terms — which can really help when your brain is moving faster than your fingers.”
Josh Smith says that Google additionally added a couple of small features to Google Doc:
You can now easily split your document into multiple columns in Docs. Just choose “Columns” in the “Format” drop-down menu when you need more formatting options to get your point across.
We know that work happens in all types of file formats. So, when you open, convert and edit non-Google files in Docs, Sheets and Slides, we’ll now save a copy for you. Just view or download the non-Google source file in its original format directly from Revision History in Docs, Sheets and Slides on the web.
Georgia’s Department of Community Supervision has gone virtual via Google Apps and Chromebooks. With staff increases and with significant amounts of time outside of their offices, The State of Georgia was looking for a more economical and cost-efficient solution to getting things done in their offender supervision programs. They made the decision to go 100 percent virtual office and 100 percent Google.
“We decided to try something that had never been done in Georgia state government history: eliminate the majority of our offices entirely and allow hundreds of our 2,100 staff members to work remotely instead,” said Phil Sellers, Director, Information Technology Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles, writing in the Google for Work Blog. “Our existing desktop computers and office applications didn’t have the features to support remote workers, so we started looking into alternatives. I was familiar with Google’s cost-cutting, collaborative and mobile-friendly features, so my team led the switch to Google Apps for Work and Google Chromebooks.”
He says that they have saved literally millions of dollars by not paying for expensive hardware and enterprise licensing contracts, not to mention the increased productivity of employees who can now work anywhere, anytime. “We no longer have dedicated IT services for routine storage and email support, and our small IT staff of 35 doesn’t need to roll out patches and antivirus software. If an officer closes her Chromebook or loses power, she doesn’t have to worry about trying to recover lost data. If we need to replace a device, it’s inexpensive and fast to get someone back up and running.”
Many government agencies and large corporations have been leery of cloud solutions because of possible security breaches, which could include crucial data exposures. Georgia’s Department of Community Supervision believes the opposite is true. “Officers used to store their data on laptops, so if their device was lost or stolen, they’d lose sensitive information about parolees and probationers,” said Sellers. “With Chromebooks, we store everything in the cloud and can easily wipe and replace a device if needed. Officers use a 2-step authentication to enter our systems, which adds another layer of security.”
The agency is often field-based away from the office, so using Chromebooks and Android phones lets their officers work wherever they are and collaborate with colleagues via Google Docs, Google Drive and Google Hangouts. “Since we’ve adopted the policy, officers are more productive, and sick leave and employee turnover have decreased,” added Sellers.
Google is pushing the concept of Chromebooks, Google Drive Apps and Android as one enterprise level platform for businesses to operate. They are competing with established players such as Microsoft, Salesforce and to some extent Amazon. They are working to distinguish the Google approach by tying in their Android OS and phones, Chromebook tablet, the Google Cloud Platform and their many office related apps and chat tools so that businesses have a much less expensive alternative than the competitors.
Google recently touted how its platform is the most secure. “We’re talking about stuff that you’ve seen in “Mission Impossible”– biometrics, lasers, vehicle barriers, bollards. All of this is custom-built, also, to make the data center more secure,” said Neal Mueller, Security and Networking lead for Google Cloud.
Google announced on their official blog today a new application called “Spaces”, a tool for small group sharing. It’s like an instant Google+ group, but of course it’s not Google+.
Google says it built Spaces to make it easier for small groups to stay on topic because your sharing articles, pictures and videos right within the app. Google Chrome, YouTube and search are built in. The conversational view lets you see what the group is talking about without clicking to another app or platform, simplifying the conversation.
Google has also included a search to make finding any of the content you and others shared easy. The app is available for all mobile and desktop platforms.
Read more about the new “Spaces” app on the Google Blog.
Google announced a new meeting-scheduling feature for Google Calendar on Android for Google Apps for Work and Edu customers. You can simply tap “Find a Time” to find meetings times that work for those involved.
This takes time zones into account, as well as availability of all parties and the times they usually have meetings. It’s designed specifically for organizations who regularly share calendars with colleagues.
When there’s not a time that works, Google Calendar will look at which conflicting meetings can most easily be rescheduled. It sounds pretty handy.
“‘Find a time’ makes suggestions, but you’re still in control,” says product manager Stella Schieffer. “You can tap to see everyone’s schedule at a glance—perfect for making sure the timing works for all. And if you manage someone else’s calendar, you can use the feature to schedule meetings on their behalf as well.
The feature is just for Android right now, but they’re working on bringing it to iPhone.
In an effort to get more companies on Google Apps, Google announced that it is extending a cost-covering program previously only available to large enterprises to medium-sized businesses.
Last fall, Google provided its productivity suite for free to companies locked into an Enterprise Agreement, covering these companies’ contract costs until the contracts expired. Those who weren’t under contract could get help in paying for their migrations from other solutions.
The program is not only being extended to smaller companies, but also until the end of the year.
“Companies between 250 and 3,000 that currently have an EA with another vendor can qualify for zero-cost Google Apps licenses for the term of their existing EA,” explains Google’s Neil Delaney. “And now, companies with 100 users (previously 250) to as many as 3,000 can qualify for a Deployment Voucher. This greatly expands the number of companies that can take advantage of the Deployment Voucher.”
“In addition to saving money and improving business productivity, the security benefits of Google Apps are especially valuable to mid-market businesses,” he adds. “For mid-market customers that sign up for this promotion, Google will pay for a Security Workshop, to the value of $750USD, through our trained Partners, to help them maximize the security and data protections Google Apps offers.”
A number of Google’s “Recommended for Google Apps for Work” partners are also announcing cost-saving offerings. More here.
Google announced three new capabilities to make it easier for Google Apps administrators to set up mobile management and define policies.
You can click Manage Now on the Admin console to set up mobile management with a predefined set of security policies.
“Simple to use enterprise applications can sometimes seem like a misnomer,” says program manager Sumit Chatterjee. “While enterprise software has remained complex, consumer software has gravitated towards simplicity. For Google Apps administrators, we believe in providing an EMM solution that’s as simple to operate as changing your personal Gmail settings, all the while delivering enterprise-grade security.”
Android for Work can be set up in a single click.
“No longer must admins complete fifteen steps spread across different pages in the admin console, cutting and pasting security tokens, to set up Android for Work,” says Chatterjee. “With a single click, admins can begin managing and whitelisting mobile apps (MAM) for their Android for Work devices in their domain.”
They’ve also redesigned the device management experience by categorizing all device policy settings to make them easier to find and use.
Additionally, the new version of the Google Amin app provides mobile device management capabilities including access to a list of all managed devices from which remote action can be taken for things like account wipes and blocking users.
Last year, Google announced support for SAML 2.0 with Google as the identity provider, and now they’re adding pre-configured support for Microsoft Office 365, Facebook at Work, Panorama9, New Relic, Concur, Coupa, Box, Slac, and others.
As the company notes, this adds to hundreds of apps it already supports through the Google Apps Marketplace and OpenID Connect.
“Millions of businesses rely on Google to protect employee logins to Google Apps services like Drive and Gmail,” says Google Apps for Work Product Manager Shashank Gupta. “And we continue to make it easier to extend that ease and security to more applications with Google Identity, providing organizations a single place to manage identity and security for all of their SaaS/IT applications.”
“Google’s identity services provide even more security on mobile when combined with Google Apps enterprise mobile management controls like password strength, lock screen requirements and app management,” Gupta adds. “These can work in tandem with the increasing number of mobile security options, from hardware such as fingerprint readers, to software such as Google’s Smart Lock. Our Google Smart Lock features are available to all Google Accounts, including those used at work, and we provide identity services and enterprise mobility management (EMM) as part of Google Apps for Work at no additional cost.”
Google has an identity whitepaper about how you can use its identity services available here.
Google announced an update to Google Apps that enables employees to view and access their apps from a new user hub. This provides them with an easy way to see what they are able to use while giving them a simple interface to use the apps from.
“With this launch, an employee can quickly and easily see a list of the Google and third-party apps they have access to, like Gmail, Drive, SurveyMonkey, and more, at apps.google.com/user/hub,” Google says. “This page features links to all the apps currently turned on for that user, as well as a section dedicated to those apps that have been whitelisted by their admin but not yet installed.”
“This should encourage employees to use their enabled apps more often and to finally check out those apps they haven’t yet tried (especially the mobile versions, which will be easier to access),” it adds. “New users will also be directed to apps.google.com/user/hub during the onboarding process.”
Users have to be signed into their Apps for Work account to access the hub.
In semi-related news, Google just added some new templates for Docs, Sheets, and Slides, including some that are business-specific.
Google announced the addition of a new “Access Checker” feature in the settings in the admin console in Google Apps. This is designed to give admins greater control over sharing options of employees.
You can access this by going to Admin console > Apps > Google Apps > Settings for Drive > Sharing settings.
Admins will have three options for how their users can share. These include: Recipients only, their domain ,or public (no Google account required), recipients only or their domain, and recipients only.
“For example, if an admin chooses option 1 and an employee in their domain attaches a Google Sheets spreadsheet to an event in Calendar, that employee will be asked if they want to share that spreadsheet with guests of the event only or one of two additional options: (1) anyone in their domain with the link (if all guests are in their domain), or (2) anyone with the link (if any guests are in different domains),” Google explains.
Admins who allow external, public sharing will see “recipients only, their domain, or public” as the default option. If the admin prohibits external, pubic sharing, they’ll be able to choose from “Recipients only or their domain” or “Recipients only”.
“It’s important to note that the sharing options shown to users will be determined based on the settings in the document owner’s domain, which may not be the same as the settings in the domain of the person sharing the file,” Google says. “If someone tries to share multiple files and different policies apply to each (e.g. because the document owners are in different domains), we’ll abide by the least permissive policy when showing options to users. ”
The new feature should take about three days to fully roll out.
Google just announced availability of Data Loss Prevention in Gmail for Google Apps Unlimited customers. The company plans to bring it to Google Drive in the coming year.
“Workers are constantly creating and sharing new ideas, and keeping these ideas safe needs to be simple, quick and reliable,” says Suzanne Frey, Director, Security, Trust, and Privacy for Google Apps. “Google for Work already helps admins manage information security with encryption, audit reports, sharing controls, mobile management and two-factor authentication. But sometimes mistakes happen; for example, you might hit “Reply all” when meaning to send a private message. So today, if you’re a Google Apps Unlimited customer, Data Loss Prevention (DLP) for Gmail will add another layer of protection to prevent sensitive information from being revealed to those who shouldn’t have it.”
“Organizations may have a policy that the Sales department should not share customer credit card information with vendors,” she adds. “And to keep information safe, admins can easily set up a DLP policy by selecting “Credit Card Numbers” from a library of predefined content detectors. Gmail DLP will automatically check all outgoing emails from the sales department and take action based on what the admin has specified: either quarantine the email for review, tell users to modify the information, or block the email from being sent and notify the sender. These checks don’t just apply to email text, but also to content inside common attachment types―such as documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. And admins can also create custom rules with keywords and regular expressions.”
Google has a data loss prevention whitepaper available here. You can also read this post, which looks at some of the company’s efforts throughout the past year.
Google will be discussing electronic crime, security, and privacy at the Enigma conference on January 25th.
Google launched an update to the Google Admin app on Android making it easier for admins to manage users and groups on the go.
“The Google Admin mobile app allows Apps super admins to easily manage users and groups, contact support, view audit logs and perform other common administrative tasks all from their mobile devices,” says Google in a blog post. “Today’s update to the Google Admin mobile app for Android makes managing users and groups even easier.”
Google says the number of paying organizations actively using Google Drive crossed a million earlier this year. The company is taking steps to improve security and privacy protection for Drive as well as Google Apps for Work and Google Apps for Education.
For one, Google Drive is getting enhanced eDiscovery for Google Apps Vault, which gives businesses more visibility and control over employee files. In other words, Drive will fall under the same retention policies and legal hold capabilities available for email and chat. Google says these capabilities will help businesses meet their legal obligations and ensure employee files are archived and available as long as needed, even if employees delete them from their Drive. This is in limited rollout and will be generally available in the coming months.
Google has also updated the Mobile Device Management (MDM) for Google Drive business customers, enabling businesses to monitor usage, enforce strong passwords, and enable device encryption. If a worker loses their phone or leaves the company, the data can be wiped. Business data can we wiped without wiping their personal data. Earlier this year, Google Drive debuted on comScore’s list of the top 25 mobile apps. In August, it was number 16 on the list.
“This audit validates our privacy practices and contractual commitments to our customers, verifying for example that we don’t use your data for advertising, that the data that you entrust with us remains yours and that we provide you with tools to delete and export your data,” explains Google Drive Director of Product Management Scott Johnston.
We continuously work with independent auditors to verify our data protection commitments. For example, over the years we’ve completed third-party SOC2 / SOC3 security audits and achieved ISO 27001 certification to provide transparency and accountability around our security procedures.
The 27018 audit also validates that our Google Apps data protection commitments meet a rigorous international privacy and data protection standard. We think that this a great step forward for both our customers and for the industry. While laws and regulations vary from country to country, the principles set forth in the standard are widely recognized.
Independent auditor Ernst & Young has verified Google’s privacy practices and contractual commitments for Google Apps for Work and Google Apps for Education comply with the new standard.
Google commissioned Forrester Consulting to look at the total economic impact (TEI) of the value Google Apps for Work customers get out of the product. The study spans three years of organizations’ use of it, including the moving from legacy on-premise solutions to Google’s cloud-based product.
Google for Work president Amit Singh says, “To quantify the complete value of Google Apps for Work, including collaboration and productivity benefits, they interviewed six of our current customers. They then aggregated each piece of customer feedback to create a representative composite organization on which to base the development of a Total Economic Impact model.”
“The composite organization is a global B2B multinational services company with 10,000 employees using Google Apps for Work and $4 billion in annual revenue,” he adds. “The analysis they completed showed that this composite organization would realize millions in collaboration and mobility efficiencies in the course of three years.”
According to the findings, Google Apps for Work generated a risk-adjusted $17.1 million in benefits and ROI of 304%. It also suggests that the collaboration tools save employees about two hours per week, which adds up to over $8 million in savings over the three-year period. It also says the ability for employees to work from anywhere and join meetings remotely saves about $5 million in 3 years, while decommissioning legacy servers, software and phone systems saves another $4 million.
Last fall, Google launched Inbox by Google, a new email app, which it hopes will one day replace Gmail for both people and businesses. It’s still unclear if that will be a mandatory change for Gmail users somewhere down the road, but for right now it’s opt-in, and still only available by invitation.
On Monday, Google announced that it’s ready to start opening Inbox up to some users for work by way of Google Apps. The real question is: Is this something businesses actually want to use?
First, let’s take a quick look back at what Inbox actually does, in case you haven’ tried it.
Inbox is essentially an expansion of the categories Google launched in Gmail last year. Certain types of messages are grouped together. Inbox uses what it calls “bundles,” to put together messages related to purchases, finance, social media, promos, travel, updates, and forums. You can toggle any of these on and off.
“Inbox highlights the key information from important messages, such as flight itineraries, event information, and photos and documents emailed to you by friends and family,” says Google. “Inbox will even display useful information from the web that wasn’t in the original email, such as the real-time status of your flights and package deliveries. Highlights and Bundles work together to give you just the information you need at a glance.”
Inbox also lets you add reminders, which come with a “snooze” option. You can temporarily dismiss them, and they’ll come back later. Users can use Google Now or the Google Calendar app to set reminders, which will then later appear in Inbox. Any reminder snoozed to a specific day will also appear on your calendar. If you like, you can actually snooze emails to places rather than times.
There’s no question that the description makes Inbox sound like a really useful tool. Getting used to the experience, however, is not something that comes easily for some. For one, it involves trusting Google to actually show you all the email you want to receive, and whether it’s the case or not, it doesn’t always feel like you’re getting everything you’re supposed to.
It’s one thing to have that feeling with your personal email, but when it comes to work, I’m not sure businesses are ready to accept that. According to Google, businesses are indeed interested.
“Since we launched five months ago, one of the biggest pieces of feedback we’ve received is that Google Apps customers want access to Inbox at work,” says Director of Product Management Alex Gawley. “That’s why were excited to kick off the next phase of our journey: collaborating with you to bring Inbox to work.”
“Even before the first invitations went out to use Inbox for your own email, Googlers have been using it to get more done at work,” Gawley adds. “Whether it’s snoozing the expense report notification until after the big presentation, or adding a reminder to schedule lunch with a favorite client, Inbox helps put email on your terms. And since Inbox was built on the same infrastructure as Gmail, it meets the same high security standards you expect from email.”
Gawley does acknowledge that every company and person is different, so Google is putting out some feelers on how businesses want to use Inbox. It’s enabling the experience for a “small group” of Google Apps customers for the time being as it “learns about their needs, challenges, and use cases”.
That’s certainly a better approach than just thrusting it upon everyone. Google seeks to find out if businesses people want to use Inbox as their primary inbox at work, if employees are heavy mobile users, and if they want to partner with Google on user studies.
Interested businesses can email inboxforwork@google.com from their Google Apps for Work admin account to apply for an invitation to the program. Google says it will work “very closely” with the early adopters, so not everyone will be accepted right away. The company will expand the program over the coming months, however.
“Inbox wasn’t created to reinvent email, Inbox was created to help you reinvent the way you get things done,” writes Gawley. “This means we need to understand more about how things get done (or don’t) today. And with your feedback, who knows, we could reinvent the way people work.”
Google recently shared the following infographic looking at how people are using Inbox to get things done so far.
Hopefully they’ll release another one of these once it’s been used in the workplace for awhile. It will interesting to see what the stats look like among business owners and employees.
Last week, Google announced the availability of Inbox for the iPad and Android tablets as well as support for Firefox and Safari.
If you’re an email marketer, you have plenty of things to consider with Inbox, particularly if it becomes widely adopted. More on that here.
Are you already using Inbox for your personal email? What do you think? Discuss in the comments.
Back in 2010, Google launched an App Search lab feature in Gmail, enabling users to bring up content from Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides in their Gmail searches. Given that Gmail search just does this on its own now, the lab feature is being retired.
“Since 2010, Gmail search has been improved to automatically display results from Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides―plus Calendar and G+ content―in the instant results dropdown, which appears when entering a query in the search box,” Google said.
“With the improved experience provided by the instant results search feature, we’ll be ending the Apps Search lab experiment and removing it from Gmail Labs and the Advanced Labs Management section in Admin console in early 2015,” it added. “We will provide additional guidance on the specific date of the feature removal on the Google Apps Release calendar.”
In other Google for Work news, the company has just consolidated its partner programs into one big partner program for work and education.
Google announced some new support improvements for Google Apps admins. These include chat support, in-product help, and business Hangouts.
Google has been piloting chat support for a couple months. Now it’s rolling out an an option for English-language Apps admins globally. Google says it will be adding additional languages over the coming months. If you’re a verified domain admin, you can start a chat session from the Help Center.
“Finding help should be easy, which is why we put our support documentation and help articles at your fingertips in the product interface,” says Chris Roggenbuck, Support Program Manager for Google for Work. “Help is also useful when its contextual — if you’re having trouble in Gmail we want you to have the phone number to call Google without leaving Gmail. To access these resources, sign into one of our Google Apps products, such as Gmail, or the Admin Console then select ‘Help’ from the gear icon drop down in the upper right of your screen. You’ll see a direct link to call Google under ‘Contact Us’ and be able to search our Help Center from the same window.”
“This summer we announced that Google Hangouts is now covered under the same Terms of Service that support our other Google Apps services, like Gmail and Drive,” Roggenbuck adds. “That means we’ve got your back with 24×7 phone support and a guaranteed 99.9% uptime.”
Google has also updated its technical support service guidelines to reflect the new stuff. You can get a look at those here.
Google announced on Wednesday that employees of Google Apps-using businesses and organizations can now install apps from the Google Apps Marketplace without having to involve the administrator. In the past, admins were required to install the apps , so this should save them a lot of time.
The feature applies to Google Apps for work, Google Apps for Education and Google Apps for Government.
“Administrators can adjust the settings that filter and show which third-party apps are available to their organizations from the Admin console,” says product manager Chris Han. “By default, any user can now install apps from the Google Apps Marketplace—excluding K-12 EDU domains that are defaulted off.”
“The Google Apps Marketplace has a wide-variety of options, no matter your taste, including Smartsheet for online project management, Freshbooks for accounting, Zoho for customer support, GQueues for to-do lists and more,” Han adds.
Users can find and add third-party apps from the app launcher icon.
Google is also encouraging app developers to allow end users to install their apps from the Google Apps Marketplace, and gives instructions for setting that up here.
Google announced (separately) a handful of noteworthy updates to Google Apps.
First off, the company introduced a new Reports section to the Admin console aimed at making it easier for admins to manage Google Apps and gain insights.
The feature includes a Highlights Page, which gives an overview of all the activity across your domain. It shows how many Hangouts, Docs, Sheets, and Slides your business has created as well as who is close to reaching their Drive and Gmail storage quota and how many files have been shared outside the company.
There’s also an Apps Usage page, which shows data on how users are working with Gmail, Drive, storage, and other apps. This is customizable.
Filters let admins find who owns specific files, people with high amounts of uploads and shares, and things like all the people who have between 1,000 and 2,000 documents.
There’s also a Security page and a Login audit.
The other announcements are related to Google Sites. Google launched new features to improve integration between Sites and other products.
“When sharing on social media sites, Google Sites now will showcase images in posts,” the Google Apps team said in an update feed. “You’ll see this change when you share Sites links on Google+ and other sites. Google Analytics support on Sites has been improved to support Universal analytics. Finally, Sites can now embed Google Maps Engine Lite, so custom maps you have created can be shared side-by-side with your content.”
“Several accessibility improvements have been made to Google Sites, ranging from new keyboard shortcuts for editors (like Alt+Shift+F for opening the editor toolbar) to better viewing experiences for readers,” it said in another. “Editors can now also set image width to 100% of the screen width and easily customize the font, color, and size of lower-level headers (H2, H3, and H4 tags).”
Google announced the launch of some new Google Apps Mobile Management features for Android to help organizations manage BYOD policies.
These include inactive account wipe, support for EAP-based WiFi networks, compromised device detection, and additional reporting fields.
“Bring your own device (BYOD) is no longer just a trend — it’s how business gets done,” says Google Enterprise product manager Clayton Jones. “With thousands of mobile applications to choose from and an increasing number of websites optimized for mobile, today’s employees can work whenever and wherever they choose. It also means IT organizations now have the dual challenge of both helping employees be more productive and protecting corporate data.”
These features are aimed at helping businesses meet such challenges.
You can set policies to wipe an inactive account from a device if it hasn’t been synced for a predetermined number of days. This way, a lot device that wasn’t reported or an old device no longer in use doesn’t create a security risk.
Google says you can configure settings and distribute certificate authority based certs for EAP networks. You can also set policies to detect signals for common forms a compromised device, like “rooting” or installing a custom “ROM”, and block the device.
“Access new reporting fields via the API and Admin console to better understand the devices that are in use and troubleshoot issues,” says Jones. “Additional fields include: Serial number, IMEI, MEID, WiFi MAC address, baseband version, kernel version, build number, mobile operator/carrier, language settings, and account ownership/management.”
Earlier this week, we learned that Google acquired Divide, which provides a platform combining cloud-based management and device-level technology to help get the most out of mobile technology and corporate BYOD policies.
Google announced that it has added some security-related features for email in Google Apps for Business, Government, and Education. These include mail routing, delivery controls, SMTP relay, attachment compliance, and TLS encryption of message content.
Mail routing, delivery controls, and the SMTP relay service, Google says, will let you control the flow of information to and from your company with policy-based routing. This, it says, will ensure that messages are filtered, even when sent from third-party or other non-Gmail sources.
Attachment compliance, Google says, will let you protect your business by blocking or rerouting messages based on what is attached to emails. It provides controls for what content is sent and received.
TLS encryption of message content prevents eavesdropping and message spoofing through secure encryption and delivery, according to the company.
“In addition to these increased security measures, as we recently announced, we’ve now turned off ads in Google Apps services,” says Google Enterprise president Amit Singh. “This means administrators no longer have the option or ability to turn on ads in these services. We’ve also permanently removed all ads scanning in Gmail for Google Apps, which means Google does not collect or use data in Google Apps services for advertising purposes.”
Those showing AdSense ads on Google Sites will be able to display the existing ads on their sites, but won’t be able to edit or add new AdSense ads to new or existing sites.
Google announced some improvements to Hangouts chat in Gmail. This includes Google Apps for Business and Education users.
Users will now see an updated user interface in their conversation list. This includes status markers as green bubbles. Also, the displayed contacts are in order of most recent chats.
The new version also includes recent conversation snippets and a new contact search button.
