Google, you’re so good to us

It’s been a great day. I just got home after watching the Mumlers for the first time in the most hospitable dive bar in Missouri (it’s non smoking). I opened my email and learned that Google just slashed its additional online storage fees! This is great news! I was about to have to pay $50 for the third year in a row to support my Picasa addiction. Instead, for $20 I get 80 gbs of additional storage.

This is wonderful timing considering my increasing dependence on Google Docs and the growing draw of the new DROID. Or am I actually more lured by Verizon…nah, it’s probably my disdain for at&t. The point is that Android 2.0 may be tempting enough to finally cut the cord with my iPhone. Decisions, decisions…

In case you don’t have Google additional storage but you do have a Gmail account or a Picasa account, you really need to hop on the bandwagon. How can reject 20gb of additional storage for 5 bucks a year?! Time to bust out that digital camera and start sharing pictures as they’re meant to be shared — not as email attachments.

Google Apps Sync for Outlook

Today Google issued a heavy blow in the fight for small business, non-profit, and education email systems. Google announced that they will soon be releasing a tool that will allow Google Apps Premier and Education users to synchronize all their Outlook data instantly and quickly with their Google Apps account. This new tool will behave very similar to how Outlook interacts with Microsoft Exchange server and will feel no different for users.

As somebody who has setup numerous deployments of Exchange and Google Apps I can tell you that this is the one thing my customers have been waiting for. Many organizations have been using Exchange Server since its early days. All of their employees are using Outlook to manage their email, calendar, tasks, and contacts and for these organizations training all their employees to use Gmail would have simply been too difficult and too great of cost. However, this new tool allows organizations to seamlessly transition to Google Apps without the difficulty of removing Outlook.

Below is a demo of the new Outlook Sync tool.

Microsoft really needs to step up their game if they want to continue to succeed in this market. I am not saying Exchange Server is going to simply vanish, but fewer smaller organizations are going to be considering products like Small Business Server in the future and will instead be relying on cloud file storage and services like Google Apps and Salesforce.com to power their businesses.

Chrome needs a new search

Since Chrome was released, my web browsing habits have reached new heights. I’m constantly running at least 5 Chrome windows with at least 5 tabs each on my three monitor setup (as I write this on my single monitor laptop I have 75 tabs open between 7 chrome windows — the laptop has been on for at least 2 weeks).

A minutes ago I tried to find one tab with a very specific website and realized I couldn’t find it right away (this is the first time, I can usually find it within 5 seconds). A Chrome solutions would be ideal. Otherwise MS could help by adding a search feature to windows 7 to allow me to search through all open instances of a single app. Meanwhile, I guess I’ll open a new tab and take care of it the old fashion way.

New Google Features for Non-Profits

In the past year, and especially the past month, Google has made great progress developing and expanding its suite of online software and tailoring these tools for IRS registered 501c3 Non-Profits.

Google for Non-Profits: www.google.com/nonprofits/

Google Aps: This is Google’s full software suite, simplifying complex administrative tasks like creating or disabling users that previously required either an in-house computer guru or a full Microsoft deployment (for larger organizations). This suite comes complete with email (6 gb), online document storage and editing, and messaging tools. Once properly configured this is a very user friendly intranet. You can expand this functionality by expanding this intranet using Google Site. To learn more about Google Aps, click here. To learn about Google Sites, click here.

Google Doc’s Spreadsheets/Forms: Although these have been free and available for a while, a few weeks ago Google added a couple new features:

• Freezing Columns: This may seem pretty simple but while working with CyberMill I found that it was really important when using a spreadsheet as a simple database.
• Forms: Instead of only inviting users to have full administrative or view-only control, now you can create a spreadsheet and share it as a form that only accepts data.
• Notifications: A pretty important tool when collaborating with multiple people on a single spreadsheet that sends a user an email whenever anyone changes a spreadsheet.
• Charts and Reporting: I have not yet had an opportunity to play with Google’s reporting tools but they appear to range from standard graphs to Key Performance Indicator gadgets that can be added to your intranet.

To sign up for Google Docs, click here.

Google Checkout: Stop paying PayPal any money to profess donations online. Sign up for Google Checkout, verify your 501c3 status, and copy and paste their button to accept online donations free of charge. Click here to Apply.

Google Grants: This program permits Non-Profits, excluding religious or political organizations, to post free ads online using AdWords (Google’s commercial ad program). Click here to Apply.