Posted by Eran Feigenbaum, Director of Security, Google Apps for Work and
Matthew O’Connor, Product Manager, Google Cloud Platform


Google was born in the cloud, and we’ve set a high bar for what it means to host, serve, and protect our users’ data all over the world. That’s why we’re proud to add two new certifications to Google Apps for Work and Google Cloud Platform: ISO 27017 for cloud security and ISO 27018 for privacy. We announced ISO 27018 adoption last year, and have now added ISO 27018 certification to our compliance commitments. Additionally, we renewed our ISO 27001 certification for the fourth year in a row and increased the product coverage from 34 to 60 different products.

ISO 27017 builds on the well-known standard of ISO 27001 by providing additional controls that address some of the security risks that are more specific to cloud services, ensuring that:

• The security roles and responsibilities between Google and our customers are clearly-defined
• Our customers’ data is protected from any unauthorized party and between different cloud customers
• The security policies for Google’s virtual networks are as secure as on our physical networks
• Our customers have adequate tools to monitor how their data is handled at Google

Meanwhile, ISO 27018 establishes controls that examine our privacy practices and contractual commitments around the use of customer data and provide transparency on the processing of that data. It confirms that:

• Google does not use customer data for advertising
• The data that our customers entrust with us remains the customer's
• Google provides our customers with tools to delete and export customer data
• Google scrutinizes third party requests to customer data and ensures customers are informed of such third-party requests
• Google is transparent about where our customer’s data is stored

Certifications such as these provide independent third-party validations of our ongoing commitment to world-class security and privacy, while also helping our customers with their own compliance efforts. We’re committed to ensuring that our products continue to meet trusted and rigorous global standards like ISO 27018 and 27017.

Posted by Saswat Panigrahi & Raghu Yarlagadda, Product Managers, Chrome for Work



Editor's note: We’re currently hosting a multi-city Chrome roadshow in locations near you to explain how Chrome benefits your business and to show the latest Chrome for Work devices.


Businesses of every size around the world are taking a lesson from the education market and adopting Chromebooks thanks to the speed, simplicity, shareability and security the platform offers. A March 2015 ESG-Group survey also indicates that 70 percent of IT professionals expect Chromebooks to supplement or replace their existing device footprint in order to cut costs and safely improve employee productivity.

We’ve listened to business customers who have had a need for lightweight devices that don’t compromise on battery life, performance or build quality, and that provide the enhanced security businesses demand. And today with HP, we’re happy to introduce the HP Chromebook 13, the latest professional laptop that’s ultraportable — one of the thinnest and lightest in its class — and offers a new Chromebook docking station to boost productivity and help Chrome work for you.
Designed and built for business At just 0.5 inches thin and starting at 2.86 pounds, the anodized brushed aluminum HP Chromebook 13 is a capable travel partner to and from meetings. It’s also ideal for online meetings, thanks to Audio by B&O Play and a 720p webcam for clear sound and video. Both meetings and work will look great on the 13.3-inch display, available with either full HD or a pixel-packed 3200 x 1800 (QHD+) resolution.

Inside is plenty of power for business grade multi-tasking, with configuration options ranging up to an Intel 6th generation Core m7 processor and 16GB of internal memory. Working through the day won’t be an issue either thanks to a battery that lasts for up to 11.5 hours* between charges. The optional HP Elite USB-C Docking station and port replicator accessories turn the HP Chromebook 13 into a full desktop solution with additional USB 3.0 ports and dual display support.

Easy, seamless integration thanks to new and improved Chrome OS features For our customers who are using a Microsoft infrastructure, we’re excited to announce the improved Citrix Receiver 2.0 for Chrome, a virtualization solution that lets you remotely use apps from other platforms in their own window, even from the Chrome OS launcher. You simply use legacy and Chrome apps the same way, whether they’re local or remote, in browser tabs or individual windows. We also now offer direct integration with the Microsoft PKI based off of Active Directory Certificate Services (ADCS).

You can get more done at your desk with a Chromebook too: support for 3+ monitor and UDL 3.0 DisplayLink support is baked into Chrome 51, currently in the Beta channel. For organizations using smartcards for authentication, such as banks and government institutions, we’ve launched a Certificate Provider API that technology partners are integrating with. And we added the ability to centrally restrict network access for organizations operating in sensitive environments.

Equip your business with Chrome
HP Chromebook 13 starts at $499 in the US, with pre-orders starting today at our reseller partners, and availability from HP and directly through the Chrome for Work site starting in May.

*Battery life may vary depending on specification, usage and other conditions.

Posted by Stella Schieffer, Product Manager

(Cross-posted on the Gmail Blog.)

Smartphones have made productivity portable. You no longer have to be at your desk to catch up on meeting notes, dial into a conference call, or send an email. But scheduling meetings on the go is still difficult, as you have to open your laptop to check everyone’s calendar and find a time that works.

Starting today, if you use Google Apps for Work or Edu, you can schedule meetings from anywhere with "Find a time" in Google Calendar for Android.

With a single tap, “Find a time” helps you find meeting times that work for everyone—even if they're in different time zones—based on their availability and the times they usually have meetings. If there are no times that work, Calendar will look at which conflicting meetings can most easily be rescheduled. Designed specifically for organizations where sharing your calendar with colleagues is the norm, here's how it works:
“Find a time” makes suggestions, but you're still in control. 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.

Download Google Calendar for Android to get easy, on-the-go scheduling. And yes, we're also working on bringing “Find a time” to iPhone, as well as easier ways to schedule on the web.

Posted by Matt McNamara, Director of Engineering at Expensify

Editor's note: Today’s post comes from Matt McNamara, director of engineering at Expensify, a company that provides “hassle-free expense reporting built for employees and loved by admins.” Read how their team uses Google Apps to work abroad for at least one month every year.


At Expensify, we’re all about making mundane tasks (like expense reporting), a pleasant, less time-consuming experience. Google’s no-sweat, work-in-real-time tools have helped us achieve these goals since starting our company in 2008. We considered alternatives like Microsoft and Zoho, but we found that no other solution could compete with the simple, intuitive interface and ease of use of Google Apps.

Google Apps is a natural extension of our company culture, which I like to think of as “Family Style.” Whether or not we’re in the office, we encourage people to work flexibly and with people on different teams. Building this type of open, supportive culture depends on ensuring everyone has an equal voice — and tools like Gmail play a huge role in making this happen. We encourage transparency and participation by adding every employee to all internal email lists from day one. It might sound like a lot, but anyone can opt out and choose only to follow what’s relevant to them.

Our annual month abroad also contributes to our overarching family culture. For one month every year, the entire team has the opportunity to work (and bring their families) abroad. We run as the same business, but from somewhere awesome — last year we spent a month in Thailand. Thanks to the flexibility of Google Apps, our only requirements for this trip are a beach, power and Internet access.

We rely on our employees to give us feedback about the tools we use, and Google Apps is probably the only product no one has ever asked to replace. We’ve tested bringing on some other enterprise and productivity platforms, but we always come back to Google Apps. Their integrations, like single sign-on with Intercom, make our lives easier. We can quickly onboard new employees, and don’t have to worry about former employees accessing sensitive content.

Because it’s so easy to use, we hire zero IT support, and I don’t foresee that changing anytime soon. Even non-technical employees can set up accounts without any problems. It just works — whether we’re at our headquarters or on the beach.

Posted by Neil Delaney, Director, Global Inside Sales / Mid-Market, Google Apps for Work


Back in October, we made it easy for companies locked into an Enterprise Agreement (EA) to switch to Google Apps by providing our productivity suite for free until their existing contracts expired. We even helped prospects with the deployment costs of going Google through the help of our Google for Work Partners. And if interested companies weren’t under contract, we offered to help pay for their migrations from other solutions to Google Apps.

Since then, nearly 200,000 additional users have gone Google. We’ve also received tremendous interest to make the program available to smaller companies. So today, we’re excited to announce we’re extending the global program until the end of 2016. 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. 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. 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.

One example of those data protections are Security Keys. To help get customers started with security keys, our security partner Yubico will provide a limited number of free Security Keys for mid-market customers. These keys help protect users from phishing, account hijacking and other attacks with 1-touch encrypted, 2-step verification. They’re state-of-the art in account protection. They’re also a great example of the security benefits of Google Apps. Additional Security Keys can be purchased at a 50% discount.

Finally, with this announcement, a number of our Recommended for Google Apps for Work partners are announcing additional cost-savings for Google Apps mid-sized companies. Customers can now get similar savings when they build structured document lifecycles and workflows with AODocs and Powertools, move business phone systems to the cloud with Dialpad, use a tightly integrated CRM from Prosperworks or manage projects online with Smartsheet.

Our EA program gives new customers the opportunity to influence the move to Apps — and gives decision makers the final incentive to make the switch.

“Even before we made the official switch to Google, many of our employees used Apps without involving IT. Our entire international team migrated on their own before the roll out, because our previous solution didn’t mesh with their workflow,” says Sam Davidson, systems engineer at The Motley Fool. “Our previous solution was sluggish, with pretty consistent outages. We wanted to move to Google Apps, but we were locked into a three-year contract with our previous provider. The [EA] program allowed us to make the switch much sooner.”

Mid-size companies don’t always have the same resources as larger enterprises, and constraints (like contract lock-in) shouldn’t hinder collaboration or efficiency at work.

Additionally, companies with basic EAs and no dependencies have the potential to cut costs by up to 70 percent through switching to Google Apps for Work.

“Peterborough City Council took advantage of the EA program when the previous provider wouldn’t let us move from on-premise to the cloud without breaking a contract. Our council felt comfortable making the switch after evaluating companies and other councils that had already gone Google,” says Richard Godfrey, Project Director at Arcus Global and formerly Assistant Director, Digital at Peterborough City Council, England. “We’ve come to expect the pace of innovation that Google offers, as well as the flexibility it enables for our team. Google Apps will give us the freedom to work anywhere; all our employees need is a Chromebook, mobile phone and an internet connection.”

Learn more or call 844-420-0601 to get started now!

Posted by Alessandra Mosenifar, Senior Product Designer for charity: water

Editor's note: This is the fourth post in our “Mapping a Better World” series, highlighting organizations using location data to affect positive local and global change. Today’s guest blogger is Alessandra Mosenifar, Senior Product Designer for charity: water. Read how the organization uses Google Maps to share the results of their work providing clean water for millions of people.


Charity: water’s mission is to bring clean drinking water to everyone on the planet. We work towards this mission by funding global partners who understand what’s needed for their specific communities. Our partners around the world have years of experience working with their state and local governments to build sustainable, community-owned water projects. We ensure this information is transparent and accessible so that donors, stakeholders and interested users can see what has been funded and the realized impact.

With Google Maps APIs, we were able to create a new way for donors to view exactly where their dollars go. We also built an easily digestible map packed with details and visuals for the thousands of water projects we've completed. Each project is represented by an icon on the map. When a user clicks the icon the project details appear — including the project completion date, the number of people benefiting from clean water, the implementation partner and the project's precise GPS coordinates.


We use Javascript API to display projects on our completed projects page and on project detail pages. We also use the Geocoding API for reverse geocoding of GPS coordinates to determine the district and village names for each project.

We also recently partnered with Google on a program that allows us to continuously monitor water projects and provide reporting accessible via our website. Using sensors to measure water flow per hour (transmitted weekly), we know if a water point is broken, as well as learn patterns of usage on a daily or yearly basis. Anyone can take a look at project status and details, including the average number of liters of water provided each day.

To date, we’ve funded nearly 20,000 water projects in 24 countries, providing clean water to more than 6 million people. Thanks to Google Maps APIs, donors can see exactly where and how their money is spent. Beyond providing clean water for millions of people, we’re helping transform how charities work by providing the highest degree of transparency about donation impact.

If you're a nonprofit and interested in staying up to date on grants offerings for Google products like Google Maps APIs, apply to join Google for Nonprofits today.

Posted by Saswat Panigrahi, Product Manager, Chrome for Work

Small businesses may not have large IT budgets like enterprises do, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have powerful, productive devices. Acer’s new Chromebook 14 is ideal for small businesses and other commercial customers, combining Chrome OS for secure productivity with the latest Intel processors, rugged features and long battery life.

Chromebooks designed for work offer a familiar interface to employees, fast boot-up times and the peace of mind that comes with safe, secure laptops. And Chromebooks keep costs low, which is essential for small and medium-sized companies, so they can invest in other parts of their core business. A recent IDC study estimates the centralized management of Chrome OS devices contributes to a 61 percent lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and 93 percent faster deployment in classrooms, something that business owners can also appreciate.
Small business use without sacrificing performance The Acer Chromebook 14 is among the first to use Intel’s 6th-generation Celeron and Core processors and can be configured with up to 8GB of memory to handle numerous browser tabs and applications simultaneously. Connecting to the cloud is quick thanks to dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, which is 2 to 3 times faster than older wireless technology.

In addition to a pair of standard USB 3.0 ports, SD card slot and HDMI output, the Chromebook 14 also features a USB 3.0 Type-C connection, which creates a full desktop solution thanks to the optional docking port with a single cable for additional displays, speakers and up to five more USB devices. Employees will appreciate the battery life of up to 12 hours* on the 14-inch display, available in either 1366 x 768 or 1920 x 1080 resolution with wide viewing angles.

Weighing 3.2 pounds, the Acer Chromebook 14 is a device that can easily be carried to meetings or while traveling. The laptop with spill-resistant keyboard also meets the rugged MIL-STD 810G military standard to protect against drops, dust, temperature and humidity. The Chromebook 14 cover is made from damage resistant Vibrant Corning Gorilla Glass that can display a customized image such as a detailed photo or a company logo.

All the benefits of Chrome OS
Like other Chrome for Work devices, the new Acer Chromebook 14 affords the speed, simplicity and security of Chrome OS, which is automatically updated every six weeks. Neither business owners nor their employees have to take time out of the workday for lengthy software updates. IDC estimates that simple Chrome OS updates and fast deployments can save $602 per Chromebook in support costs over three years.

Chromebooks support growing business because they’re easy to share among workers — each user on the device gets their own encrypted space — so new employees can be up and running within minutes. Switching from one Chromebook to another doesn’t interrupt workflows because apps and data are synchronized between devices. And your new workforce can immediately start collaborating with others in real-time with Google Apps for Work through the familiar Chrome browser. Legacy applications and Windows desktops are also easily accessible on Chromebooks through Amazon WorkSpaces and the Dell Wyse vWorkspace Connector designed for Chrome.

While employees are getting work done on a Chromebook, business owners can rest assured that their data is secure. Chrome OS verifies upon bootup that it hasn’t been compromised and all apps run in protected sandboxes to reduce malware risks.

Enable your small business soon at a reasonable price
The new Acer Chromebook 14 will be available in the coming weeks at Acer authorized resellers, starting at $349.99 USD in the US and €249 in EMEA regions.

If you have questions or would like to learn more, please contact us on our website. To learn more about how Chrome and Android devices can work for your small business, check out our recent webinar.

*Battery life may vary depending on usage, configuration and other conditions.

Posted by Mario Anima, Product Manager


(Cross-posted on the Google Docs Blog.)

How many times have you found yourself with a great idea, but no easy way to jot it down for later? Or maybe you’ve got lots of notes scattered around, without no central spot to find them. Having a single place to capture what’s on your mind and save your ideas and to-do lists is what Google Keep is all about, and today's updates give you a few new ways to collect and manage the information that's important to you.

Keep is ready when you are

The next time you’re on a website that you want to remember or reference later on, use the new Keep Chrome extension to add it—or any part of it—to a note in Keep. Just click the Keep badge to add a site’s link to a note, or select some text or an image and create a new note from the right-click menu.

Same goes for Android—you can now create a note while you’re browsing or tapping away in other apps—without having to open Keep. Just open the “Share via” window and choose Keep to create a new note.


Organize your thoughts with #Labels
One of your top asks has been for a way to organize and categorize notes, and now it’s as easy as using a #hashtag. This should help you keep track of to-do lists for a #trip or a collect your favorite #recipes, for example.


You’ll also notice that some of the menus have been moved around to group similar options together, as pictured below.
So whether you’re researching a project at work, putting together details for your Science Fair submission, or collecting inspiration for your upcoming home renovation, give these updates a try on the web, or with the Keep app on Android and for iPhone & iPad.

Posted by Adrian Ludwig, Lead Engineer, Android Security

(Cross-posted on the Google Security Blog.)

Editor's note: For more details on our Android security efforts and results and what this level of security offers for the workplace, please sign-up to join our Hangout on Air with Adrian today at 10am PST. The session will be recorded and available to view on-demand afterwards as well.

Today, for the second year in a row, we’re releasing our Android Security Annual report. This detailed summary includes: a look at how Google services protect the Android ecosystem, an overview of new security protections introduced in 2015, and our work with Android partners and the security research community at large. The full report is here, and an overview is below.

One important goal of releasing this report is to drive an informed conversation about Android security. We hope to accomplish this by providing more information about what we are doing, and what we see happening in the ecosystem. We strongly believe that rigorous, data-driven discussion about security will help guide our efforts to make the Android ecosystem safer.

Enhancing Google's services to protect Android users In the last year, we’ve significantly improved our machine learning and event correlation to detect potentially harmful behavior.

• We protected users from malware and other Potentially Harmful Apps (PHAs), checking over 6 billion installed applications per day.
• We protected users from network-based and on-device threats by scanning 400 million devices per day.
• And we protected hundreds of millions of Chrome users on Android from unsafe websites with Safe Browsing.

We continued to make it even more difficult to get PHAs into Google Play. Last year’s enhancements reduced the probability of installing a PHA from Google Play by over 40% compared to 2014. Within Google Play, install attempts of most categories of PHAs declined including:

• Data Collection: decreased over 40% to 0.08% of installs
• Spyware: decreased 60% to 0.02% of installs
• Hostile Downloader: decreased 50% to 0.01% of installs

Overall, PHAs were installed on fewer than 0.15% of devices that only get apps from Google Play. About 0.5% of devices that install apps from both Play and other sources had a PHA installed during 2015, similar to the data in last year’s report.

It’s critical that we also protect users that install apps from sources other than Google Play. Our Verify Apps service protects these users and we improved the effectiveness of the PHA warnings provided by Verify Apps by over 50%. In 2015, we saw an increase in the number of PHA install attempts outside of Google Play, and we disrupted several coordinated efforts to install PHAs onto user devices from outside of Google Play.

New security features in the Android platform Last year, we launched Android 6.0 Marshmallow, introducing a variety of new security protections and controls:

• Full disk encryption is now a requirement for all new Marshmallow devices with adequate hardware capabilities and is also extended to allow encryption of data on SD cards.
• Updated app permissions enable you to manage the data they share with specific apps with more granularity and precision.
• New verified boot ensures your phone is healthy from the bootloader all the way up to the operating system.
• Android security patch level enables you to check and make sure your device has the most recent security updates.
• And much more, including support for fingerprint scanners, and SELinux enhancements.
• Deeper engagement with the Android ecosystem

We’re working to foster Android security research and making investments to strengthen protections across the ecosystem now and in the long run.

In June, Android joined Google’s Vulnerability Rewards Program, which pays security researchers when they find and report bugs to us. We fixed over 100 vulnerabilities reported this way and paid researchers more than $200,000 for their findings.

In August, we launched our monthly public security update program to the Android Open Source Project, as well as a security update lifecycle for Nexus devices. We intend the update lifecycle for Nexus devices to be a model for all Android manufacturers going forward and have been actively working with ecosystem partners to facilitate similar programs. Since then, manufacturers have provided monthly security updates for hundreds of unique Android device models and hundreds of millions of users have installed monthly security updates to their devices. Despite this progress, many Android devices are still not receiving monthly updates—we are increasing our efforts to help partners update more devices in a timely manner.

Greater transparency, well-informed discussions about security, and ongoing innovation will help keep users safe. We'll continue our ongoing efforts to improve Android’s protections, and we look forward to engaging with the ecosystem and security community in 2016 and beyond.

Posted Martin Port, BigChange Apps CEO

Editor's note: Today we hear from Martin Port, BigChange Apps CEO. Read how BigChange Apps helps its customers improve mobile workforce productivity, efficiency and their bottom line with Google Maps APIs.

Many companies that require fleet and workforce tracking waste too much time, money and fuel managing their mobile workforces because they’re using old technology, manual reporting or paper-based systems. At BigChange Apps, we set out to change that by building a mobile workforce management platform called JobWatch that combines a back-office application, vehicle-tracking and mobile apps for drivers. The platform connects a company’s back-office processes to their mobile workforce while also allowing their end-customer to place new bookings, check the ETA and status of existing jobs and even view historical information and documents such as invoices. Companies can manage jobs and create reports in real time directly from JobWatch, improving workforce productivity and eliminating manual processes like providing paper project quotes.

Maps are at the heart of what we do — they power the mobile apps for drivers and our back-office web app for dispatchers and other staff. When we started, we used a different mapping solution. But it wasn’t keeping up by adding new features. Pricing was too complex, and we couldn’t get the help we needed. So we switched to Google, which gave us great tools in Google Maps APIs and advice on how to use them to improve JobWatch. And since Google Maps sets the standard for the way people interface with maps, we spent less time training our customers how to use JobWatch.

The back-office web app uses the Google Maps Javascript API for its Maps tab, which lets our customers track vehicles in real-time. Dispatchers can see where all their resources are. So if there’s a problem out in the field, they can immediately send help by dispatching someone nearby.

On the drivers’ side, the iOS mobile app for drivers is powered by the Google Maps SDK for iOS, and the Android app uses the Google Maps Android API.
We’re big fans of the Google Maps Distance Matrix API, the Google Maps Directions API and the predictive travel time feature because they help our dispatchers more efficiently schedule drivers. When customers call asking when a driver will be arriving, dispatchers can give them an exact time.

What’s also great about Google Maps APIs is they integrate so well with other systems, like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. We’ve built a widget that imports contacts, then passes them through the Google Maps Geocoding API, which translates addresses into geographic coordinates so they can be more accurately mapped.

JobWatch means big savings for our customers — in two recent customer case studies, our customers have reported a 10 percent reduction in fuel use, 10 hours less of travel time per mobile worker per month, an extra four jobs finished per driver per month and eight hours of office administration time saved per mobile employee. Happy customers translate into growth for us — our revenue grew from £337,000 in 2013 to £2 million in 2015. By 2020, we forecast having £4 million in recurring annual revenue. For that, we have Google Maps to thank, by providing the tools to help us build a single platform uniting drivers and the back office.

Posted by Tonino Ciuffini, Head of Information Assets, Warwickshire County Council, Warwick, UK

Editor's note: Today we hear from Tonino Ciuffini, Head of Information Assets at Warwickshire County Council, the local authority for Warwickshire, UK. The council handles social care, highways, public health, the fire service, economic development, education and more for the region’s 540,000 citizens. Read how £260,000 a year is just the start of their savings with Google Apps for Work.


The best thing about the work we do is the sheer range of ways we help people. While one group works to bring broadband to small businesses, another will tackle a fire or care for children in need. So when the government cut our council budget by 20%, we knew we faced tough decisions. For IT in particular, a £2,000,000 cut to our budget meant we had to look at all options for new ways of operating, and helped drive the decision to replace our 20-year-old email system. But it wasn’t just about saving money in the short-term. We wanted to share our facilities more effectively, improve the flexibility of our IT for staff and make it easier to work with external partners. Google was a perfect fit.

Tonino Ciuffini, Head of Information, Assets, Warwickshire County Council

Deploying 5,500 Google Apps accounts was much easier than I had imagined. With the help of Cloud Technology Solutions, who provided migration tools, advice and support, we migrated 3,000 users in just 8 weeks. Now Google Apps saves us £260,000 a year that we would have spent on our old system: £100,000 on licenses, £100,000 on infrastructure and £60,000 on support staff. But the really significant savings go deeper than that, and come from efficiencies made right across the organisation.

Saving time by working together on Drive. Instead of multiple versions of a document flying around on email, or saving documents to unrestricted servers, staff can work together on a single document on Drive, comment, make changes, choose their own access settings and even share documents with external agencies. This has also led to increased collaboration between staff and teams.

The mobility of web-based apps frees office space. We now have the flexibility to not only work from home or elsewhere, but to also work more closely with customers and partners. When working on-site with the police or health workers, council staff can essentially take the office with them.

Saving on transport costs with Hangouts. Face-to-face meetings with the citizens we serve are still important, but cutting out the financial and time costs of travelling to internal meetings generates further savings.

Cutting bureaucracy with Docs and Sheets. Taking notes during meetings on Docs eliminates the need to type notes afterwards. Everyone can leave comments, which improves accuracy and transparency, and voting with Forms gives us immediate, presentable results in Sheets.

Google logins make working simple. We no longer waste time dealing with forgotten passwords or typing separate logins into different applications. And being able to use multiple logins on a single device saves money on hardware, too: teams going to trade shows can share a single Nexus 9 tablet and log in simultaneously instead of using one device each.

Automatic upgrades saves on IT maintenance and keep us ahead of developments. In the four years that we’ve used Google Apps, every upgrade has felt like a natural evolution, and we’ve never had to implement new training to accommodate changes.

Google Apps has improved our effectiveness, too. Our team of four roadworks inspectors use Apps on tablets to be on the road for 80% instead of 50% of their day, significantly improving compliance with timetables for roadworks. And our family social workers use Calendar to advance safety by ensuring teams know where they are.

We also use notes on Drive to improve security and save paper with digital notes. At the top of our organisation, most of our elected county councillors have other jobs and don't work in our offices. Now they use Google Apps on a device of their choice, instead of clunky remote access systems, and check in more often to keep track of progress.

Budget cuts made life complicated for everyone at the council, but satisfaction with our IT system has actually increased during this difficult period. In the year we introduced Google Apps, our staff satisfaction scores increased in all 55 categories of an independent benchmarking run by a UK society of public service IT organisations called SOCITM. And last year, we ranked number one out of 60 UK councils in the SOCITM benchmarking survey for flexible working practices. That flexibility generates real savings without compromising on quality, and it was all made possible by Google Apps for Work.

Posted by Cassie Ely, Manager in the Office of Chief Scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund

Editor's note: This is the third post in our “Mapping a Better World” series, highlighting organizations using location data to affect positive local and global change. Today’s guest blogger is Cassie Ely, Manager in the Office of Chief Scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund. Read how the organization uses Google Maps APIs to help combat climate change by locating methane leaks underneath city streets.


The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) works to solve the world’s biggest environmental problems through innovative public policies, robust science and cross-cutting partnerships with leading voices in the business community. Our partnership with Google reflects all three approaches.

Most people don’t realize that a major contributor to global warming is methane, the primary component of natural gas. It’s an extremely powerful greenhouse gas: 84 times as impactful as carbon dioxide over a 20-year timeframe. We still need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but cutting the amount of methane emitted into the atmosphere has the power to reduce the rate of global warming when time is of the essence.

About 25 percent of the warming we face right now is due to methane. It can be released from biological sources like landfills and cow pastures, but can also come from leaky pipes underneath city streets, delivering the natural gas that heats our homes and provides cooking fuel. We thought that if we could reduce those gas leaks, we could help slow climate change.

To address this issue, we joined forces with Google Earth Outreach to put methane analyzers on Google Street View cars. While the cars drive to capture 360-degree Street View imagery, the analyzers measure the concentration of the methane gas in the air.

The team is also working with a scientist and professor at Colorado State University, Joe von Fischer, to analyze the spikes in methane levels and detect leaks in the underground pipes. We do multiple drive-passes and combine the readings with methane plume lengths and environmental factors to identify the severity of the leaks. We’ve conducted this research in 10 cities, where we’ve mapped over 4,000 methane leaks.

Anyone can visit edf.org/methanemaps to view leak maps of several U.S. cities, such as Boston, MA.

We chose to use Google Maps APIs because they have the design features and flexibility we needed to visualize the data in a way that can be easily understood. Google Maps APIs allow us to map the invisible. We use the Javascript API to build the base layer for our maps and then on top of that, layer the roads where Street View cars drive and the locations where our analyzers detected methane leaks.

With layered mapping, we've shown that there's an average of one leak per mile (in Boston) to one leak every 200 miles (in Indianapolis), demonstrating the effectiveness of techniques like using plastic piping instead of steel for pipeline construction. We hope utilities can use this data to prioritize the replacement of gas mains and service lines (like New Jersey’s PSE&G announced last fall).

Global warming is a huge global threat to all of our ecosystems, our livelihood and our health. It affects everything we do. By making information about methane leaks transparent, we’re providing a unique way for utilities, regulators and the public to work together and invest in infrastructure improvement and repairs — helping us reach our ultimate goal of combatting climate change.

If you are a nonprofit and interested in staying up to date on grants offerings for Google products like Google Maps APIs, apply to join Google for Nonprofits today.

Posted by Brittney Fraser, Google Classroom Software Engineer


(Cross-posted on the Google for Education Blog.)

Google Classroom helps teachers and students communicate and learn together. Today we’re making the learning process even easier with a new polling feature that helps teachers quickly check for understanding, gather feedback or gauge interest. Here are four creative ways teachers are using polling in their classrooms.

1. Post exit tickets 

Cindy Nordstrom, a teacher at Oak Ridge Elementary School in Minnesota, uses polling to make sure students understand the main points of a lesson. She explains, “We were studying poetry and talking about novels in verse. Since this was the first time that most students had encountered the format, I wanted to see if they knew what novels in verse were. I created this poll as an exit slip for the class. I could click on students’ answers and see their names associated with their response. This helped me get an at-a-glance view of who understood the concept and who didn't.”

2. Help students self-monitor 

Mike Fricano, a high school teacher at the Iolani School in Hawaii, teaches a makerspace course called Make It 101. He polled his class to see if his students were on track for meeting a project deadline. Fricano says, “When I sent out this poll, I could see who was on schedule and who was at risk of missing their deadline. For those who reported being "way off track,"I met with them to help them get back on schedule. I will continue to use multiple choice polls like this to check in on deadlines and gauge interest in future projects.”

3. Guide student discussions

Heidi Bernasconi, a teacher at Clarkstown North High School in New York, used polling to help guide a career discussion with her students. “I wanted to discuss skills and qualities employers are looking for from graduates,” Bernasconi says. “I kicked off the discussion with a poll, which led us to review a Forbes article. I allowed students to see each others’ posts so they could get a feel for what others felt was important. ”

4. Get feedback on your lesson from students 

Allyson Greene of Barrett Elementary School in Virginia uses polls to understand what her students liked best about a lesson. She says, “We were doing a unit on electricity and forces and I wanted to see which part of the unit was the most fun for them. Setting up a poll was very easy.”





We also recently updated our Android and iOS mobile apps. Teachers can now draft any type of post or reuse existing posts from any of their classes. Android users also now have a notifications center, where they can see what’s new in their classes. Plus, Android teachers can post to multiple classes.

Get in touch on Google+ or Twitter and let us know how you’re using polling in your class.

Posted by Jake Wayne, Co-founder of Companion

Editor's note: This is the second post in our “Mapping a Better World” series, highlighting organizations using location data to affect positive local and global change. Today’s guest post comes from Jake Wayne, co-founder of Companion, a safety app created so no one has to walk home alone. The company was founded by five University of Michigan students.


Making sure friends and family get home safe, especially late at night, is a common concern, but a text message confirmation can be unreliable since people often forget to send the message or check that the other person arrived safely. Some colleges have taken safety precautions by introducing escort systems in which police officers walk students home, but outside of these institutions there wasn't an automated system in place to help people feel safe and connected if they're walking or driving home alone.

When we learned that fellow University of Michigan students felt unsafe walking or driving home late at night, we decided to create a way for people to let family, friends or the public safety department know they’re headed home and give them a tool to quickly contact others if they feel unsafe. Younger generations have grown up with mobile phones, so it’s natural for them to reach for their phones in times of need. That’s why we created Companion, because human safety is an issue beyond college campuses.



When we set out to create the app, we knew we wanted to build something that ultimately improves the way we live. In just three months, we created an app that now more than one million people in 184 countries have interacted with — both as users and companions. We’re excited to continue making an impact.

When it comes to safety, everything needs to work seamlessly. We decided to use Google Maps for our app, because consumers and developers alike trust Google Maps technology. Google Maps is easy to use and available internationally. When users open the Companion app and see Google Maps, it gives them peace of mind due to its familiar user interface.



When a user requests a friend to accompany them as a “companion” on the walk home, the app tracks the person walking home on a map in the app. Companions don’t even need to have the app downloaded to make sure the user get home safely. The user can reach out to their companion to let them know they feels nervous with one tap on their phone, prompting the companion to check in. With two taps, the user can dial 911.

If the app detects a sudden change, like the user running or removing headphones, the app sends a notification to the user asking if they’re OK. If there’s no response within 15 seconds, the app notifies the companion, who can instantly contact the police from the app. The app will also make siren noises and go into alert mode, until the user is confirmed safe.



The Google Maps Places API makes it incredibly easy for users to input their destinations quickly and accurately. Using the Directions API, we’re able to better estimate how long it will take a user to get from Point A to Point B, and communicate this to their companions every step of the way.


The Companion app also collects anonymous information about locations where users feel nervous. This allows us to analyze the data and share it with the safety officials and universities to help make streets safer. For example, we’re working with the University of Michigan police department to help determine areas that should be patrolled.

When you’re dealing with safety, user trust and confidence is important. Google Maps APIs helps our users feel that Companion can facilitate a safe journey home.

Posted by Erick Johnson, Software Engineer

(Cross-posted on the Official Gmail Blog.)

Starting this week, we’re bringing Reminders in Google Calendar to the web so you can keep track of your to-dos alongside your events.

Just like on Android and iPhone, you’ll get the following:

• Reminders stick around - If a reminder isn't completed, it will appear at the top of your calendar until you mark it done.
• Reminders work across Google - Reminders you create in Inbox, Keep and the Google app will also show in Google Calendar. 
• Reminders sync with mobile - Reminders created in mobile show up on the web and vice versa. So you can stay on track from just about anywhere. 
  
  
  

With Reminders alongside your events on the web, Android and iPhone, you now have a single way to manage your day.

Posted by Miles Ward, Global Head of Solutions, Google Cloud Platform

(Cross-posted on the Google Cloud Platform Blog.)

At Google Cloud Platform, we’re thrilled by the developer community’s enthusiastic response to the beta release of Cloud Vision API and our broader Cloud Machine Learning product family unveiled last week at GCP NEXT.

Cloud Vision API is a tool that enables developers to understand the contents of an image, from identifying prominent natural or man-made landmarks to detecting faces and emotion. Right now, Vision API can even recognize clothing in an image and label dominant colors, patterns and garment types.

Today, we’re taking another step forward. Why only evaluate individual components of an outfit when we could evaluate the full synthesis — the real impact of what you wear in today’s culture?

We’re proud to announce Style Detection, the newest Cloud Vision AP feature. Using millions of hours of deep learning, convolutional neural networks and petabytes of source data, Vision API can now not just identify clothing, but evaluate the nuances of style to a relative degree of uncertainty.

Style Detection aims to help people improve their style — and lives — by navigating the complex and fickle landscape of fashion. Does a brown belt go with black shoes? Pleats or no pleats? “To tuck or not to tuck?” is now no longer a question. With Style Detection, we’re able to mine our nearly bottomless combined data sets of selfies, fashion periodicals and the unstructured ramblings of design bloggers into a coherent and actionable tool for picking tomorrow’s trousers.

We’re already seeing incredible results. Across our training corpus, we were able to detect the majority of personal style choices and glean with 52-97% accuracy not just what people were wearing, but what those clothes might say about them. The possibilities are endless — and it could mean the end of spandex forever!

Learn more about Style Detection and the Cloud Vision API here. We’re offering it to a small group of developers in alpha today (obviously, there are still details to iron out).