Google Mobile now on Twitter and Facebook
We look forward to hearing from you.
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Google Mobile now on Twitter and Facebook
In stock nearby? Look for the blue dots.
(Cross-posted with the Google Merchant Blog)
Vic Gundotra, VP of Engineering, demonstrated last December a preview version of Product Search for mobile with local inventory, which lets you see right in your search results whether items are in stock at nearby stores. We’re happy to announce that as of today, if you’re searching for a product that is sold by participating retailers, including Best Buy, Sears, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, or West Elm, you can just look for the blue dots in the search results to see if it’s available in a local store. If you see a blue dot, you can tap on the adjacent “In stock nearby” link, and you’ll be taken to the seller’s page where you’ll see whether the item is “In Stock” or has “Limited Availability” near you. You’ll also see how far away the stores are from you — as long as you’ve enabled My Location or manually specified your location.
If you have an iPhone, Palm WebOS phone, or any Android-powered device, and you’re in the US, just go to Google.com in your mobile browser, tap on the “more” link, and then select “Shopping.” Or look for the “Shopping results” section in Universal Search results when you search on Google.com.
Finally, if you’re a retailer and you’d like to participate in this program, we want to hear from you. Please fill out this brief form to let us know that you’d like to be considered. In the meantime, you can get prepared by making sure your Local Business Center data is up to date, and ensuring that your Product Search data is in great shape.
Posted by Paul Lee and Yury Pinsky, Product Managers
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In stock nearby? Look for the blue dots.
The AdSense for Mobile Apps Team goes to Barcelona
This month is the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where the mobile industry gathers to present its latest innovations and the coolest new gadgets. As you may know, our CEO Eric Schmidt will be one of the keynote speakers this year, and we recently announced a special Android Developer Lab, as part of App Planet. In addition, I’m excited to let you know that the AdSense for Mobile Applications team will also be on the ground and answering questions. So if you’re going too, keep an eye out for us!
AdSense for Mobile Applications, which launched in beta last summer, allows you to place targeted text and image on your apps. The developer toolkit makes it easy to integrate the ads, and you can also filter out ads that you don’t want to appear. We’ll be hosting two informal sessions - February 16 at 9am and February 17 at 5:30pm - where you’ll be able to talk to us face-to-face and ask any questions you may have. Space is limited to 25 people per session, so sign up soon if you’d like to attend.
posted by: Mike Schipper, AdSense for Mobile Apps team
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The AdSense for Mobile Apps Team goes to Barcelona
Bringing more administrative controls to Google Apps for mobile
Last September we announced Google Sync with push Gmail support and 2-way sync for calendar and contacts for iPhone, Nokia E series, and Windows Mobile devices.
Tomorrow we are taking the next step towards access from any location, on any device by launching new administrative controls that give these devices mobile access to Google Apps. Without having to deploy any additional software or manage enterprise mobile services, Google Apps Premier and Education customers will be able to manage their employees’ mobile devices right from the Google Apps administration control panel.
These controls will enable new administrative policies for employees using iPhones, Windows Mobile devices, and Nokia E series phones including:
- Remotely wipe all data from lost or stolen mobile devices
- Lock idle devices after a period of inactivity
- Require device passwords on each phone
- Set minimum lengths for more secure passwords
- Require passwords to include letters, numbers and punctuation
For more information on how businesses can take advantage of this new functionality, check out our post on the Enterprise blog.
Posted by Bryan Mawhinney, Software Engineer, Google Mobile
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Bringing more administrative controls to Google Apps for mobile
Ho Ho Ho! Follow Santa’s journey around the world on your phone
Like most kids, all I wanted to do on Christmas Eve was stay up and wait for Santa to arrive. One year, I went downstairs in the middle of the night and sat down in front of the Christmas tree to wait for Santa. Unfortunately, I soon fell asleep. When I awoke on Christmas morning the presents were under the tree and the milk and cookies I left out for Santa had been eaten. I had missed him. But next to the plate of crumbs, there was a note… from Santa himself! He thanked me for trying to wait up for him. I was so excited that I got a note from Santa that I forgot all about having fallen asleep and missing him. Every year after that I made sure to go to bed extra early to make sure that Santa stopped by.
This year, no one needs to go to bed early to make sure Santa comes over. Since NORAD is tracking Santa’s journey around the world, you can find his current location on the 24th. If you see he’s getting close by, just hop into bed. And if he’s already passed by your house but you don’t yet see presents (or coal!) under the tree, rest assured he’ll be looping back once you’re asleep. Read more about how NORAD tracks Santa on our Official Google Blog.
To make following Santa’s journey even easier, you can find him on your phone too. Make sure you have Google Maps for mobile (available for most phones). Then just search! Just as you’d put in a query for “pizza” to find pizza places, or “San Antonio” to find it on a map, you can search for “Santa” to find where he is at the time. This way, you can stay up to date whether you’re lounging by the fire at a ski lodge, stuck in traffic en route to Grandma’s (get your kids to look it up for you!), or at the dinner table. To get started, go to m.noradsanta.org on your mobile phone, or just search for “Santa” in Google Maps for mobile on December 24th.
Posted by Matt Aldridge, Mobile Elf
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Ho Ho Ho! Follow Santa’s journey around the world on your phone
Tis the Season to be Merry and Mobile
Posted by Robin Norvell, Consumer Operations elf
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Tis the Season to be Merry and Mobile
New version of Google Mobile App for iPhone in the App Store
Hello, iPhone users! We have just received the good news that our new version of Google Mobile App for iPhone was approved and is now available on in the App Store everywhere.
In this version, we have a redesigned search results display that shows more results at once and, more importantly, opens web pages from the results within the app. This will get you to what you need faster, which is always our goal at Google.
For those less utilitarian and more flamboyant, we’ve exposed our visual tweaks settings called “Bells and Whistles” - some of our users had discovered this already in previous versions. You can style your Google Mobile App in any shade: red, taupe, or even heliotrope. If you’re on a faster iPhone, like the iPhone 3GS, you may want to try the live waveform setting which turns on, as the name suggests, a moving waveform when you search by voice.
On the subject of searching by voice, you can now choose your spoken language or accent. For example, if you’re Australian but live in London, you can improve the recognition accuracy by selecting Australian in the Voice Search settings. And now both Mandarin and Japanese are supported languages as well.
If you don’t have Google Mobile App yet, download it from the App Store or read more about it. If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to join in on our support forums or suggest ideas in our Mobile Products Ideas page. You can also follow us on Twitter @googlemobileapp.
Posted by Alastair Tse, Software Engineer
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New version of Google Mobile App for iPhone in the App Store
Want to reach customers? Go Mobile!
As we continue our week of all things mobile, we wanted to offer some tips and tricks to any marketers, advertisers, agencies, or businesses who want to use mobile as a platform to reach their customers. For ideas on how to work mobile into marketing campaigns, check out our post on the Agency blog.
Posted by Lauren Usui, Google Mobile Ads Marketing
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Want to reach customers? Go Mobile!
YouTube Mobile App Expands to Five New Languages
We’re happy to announce that the YouTube Mobile Application for Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 devices is now available in five new languages. We now support users with localized content in Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Swedish, and Czech. This brings the total number of languages the app supports to 12.
YouTube’s Mobile Application makes it easy to quickly load and watch high-quality YouTube videos on your mobile phone, even in weak coverage areas. To get the update or to try the app for the first time, simply visit m.youtube.com/app in your phone’s browser.
We’d love to get your feedback, so visit our forum if you have questions or want to chat about YouTube mobile.
Posted by Robin Norvell, Mobile Consumer Operations
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YouTube Mobile App Expands to Five New Languages
Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server now available
Posted by Joyce Sohn, Google Apps Marketing Manager
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Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server now available