The +1 button launches in Australia

Back in March, we announced the +1 button on search results in English on Google.com - a way for you to recommend content to your friends, contacts and the rest of the world directly from Google search results and ads. Today, 1+’s will start appearing on Google’s search results in Australia for some users, and will start showing for most logged in users by the end of the week.



Just like on Google.com, the +1 button allows you to recommend a news article, your favourite brand of sandals or an attraction you visited with a single click.

The +1 button will appear next to each search result

After pressing the +1 button, you have the option to undo the action immediately

Say, for example, you’re planning a trip to London. If you are searching for a hotel, we may show you +1’s from your globe-trotting friend. Or if you’re looking for things to do on a sunny day, we may show you +1’s from your food-loving cousin next to the result for a gourmet market.





But +1s aren’t only for search results. You will also see +1 appear on sites large and small across the Internet. From today, you can +1 local businesses on Truelocal, holiday accommodation at Stayz, vehicles at Mitsubishi, daily deals on Spreets and electronics at Kogan. In the next few days sites like Trading Post, The Australian and News.com.au will also be adding +1 to their sites. Website owners can implement the +1 button on their site within minutes.



How do we know which +1’s to show you? We use many signals to identify the most useful recommendations, including the people you are already connected to through Google (your chat buddies and contacts, for example).



To get started +1’ing the stuff you want to recommend, you’ll need to create a Google profile. You can use your profile to see all of your +1’s in one place, and delete those you no longer want to recommend. To see +1’s in your Google search results you’ll need to be logged into your Google Account.



We believe that +1, combined with all of the social content we’re now including in search globally, will mean even better, more relevant results than you get today.



Posted by Kate Conroy, Product Specialist

365 reasons to consider Google Apps

This is a cross-post from the Google Enterprise blog.

Today Microsoft is launching Office 365. Many of you have asked for our perspective, so we thought we’d share some thoughts to help you make an informed choice.



Technology inevitably gets more complicated as it gets older. Upgrading platforms and adding features results in systems that are increasingly difficult to manage and complex to use. At times like these, it's worth considering a clean-slate: an approach based on entirely modern technologies, designed for today’s world.



Here are some things to think about as you compare Google Apps and Office 365:



Designed for Teams

Office 365 is for individuals. Apps is for teams.



Most of us no longer spend our days working on our own. We work with others: creating, collaborating, sharing.



With Apps you can work with multiple people in the same document. There’s no need to worry about whether or not it’s possible to share a spreadsheet, or co-edit a presentation. You can see people type in real time, and share a file in just two clicks. Discussions bring people into your documents for rich conversations. You don’t need to buy additional licenses to work with others, or hope people outside your company have upgraded to the same software. If you have a Google account, you can collaborate.



“We’ve shaved eight weeks off of the end-to-end budgeting process using Google Docs, which translates into close to 30% time savings,” said Michael Rodger, Delta’s Director of Digital Innovation.



Productive Anywhere

Office 365 is built for Microsoft. Apps is built for choice.



Office 365 is optimised for Windows-based PCs and devices, which reduces your flexibility. Our applications are designed to work well on any device, on any operating system. Desktop, laptop, Chromebook, tablet, smartphone. Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Blackberry, iOS, Windows Mobile. Edit on the go. Share from anywhere. Start on your computer, move to your tablet, finish on your phone. When the web is the platform, it just works.



“The initial reason we looked at Google Apps was cost savings, but the on-going value of access to information from anywhere totally independent of the device is where we're seeing the real gain,” said Scot Adams, the CIO of Cadillac Fairview.



Simple & Affordable

Office 365 is 11 different plans, three editions and two tiers. Apps is $5/month with no commitment.

Google Apps for Business and five of eleven Microsoft Office 365 plans

(Click image to expand)

We have a single, transparent, low price that meets everyone’s needs, and it hasn’t changed in 4 years. There’s no extras for basics like phone support and robust productivity apps. No long term contracts or opaque enterprise agreements.



We also don’t lock you in. By design, we make it as easy as possible for you to move off of Google Apps if you want. We have a dedicated team of engineers whose sole goal is to help you get your data in and out of our products for free. We believe that the way to keep you long term is to continue to innovate and make our products better so that you choose to stay with us.



Pure & Proven Cloud

Office 365 is about the desktop. Apps is about the web.



Google Apps are accessed in a browser. There’s no client software to install, secure and maintain. Upgrades and years of patience aren’t necessary to get access to the latest innovation, just click refresh. Our customers received more than 125 new features in the last year alone.



Running a reliable and secure cloud-based service is challenging and requires you to rethink everything. This year Gmail has been available 99.99 percent of the time, which translates to less than 5 minutes of downtime per month. That includes all downtime, planned and unplanned, of any duration, for any and all users. We make zero exceptions when calculating our uptime, and we’re transparent with you in the rare cases when things go wrong.



You can't just take legacy, desktop software, move some of it to a data center and call it "cloud." Apps was born for the web and we've been serving hundreds of millions of users for years.



Ok, we didn’t get to all 365 reasons here today, but we hope we gave you some things to think about. Ultimately, we have a fundamentally different vision for the future of software. That’s good, because it provides a clear choice. Before you invest ten years in the past, we’d humbly encourage you to invest ten minutes in today by checking out why so many businesses have chosen Google Apps.



Apps isn’t for everyone. But in the last week alone 38,000 businesses decided to give it a try. Maybe you should too.

Posted by Shan Sinha, Google Apps Product Manager

5 days, 5 Tips: Pick the right content for your website

Three weeks ago we shared five tips to help you master the basics of your website. This week’s tips will help you refine what’s on your website already, or give you new ideas for helping your customers understand your products and services.

TIP #1 -- Make sure your customers can contact you. Do you include the basic information customers need to visit your store? An address and a map is a good start. Go a step further and specify whether your entrance is on the corner of two streets or around the back. Do you have the right phone number for customers to call you with questions? If you’ve included an email address, make sure it’s an account you check regularly.

TIP #2 -- Willing to travel...but how far? If you travel to your customers -- like carpet cleaners or massage specialists or pest control specialists do -- be clear about how far you’re willing to travel. Do you only service clients within the city limits? If you deliver, what’s your delivery area? Consider listing a neighborhood, postcode, or street boundaries.

TIP #3 -- Keep it fresh. What information can you include to keep your customers up-to-date about special offers, new products, or events? Consider featuring a new product or offer every week on your homepage so your customers keep coming back to your website. If you update Facebook or Twitter pages, include a link to these on your website. Sydney based Cakes by Nadia does this well.

TIP #4 -- Look your best. Photos help your customers see instantly if you have what they’re after. Show images of your business in action: a stylist cutting hair, a restaurant during dinner service. Keep in mind some basic photo editing tips. If you’re showcasing a product, make sure it’s well lit so your customers can see the details. Crop the photo to keep the focus where you want it. Consider what appears in the background. One restaurant took pictures of some fantastic looking main courses, but there was a dirty stove and a grease-splattered chef lurking in the background.

TIP #5 -- Write clear captions. If you’re including images on your homepage or in a product gallery, make sure you include relevant information in the caption, such as a description of the product with relevant dimensions or weight, how much it costs, and whether it’s available in store or for delivery.

And if you’re reading this but don’t have a website yet, visit Getting Aussie Business Online to get your own domain name and free website.

Posted by Kate Conroy, Product Specialist

Living Life in a Day and a summer in Australia at the Sydney Film Festival

This is a cross-post from the Official YouTube blog

This weekend at the Sydney Film Festival, we in the Australia office saw a single day on earth, a legendary summer to be remembered and the vision of thousands of YouTubers from all over the world on center stage. Along with the Australian premiere of “Life in a Day,” the world was introduced to “We Were Here,” a feature film made by YouTubers about summer in Australia.



From January - April 2011, YouTubers down under submitted their videos to create an archive of events and experiences from a summer not-to-be-forgotten. Everything from sunsets at the beach, bats in the night, to extraordinary events in Queensland were uploaded to form a new visualisation of the Australian summer map. These stories were pulled together by up and coming Australian director Amy Gebhardt, mentored by Dr. George Miller of “Happy Feet”, “Mad Max” and “Babe.”



To celebrate the world premiere of “We Were Here,” we’ll be featuring the film on YouTube for a short time before making its way around the film festival circuit. Have a look at this collective vision of the Australian summer, as told by director Amy Gebhardt:

Together, these two films are milestones in the evolution of radically inclusive film-making that is taking shape all over the world.



Ernesto Soriano III, Product Marketing Manager, YouTube Australia recently watched “1000 words for summer.”

NSW Office of Trade, Business and Industry joins Getting Aussie Business Online

Across the country there are many organisations dedicated to helping small businesses succeed, and one of the topics they’re most often asked about is “should I get online?” That’s why today we’re launching the Partner Program for the Getting Aussie Business Online campaign.

Today the NSW Office of Trade, Business and Industry has joined the Partner Porgram. We’ve worked with them to organise a series of workshops and website clinics at their current Microbiz Week in Sydney. Microbiz Week is dedicated to solo operators and home-based entrepreneurs; they can drop by to learn how to get online and get some personalised advice on how to make the most out of their website.

As a partner of Getting Aussie Business Online you’ll get free tools to help your members or customers be successful online. You’ll also appear as a featured partner on our portal and you will have an opportunity to promote relevant events. Whenever possible, we’ll assist with training and expert speakers.

Check out out our events at Microbiz Week and let us know if you want to become a partner.

Posted by Bora Toska, Small Business Marketing, Google Australia