Setting up Push Mail for iPhone and Windows Mobile Devices

Push mail is now supported on iPhone and Windows Mobile devices using Google Sync.

Learn how to access the new features here.

Blackberry Add-On Adds Value for Gmail Users

Blackberry offers an enhanced Gmail plug-in that gives you the following capabilities:

• Archive a message
• Add a star to a message
• Add a label to a message
• Report spam email message
• Perform local and remote searches
• View related messages conversation view

These features work within the plug-in but do not effect email in Messages application. The plug-in works if you are connecting to your mail account over Blackberry Internet Services.

To learn more, click here.

Manage Email Retention With or Without an Archive

With 25GB of inbox space for each user, managing space is rarely an issue. Company policies related to records retention, however, often create a need to enforce retention policies on email messages.

In Google Apps Premier Edition, you can not set a retention period for email. Once set, Gmail will automatically permanently delete all email messages older than the retention period.

If you want or need to limit user retention of emails, but need to retain corporate access to messages for legal or compliance reasons, we can add Google Message Discovery to your Google Apps service.

Google Message Discovery is an email archive/recovery/e-discovery service that offers secure, audited archives of all messages sent or delivered for up to 10 years. Message Discovery also works with most any in-house email system.

Click Here to learn more about Google Message Discovery or to view a product data sheet (PDF format).

Sending Email from Multiple Addresses

It is no longer uncommon for some users to manage multiple email accounts. Whether covering email addresses for support or customer service, or providing administrative assistance to an executive the "on behalf of" label can be distracting to the email recipient.

Google Apps Premier Edition (and Education Edition) now allow users to send emails from multiple addresses without the "on behalf of" label in the sender address.

Click here to learn more ...

New Label Features in Gmail Add Flexibility

Last week, the Gmail Team announced three new features related to labels within Gmail. As you may know, Labels are a way to organize and search messages. While they can be used like folders in most email systems, Gmail allows you to apply multiple emails to messages for more intuitive management.

The new features are:

• New Location: Labels are not located above the Chat box
  
  
• Hide & Show: You can now decide which of your labels you want to see by default, letting you keep often-used labels visible with all labels one-click away
  
  
• Drag & Drop Messages: Drag messages into a label will label and archive the message in one step
  
  
• Drag & Drop Messages: You can drag a label onto selected messages

Click here for details ...

Google Contact Updates

Last week, Google added a series of improvements to Google Contacts, primarily targeting business customers.

In addition to additional fields and improvements to the Contacts interface in Gmail and the Contacts screen, Google added new APIs that let administrators add fields and share contacts within the domain.

Click Here to learn more ...

Google Updates Sync for Microsoft Outlook

Following the release of Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, a number of issues were identified by the user community related to the installation and some of the settings. Last week, Google pushed out an update with the following fixes and improvements.

• You can choose between native Outlook Search and Windows Desktop Search; Windows Desktop Search is no longer prevented from searching Outlook data.
  
  
• You can now access Windows Live Hotmail via the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector plug-in when the Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook is installed
  
  
• Added an option to enable or disable auto-archiving during installation
  
  
• Improved installation to make it easier to know here data in other Outlook accounts is located
  

With these modifications, Google continues to improve the tools that help organizations migrate to Google Apps.

Click here to learn more ...

Better Offline Email Access

While Google Apps Premier Edition users can integrate and access email for free on iPhone and Android devices, users may also use the Google Mobile App. Should you be without Internet connections (cell or WiFi), you now have better tools for offline email access.

As part of an update to Google's mobile client app, Gmail gets:

• An updated the user interface,
• Faster message opens
• Batch actions (like archiving multiple messages at once)
• Basic offline support

With these updates, you can still get some work done while on the subway, in a plane, or any disconnected locale.

Google Apps vs Exchange Part 3: Outlook Sync Compatibility

By now, you have heard about Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook. You may also hear rumblings about less than 100% compatibility.

Yes, there are limitations. That said, the ability to use Outlook with Google Apps Premier Edition is an easy, powerful way to help companies transition from Exchange services (in-house or hosted) to Google Apps.

So you know .... the tool does not sync:

• Tasks (a shame since Google Tasks integrate with the inbox and calendar so well)
• Notes
• Journal
• Public Folders

Additionally, installing Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook may change the way searching works within Outlook. According to Microsoft, it disables Outlook's use of Windows Desktop Search, which Outlook uses to "any and all Outlook data".

While the registry bit was not changed by the Google sync tool installation on any of our systems, here is the fix.

1. Run REGEDIT
   
   
2. Browse to: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search"
   
   
3. Reset the value of “PreventIndexingOutlook” to “0” (without the quotes). To do this, right click on the “PreventIndexingOutlook” key, select “Modify…”, then change the value data to “0”.
   
   
4. Exit REGEDIT

Finally, Google is publishing a list of other Outlook Add-ins that may not be compatible with the sync tool. We are reviewing the information and will post an update later this week.

While some companies may find one or more of these limitations a "show stopper", our experience tells us that most companies will still benefit from being able to use Outlook and Google Apps via the MAPI connection.

New Fields for Gmail and Contacts

Last week, Google added new fields for the stand-along Contacts application and included the fields in Gmail as well. As part of the update, synchronization with Outlook and other email clients and data imports/exports work more smoothly.

Learn more here ...

Google Increases Max Gmail Message Size

Over the weekend, Google increased the maximum size of Gmail messages with attachments to 25MB. (click here to learn more)

This means that you can attach files of 22-25MB to your message, provided the total size of the message does not exceed 25MB.

The challenge, of course, is will the recipient's email system let the message in. Many corporate email systems put limits on message sizes in the 2GB to 5GB range.

5 Things to Know about Google Wave (from PC Mag)

With the industry buzzing about Google Wave (and Facebook and Twitter likely rethinking strategy), PC Magazine provides a good overview of things you should know about Google Wave as it approaches release.

Read the Article Here.

Google Expands Task List Integration to Calendars

One of the unique features of Google Apps has been the ability to turn an email into a Task, allowing you to track follow up and deadlines.

Google has taken Task integration much further with the integration of Tasks into Calendar.

From within Calendar, you can now create tasks with due dates, which will be visible on your daily calendar.

Click Here to learn how to get started and to see some cool screen shots.

From the Continuous Improvement Files ...

Over the past several weeks, Google has made a set of minor (but very helpful) changes to Google Apps:

• Arial and Times New Roman fonts are now available in the text editor in Google Docs for users who have these fonts locally installed on their computers
  
  
• In Gmail, you can now view .ppt and .tiff files online, directly in your browser, without a Flash plugin. The viewer can also zoom in and out, select text to copy and paste, and 'print' the presentation to a PDF document
  
  
• Speaker notes are included when uploading a PowerPoint presentation into Google Docs

A Small Gmail Improvement for Managing Conversations

Google has made a small, but effective, change to how Gmail handles the "Mark Unread" function in conversations. Now, when you open a conversation and use the "Mark as Unread" button, messages that were previously previously read will remain as such.

In effect, you will not loose your history of read messages.

Learn more ...

Gmail Contacts can Share Email Addresses

Every wish you could use the same email address for multiple contacts? Now you can.

Use Analytics to Monitor Gmail Usage

If you have a Google Analytics account and use Google Apps Premier or Education edition, you can now monitor Gmail usage. This capability expands your ability to use analytics to monitor usage of Google Sites and Google Docs.

Learn more ...

For organizations that integrate Google Analytics in their web site, SEO, and email marketing efforts (using systems like ten24), this is an opportunity to expand the analysis in several ways:

• Track usage of embedded Forms and other Google Apps components embedded in the public web site.
• Track usage of related content and services, such as secure customer portals created with Google Sites.

In short, this further enhances your ability to understand your customers.

Were YOU fooled by the Google Autopilot Announcement?

Did you see Google's announcement for Gmail AutoPilot? Did you think, "What a great service?" Did your read the sample messages and responses?

While AutoPilot sounds cool, it was just an April Fool's Day joke.

Import/Export Gmail Filters

As part of a continuing "series" of posts, here are some of the recent feature enhancements for Gmail from the teams at Google Labs.

• Filter Import/Export -- Export your mail filters as a file: back them up, share them, or save them before deleting so you can restore them later. Import one of these files to quickly add or restore filters. These options become available under Settings/Filters when you enable this Lab.

To use Lab features, your administrator must allow access to Labs. Go into Labs and click on "Enable".

SMS (Texting) and Google Talk

As part of a continuing "series" of posts, here are some of the recent feature enhancements for Gmail from the teams at Google Labs.

• Text Messaging (SMS) for Chat -- Send and receive text messages (SMS) in Chat. US phones only for now.
  

To use Lab features, your administrator must allow access to Labs. Go into Labs and click on "Enable".