Article of Blogs: August 2010

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Recruiting Tips For Employers: Writing Job Offer Letters

How do you "close the deal" on an excellent job candidate?

Admittedly, by the time you have run the gauntlet of recruiting, interviewing and reference checks, you are probably weary of the hiring process. But weary or not, one important task remains.

Simply put, this is the task of securing your selection. In an employer’s job market, this may seem unnecessary; however, excellent job candidates will probably be aware of their marketability and may have to be enticed to accept a job offer, regardless of the labor market.

After all, how many times has an employer thought a particular job candidate was all but hired, only to be blindsided by an "out of the blue" rejection? But these situations are common enough occurrences that it is important for employers to remain in a "recruiting mode" until the candidate actually accepts or rejects the job offer.

That said, the first step in securing a job candidate is to formally communicate the job offer to the candidate. More often than not, this is done via telephone, followed by a Job Offer Letter.

For lower level jobs, the job offer is often straightforward and uncomplicated. On the other hand, an initial job offer for higher level jobs may signal the start of negotiations regarding anything from salary and vacation to "sign-on" bonuses and moving expenses.

Ideally, most of these issues will have been addressed during the selection process. However, it should not come as a shock if a job candidate wishes to alter or renegotiate previously agreed upon terms.

Of course, if an employer is not inclined to renegotiate these issues, the consequences could be a rescinding of the job offer, or an outright rejection by the job candidate. In any event, this phase of the Hiring Process is critical, and employers should be prepared for either outcome.

As you draft a Job Offer Letter, the basic elements that should be included are as follows:

* Salutation (make it friendly and personal).
* A simple sentence offering the position (include the formal Job Title).
* Include the stating starting salary and major benefits.
* Summarize any negotiated conditions of employment.
* State the expected starting date.
* Indicate any pre-employment requirements (physical exams, proofs of citizenship, legal working status, licenses, etc.).
* Provide instructions for accepting or declining the job offer (include a response date and the hiring manager’s direct telephone number).
* End the letter with an appropriate and upbeat closing.

Employers should be mindful that job candidates evaluate prospective employers as much as candidates evaluate them. Thus, employers need to be aware that their tone and professionalism in communicating a job offer is often the determining factor in whether a job candidate accepts or rejects the offer.

Related Links:

How To Write A Job Offer Letter

Job Offer Letter Sample

Sample Final Employment Offer Letter

Jack

Get design tips to boost the impact of your display ad

While the right text and placement of your display ad are always crucial, you should also make sure that your ad is well designed. But how exactly can you ensure that your ad stands out on a web page, looks professional and is consistent with your overall brand message?

On Thursday, September 2nd, we’ll be holding a short one-off live course on effective display ad design. The session will give you a set of practical design tips including key insights on using color, font and images. The focus will be on the Display Ad Builder tool, although the tips are applicable to display design in general. The course is suitable for anyone interested in display advertising.

The course will be held on Thursday, September 2nd at: 3pm - 4pm BST / GMT+1 (London), 10am-11am EDT (New York), 7am-8am PDT (San Francisco).

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew

Upcoming Free Webinar: Increase ROI with Enhanced CPC

A couple weeks ago, we announced the launch of Enhanced CPC, a new automatic bidding feature designed to increase your conversions and return on investment in your Max CPC campaigns.

We’d like to invite you to a free webinar hosted by members of the product development team to learn more about Enhanced CPC. Specifically, we’ll discuss:

How Enhanced CPC works and benefits your campaign performance
How Enhanced CPC complements your current bidding strategy, including 3rd party bid management solutions
Key differences between Enhanced CPC and Conversion Optimizer and how to select the best bidding option for your campaign

Register here for the webinar to be held on September 8 at 9:30am PST / 11:30am CST / 12:30pm EST.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Best Selling Books on Innovation & Leadership

Best Selling Books on Leadership and Innovation in Business, Ideas, Creativity, Innovative Companies and Top Innovators. Learn to lead and innovate...


Leading at a Higher Level, Revised and Expa... by Ken Blanchard	The Truth About Managing People by Stephen P. Robbins	Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the ... by Jim Collins $17.44

The Mentor Leader: Secrets to Building Peop... by Tony Dungy $14.61	Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Moti... by Daniel H. Pink $15.75	The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadersh... by Patrick Lencioni $13.91

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will R... by Daniel H. Pink $10.20	The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition by James M. Kouzes $14.58	Strengths-Based Leadership by Tom Rath $14.58


The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strateg... by Michael Watkins $19.77	Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Pa... by Tony Hsieh	Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice a... by Lee G. Bolman $33.35

First, Break All the Rules: What the World'... by Marcus Buckingham $19.80	The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Foll... by John C. Maxwell $17.15	Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacl... by Scott Belsky $17.13

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to... by Marshall Goldsmith $17.81	Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out ... by Arbinger Institute $11.53	Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and ... by Stephen C. Lundin $13.59


Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Mon... by Jim Collins $8.60	Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving an... by John Medina $10.20	Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Ever... by Liz Wiseman $17.15

Leading Change by John P. Kotter $18.45	Influencer: The Power to Change Anything by Kerry Patterson $17.79	Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire E... by Simon Sinek $16.47

Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry $13.57	Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team:... by Patrick Lencioni $17.79	Developing the Leader Within You by John C. Maxwell $10.19


The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practic... by Peter M. Senge $16.47	Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin $14.25	Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visiona... by Jim Collins $18.15

Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of E... by Daniel Goleman $13.57	Communicating at Work: Principles and Pract... by Ronald Adler $83.51	Everyone Communicates, Few Connect: What th... by John C. Maxwell $17.15

It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from ... by Michael Abrashoff $16.47	Guide to Managerial Communication (Guide to... by Mary M. Munter $44.05	Leading in a Culture of Change by Michael Fullan $12.21

Business Innovation eBook

Leading Creativity and Innovation eBook. Business Innovation Resource Kit - 212 pages Definitive Guide, 439-slide insights Innovation Bootcamp, Annual Innovation Report. 212-page collection of over 55 best practices, case studies, and insights on the current state of Creativity and Innovation in Business at Top Innovators including Apple, Google, Netflix, 3M, Frito Lay, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, GE, BMW, Deloitte, Southwest, Nike, IBM, Dell and more. "Your report from the eBook and definitive guide was the primary reference that we used." Used by over 550 leading organizations including HP, Pepsi, EDS, Nokia, J&J more... Learn more...
Apple's Innovation Strategy

Monday, August 30, 2010

Email overload? Try Priority Inbox

Information overload is a reality of the modern workplace. The average corporate worker sends and receives more than 150 messages per day¹, an email deluge of varying importance: key project updates from colleagues, requests from higher-ups, appointment reminders, and automated mail that’s often much less important. With so much information to process, simply figuring out what needs to be be read and what needs a reply takes up a lot of time. Today, we’re excited to introduce Priority Inbox Beta in Gmail, an experimental new way of reducing information overload.

Priority Inbox is a new view of your inbox that automatically helps you focus on your most important messages. Gmail has always kept spam messages out of your inbox, and now we’ve improved Gmail’s filter to help you see the emails that matter faster without requiring you to set up complex rules.

Here’s how it works: Priority Inbox splits your inbox into three sections: “Important and unread,” “Starred,” and “Everything else”:

Messages are automatically categorized as they arrive in your inbox. Gmail uses a variety of signals to predict which messages are important, including the people you email most and which messages you open and reply to (these are likely more important than the ones you skip over). And as you use Gmail, it will get better. You can improve the ranking in Priority Inbox by clicking the

buttons at the top of the inbox to mark conversations as important or not important.

As a result, your inbox is better organized, and you can spend your time addressing your most important emails right away. When we tested Priority Inbox at Google, we found that people spent 6% less time on email after enabling this feature. This translates to a week’s worth of time saved each year for information workers who typically spend 13 hours per week on email today!²

Luke Leonhard, Web Services Manager for Brady Corporation, says “Like many of our users, I get over a hundred messages each day. Priority Inbox saves me time by displaying emails in order of importance, letting me process them more efficiently than before. The time I save can then be spent on new projects that add value to Brady rather than managing my inbox.”

Over the next week, we’ll be rolling out Priority Inbox settings to users in organizations with the “Enable pre-release features” option selected in the Google Apps control panel.

Helping users manage lots of information has always been a core goal of Gmail, and we’re excited to see how Priority Inbox helps users in organizations mitigate information overload and get to important messages faster.

Posted by Doug Aberdeen, Software Engineer

1. “Email Statistics Report, 2009-2013”, The Radicati Group, Inc, 2009

2. “Hidden Costs of Information Work in the Enterprise Exposed in New IDC Progress Report”, IDC, 2009

Network Marketing Training Tips-Most People Would Love This

Image via WikipediaToday's network marketing training tips you will greatly benefit from, especially if you do a lot of ad copy.

Most people who are marketers, including network marketers, are aware that they must have eye catching headlines for any type of marketing whether it be online or offline. Everybody says that if people don't even click on a headline, you are toast because the prospect won't ever get to the heart of your marketing message. This is why creating effective headlines for your home based business advertising campaigns is a must.

Tom, Big Al, Schreiter has been sending me some fantastic headlines to test. They were so good I had to pass them on. So, take some notes, feel free to use and test them in your work at home advertising. Thenn, let me know how they worked for you. I would love to hear!

To Your Success,
Monique Hawkins
540-858-2885
Skype: Monique371

PS: The real training begins by reading the eBook, Success In Ten Steps. In case you haven't had a chance to download it, click here: http://mentormonique.successin10steps.com/?mad=46068

Completely satisfied with your income? Then this isn't for
you.

Contest! Help me find the top 5 benefits of this program
and win great prizes!

CORPORATE AMERICA SHOULD ONLY BE AN UMBILICA CORD UNTIL YOU
GIVE BIRTH TO YOUR DREAMS. UNFORTUNATELY MOST PEOPLE NEVER
CUT THE CORD.

Could The Air In Your House Be Toxic? Learn How This Stay-
At-Home Mom Eliminated Indoor Air Pollution In Her House And
Earned A Bundle Showing Others How To Do The Same.

Could you use a bigger paycheck?

Create a downline that lives longer than Methusaleh.

Creating a Plan B

Credit bureaus don't want you to see this.

Curious as to how an average house painter quit his J.O.B.
and tripled his income ?

Dare to be independent and in control of your future! Dare
to look good and feel great!

Daycare for free? I'll show you how to stop paying the high
cost of daycare and make money too.

Did you know that I make my living on something you do for
free...every day?

Did you know that JOB really means the 'journey of the
broke?'

Did you know that your credit card company is charging you
interest on your own money and hasn't told you that?

Did you put a stop payment on your reality check?

Did you think nobody knew?

DID YOUR PAYCHECK GROW DURING YOUR LAST VACATION?

Discover 5 world marketing secrets held by 58-year-old
horseshoer from Ferndale, Washington.

Discover how a corn flake-eating farmer makes more money
part-time than his government subsidized buddies do full-
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Discover how my dog is making money while I'm on a cruise!

Discover how your immune system can be 248% SMARTER during
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Discover the alternative to working until you're dead!

Discover the best kept Secret to creating Real Wealth and
Health from Home.

Discover the six lessons a London man learned that doubled
his online business.

Distributed Income Specialist seeks assistant to work from
home, training provided!

Do you care about the health of yourself and your family,
about the environment, and about your family's future?

DO YOU ENJOY HELPING PEOPLE?

Do you get enough time off to do all the things you want to
do?

Do you have a Plan B that will allow you to retire in 3 to 5
years?

Do you have an open mind?

Do you have at least five sources of income?

Do you have life assurance?

Do you have limited quality time? Can you find 5 others
with the same limited quality time and increase your time
exponentially, along with your income?

Do you have your home on the beach yet?

Do you keep your business options open? I mean, are you open
to making extra money?

Do you keep your career options open?

Do You Keep Your Income Options Open?

Do you keep your options open to either diversifying or
earning extra money each month?

Do You Know How to Avoid Financial Exhaustion?

Do you know how you can save $2 - 4K per year in taxes??

Do you know what Donald Trump said he would do, if he could
do it over again???

Do you know what YOU really want from your life?

Do you like standing in this rain / long line / heat / etc.
or would you rather be at home in your housecoat?

Do you like to barter? If I can save you money on your phone
bill and you become my customer for one year, I will give
you a free night at our B&B.

Do you now receive 5 checks from 5 DIFFERENT companies each
month? Would you like to?

Do you pay retail or wholesale for your nutritional
supplements?

Do you qualify for the best program?

Do you really need your boss's permission to take a vacation?

------------------------

Tom 'Big Al' Schreiter
Phone +1 (281) 280-9800
http://www.fortunenow.com
PO Box 890084, Houston, TX 77289, USA

More advertiser control on YouTube

Today's post comes from the Official YouTube Blog:

We’re constantly working to give advertisers control and flexibility over their YouTube campaigns. We place great value on this because ads are an extension of what a company represents as a business, and we want YouTube to be a place where that reputation and image can flourish.

To that end, we’ve been rolling out features to keep advertisers in control of their campaigns. We announced one such example last week, when we launched a feature that gives select advertisers the ability to voluntarily age-restrict their videos. But there’s more work to do.

To date, we’ve given advertisers the ability to pick and choose individual videos on YouTube to target using our Video Targeting Tool. But one of the most frequently requested features we’ve heard from advertisers is the ability to exclude individual videos and channels from the campaigns they run on our site. Today, we’re excited to announce video and channel exclusions, a way for advertisers to pick specific youtube videos and channel URLs that they don’t want their ads to appear on.

Here’s an example: let’s say you run a vegan bakery. You want to strike a balance between good exposure for your baked goods online, while staying true to your company values in offering items free of animal or dairy-products. Now you can indicate which videos are not the best fit for your audience. Since your customers are probably not watching "Homewrecker Hot Dog," you can provide this video exclusion under the "Networks" tab.

(click for full size image)

Similarly, you might run a keyword-targeted campaign on bakery-related keywords and exclude whole channels that you don’t feel suit your audience. So if FoodNetworkTV has videos centered mostly around cooking meat dishes, you have the controls to prevent ads from showing on that channel and specific videos.

Alternatively, if your ads are appearing on a video that has content you deem inappropriate for your audience, or perhaps isn’t performing in terms of click-through rate or conversions, you can optimize your campaign by using this new feature to exclude it.

Google has also been investing significantly in ensuring brand safety, transparency and control for advertisers across the Google Display Network. We’re hoping that these added layers of control will make your campaign targeting even more precise. Keep sending us your feedback so we can make future product improvements.

Baljeet Singh, Senior Product Manager recently watched “AH NOM NOM: Wholesome Bakery Best Vegan Bakery Food Cart In San Francisco”

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Box.net goes Google: platform integration and real-time collaboration

Editors note: As part of our Going Google Everywhere series, today's guest blogger is Jen Grant, VP of Marketing at Box.net, a Palo Alto-based start-up that helps businesses collaborate, share, and manage all their content online. Learn more about other organizations that have gone Google on our community map.

When I joined Box.net a few years ago, we weren’t using a web-based email and calendaring solution, despite being "born in the cloud." At first I POP-ed my email into my personal Gmail (insert groans from IT here). But as the company grew from 40 to 100, it wasn't hard to convince our IT guru, Jeff, that a move to Google Apps would be best for productivity...and his sanity.

Today, we no longer use our in-house system that required a lot of maintenance and back-ups. Instead we’re heavy users of the Google Apps. We use Gmail, Google Talk and Google Calendar to keep track of our busy schedules and stake out precious conference rooms. And since we’ve grown pretty quickly, being able to collaborate on projects using Google Docs has helped us to work together across our larger teams. Plus, since the launch of the Google Apps Marketplace, the Box and Google Apps platforms are integrated, resulting in the seamless connection of Box's cloud content management solution with Google Apps. We like to think that the two services were a match made in heaven...or at least the clouds :) Check out our snazzy video about the integration.

The Box-Google Apps integration helps us work faster and more efficiently. Being able to collaborate across departments as we've grown has been essential. My favorite part is the ability to create a Google doc in a Box folder. I get the real-time collaboration of Google Docs and can also assign my CEO a task to approve the final version. Plus our security-sensitive VP of Tech Ops is happy because he can now report on who's got access to which files in Google Docs. And everyone can access and link to their Box files from Gmail. Peanut butter and chocolate.

Thanks to our move to Google Apps, I'm happy to report that as a service and company, Box operates fully in the cloud. Now that the Box team is hooked on Google Apps, none of us can imagine life without it.

Posted by Ashley Chandler, Google Apps team

AdSense email preferences: Get the most from your account and from Google

Have you checked your AdSense email preferences lately? If not, you may be missing out on important information and special offers without realizing. Take a minute to log in and update your email preferences under the ‘My Account’ tab.

Want to be invited to upcoming events like AdSense In Your City? Make sure you check the box next to Special Offers when you edit your email preferences so you can stay up-to-date with giveaways and other special programs in your area.

Want tips from the AdSense team for how to earn more with your AdSense account? Check Customized help and performance suggestions and/or Newsletters so we can offer personalized guidance to improve performance and maximize your revenue.

Want to help us improve AdSense by testing out features like the new AdSense interface? Check Google Market Research and you’ll be able to share your valuable feedback with us through surveys and beta tests.

Want promotions and key updates for other Google products that can help you grow your AdSense business? Check Information about other Google products and services which may be of interest to you so we can send you news and coupons based on your potential needs.

We want to help you earn more with tips and promotions, invite you to in-person events, and gather your feedback so we can continue to improve AdSense. So log in, update your preferences, and take advantage of the opportunities coming your way from the AdSense team!

Posted by Katrina Kurnit - Inside AdSense Team

Music Business/Law Tips - "Distribution" (Part 2)

Major label distribution has some other players that contribute to sales. One stops are middlemen who buy records from labels and then make them available to local record stores that prefer the convenience of one stop shopping. Rack jobbers are middleman that buy records from labels and then stock them in the racks that they operate within retail stores. Chain stores such as Wal-Mart buy records from labels and then place them in their stores. Record clubs buy from labels and then resell to their members at discount prices.

Independent distribution can put records in stores, although to a lesser extent. Some independent distributors have huge territories, while others are much more regional. Independent distributors generally distribute the product of smaller labels. Occasionally, they will distribute an unsigned artist's record if they can be convinced that there is potential for substantial airplay and sales (the artist will probably have to generate some sales first).

As the reader can now see, without distribution, the public would never have an opportunity to buy a record. Further, an artist fortunate enough to obtain a deal which has major distribution in place stands the best chance of achieving economic prosperity in the music business.

Ben McLane Esq
benmclane.com

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Tnooz: 5 tips for launching a social media strategy

My largest post ever is now live in four parts over at Tnooz. 2,500 words on "5 steps for a travel supplier looking to launch a social media strategy". 5 steps in four parts. Here they are with links to the individual pieces

Step 1 - Decide who you want to talk to and what you want to say

Step 2 - Start monitoring social media. Make it a customer service and marketing priority

Step 3 - Collect data - all of it

Step 4 - Craft product and content plans

Step 5 - Start saying and stick to it

Critical to this analysis is that it is not until Step 5 that full blown social media content creation is recommended.

MBA Admissions Consulting for Non-Traditional Applicants

I never intended to monetize anything when I set this blog up, but by the shear volume of emails I receive, it's obvious that there are a lot of military and non-traditional candidates who are hungry for information about the business world, and Harvard Business School in particular. If you fall in these categories, and are still interested in help, shoot me an email and we'll try to work something out that is appropriate to your situation.

My strengths:

Helping junior military officers and non-traditional candidates
Particularly helping people figure out when is the best time to apply, which schools to apply to, and how to handle the career transition
How to position yourself (essays, letters of rec, academics, resume, etc.)
Perhaps most importantly, how to translate your non-business experience in a way that admissions committees can understand and appreciate
I've also helped many discuss career decisions beyond Harvard Business School. If you think I can help, just write in with some details of what you need...

militarytobusiness@gmail.com

If you're not looking for admissions advice but just want to chat about military careers or something in general, feel free to drop me a line as well, though I can't guarantee to reply to everyone. I also suggest reading the previous advice I've put on this blog regarding admissions:

Good luck to everyone out there! We all make our own luck.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

TRAVELtech 2010: BOOT will be tweeting Tuesday #travtech

TRAVELtech 2010 is on this Tuesday in Sydney (Aug 31). Registration details here. I will be tweeting all day with the hashtag #travtech from 9am.

Speakers I am most looking forward to are

Orbitz CEO Barney Harford and HotelClub President Jeremy Bellinghausen (but I am biased:) );
Yahoo!7 CEO Rohan Lund on what their plans are with TotalTravel;
Traveltainment boss Andy Owen-Jones on whether or not they are coming to Asia; and
Chris Chambers of Tourism Queensland on a year on from the best job in the world campaign.

Let me know if I will see you there and follow updates from Tuesday via #travtech.

Friday, August 27, 2010

The Fundamental Power of Cloud Services

We live in a more connected and fast-moving world than ever before. Small business start-ups overtake established incumbents to dominate their markets with increasing speed. Developing countries leapfrog massive landline telecom investments and jump straight to mobile communications.

While our growing interconnectedness brings many benefits, it also sometimes means greater vulnerability and a heightened sensitivity to risk.

Increasingly we look to enabling technology to support both our personal and professional lives. As individuals, we expect instantaneous and ubiquitous access to communications, data, content, and applications.

We increasingly look to social media to inform our personal and business decisions. As business leaders, we expect technology to deliver cost efficiencies, improve customer experience, drive revenue growth, and foster innovation. At the same time, we expect constant availability and end-to-end security.

Evolving Beyond the Legacy IT Models
This combination of rising expectations and a rapid rate of change challenge traditional
approaches for information technology. Business cycles keep shortening, but business system complexity keeps escalating. Traditional information technology solutions are too often described as equal parts business accelerator and business obstructer.

A new approach is needed -- to free individuals and organizations from the constraints of traditional information technology. Many forward-looking executives now believe that Cloud Services are part of the answer and will play a central role in the next era of Business Technology evolution.

Cloud is a new computing paradigm. In Cloud, IT resources and services are abstracted from the underlying infrastructure and provided on-demand and at scale in a multi-tenant environment.

Cloud Services have several fundamental characteristics:

Information technology, from infrastructure to applications, is delivered and consumed as a service over the network.
Services operate consistently, regardless of the underlying systems.
Capacity and performance scale to meet demand and are invoiced by use.
Services are shared across multiple organizations, allowing the same underlying systems and applications to meet the demands of a variety of interests, simultaneously and securely.
Applications, services, and data can be accessed through a wide range of connected devices (e.g., smart phones, laptops, and other mobile internet devices).

Cloud encompasses several variations of service models (i.e., IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS) and deployment models (i.e., private, public, hybrid, and community clouds).

In the coming weeks and months we’ll be sharing some insightful customer use case examples of where and how cloud computing services can be applied to deliver business-oriented benefits.

Analyze Competition live in all English language accounts

In June we announced the Analyze Competition feature in the Opportunities tab. At first, this feature was only available to a small number of advertisers using the English language AdWords interface, but now this feature is available to all English language accounts.

Analyze Competition helps you understand how your AdWords performance compares to that of other advertisers competing on similar keyword categories. Using the data in Analyze Competition, we hope you can make more informed decisions about which types of optimization changes are right for your account.

In addition to the feature’s core functionality, you can now also see the Google search terms that triggered your ad for each of the most specific sub-categories in your account. Click a category name to see more specific sub-categories. When the category name is no longer a link, you’ll know you’re at the most specific sub-category -- this is where you’ll see a "See search terms" link. Seeing the search terms that triggered your ad can serve as inspiration for new keyword ideas or help you understand if your keywords have been miscategorized by our system. If you see that the search terms listed for a given category are not related to the keywords in your ad groups, you may consider making keywords more specific or adding new negative keywords.

We hope to bring even more features to Analyze Competition in the future. To learn more about Analyze Competition, visit the Help Center, or watch this short video. You can also visit our page on the Ad Innovations site, which is the destination site for the newest, most innovative developments in AdWords.

Posted by Jason Shafton, Inside AdWords crew

Going Google across the 50 States: Bowery Lane Bicycles in New York rides towards success with Google Apps

Editor’s note: Over the past couple months, thousands of businesses have added their Gone Google story to our community map and even more have used the Go Google cloud calculator to test drive life in the cloud. To highlight some of these companies’ Gone Google stories, we decided to talk to Google Apps customers across the United States. Check back each week to see which state we visit next. To learn more about other organizations that have gone Google and share your story, visit our community map.

Two years ago, Patrick Benard and Sean Naughton completed their first handmade bicycle. Shortly after, they opened Bowery Lane Bicycles in Manhattan with a commitment to having a positive impact on the environment and the local community. Today, they continue to design bicycles for the urban cyclist, build them by hand in New York – in a local factory that uses solar panels to generate 30% of its power – and sell them from their showroom and at city cycling events. Even on the business side, the founders have taken a community approach, working only with local vendors and freelancers.

A year after Bowery Lane Bicycles opened, Michael Salvatore, chief officer of just about everything, was brought on board to help run the business. His first task was to get the company operating and communicating on a more professional level by implementing Google Apps so everyone had @bowerylanebicycles.com email addresses. From experience at previous companies, Michael knew that email addresses were only the beginning and started using Google Apps to improve other business processes. He shares with us how this was done.

“We rely on freelancers and friends located throughout the city to get projects done, and Google Docs makes this possible. Our friends have day jobs so being able to access everything online and collaborate with us in real-time, from anywhere, is not only convenient, it’s essential.

Google Calendar also helps us quickly spread the word among our friends about upcoming cycling and charity events where we’ll need staffing help. We keep a master calendar of all events and send out invites directly from Google Calendar. On the sales end, our showroom is viewed by appointment only, so we use a shared calendar for all of our scheduling.

To track inventory, I use Google forms. When a sale is made the model number of the bicycle purchased and other relevant information is inputted into a form. All the details are then populated directly into my spreadsheet and I can keep track of which bikes are low in inventory and when I need to order more. It’s simple but efficient.

With most of our business software needs taken care of, we can focus on our main goal – manufacturing the best bikes we can. Yes, we’re a small start-up, but we realized early on that successful companies need to be able to communicate quickly and keep track of their business as they expand. We can do just that, thanks to Google Apps.”

Posted by Michelle Lisowski, Google Apps team

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Work better across time zones with Google Calendar

Collaborating with colleagues from various teams in different offices is a daily facet of my work. I am based in Zurich, Switzerland, and many of the people I interact with are in California, USA, which is nine hours behind. Oftentimes I find myself invited to attend meetings that happen late in my evening, which proves that coordinating across time zones can be a challenge.

At Google we want to help you maintain a healthy work/life balance, so today we’re launching a set of new features that will improve your experience whether you’re scheduling across time zones or just across the hall.

Setting Up Working Hours
For Google Apps users, the new ‘Working hours’ setting allows you to configure the hours that suit your schedule, as you can see in the screenshot below:

Users setting up an event will be able to see your working hours clearly marked in your calendar in the event creation page. They will also be warned if they schedule an event outside your working hours. For example, when someone in California is scheduling an appointment with me for 11am their time, they will see a warning like this:

Find a Time, Make it Recurring
The new "Find a Time" tab on the event scheduling page lets you view your coworkers’ schedules at-a-glance and choose the best time for a meeting. This is especially helpful for scheduling events with a large number of attendees, particularly if they are spread out geographically. Also in the event scheduling page, we’ve launched a simpler interface for setting recurring meetings with a small window that appears when you select the “Repeats” check box. For Google Apps customers with the administrative control panel option set to “enable new pre-release features” users will automatically see these new changes to the event editor.

We’ve also made a number of changes on the back-end that improve the performance, consistency, and extensibility of Calendar, which we’ve announced on our Gmail blog today. Enjoy your meetings, now with fewer time zone scheduling hassles!

Posted by Oana Florescu, Software Engineer, Calendar

Update (8/30): While rolling out the new calendar features last week we identified a potential issue that caused us to delay the update. We are working to launch these new feature to users on domains that do not utilize the Google Calendar Connector (GCC) service early this week and we are working on supporting GCC users in the near future.