Tag Archives: Google Apps

Linux

Eric Hammond: Using An AWS CloudFormation Stack To Allow "-" Instead Of "+" In Gmail Email Addresses

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Launch Stack

Launch a CloudFormation template to set up a stack of AWS resources to fill
a simple need: Supporting Gmail addresses with “-” instead of “+”
separating the user name from the arbitrary tag strings.

The CloudFormation stack launched by the template consists of:

  • ELB (Elastic Load Balancer)
  • Auto Scaling Group
  • EC2 instance(s) running Postfix on Ubuntu set up by a user-data script
  • Security Group allowing ELB to connect to the instances
  • CloudWatch CPU high/low alarms
  • Auto Scaling scale up/down policies.
  • SNS (Simple Notification Service) topic for notification of Auto
    Scaling events
  • Route53 Record Set

This basic stack structure can be used as a solution for a large
number of different needs, but in this example it is set up as an SMTP
email relay that filters and translates email addresses for Google
Apps for Business customers.

Because it uses Auto Scaling, ELB, and Route53, it is scalable and able
to recover from various types of failures.

If you’re in a rush to see code, you can look at the CloudFormation
template and the initialization script run from
the user-data script.

Now, let’s look a bit more in depth at the problem this is solving and
how to set up the solution.

Background

If you have a Gmail address of user@example.com, then email messages
sent to addresses of the form user+ANYTHING@example.com will also be
delivered to you. You can use any email address string after the plus
sign.

Google describes this feature in a blog post:

Append a plus (“+”) sign and any combination of words or numbers
after your email address. For example, if your name was
hikingfan@gmail.com, you could send mail to
hikingfan+friends@gmail.com or hikingfan+mailinglists@gmail.com

This is is useful for tracking where you have entered your email
address and findingout which services allow it to be used for spam.
If an email variation starts getting abused, you can automatically
filter it out in Gmail.

The Problem

Unfortunately, many web sites do not allow an email address with a “+”
when registering and will reject any attempts to use this. I don’t
know if they are trying to prevent people from using unique tracking
addresses or if they just don’t know the specification for a valid
email address, but the end result is the same.

If we could just use a dash (-) instead of a plus, we could enter
unique tracking email addresses in each site registration.

Another example for why plus can be bad: My son added “+psat” to his
email address when filling out the written PSAT so he could track who
they sold his email address to (apparently every college out
there). The data entry person typed a “t” instead of a “+”, so
colleges started sending emails to the wrong address.

Prerequisites

The approach presented here works with custom domains set up with
Google Apps for Business. You can’t use it for individual, free
“@gmail.com” addresses without some additional work and a separate
domain name registration.

As currently written, the CloudFormation stack requires that you
already have your domain DNS handled by Route53, as the template will
insert a new DNS entry for the email relay. This functionality could
be removed from the template if you don’t use Route53.

The Solution

This CloudFormation template sets up a stack that will translate email
addresses when Gmail forwards …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet Ubuntu

Computers

Google adds IT admin features for Chrome browser

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Google has beefed up the administration and management controls that IT staff have over their users’ Chrome browsers.

Google has added the ability for IT departments to apply the workplace configuration of Chrome browsers to Chrome browsers installed on employees’ home computers.

That way, users working on their home computers can have access to their work Web apps, custom themes and app store by logging into Chrome with their Google Apps for Business or Google Apps for Education accounts, the company said Tuesday.

“With cloud-based management, IT administrators can customize more than 100 Chrome policies and preferences for their employees from the Google Admin panel,” wrote Cyrus Mistry, senior product manager, Chrome for Business & Education, in a blog post.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

From: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2035213/google-adds-it-admin-features-for-chrome-browser.html#tk.rss_all

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

1 Number Google Stock Investors Should Know Ahead of Earnings

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By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

If Google stock rallies after the company reports earnings on Thursday, it’ll be because costs per click are rising again. But there’s another element to the story that’s equally important, if not more so: Apps usage.

Microsoft is still the king of the market for productivity software, but Google is catching on, with more than 40 million reported users of its Google Apps suite. New efforts to bolster the offering with Keep, an Evernote lookalike, could help win customers over time. Rumored efforts to boost messaging could also prove popular, especially with Facebook taking steps to boost its own capabilities in this area via the “Home” app for Android.

For its part, Wall Street is expecting Q1 revenue to soar 72.5% to $14.04 billion, resulting in $10.69 of profit per share. The company beat earnings estimates in three of its past four quarters, with a 15.2% miss in the September quarter counting as its only aberration, according to data supplied by Yahoo! Finance. Google stock is up roughly 25% over that period.

Will Google stock rally following the report? Tim Beyers of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova weighs in on this question in the video below. Please watch and then leave a comment to let us know whether you would buy, sell, or short Google stock at current prices.

For further analysis of Google’s Apps ambitions, try our newest premium research report, in which we dissect Google’s sprawling empire and tell you what the search king is really worth, and whether the stock deserves a place in your portfolio. Access your report now by clicking here.

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From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/14/video-placeholder-1-number-google-stock-investors/

Linux

Michael Hall: UDS 13.05: Ubuntu’s second online developer summit

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It’s official, UDS 13.05 is coming up next month, marking our second online Ubuntu Developer Summit, and coming only two months after the last one. While going virtual was part of our transition to make Ubuntu’s development more open and inclusive, the other side of that coin was to start holding them more often. The first we put into affect in March, and the second is coming in May. Read below for information about this UDS, and changes that have been made in response to feedback from the last one.

Scheduling

The dates for UDS 13.05 are May 14, 15 and 16, from 1400 UTC to 2000 UTC.  We will once again have 5 tracks: App Development, Community, Client, Server & Cloud and Foundations.  The track leads for these will be:

  • App Development: Alan Pope, David Planella & Michael Hall
  • Community: Daniel Holbach, Nick Skaggs & Jono Bacon
  • Client: Jason Warner & Sebastien Bacher
  • Server & Cloud: Dave Walker & Antonio Rosales
  • Foundations: Steve Langasek

Track leads will be in charge of approving Blueprints and getting them on the schedule.  If you are going to be responsible for running a session, please get with the track lead to make sure they have marked you as being required for that session. If you would like to get a session added for this UDS, you can do so either through registering a Blueprint or proposing a meeting through Summit itself.  Both approaches will require the approval of a Track Lead, so make sure you discuss it with them ahead of time.

Changes to…

Using feedback from attendees of the March UDS, we will be implementing a number of changes for UDS 13.05 to improve the experience.

Hangouts

Google+ Hangouts have a limit of 15 active participants (if started with a Canonical user account, it’s 10 if you don’t have a Google Apps domain), but in practice we rarely had that many people join in the last UDS.  This time around we’re going to encourage more people to join the video, especially community participants, so please check your webcams and microphones ahead of time to be ready.  If you want to join, just ask one of the session leaders on IRC for the hangout URL. We are also investigating ways to embed the IRC conversations in the Hangout window, to make it easier for those on the video to keep track of the conversation happening there.

The Plenaries

Most people agreed that the mid-day plenaries didn’t work as well online as they do in person.  There was also a desire to have a mid-day break to allow people to eat, stretch, or hold a sidebar conversation with somebody.  So we are replacing the mid-day plenaries with a “lunch” slot, giving you an hour break to do whatever you need to do. We will be keeping the introductory plenary on the morning of the first day, because that helps set the tone, goals and information needed for the rest of the week.  In addition to that, we have added back a closing plenary at the end of …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet Ubuntu

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

1 Way Microsoft Is Beating Google

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By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

For as well as Google has done in keeping Bing at bay, Microsoft is still far and away the king of apps. An estimated 1 billion use Office worldwide, versus about 40 million for Google Apps.

Can anything be done to close the gap? In the following video, Tim Beyers of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova says the search king’s efforts to fill holes in its Apps suite reveals a fervent desire to steal Mr. Softy’s lunch money. Expect Microsoft to respond in kind.

Do you agree? Which apps suite do you use? Please watch the following video, and then leave a comment in the box below to let us know what you think.

For further analysis of Google’s efforts in productivity software, try our newest premium research report, in which we dissect the search king’s sprawling empire and assess the risks and opportunities for your portfolio. Access your report now by clicking here.

var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData || []; FoolAnalyticsData.push({ eventType: “TickerReportPitch”, contentByline: “Tim Beyers“, contentId: “cms.26811”, contentTickers: “NASDAQ:MSFT, NASDAQ:GOOG”, contentTitle: “1 Way Microsoft Is Beating Google”, hasVideo: “True”, pitchId: “119”, pitchTickers: “NASDAQ:GOOG”, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Will Google Get to $1,000 Before Apple Gets to $500?

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By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Each week, I endeavor to report the results of the Big Idea Portfolio, a collection of five tech stocks that I believe will crush the market over a three-year period. I’ve done it before; my last tussle with Mr. Market ended with me beating the index’s average return by 13.35%.

Real money was on the line then as it is now, which means any one of the five stocks you see here could cause me a lot of public embarrassment. This time, most of my stocks fell as Google made a series of interesting moves.

First, over a six-hour span at South by Southwest (SXSW), the search king showed off wearable technology, including 12 pairs of talking shoes hacked together in three weeks to demonstrate the potential of connecting gear (and brands) to the Web. A Google X engineer also showed up to demonstrate the Glass interactive spectacles.

Source: Google.

Cool as these devices are, they’re also only part of Google’s growth story. Imagine using search to index and retrieve data about your energy usage compared to average temperature. Then imagine paying your energy bill through Google Wallet and cross-referencing that. Orwellian possibilities abound when you index, well, everything.

Google wants all of us thinking this way. A new service called Keep proposes to challenge Evernote by providing a simple system for archiving anything. Think of it as a slimmed-down productivity tool that does for Google Apps what OneNote does for Microsoft‘s Office Suite.

Other Googlers pitched access to information as a humanitarian need at SXSW. In one session, Amit Singhal, who oversees search for the company, told the story of an African farmer who hiked several miles to an Internet cafe to search for ways to halt an ant infestation of his potato crop. Google held the answer.

Add it up, and I wonder if the search king isn’t fitting itself to be the chief data aggregator and distributor in a hyperconnected world. As Singhal put it: “[E]ven a farmer in Africa, or a mother in an Indian village, or a fisherman in Malaysia, will have as much access to knowledge as kings used to.”

Why not? Google is already the original Big Data company. It was the search king’s early efforts to boil an ocean of online data efficiently that led to MapReduce and the Google File System, two mechanisms for crunching multiple terabytes of data concurrently across a vast array of cheap servers. Today, these breakthroughs undergird an open-source technology called Apache Hadoop that’s used in a number of Big Data projects.

Google, meanwhile, sticks to its own knitting for the biggest Big Data project of all: indexing the Web, every minute of every day, continuously. Mix in Android and Chrome OS devices and a heaping helping of broadband, and Singhal’s dream soon becomes a reality.

Of course, there’s a business purpose here, too. More networks and devices also mean more data, and Google …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Trust Isn't the Issue With Google's Keep

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By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Evernote and Microsoft can rest easy. By my tests, Google‘s “Keep” archiving and productivity software isn’t the threat that some might think it is.

To be fair, I tested an  early (i.e., unfinished) version in a Chrome browser on a Mac, even though only Android handsets can access the features Google advertises in the promotional video below:


Source: Google.

A non-issue of trust
Most of the articles I’ve read dismissing Keep have less to do with functions, and more to do with trust. How we can possibly trust Google to support Keep, when Reader — one of the search king’s more popular tools — will be unceremoniously kicked to the curb in July? Only a small-f fool would use a Google-branded productivity app knowing the rug could be pulled out at any time, skeptics say.

Maybe they’re right, but they’re also missing the point. The trouble with Keep isn’t that it’ll be orphaned as its predecessor — Google Notebook — was. The trouble with Keep is that it’s underpowered in glaring ways. No clipping tools. Little structure, and no tagging. No design sense. All the things that make Evernote great are lacking in Keep.

In fact, there’s so much missing, that I wonder why Google didn’t ante up $2-3 billion to buy Evernote.

The huge and growing threat from Microsoft
We know Google needs Evernote — or something like it — in order to compete. Microsoft has a full suite of productivity apps in Office, and an online subscription-based product called Office 365. Google Apps lack archiving and task management. Keep seems to be designed to address both these needs, but in one product.

Interestingly, Keep comes at a time when a growing portion of the world is turning to suites of cloud-based software for business. Salesforce.com has enjoyed better than 30% revenue growth in each of the last two fiscal years. Peer NetSuite has enjoyed accelerating revenue growth since 2009.

For its part, the search king says there are now 40 million Apps users, and all signs point to continued growth in the years ahead. Microsoft could make the journey difficult with Office 365, and efforts to make Skype a de facto messaging and telephony platform for small business Office users.

Google needs Keep to help bulk up Apps, but it might need Evernote even more.

For further analysis of Google, I invite you try our newest premium research report, in which we dissect the search king’s sprawling empire, and assess the risks and opportunities for your portfolio. Access your report now by clicking here.

var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData || []; …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Computers

Review: CloudMagic Lives Inside Windows 8

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CloudMagic has gone Metro. The excellent search service, which I’ve been a fan of since it made its debut in 2010, is now available as a native application for Windows 8’s Metro interface. CloudMagic’s Windows 8 edition still delivers super-speedy, accurate search results across a host of services, but it is a bit hamstrung by some of Windows 8’s own problems.

You can download the CloudMagic app from Microsoft’s Windows Store, and it installs quickly. If you already have a CloudMagic account, the app remembers all of your settings, and doesn’t need much in the way of set up: You log in and you’re good to go.

If you don’t have a CloudMagic account already, the signup process is simple, and it’s easy to link the services you’d like it to search. CloudMagic currently searches the following services: AOL, Box, Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, Gmail, Google Apps, Google Drive, Google Talk, GMX, Hotmail, iCloud, Mail.com, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, Microsoft Office 365, MSN, Outlook.com, SkyDrive, Twitter, Windows Live, and Yahoo Mail. You simply grant CloudMagic access to the accounts you’d like it to search, and it goes to work indexing them.

While the basics are the same, the actual experience of using CloudMagic as a Windows 8 Metro app is very different from using it in your browser, as an extension. Where the browser extension displays results right on the Web page you’re viewing, the Metro app is its own standalone app. You search from within the app itself and see all of the results in there, too.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

The "New" Adobe Looks Good Ahead of Earnings

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By Richard Saintvilus, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

It’s not uncommon for tech companies to trade at expensive valuations. But when the company is trading at a 52-week high while also in the midst of a significant transition, it makes for an uncomfortable situation. Nevertheless, Adobe seems to be handling this patch pretty well.

Granted, it’s still too early to say that the company has met all expectations in execution. But I’m nonetheless pleased that the conversion to a subscription-based model has not adversely affected Adobe’s current business. While the valuation today seems pretty demanding when compared to Microsoft‘s, Adobe remains a quality company with strong leadership. That’s not to say there aren’t challenges.

What’s with the “new” Adobe?
Wall Street hates uncertainty. But it seems Adobe’s getting the benefit of the doubt, and deservedly so. The company’s back has been up against the wall. And management has been looking for a way to recharge growth in products such as Creative Suite, which is often considered too expensive when there are much cheaper alternatives available in Google Apps. Plus, Apple‘s resistance to incorporating the Flash plug-in within its products only created more doubt about Adobe’s leverage. Things needed to change.

Adobe wanted to exit its software license business and convert it to a subscriptions-based model. So far, not only are existing customers embracing the change, but new customers are signing on at a faster-than-expected rate. For instance, in the company’s third-quarter earnings report, which reflected when the transition first took shape, Adobe was able to transition roughly $29 billion more recurring revenue than it anticipated.

What’s more,it was able to grow its Creative Cloud paid subscriptions to approximately 200,000 subscribers. This is while also adding 8,000 Creative Cloud subscriptions per week. Fast-forward to the fourth quarter and Creative Cloud was able to improve that to 10,000 subscriptions per week, bringing its full-year total to 326,000 for the year. Remarkably, with recurring revenue of $153 million, management was able to exceed its own guidance by 62% above the $94 million that was projected.

All of this justifies the faith the Street is showing in the stock. The company is operating on all cylinders — and then some. The pace at which the transitioning to the “new Adobe” is impressive. In that regard, CEO Shantanu Narayen said, “We beat our Creative Cloud subscription goals and established Adobe Marketing Cloud as the leader in the exploding category of Digital Marketing during fiscal 2012. In fiscal 2013 we intend to accelerate our pace of innovation, and drive integration between Creative Cloud and Adobe Marketing Cloud.”

How do you measure success?
Mark Garrett, Adobe’s executive vice president and CFO, said that 2013 would prove to be a “stronger and more predictable” year in terms of recurring revenue with higher long-term growth. The company, however, didn’t guide as if it expects a robust first quarter — at least not when compared to prior estimates for Q1 2012. Likewise, non-GAAP earnings-per-share estimates of $0.26 were lowered by …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Google Android Chief Andy Rubin to Step Down

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By Evan Niu, CFA, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Search giant Google has announced that its Android chief, Andy Rubin, is stepping down in order to “start a new chapter at Google.”

CEO Larry Page announced the change on Google’s official blog today. Google did not specify which department Rubin may be headed toward. Rubin co-founded the start-up Android before Google acquired it in 2005, and has led development ever since.

Taking Rubin‘s place will be Sundar Pichai, who has worked on Chrome and Google Apps. The Chrome browser has been another important success story for Google, and Page expressed confidence that Pichai is the right man for the job.

Page also noted that the company’s Nexus program continues to drive mobile innovation, and that Google now has global partnerships with more than 60 hardware manufacturers. There have been more than 750 million Android devices activated to date.

link

The article Google Android Chief Andy Rubin to Step Down originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA, has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Google. The Motley Fool owns shares of Google. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Read | Permalink | <a target=_blank href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/forward/20501020/" title="Send this entry to a friend …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Orange Business Services Enhances Security as a Service Portfolio

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Orange Business Services Enhances Security as a Service Portfolio

SafeNet Authentication Service provides additional layer of security through multifactor authentication delivered in a cloud model

PARIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Orange Business Services has enhanced its Security as a Service portfolio by migrating to a cloud-based secure authentication service from SafeNet, a global leader in data protection.

By enhancing its Secure Authentication solution with SafeNet Authentication Service, Orange Business Services is providing its enterprise customers an additional layer of security when accessing corporate resources or cloud services. Customers can use the same unified and secure multifactor credentials to access a virtual private network as well as cloud services such as Google Apps, Salesforce.com and other cloud-based business applications and infrastructure.

“While enterprises want to take advantage of the cost savings that cloud solutions provide, most of them see security as a more and more strategic concern,” said Nicolas Furgé, head of Security Business Unit, Orange Business Services. “With this new flexible and customizable Authentication Service, enterprises have the best of both worlds: an enhancement of their security posture and a significant reduction of their operational and administrative costs.”

Companies benefit from Secure Authentication by being able to use market-leading multi-factor authentication from Orange Business Services in a cloud delivery model. In addition to inherent cloud computing attributes like simplicity, elasticity and high performance, customers also benefit from only paying per user per month as opposed to having significant up-front investments in hardware or software.

“Today’s service providers are under immense pressure to provide their enterprise customers with differentiated services and enhanced security, but without the high costs associated with implementing and supporting these services,” said Neil Hollister, vice president, Global Service Providers, SafeNet Inc. “We are happy to be partnering with Orange Business Services and offering them SafeNet Authentication Service. By doing so, we can help Orange Business Services provide its enterprise customers with all the benefits of the cloud environment, but with the level and comfort that they need to ensure that their sensitive data is secure in this new virtual working environment.”

About SafeNet

Founded in 1983, SafeNet, Inc. is one of the largest information security companies in the world, and is trusted to protect the most sensitive data for market-leading organizations around the globe. SafeNet’s data-centric approach focuses on …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Computers

Two reasons Microsoft should fear Google Apps

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As Microsoft continues to push Office 365, its subscription software-as-a-service offering, a new survey underscores Redmond’s diminishing hold on enterprise users. And the problem will only get worse as younger users enter the workplace, if a recent study at Princeton University is any indication.

BetterCloud sells cloud management tools for Google Apps. In early February, BetterCloud surveyed its customer base—18,361 Google administrators—and received responses from 2719.

There are a lot of interesting data points in the survey results, but here are the ones relevant to Microsoft and its growing struggle in the enterprise:

  • 60 percent of respondents say their organizations are minimizing further investment in Microsoft Office
  • 64 percent who have been using Google Apps for at least two years are minimizing further investment in Office

OK, you might say. Many, maybe even most, of the respondents likely come from smaller businesses. Large organizations with a lot invested in licenses for Office software and a workforce hooked on Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and other Redmond apps understandably would be more willing to stay the course.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Computers

Tackle overloaded Google Apps Gmail accounts with FreeSpace

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Google Apps offers cash-strapped small businesses a lot of bang for the buck, but one app that can cause problems is Gmail.

Specifically, each Google Apps account affords just 25GB of Gmail storage, meaning it’s not uncommon for users to bump into that ceiling—especially if they’re on the receiving end of a lot of attachments.

When that happens, the user can’t send or receive mail, which is a potentially serious problem. What if a customer submits an order and your sales guy doesn’t receive it because his mailbox is full?

Backupify’s new FreeSpace promises to help clear out overstuffed Gmail accounts. It does so primarily by scanning inboxes for attachments and identifying the largest ones, then allowing users to delete or download them.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Computers

Review: CloudMagic's personalized Web search service grows up

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CloudMagic is growing up. This super-speedy search service debuted a few years ago and over time has evolved to offer some very useful features, including Facebook and Twitter search. Now, though, CloudMagic is making some of its biggest changes yet, including the ability to integrate your personal search results with Google’s global Web results. And the company is no longer offering unlimited searches for free, a move that may alienate some users. However, 50 free searches a month will suffice for many; the unlimited searches of the Pro subscription costs $5 a month.

CloudMagic’s core search tools work the same as always: you sign up for an account, and link the services you’d like it to search. It supports a huge range of services, including AOL, Box, Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, Gmail, Google Apps, Google Talk, GMX, Hotmail, iCloud, Mail.com, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, Microsoft Office 365, MSN, Outlook.com, SkyDrive, Twitter, Windows Live, and Yahoo.

Once access has been granted, CloudMagic then begins indexing your accounts, which can take some time if your accounts are sizable. It took several hours to index a Gmail account containing thousands of messages, but only a few minutes to index a newer Twitter account. You can begin searching right away, but waiting until the indexing process is complete will deliver more accurate results.

CloudMagic displays your own personal results in an unobtrusive box that appears alongside Google’s Web results.

The service is still available as it has been in the past, as a browser extension for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, an add-on for Internet Explorer, and a mobile app for the iPad, iPhone, and Android devices.  The browser extensions and add-ons appear as simple search box on any relevant Web pages; if you surf to a page that doesn’t support CloudMagic, you don’t see the box. You can move the search box around the page if it’s in your way, and you can minimize it to a corner, too.

You enter your keywords in the search box, and CloudMagic goes to work, instantly (and I do mean instantly) displaying results as you type. The results appear in a column that appears below the CloudMagic search box as soon as you begin typing. Results are organized by source; if you enter a search string while on your Gmail page, you’ll see results from there, but you also can scroll down to see results from your other accounts, like Facebook and Twitter. In CloudMagic’s latest iteration, the results are as accurate as speedy as they have always been.

What’s new about CloudMagic is how you can access its search results. It  is no longer limited to displaying results in its own search box. CloudMagic now lets you see your personal CloudMagic results when conducting Google searches. This feature, which is available using Chrome, Firefox, and Safari with the browser extension installed (except Internet Explorer) works whenever you enter a search query in Google. CloudMagic displays …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Computers

Office showdown: Microsoft Office 365 vs. Google Apps

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The war between Google and Microsoft is heating up. Each tech giant offers a productivity suite serving the essentials for serious work online: word processing, spreadsheets, email, and calendars. Should you ally with Google Apps for Business, or root for Microsoft’s Office 365 for Small Business?

My experience with both brands’ productivity tools reflects the workflows many small businesses face. In 2007, with staff scattered across several countries, my editorial company started using Google Apps for Business. It offered email, plus shared text documents and spreadsheets all under our company domain name and logo. Meanwhile, on the desktop, we used Microsoft Word and Excel, particularly for complex documents that we shared with clients.

If we were starting over today, we would seriously consider Microsoft’s Office 365 for Small Business. For years Microsoft wasn’t putting significant functionality online, but next week’s release of Office 365 Small Business Premium is a big step forward.

Google and Microsoft each allow personal and business use of their online platform, as well as simultaneous logins to multiple accounts in different browser tabs. Beyond that, however, their platforms differ greatly in usability, functionality, and mobile support. Read on to discover the standout features and surprising weak points of each.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Computers

Office Web Apps v. Google Docs: Which suite works best for you?

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For years, folks looking for free online word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations have turned to Google Docs. However, Microsoft recently released an updated set of Office Web Apps, accessible to individual users from their SkyDrive accounts, and to business users through Office 365 and SharePoint.

The Microsoft apps now support printing, touch-screen tablets, and add some other previously missing features. While overall, Google Apps offers more functionality, the Office Web Apps are starting to show promise—especially for companies committed to the Microsoft ecosystem, since Microsoft’s platform makes it simple to open documents in the full, desktop-based Office software.

However, some Office Web Apps seems to be missing key components required for basic usability. The Word Web App, for example, is missing the autosave function and the Excel Web App doesn’t allow users to freeze rows.

Stephen Sauer

Just to be clear, Office Web Apps are not the same as Office on Demand, which is a streaming service that offers the full-featured Office software as part of an Office 2013 subscription.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld