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Showing posts from June, 2011

An Deeper Look at Recent Google Sites Updates

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Google has been rolling out some nice updates to Google Sites and while everyone is "a-twitter" about mobile render of Google Sites there's also some lesser recognized updates. 1. Google Promotes Adsense Usage with Google Sites I found out this little button appeared on my drop-down bar for More Actions and basically I've been accidentally clicking it instead of Manage Site (Picture 1). Anyways, let's explore this. Click the button and you taken to a redesigned Adsense page just for Google Sites. Google is encouraging Google Sites designers to use Adsense. Obviously intranet / project management Sites are not intended to be breeding grounds for Ads, therefore Google is implying that public Google Sites should be using their Ads. If Google wants to make money, it stands to reason that they want to make Google Sites better for web designers. My conclusion? Google Sites will continue to improve as a platform for public websites. Our first evidence of this is

Appogee Develops New Sites Script

Check it out: Official Google Enterprise Blog: Google Apps Script opens new ways to deliver workflow solutions for businesses

Inspiration - PoweredByGoogleSites.com

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Kirksville Web Design is announcing to launch of a new website: www.poweredbygooglesites.com . The mission of this website is to propagate and promote designer websites creating using Google Sites. I have journeyed to all sorts of Google Sites websites and found stellar examples and sadly, many duds. However, if we can let the light shine on the wonderful websites developed by some talented graphic arts, designers, and hobbyists, Google Sites will go places. So join me as I publish entries and look forward to submissions. This is an excellent opportunity to showcases incredible work pushing to potential of Google Sites. Criteria for selection will be based on style, information architecture, and creativity. Tell your friends!

News - Soft Delete a Website

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Google has consistently been rolling out updates for Google Docs and Google Sites and they have helped Google Sites users once again. Now I have never deleted a site so I never had to recover one, but I am sure that if I did this Soft Delete would come in handy. Software engineers have retooled Google Sites features, but has not released anything truly exciting or major. At first I was excited about the web fonts, but some are rendered obsolete due to poor rendering (too small or too bold). This soft delete feature is also welcome, but is it something admins or end-users have actually clamored for? No. You could just not delete site, I mean you are limited to the amount of Sites you have (I haven't hit the limit at about 50 yet). If you want to voice your ideas about Google Sites and whatever feature you would like to see, new or improved, please visit Google's moderator on  Product Ideas . It says it is for Google Docs, but Google Sites ideas are welcome. Suggest members o

Chat To Customers Whilst They Are On Your Website!

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Happy Wednesday Everyone, Beckystar here from Web Princess in England. Wouldn't it be great customer service if your customers could talk to your whilst they are browsing your google site? How? I hear you ask . . . It's simple, just Create A Google Talk Chatback Badge! 1) Do you have a gtalk account? For those who do not have one set one up 2) Visit Google Talk Chatback Badge and get the html code for your account TIP! It helps to already be signed into your google talk account in the background 3) Once you have your code copied to your clip board sign into your google site, navigate to the page where you want to show you are available for chat. 4) Click on edit > insert > more gadgets > in the search bar type code wrapper, select code wrapper which is 4th on the list > paste in your code from the google talk badge page > change the width of the gadget to 200 pixels and the height to 60 pixels > untick the title box and

News - More Updates - Somewhat Newsworthy

Google Sites is getting more attention and updates are heading down the pipeline. Here's my synopsis: I have no idea what Chrome Frame support is. I've used Google Sites with Chrome and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. An improved UI for inserting stuff is a nice touch, but hardly something I griped about.  The effect of anonymous Apps Scripts eludes me, but then again I'm not much for jumping in Google Apps API or anything (more designer than programmer).  More webfonts...I think they are referring to the webfonts release earlier this month. Anyways, conclude for yourself and checkout the latest news article. Scheduled Release track features update 6/1/11 Released on 6/01/2011 The following features are intended for release to these domains on June 7 : Google Sites: - Chrome Frame support - Improved Dialog UI when inserting Docs, images etc. - Apps Scripts in Sites can be published to anonymous users - More webfonts in Sites Release track: