News - Social Sites Help Page Rank

Google has released, as part of the their Webmaster Help Youtube channel, information that can help the Google Sites webmaster improve search engine optimization.  The new video discloses that Google now considers social sites in page rankings.  So, your efforts on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Buzz, will get you noticed by Google.  "In what capacity?" you might ask.

Google Realtime is a search engine that processes all the most recent social data, while not the most visible avenue it could grow.  Backlinks are still important to Google and remember, it's their goal to properly rank what's relevant and popular.  I've provided the video below.



How can I get my Google Site noticed by Google Search?
It's one of the most frequent questions on the Google Sites help forum.  You want to be on the front page of a Google search entry, or at least somewhere.  Look forward to my next post on this hot topic.

Google Sites News - Share Settings

Google Sites, and really Google Apps, has been improved in terms of making it easier to share your website.  The share settings used to be part of the Manage Site contents, but now it has been moved to the More Options drop down menu next to Create and Edit Page.

Sharing has never been something I've used very much.  I always make my sites public and I limit collaborator privileges (call me a control freak).  Nevertheless, it is always great to be able to do something more easily.  Google Sites sharing is now similar to that in other Google Apps like Google Docs.

Remember your options:

• Anyone can see your site (public) *will be indexed eventually and then not very well
• Only those with a link can see your site (semi-private) *will not be indexed
• Only those given permission can see your site (mostly-private) *will not be indexed

 
For Google's post on website sharing see http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/2010/11/simplified-sharing-experience-extended.html

News - Soft Delete a Website

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 only page permissions, better background management, dynamic scaled column layouts, go crazy. Enough editorial, read on.

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Soft delete your sites
We’ve received a lot of feedback that it was sometimes difficult to restore a deleted site, since you needed to remember a deleted site’s URL. Starting today, you will be able to view any sites you’ve deleted in the Deleted sites section of My Sites rather than needing to remember their URLs. In this section, you can also choose to restore your site or delete it permanently before 30 days have passed. Note that as before, after the 30-day grace period, deleted sites will be permanently deleted.


Let us know what you think of these updates. If you have any ideas for new features, submit them to our Product Ideas page, open until June 16.

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:
Scheduled*

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/04/google-sites-brings-you-over-100-new.html

Tip - Dynamic Resizing

I don't know when it happened. I don't why it only works of Internet Explorer. This is a great discovery nonetheless - Dynamic Resizing of images in Google Sites.


The Discovery
It wasn't until recently that I started using IE for making Google Sites. The reason - Firefox and Chrome are logged into two other Google accounts. Anyways, that's not exactly important, what is important is that instead of the typical [ Small - Medium - Large ] you can scale an image to whatever you want it to be, and it looks pretty good too!

The Proof
Check out these two screen shots.

Resizing capability with Google Sites using Internet Explorer 9, who figured?

Dynamic scaling of images is a wonderfully nice tool to have.

The Impact
This development allows for flexibility within Google Sites. No longer must I have measurements exactly right for a vertical line divider...I can extend it when I need to.

The Questions
Will this interesting happenstance roll out for Google Chrome and Firefox? Is this an unannounced update or just a glitch that works really well? I really look forward to your comments and theories.

New Fonts!

Google Sites now supports hundreds of Google Webfonts for your website. This is a wonderful change to see, though perhaps not the most requested. However, this proves that Google Sites is still on the radar of Google and that they care about customization and indeed the overall aesthetic of their product application.

A big thanks to Google for translating recent Blogger changes to their Google Sites platform, enjoy the news below!

Google Sites brings you over 100 new web fonts

Ever wanted to make your Google site feel even more unique? Today, we added a wide variety of Google Web Fonts to Google Sites, making it easier to style your website and make it look awesome.

Now you can go to Manage Site under More Actions and choose Color and Fonts in the left-hand navigation to choose fonts for the entire site in one go. The web fonts feature lets you select different sections of the site such as the entire page or just the title to selectively choose your styling. Additionally, we've given you control over font sizes for many of these sections.

Take a look at a site that uses multiple web fonts:

We’re looking forward to seeing the sites you create with these beautiful new fonts.

Posted by: Robert Dionne, Software Engineer

News - Apps Script

Automate Event Management using Apps Script

Tuesday, April 19, 2011 | 9:02 AM

Labels: Apps Script

Editor's Note: Guest author Phil Ridout is an independent consultant specialising in Knowledge Management. He is a facilitator for the Knowledge and Innovation Network (KIN) a business to business knowledge sharing network.

Last year the network I help to run, KIN, decided to start using Google Sites for their shared online space called MemberSpace. This ‘MemberSpace’ is used as a repository for shared documents and information about various KIN events. I soon realised that using Google Apps Script would significantly enhance the event management process.

The network facilitators organise about 30-40 events a year. For each event we need to :

• Create an Events page in the MemberSpace Google Site (in a standardised format)
• Create a Calender Event in the Network Events Calendar maintained by facilitators
• Announce the event on the MemberSpace news (announcements) page
• Allow delegate self-registration
• Send attendees a customized email confirmation when they register
• Send joining instructions emails to all attendees immediately prior to the event

By using Google Apps Script, we have been able to automate all of the above tasks and make event management a lot simpler.

The Solution

To accomplish this automation, we have created an event management spreadsheet template with an accompanying form and script. Whenever an event is organised, the event facilitator copies the event management template and fills in standard data about the event in one of the sheets.



Then all the facilitator has to do is select the appropriate menu items to accomplish the tasks listed above. (This spreadsheet is only seen by the Facilitators. The event attendees only see the event registration form.)

So what’s in the script behind this?

Before I started this project, I had never used Javascript. I used various tutorials on Apps Script documentation site to learn about Apps Script and discovered that a good starting point was the Simple Mail Merge Google Apps Script tutorial. The workflow of managing an event was relatively simple but required integration with various services such as Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Forms and Sites. Below is a description of how we used Apps Script to automate these tasks.

1. Event Registration Email

Whenever an attendee registers for an event, we need to send a customised confirmation email. This script is based on the Simple Mail Merge Google Apps Script tutorial code and we use an onFormSubmit trigger to automatically run the script to email registration confirmation to delegates when they submit a registration form. Mail Services in Apps Script are used to send these emails.

2. Event Page in Sites

The ‘Create Event Page’ script is invoked by the facilitator to create an event page (using Apps Script Sites Services) in the MemberSpace using one of three page templates depending on the event type. Should any event details change, this script can be run again to delete the original page and create a new one with the amended details.

3. Calendar entry in Events Calendar

Once the event page has been created, the organiser creates an entry in the calendar by running the ‘Create Calendar Entry’ script which generates a calendar entry containing a link to the previously created event page in the MemberSpace. This script uses Apps Script Calendar Services.

4. Email confirmation / joining instructions

A week or so before the event takes place, joining instructions are sent to delegates using a menu option from the original spreadsheet. This runs a slightly modified version of the email script used in step 1.

5. Event Announcement in Sites

Finally, the organiser can ‘announce’ the event by running the ‘Announce Event’ script which places an announcement in the MemberSpace News page. (Actually, there are three ‘Special Interest Group’ News pages and one ‘General’ News page which are merged - by a time trigger driven script - into a single announcements stream that can subscribed to using a Site Services script the basis of which can be found here.)

Performing the above tasks manually may seem simple or trivial but it can be time consuming and error prone. By using Apps Script, we have implemented event management functionality that allows us to manage events in a standardised way.

Posted by Phil Ridout, independent consultant

News - Recovery of Deleted Sites

In a recent update by Google, Google Sites receives a bit more attention with a small utility for deleted sites. I never deleted a Google Site in the first place, but I bet if I wanted to get it back I'd be frantic.

Scheduled Release track features update 4/12/11

Released on 4/12/2011

Google Sites:
Recovery of deleted sites. If an owner of a site accidentally deletes a site, it will be immediately removed from view but they may recover it by visiting its URL within 30 days.

Release track:
Scheduled*

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

For more information:
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/fixing-little-things.html
About Calendar Labs
http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/2011/04/accidentally-delete-site-owners-can-now.html

*Scheduled Release track: Domains with ‘Enable scheduled releases’ checkbox enabled in the administrator control panel. Learn more

Google Sites Survey Available!

Google is now accepting surveys for Google Sites. If you log in to http://sites.google.com, in bold red font in the upper right of the browser it says "New - Take our Survey." This survey is specifically for Google Sites and contains some wonderful response fields for feedback related to most aspects of using Google Sites, including appearance.

Take the Survey - Grade Google Sites

Google Sites designers, please take your time to submit this quick survey - it even contains paragraph fields for what you like and don't like about Google Sites (I wrote a lot, believe me). I suggested Javascript support, mouse-over image support, Slider/Slide Deck support, Column Width customization, and more.

What will you write? What do you love/hate about Google Sites. Comments encouraged! Thanks folks.

Google Sites and Google Apps Scripts

Released on 3/15/2011

More integration between Google Sites and Google Apps Scripts is now available with a new Apps Scripts gadget. This allows more complex workflows and custom applications to be built into your Google Site.

Release track:
Rapid*

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Sites

How to access what's new:
- When editing a site, select ‘Insert’ then ‘Apps Script gadget’ to add an existing script to the page.

For more information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/03/build-applications-in-sites-using-apps.html

*Rapid Release track: Domains with ‘Enable scheduled releases’ checkbox disabled in the administrator control panel. Learn more

News - Google Engage

Google announced a new service to webmasters, an important tool to acquire new clients.  That new program is called Google Engage.

Use Adwords to help you and your clients

I applied for this program and was accepted, meaning I had at my disposal training on Google Adwords (online advertising) and a lot of Adword's coupons to divvy out to my clients ($2,000 worth!)  Why is this cool?  Diversity of services gives a competitive advantage.  Not only can you sell your client a website, but you can help them along with selling their product or services.  It is a sort of value-addition to my proposals ($100 coupon for Adwords seems like a nice gesture).

So, I applied for the program, the application was easy enough and they (Google) says they will call you, which they did.  I received a call from a nice woman who asked a couple questions and even said my Google Sites websites looked nice.

Ooooo, Google badge of honor

I took four 20 minute courses.  Now I can help setup my client's Adwords account and help them advertise.  It's like being an advertising consultant, pretty neat.  Now, it is obvious where Google is benefiting here; basically you're an informal salesman of Google.  They can even get you certified as their partner (that's a nice looking accreditation).

We hope Engage will help businesses that offer web services in attracting new clients and in adding value to existing clients. Check out Google Engage today and learn about the benefits the program can offer your business and the SMBs you support.

See links below for more information:
Google Engage for US Businesses
Google Engage for UK Businesses

News - Google Science Fair Uses Google Sites

Google has its own science fair, who knew.  And that's great but, how does this relate to Google Sites?  Well, students, budding scientists, what have you, are submitting their projects via a Google Sites website...very cool.  Cool because I like when Google Sites receives exposure, it gives me that nice feeling of affirmation that just because upgrades are slow doesn't mean that Google Sites if off the radar.  This is a quote from the post, which I'll be adding the news archive:

"To enter, register online and create your project as a Google Site. Registration is open through April 4, 2011. Please note: you must get parental or guardian consent in order to compete. You can check out the complete rules here. After April 4, we’ll begin judging and will announce our semi-finalists in early May."

Google Sites as a vehicle for a project, this is a trend we've seen a lot, especially in the educational sphere.  I'll search "Google Sites" on twitter and see a whole bunch of teachers requiring students to submit projects as websites.  I think that's great that kids are not only thinking outside the box, but creating outside the box.  GS is just a great creative medium.  So here another snippet from the post:

"Here's an example of a great science fair project site to inspire you. We asked Tesca, a U.S. high school senior from Oregon, to create it for us based on an award-winning project she’s been working on for years. Tesca’s objective is to make hospitals more efficient using artificial intelligence—a world-changing goal, to be sure."

What can we learn from this Google Site example?  Not much really to be honest.  Here's my analysis:

• Extremely stark, simple background
• Good use of images as links
• Text links at the footer (good idea I plan to use)
• Blank Slate theme with left-side alignment, uses percentage width instead of set pixel site width.

Maybe next time I'll have a real news item, maybe.