Google's multi-tenant infrastructure allows us to launch new features to our customers seamlessly, and with over 50 launches in first half of this year alone, the pace of innovation in Google Apps continues to accelerate. Today we keep up the innovation with several new updates in Google Sites and Google Docs. We've improved Google Sites with several highly-requested features including horizontal navigation, global footers, and a new section for deleted items.

Editor's Note: We invited Kyle Swafford, Director of IT Services for Bergelectric, to share the story of Bergelectric's evaluation of Google Apps and Microsoft BPOS-S and their subsequent migration from Novell Groupwise to Google Apps using Google Apps Authorized Reseller SADA Systems, Inc. Since our founding in 1946, Bergelectric Corporation has provided electrical contracting on thousands of construction projects for clients such as Phoenix International Raceway,

Most every business, including ours, starts small . These days, technology is giving businesses even more ways to grow bigger... faster. In our recent Small Business series on the Official Google Blog, a handful of real-life entrepreneurs have shared their experiences building companies from scratch and embracing Internet tools that have taken their businesses to the next level. We've received fantastic feedback about these posts,

We're pleased to announce the release of new imagery data across the globe within Google Earth Pro . International coverage is a key feature in this release, including parts of Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, India, and China, to name a few. See the crowds gathering for an soccer match in Johannesburg, or marvel at the rapidly-changing Shanghai skyline. The United States imagery updates feature key urban sites, such as Boston, San Francisco, El Paso, Des Moines, and Portland,

Editor's note: The spam data cited in this post is drawn from the network of Google email security and archiving services, powered by Postini, which processes more than 3 billion email messages per day in the course of providing email security to more than 50,000 businesses and 18 million business users. Spam and virus volumes this year have continued their upward trend. Q2'10 has seen a sharp 16% increase in spam volume over Q1'10.

Earlier this year we announced support for mobile device security policies in Google Apps to help administrators manage iPhone, Nokia, and Windows Mobile devices from the Google Apps control panels. These policies let employees access information from their phones while helping administrators keep corporate data more secure. Today, we are announcing new mobile device management options for Google Apps administrators.

Editor's note: Today's guest bloggers are Aaron McCarthy, IT Director for Limbach Facility Services, Cristine Leifheit, Team Lead. McCarthy and Leifheit recently spearheaded the move to Google Apps for Limbach's 500 employees. A mechanical contractor founded in 1901, Limbach Facility Services switched from Lotus Notes®/Domino® to "Go Google" and gain 25GB mailboxes and built-in disaster recovery capabilities at no extra charge.

We're right in the middle of football fever worldwide and as the number of competing teams dwindles, the interest is only growing. Of course, many of these eyeballs around the world are turning to FIFA.com to get the latest scores, updates, and analysis. Given the traffic flowing through FIFA.com, FIFA understands the importance of search on their website. Indeed, according to a recent independent Forrester Research, Inc. report,

Google Docs is designed for collaboration from the ground up. You've always been able to share documents with individuals and groups, and today we're making it even easier to share and control access to your files across your organization. The new features include the ability to: Easily apply sharing settings to a doc â€" Google Docs can now be identified as: Private : Private docs are accessible only to people or groups you've explicitly invited to the file.

Editor's note: Continuing our "Going Google Everywhere" series, we've invited Sheila Garrison and Kristin Heaton-Peabody, co-founders of Hiatus Spa + Retreat, to explain how Google Apps helped them launch and grow their socially conscious spa in Dallas, Texas. Learn more about other organizations that have gone Google on our community map . Pictured: Hiatus Spa + Retreat co-founders Kristin Heaton-Peabody and Sheila Garrison Our business, Hiatus Spa + Retreat ,

People often ask us what it really means to go Google â€" how it will impact their business and productivity? What are the actual savings? To answer some of those questions, we've built a little tool we're calling the Go Google cloud calculator that lets you explore your potential savings in an easy-to-understand way. Once you find out your results, the tool can also create a custom URL , presentation PDF ,

Collaboration is at the heart of the modern workspace, yet many businesses still run cumbersome client-side software that makes it unnecessarily difficult to work together. With Google Docs, coworkers can collaborate in real-time on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and drawings. Instead of creating a document, sending it as an attachment, receiving multiple revisions, and then having to merge edits,

Customers often tell us how much their users love Google Maps. They love the friendly blue of the oceans, the easy-to-read labels of cities, and the solid yellow of the roads. But maybe you're a rebel â€" someone who wants the roads to look YOUR way. Or perhaps your corporate branding clashes with the standard version of cities and streets. You'd love to change the colors on the map, or adjust the details your customers see. If that's you, we have good news.

One of our most popular feature requests has been to add autocompletion of queries to Google Site Search . In recent months, many top websites have begun to provide search suggestions as you type, an innovative feature users are coming to expect as part of a quality search experience. Today, we announced at Google I/O that you can now enable query autocompletions for your search engine. Travelocity.

Google Apps is built for the web, with open standards and APIs that enable our customers to extend and integrate Google's expanding suite of web-based applications with other services â€" whether those services are offered by software vendors through the Google Apps Marketplace or built by their own IT departments. Today,

I'm delighted to announce the launch of Google Maps API Premier v3 today, which includes the functionality you've put to use in v2 plus new features that Premier partners have requested, including: Support for mobile browsers such as Android and iPhone Optimized routing Support for custom Street View imagery Support for mobile browsers We started last year completely rebuilding the Maps API in order to dramatically increase performance, especially on mobile browsers.

Editor's note: Every now and then we like to showcase innovative uses of Google Maps and Earth. Today we're excited to welcome Don Rescigno, who is the Director of Marketing for NYSTROM Herff Jones Education, which has implemented the Google Earth and Maps API into educational software to make learning more interactive. School Maps & Globes 2.

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of posts on new apps in the Google Apps Marketplace that have caught our eye here at Google. We'll do this every couple weeks or so. Look for the label "marketplace highlights" and subscribe to the series. Businesses that use Google Apps not only get access to Google's applications, they also get easy access to some of the best business apps on the web through the Google Apps Marketplace.

The data that powers API features like the map tiles, geocoding, and driving directions has been updated in Canada! The new base map in Canada will have expanded features such as more detailed water bodies, university campuses, zipcode coverage, and a shorter feedback cycle for Maps updates â€" all leading to better, more accurate maps for employees and customers.

Join the Google Postini team on March 23, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. PDT for a live webinar addressing "Why Cloud-Based Security and Archiving Make Sense." This interactive session will explore the growing requirements for email security and email archiving and the benefits and cost savings available when companies bring these services to the cloud. Learn about: best-in-class practices, including results from recent research, presented by Michael Osterman,