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,

Editor's Note: This post is the first in a three-part series on the benefits of Google Apps' cloud-computing architecture . "Cloud computing" has become a trendy buzzword, and some traditional technology vendors are even using the term though their solutions are still rooted in legacy architectures. In this three-part series, I'll share how Google's multi-tenant,

Editor's Note: Today's guest author is A.J. Clark, President of Thermopylae Sciences and Technology, which helps developers build new applications with the Google Earth browser plug-in on Google Earth Enterprise through the iSpatial framework. A.J. works on the visualization, analysis, and dissemination of disaster/post-conflict data with a focus on emerging technologies that support participatory,

Earlier this week, we launched the Google Apps Marketplace , an online storefront for Google Apps that makes it easy for domain admins to discover, purchase and deploy integrated business applications. JIRA Studio , a hosted software development suite from Atlassian, was one of 50 apps available at launch and is now available for trial or purchase in the Marketplace. But even before the launch, one team put the Google Apps and JIRA combination to the test: theStartupBus.com .

If your company runs a website, you already know the importance of search engine marketing and optimization. But are you confident that your website is providing the very best user experience possible? If you haven't added or improved your search function yet, you could be missing out on conversions, sales, and repeat visits. Next week, we're hitting the road to help spread the message about Google Commerce Search and Google Site Search .

The Google Developer team will be live streaming an important announcement about Google Apps this evening. Tune in on the Google Developers YouTube channel tonight at 6:00 p.m. PST to watch. Enjoy the show! Posted by Chris Kelly,

Today the Gmail team introduced Google Buzz , a new feature that lets individuals share links, photos, and other updates with their network of contacts â€" or with the whole world â€" right within Gmail. Google Buzz helps people kick off conversations around information that people find mutually interesting. Within a few months, we also plan to make Google Buzz available to businesses and schools using Google Apps, with added features for sharing within your organization.

Today, we're introducing a new feature for Google Postini Services: Message Log Search. This feature delivers the search and analysis capabilities normally available with on-premise solutions, but without the associated complexity or maintenance. When messages pass through the Postini service, header and transaction data about these messages is stored in a log. Previously, admins only had access to this data through customer support. With the Message Log Search feature,

​The web has evolved in the last ten years, from simple text pages to rich, interactive applications including video and voice. Unfortunately, very old browsers cannot run many of these new features effectively. So to help ensure your business can use the latest, most advanced web apps, we encourage you to update your browsers as soon as possible. There are many choices: Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0+ Mozilla Firefox 3.0+ Google Chrome 4.0+ Safari 3.

As you may have heard from our announcement yesterday , registration for Google I/O is now open! This year's Google I/O will focus on building the next generation of applications in the cloud, using Google products like App Engine, Google Web Toolkit, and Google APIs, with particular emphasis on Android, Chrome, and Enterprise. Here are just a couple of Enterprise sessions that are already listed on the I/O website )many more are in the works!

Many corporations and consumers regularly come under cyber attack, and Google is no exception. We recently detected a cyber attack targeting our infrastructure and that of at least 20 other publicly listed companies. This incident was particularly notable for its high degree of sophistication. We believe Google Apps and related customer data were not affected by this incident. Please read more about our public response on the Official Google Blog .

Editor's Note: Ming Yong is co-founder of Socialwok, a a feed-based group collaboration application for enterprises that integrates with Google Apps. With Socialwok, Google Apps users can create their own private social network to share Google Docs, Calendars and Spreadsheets in feeds for their domains. Ming and his team built Socialwok on Google App Engine for Java , Google Web Toolkit and Google GData APIs . James Hollow is President of Alien-Eye,

In July we announced that the Google OpenID Federated Login API has been extended to Google Apps accounts used by businesses, schools, and other organizations. The service is important not only to individuals, who can now use their single Google Apps Account to sign in to a variety of websites without sharing credentials, but also to the organizations themselves, who increasingly rely on multiple Software as a Service )SaaS( solutions from different vendors.

Editor's Note: In October, the City of Los Angeles â€" the second largest city in the United States â€" decided to switch its email to Google, a decision supported in a unanimous vote by the Los Angeles City Council. We've invited Randi Levin, Chief Technology Officer for the City of Los Angeles and general manager of the city's Information Technology Agency, to provide more insight into the reasons behind this decision. Los Angeles is going Google.

Thousands of administrators visit the Google Apps Help Forum every day in need of advice and technical knowledge. The heart and soul of this community are known as the Google Apps Power Posters: LMckin51 , Jim McNelis , jlee , ScienceMan , Benjamin , FrankM , Ingraye , Anurag Bhatia , DLW, and Amit . These superstars volunteer their valuable time freely to provide their expertise and share their knowledge of Google Apps with users on the Help Forum.

Editor's Note: We're pleased to welcome guest blogger Peter Herrmann , solution architect, Information Technology Department, at Mortgage Choice Limited. Peter led the development of the business case to switch Mortgage Choice to Google, and is project manager and tech lead for the organization-wide deployment of Google Apps. Peter has been working with Mortgage Choice for eight years and has been involved with IT strategy, consulting to internal business units,

In August, we asked you share your your stories about why you or your company decided to "go Google" â€" in another words, switch to Google Apps or any of our other enterprise services. We were excited to see your tweets about going Google, feedback about our products, and even a few photos of our billboards. Over 2 million companies and 20 million users have now gone Google with Apps, and today, we're expanding our messages to train stations, business publications,

Today we announced significant changes to Google Maps base map data in the US. Read the details on what's new on the LatLong blog, here . If you're a Google Maps API Premier customer, the Geo Developer blog has all the info you nee d regarding this change and the Maps API for your business. The new base map will have expanded features, and a shorter feedback cycle for Maps updates â€" all leading to better, more accurate maps for employees and customers.

Do you know how much your email system is costing you? More than just the necessary hardware and software systems, email also requires substantial time and money for maintenance and upkeep. In-house email calls for patches, precautions to maintain high availability and disaster recovery, and the never-ending work it takes to secure and protect email from spam, phishing, and malware. In a September 2009 study ,