Gmail

PACKAGING giant Visy will migrate about 5000 users to Google Apps, the Internet giant's productivity suite, as it replaces Microsoft enterprise-wide.

Visy will join a cohort of four million businesses globally that have adopted Apps, according to Google Enterprise global vice-president Amit Singh.

Google Apps is a cloud-based productivity suite that includes Gmail, Docs and Calendar. Last week, the company showcased how Google Apps could even be accessed in offline mode.

Google are always trying to make it easier for people to connect - whether that means sending an email, chatting or video chatting, you can reach the people you care about from right inside Gmail. Last year, Google made it possible for those of you in the U.S. to call any mobile phone or land line directly from Gmail and starting today, this will be available to many more of you who use Gmail outside the U.S. by offering calling in 38 new languages.

As you may know, Box recently announced a new integration that allows all users to take advantage of Google Docs right from their Box account. If you spend your work day creating and editing lots of content, using this new feature will make your job a breeze, since you can use Google Docs’ robust features to do all your editing instead of fussing with constant uploads and downloads.

Earlier this year, Google introduced a security feature called 2-step verification that helps protect your Google Account from threats like password compromise and identity theft. By entering a one-time verification code from your phone after you type your password, you can make it much tougher for an unauthorised person to gain access to your account.

Over the years, Gmail's communication abilities have expanded by allowing you to make voice and video calls to other computers and more recently call phones. Until now, though, you were limited to making one call at a time. Today restriction has been relaxed to allow you to make or receive multiple calls in Gmail.

With iGoogle, you can personalise your homepage with the information on the web that’s most useful and relevant to you. You can check email, watch videos, catch up on the latest news, check the weather, and more. One of the most common iGoogle requests Google have been hearing is to update the iGoogle Gmail gadget. Because the Gmail gadget has to share space with other gadgets on the screen, the Gmail experience can be limited to an area not much larger than the size of a business card.

Looking for a better way to track your email communications in Gmail? Google have listened to your suggestions and today they are introducing read receipts as an optional feature for Google Apps for Business customers.

Postini email services help provide Google Apps for Business users access to robust, cloud-based email security, filtering and archiving services. Today, Google are excited to announce their first step in creating a unified Google Apps experience by moving some Postini features directly into the Google Apps for Business administrative interface.

Ever felt like there should be a better way to manage your inbox? There are already lots of different ways: some people read everything, some mark messages they need to take action on with stars, and others like to have their important email separated from the rest automatically - something Gmail started offering last year with Priority Inbox.

Google Apps, along with all of Google, will get a new look over the coming months to make the user interface more focused, elastic and effortless to use. Google continuously improve and seamlessly update their products (there were over 125 new features added to Google Apps last year) and hope that these user interface updates will make features easier to find when you need them and hide them when you don't. Google’s goal is to give you the best possible experience across all Google apps on all of your devices.