If you’re like other managers, you sit down each morning, turn the computer on and check your email, and continue to check it throughout the day, often receiving up to 100 messages or more. Over a year, that’s 365,000 emails, and if you use Gmail, all of them are sitting in your inbox creating a bit of an unorganized mess, and you probably don’t have the time to clean it up.

Here’s how you can quickly organize your inbox using Labels, filters and archive. What are Labels and filters? Many users are used to storing their documents and information in file folders on hard drives. The same goes for email, they want to be able to put emails into folders for organization purposes. With Gmail, you have the inbox and other folders provided by Google, but you can’t add more. Google’s solution to this is Labels.

Labels essentially replace a file system by following the same idea as a filing system with an added benefit. As with files, you can sort and and store emails using Labels. Unlike files, you can attach different Labels to the same email, allowing you to organize, and easily search for emails that might fit into different categories.

Filters allow you to tell Gmail what you want it to do with emails from a specific sender. You can set up a filter that tells Gmail to apply an urgent Label to emails from a certain client, or to send Facebook notifications to archive without the email going to your inbox.

How to create and apply Labels To create a Label:

1. Open Gmail, and from the main screen press the Labels button, located above the center panel and below the search bar.
2. Click Create New.
3. Enter the name you’d like to apply. If you click Nest label under, this will put the Label in an already established Label. i.e., in Reply Later.

To apply a Label to an email you can either:

• Select an email by clicking on it so it changes color. Click on the Labels button above the email pane, and select the Label name from the dropdown list. Or,
• Select a Label from the left hand side of the window and drag it to the email you want to apply the Label to.

When you apply a Label to an email, you’ll see the Label’s name in the subject of your email. You can change the color and characteristics of a Label by clicking on the arrow beside the Labels’ name on the left hand side of the window. How to apply filters When combined with Labels, filters are a great way to rapidly organize an out of control inbox, or ensure future emails go to the right place. You can apply filters to an email by:

1. Selecting the email you’d like to filter and clicking on More above the email pane.
2. Clicking Filter messages like these from the drop down menu.
3. Entering the information in the window that pops up. There are numerous options on how you’d like to filter email. For example, you can set Gmail to filter all emails with the subject line: “Complaint.”
4. Pressing Create filter with this search. A new window will pop up with options on what you want Gmail to do with email with the previous info. You’ll notice that in the background, Gmail has listed all the emails with the info you entered from step 3. If you’d like Gmail to apply the same filter to all related emails, press the button besideCreate Filter.
5. Pressing Create Filter.

When you do this, all related emails will receive the same filter. Explore the options a bit, and come up with a system that fits you, there’s thousands of options to choose from. If you make a mistake, simply select the email and press the Gear Icon (above the email pane) and select Settings followed by Filters. You’ll be given a list of filters and can select to either edit or delete.

To the archives! To go one step further in your "clean the inbox campaign", you can add a filter option to Send Directly to Archive. This will tell Gmail to archive all related emails so you can look at them at a later date. You can also archive emails individually by selecting them and pressing the button that has a file with an arrow pointing down on it, located above the email pane.

The emails will be moved out of your inbox, and into the archive folder, so don’t worry when they disappear. You can view what you have moved by pressing All mail on the left hand side of the window. If you can’t see it, press more. When you press All mail, you’ll notice your inbox will now be showing every email. If you’ve applied a Label to archived emails, you can also view them by clicking on the Label name on the left side of the window.

By using these three methods, you can organize your inbox making it easier for you to find important information without having to scroll through thousands of emails. If you’d like to learn more interesting Gmail features, please contact us.

Search engines generally match results with seperate keywords. If you search for “computer monitor” using Google, the words will be treated as separate and results will be returned for both computers and monitors. This can be frustrating when you search for something and the results aren't what you're looking for. To make searches more accurate, Google has introduced Knowledge Graph.

Knowledge Graph is Google’s attempt to make search results more relevant to the initial queries - what was entered in the search bar. If you type in an ambiguous term like “flames” which could mean fire, software or a sports team, Google will return results on all things related to flames, leaving you to wade through results to find what you need. With Knowledge Graph, Google will intuit what you mean and provide the relevant information.

For now, Knowledge Graph results will show up as a pane to the right of the search results field and will show up when things, people or places are searched for. According to Google this means, “landmarks, celebrities, cities, sports teams, buildings, geographical features, movies, celestial objects, works of art and more.” When you search for something in one of these categories, Knowledge Graph will try to figure out what you’re searching for, and provide related results and information.

This information comes from a number of sources including Wikipedia, CIA Factbook and freebase, and could change the way we view information. No more having to click on 4-5 different links to get the information we need, a summary of the search topic will be shown in the search results.

At this time Knowledge Graph will be available for American English users, and will be rolled out to all users over the coming months. If you’re interested in learning more about Google’s products and how to use them in your business, please contact us.

When Google first released its word processing application, Google Docs, it was a bit plain; little more than an online word processor with extremely basic features. It was a great choice for internal collaboration, but lacked tools to turn it into a word processing powerhouse. Google has introduced a new feature, Research, that makes Docs a more competitive tool.

In order to help make people more productive, Google Docs has a new feature called Research. Say you’re developing a flyer for a new product and need to know if a quote you’ve just used is accurate. Normally you’d have to open another browser tab and search for the quote. With Research, you can simply highlight the quote, right click and select Research. A pane will open on the right side of the document with the search results.

Hover your mouse over a result for a second, and you’ll notice three options: Preview, Inert link and Cite. Clicking Preview will open another pane with a preview of the website. Selecting Insert link will turn your selection into a hyperlink. If you press Cite, a citation will be added to the footnote of the document. To add a picture or map to your document, simply drag the picture over and it’ll be added along with an attribution to the source of the image.

If you don’t see the Research pane on your document, press Ctrl+Alt+R on Windows and Command+Option+R on Mac. You can also select Tools followed by Research from the bar under the title of the document.

Research is a great tool that could make you more efficient. If you’re interested in learning more about other features of Google Docs, please contact us. We’d be happy to help you.

One of the greatest features of the Internet is that it gives businesses the ability to connect and interact with not only their existing customers, but potential customers as well. The one downside is that they only interact digitally, and customers can’t get a feel for the business. A new service from Google, Business Photos, is a 360 degree step in the right direction.

The main idea behind Business Photos is to provide customers with a 360 degree view of your business. The images will feature prominently on your Google Places page, as an option in street view for maps and in Google search results.

How does Business Photos work? At this time, you’ll need to hire a Trusted Photographer - a photographer Google has vetted - to come to your business and take photos. You can do this by going to the website, selecting and contacting a photographer in your area that Google has vetted. They’ll come to your business and give you a quote on how much it’ll cost to take the pictures. They set their own prices, so rates should be competitive.

When the photographer has taken the pictures, they’ll upload them and Google will post the completed panoramas within a few days. The downside to this is that you don’t have control over the final images, and won’t be able to review them before they are put online. You can ask Google to blur out images, or completely remove them.

Is this for my business? If your business is highly integrated with Google’s services, then this is a great feature that could really help you connect with your customers, while gaining exposure. If you’re worried about security, it may not be the best service for you, as this will really open up your organization.

If you’re interested in learning more about Business Photos, or other ways Google’s apps can help gain your business exposure, please contact us, we are happy to help.

If you do a lot of emailing, you probably have to give the same response over and over again. Re-typing the same thing can get a bit tiring, not to mention take up precious time. The most common solution for this is to develop a standard response. Gmail has a feature - Canned Responses - that allows you to do just that.

Canned Responses are a form of template that you can use to quickly reply to common emails. This feature is useful if you find yourself short of time and having to give the same reply numerous times e.g., inquiries about service hours.

How to set up Canned Responses in Gmail To set up Canned Responses:

1. Open Gmail in your browser and click on the Gear image beside your picture in the black bar at the top of the window.
2. Select Labs. If you don’t see Labs, select Mail Settings followed by Labs, located in the white bar at the top of the window that opens.
3. Scroll down to Canned Responses and select Enable. Navigate to the bottom of the page and select Save Changes. The page will refresh, and Canned Responses will be enabled.
4. Click Compose and enter a response in the text-body of the email. Don’t hit send.
5. Locate Canned Responses below the Subject line. Select New Canned Response from the menu that drops down. Enter a name for the response.

To use the response you’ve just set up, click on Canned Responses and select the response from the dropdown menu. Note: pick the response from under Insert(in grey). To edit a response, simply follow steps four and five above, instead of selecting New canned response, select the name of the response you’d like to edit from the Save sub-header.

If you spend a lot of time answering the same email and would like to save a bit of time, Canned Responses are a good idea. Just be sure to be judicious in their use, if the email is in response to a serious situation, best not to use one. For more tips and tricks on Google’s products, please contact us.

For many Gen-Y who have grown up with the Internet, searching for something online is second nature. That doesn’t mean, however, that they are all search wizards. In fact they are probably just as effective at finding information as any other employee. What they do know, is how to use Google search to more easily find desired results.

Here are seven tips to help you Google like an expert.

• Exact phrase. If you’re looking for a specific topic, Mobile Internet for example, it’s easier to put the search into quotations i.e., “Mobile Internet”. This will tell Google to return results that match the words.
• Exclude words. When you conduct searches for general information, you’ll often get unwanted results. Let’s say you are looking for marketing information and don’t want results that have the term “sales” in them. Type in Marketing -Sales, and Google will return marketing results without sales. Note: don’t have a space between - and the term you want to exclude.
• Search similar. If you’re looking for a topic and would also like to search for similar words, put a ~ in your search. e.g., “~Business”. Google will return business results as well as results for synonyms.
• Search between dates. To find results for something over a period of time put the dates separated by “..” (two periods) e.g., “1999 ..2012”
• Wildcard search. A wildcard is used to substitute a word in your search. Google has designated * as the wild card. When you enter a wildcard, Google will essentially fill in the blank.
• Define:. For words you don’t know the meaning of, you can have the definition comeback as the number one result by entering “define: word”.
• Think like a website. It’s best to not ask questions when you’re searching for something. Rather, look for the results. If have back pain and enter, “My back hurts. What’s a good pain reliever?” You’ll find the result, but it may take a few pages of searching. You should instead enter: “Back pain reliever”.

With these search methods you’ll be able to find the information you want quicker. For more tips on how to use Google Search, and other Google apps, to their maximum potential please contact us.

Google recently released its cloud storage app, Google Drive. In a market with over 10 direct competitors, Google faces some tough competition. Users have been chomping at the bit to get their hands on the service and see if it really cuts the mustard. The release brought with it some interesting features that took many users by surprise.

Google Drive is being billed as a cloud storage app that focuses on collaboration and storage, and can be divided into three layers: Web, mobile and desktop.

Layer one: Web browser This is Google Drive’s hub, where the majority of users will be accessing and editing their files. The big shocker is that Google Docs has been rolled into Drive. Your docs and other files will now be synced, stored and accessed here. Think of it as a beefier, more enhanced version of Docs.

If your business uses Google Docs, you’ll be happy to know that the collaboration tools have been migrated over. If you use Google Chrome, you can also install apps and edit files right in Drive, instead of having to download and edit them as you would with other storage services.

Layer two: Mobile app The second layer is the mobile app. Android users already have access to the mobile app and if they had the Google Docs app already installed, they should have been notified of the update. Users of the mobile app can access and create or edit most docs as they would on the other layers.

There are currently two negative aspects to the mobile app. The first is that you can’t do any major housekeeping via the app. You can’t move files from one collection to another or start a new collection. All that will have to be done via the browser for now. The other downside is that the app is only available for Android users at this time. It will be coming to iOS devices in the near future.

Layer three: Desktop You can install the app on your Mac or PC and when you do, there’ll be a folder on your desktop that functions like your hard drive. You then drag and drop files from your computer into the folder which are then synced with the other layers.

At this time, any files from Google Docs won’t be downloaded onto your hard drive. When clicked, they’ll open in Google Chrome or your default browser.

The Cost of Google Drive Individual users of the service will get 5GB of storage for free and will be able to buy additional space for a monthly fee. For businesses who use Google Apps for Business, each user will get 5GB free, and administrators can buy extra storage space, up to 16TB, for a monthly fee.

Overall, Drive is a competitive service for users of Google’s apps and offers some great features that makes it competitive with other cloud storage services. If you’d like to learn more about how your business can integrate Google Drive and other apps from Google, please call us.

Sci-fi has a weird habit of becoming reality. Google has been doing their part to help make fantasy very real, and recently announced a new project focused on integrating the usefulness of the smartphone with the functionality of glasses. This could very well be the next big evolution in the way we communicate and interact with our surroundings.

On April 4, 2012 Google revealed a project called Google Glass, their take on augmented reality glasses, through a video on YouTube. This announcement was made by a team that’s part of the Google[x] lab. Google[x] is an almost covert division, focused on developing technology for the future.

It looks like the glasses will take the main functions of your smartphone - Call, Social Media, Pictures, Day-Planner and GPS - and display them on a glass lens that covers your right eye. Think of a pair of glasses missing the left lens, and you’ll get the picture. This seems like something right out of sci-fi movies from the 80s, but numerous sources, including some from Google, have stated that the first version will be released sometime in the next couple of years.

Undoubtedly the glasses will run on a new version of Android, and from the video one can determine that they will use a hybrid of voice and vision to operate. Most of the functionality of your smartphone will be on the lens. Want to know what the weather will be like for the rest of the day? Look up and the lens will present with the temperature and forecast. The video also showed the wearer come across some graffiti he thought was cool, and with his voice he instructed the taking of a picture to be shared with his circles on Google+.

What does this mean for businesses? As the glasses are still in development it’s hard to say conclusively, but businesses who already have a Google + or Google Places profile will benefit as it appears both services are heavily integrated with the platform. The possibilities on how companies could use this technology are endless. We’ve all seen movies with characters using a similar technology and now Google is bringing it one step closer to reality.

If you’re as interested in Google Glass as we are, or have questions regarding Google’s other products please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’ll be more than happy to talk with you.

Google Docs, one of the more popular office suites, offers the usual work-based programs, including their version of MS Excel: Google Spreadsheet. Most would agree that a spreadsheet program is something that all managers couldn't live without, yet few have truly mastered such programs due to the relative complexity of some functions. We’re here to help make Spreadsheet a bit easier with some interesting tips.

Spreadsheet is simple and straightforward, but sometimes it appears to be a little too plain. There are however a large amount of incredibly useful features hidden away. Here are a few:

=GoogleFinance: This function provides you with practical options including the ability to convert currency and track stocks. The standard formula is=GoogleFinance(“Symbol”, “Attribute”) Where Symbol is the stock symbol and Attribute is what you would like to follow e.g., price.

You can also use this function for currency rates and conversions. If you want to know what the current exchange rate is between the Canadian Dollar and the US Dollar put: =GoogleFinance(“CADUSD”) to get the current exchange rate. Like stocks, this will be updated whenever the exchange rate changes. For a full list of =GoogleFinance functions check out this page.

Translate a cell: From time to time you may get a spreadsheet that contains more than one language. Usually you would have to send it back to the author for translation, which could take more time than anticipated. Did you know that you can get Google to translate a cell from one language to another? In an empty cell enter: =GoogleTranslate(CELL, “Source Language”, “ Target Language”) Where: CELL is the cell you want to translate; Source Language is the language the cell is currently in; Target language is the language you’d like to translate into. For the languages you have to use the two letter ISO 639-2 language codes.

Split a Cell: If you want to create a table that has the days of the week in columns you can easily do so. In the first cell enter: =Split(“Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday”, “ “) Spreadsheet will automatically put the days into separate columns. To spread data out in a row enter: =transpose(Split(“Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday”, “ “)). Be sure to have spaces between the data you want in different cells, and a space between the quotation marks at the end of the function.

Concatenate: This function acts as the opposite of =Split. If you have data in a number of cells you want to bring together e.g., data in cells A2, A5, A6, B7, enter =concatenate(A2, A5, A6, B7) The data will be put into one cell.

There are many more handy functions out there that will make your life easier and take some of the work out of spreadsheet creation. If you have any questions regarding Spreadsheet, Google Docs or other Google Apps please let us know, we are happy to help.

Gmail has become one of the most used email applications in the world. To many users’ dismay, there was a recent update to Gmail’s layout - a new look that was echoed across Google’s entire platform. Users were given the option of keeping the old layout, keeping the look and feel to what they were used to, but that’s all about to change.

Google recently announced some bad news for those who decided to opt-out of the new look: starting March 27, 2012 users will be migrated to the new look, whether they like it or not. For those who are about to move over, or are confused by Gmail’s new look, you are not alone - here’s some information on Gmail’s new look.

The Layout When you log into your Gmail account for the first time after the changes have been implemented, you will notice the layout has changed slightly. Across the top of the window is a black bar with a number of different Google apps, and your account name on the top right. Gone is the sign out button. Well, that’s a lie, if you click on your account name, a drop-down window will open, with sign out button at the bottom.

When you log into Gmail, on the left you will notice your mail folders, e.g., Inbox, and Google chat below your mail folders. If you press and hold the grey bar between the two you can shrink or expand the two areas, depending on your preference. Your emails will be in the centre of the screen with new emails in white, and opened emails in gray. Google has actually stopped calling emails, “emails”, and now calls them conversations. The people who are involved in each conversation are listed above the subject line. You’ll often see a (#) beside the participants, this means that there are multiple emails in the conversation.

When you click on a conversation, it’ll open with a preview of the first message, and the latest message at the bottom. If there are more than five emails in the conversation, you’ll see a number of lines between the oldest and newest. These are the other emails that have come between the first and newest conversation, and if you click on the lines, the other emails will open.

The Toolbar Above your emails you will notice a number of icons:

• A blank square: This is the Select Options button. If you click on the similar looking box beside an email you will notice the email has been selected. You can press this button to get a drop-down menu, with options regarding the conversation you have selected, and tell Gmail what you want to do with the selected conversations.
• A file with an arrow: This is the Archive button. If you have conversations that are junk or unimportant you can select them by clicking on the blank square beside each one, and then clicking this button. It will archive the emails, cleaning up your inbox, but not deleting the conversations, more file them away to be forgotten about, much like a real filing cabinet.
• A stop sign with an !: This is the Report Spam button. If you think a conversation is spam, select it and press this button. You will be presented with a number of options including getting Gmail to try to unsubscribe you from the sender’s email list.
• A trash can: This isn’t Oscar’s home on Sesame Street, it’s the Delete button. Select conversations you’d like to get rid of, and press the button.
• A black folder: This button is Move To. Select conversations you’d like to move out of your inbox, and like a good friend, Google will help you move them.
• A Tag: This is the Tag button. You can select conversations, press tag and mark them for followup, or other options. This is useful for organizing your conversation to-do-list.
• The Cog: The button that has a cog in it is Settings. If you press it, a drop-down menu will open with options to change the layout. Play around with it and pick the one that suits you best. You can also access your account settings from here.

A New Search Box At first glance, the search box, located above the icons, is your standard Google search bar, much the same as google.com. But if you click the arrow beside it, you’ll get a drop-down menu filled with advanced search options that will help you wade through the tons of emails we all get. If that’s not enough, there’s an option to create a filter based on the search results.

The new changes can take a while to get used to, but once you do, you’ll find that the new Gmail is quite useful and maybe even better looking. If you have any questions regarding Gmail or other Google apps please let us know, we are here to help.