Technology to watch - Google Native Client

Google has a new project, called "Google Native Client" that could mean faster, more powerful web applications will soon be possible. Google's Native Client project is a primarily a developer release for now, but the free open source code base looks promising.

There has long been speculation that Google was working on some sort of operating system, but if Native Client is in fact the long-rumor Google OS, then the rumors were only half right. As it turns out Google wasn't working on an OS specifically tailored to its apps, it was working to put every OS on the web.

One of the bottlenecks of the web is that web application code must execute in your browser. That means the speed of web apps like Gmail is limited to what your browser can handle. In other words, it's out of Google's hands. The goal behind Native Client is to allow web developers to build sophisticated web apps that can directly take advantage of the full power of your PC's processor, rather than relying on your web browser as a middle man. At the moment, web apps that want to execute code without the browser as an intermediary use tools like Flash, Silverlight or Java. But Flash and Java are themselves intermediaries, faster than a browser in some cases, but also proprietary and out of Google's control.

The goal of the new Native Client project is to give web developers access to the full power of the client's CPU while maintaining the browser neutrality, OS portability and safety that people expect from web applications. In other words, Google wants to build an open, browser and OS neutral way for web developers to run code directly on your operating system. Native Client apps will be portable both across operating systems and across web browsers, and the plugin itself allows developers to take advantage of high performance operating system-level tools.

However there is need to be cautious as allowing web-based applications to execute code at the OS level is that it opens massive security vulnerabilities. To counter that Google has developed what it calls "very strict rules" about what code can execute in Native Client.

Among the applications that could see a boost from Native Client are online image editing, high definition video sites and sophisticated online games.

http://code.google.com/p/nativeclient/

Setting up Google Apps with free DNS services

What if your domain name is booked with a registrar which has not offered you DNS management (or access to DNS control panel)? Either they do not provide DNS control panel OR unless you buy their hosting they don't give access to DNS control panel. And you are in no mood to invest more and buy additional services.

How you will setup Google Apps for your custom domain in such case?

Well, the answer is in using the free DNS services. in this post we are listing and comparing the free DNS providers.

EditDNS.net: Provides Primary Name server, unlimited free zones, unlimited free records, Records of type (A, AAAA, CName, MX, NS, SRV, TXT), Min TTL 300, SOA Modification allowed, Servers located in (North America - 3), Web forward with or without Cloaking

EveryDNS.net: Provides Primary Name server, 20 free zones, 200 free records, Records of type (A, CName, MX, NS,), Min TTL 120, SOA Modification not allowed, Servers located in (North America - 3 and Europe - 2), Web forward without cloaking

XName.org: Provides Primary Name server, unlimited free zones, unlimited free records, Records of type (A, AAAA, CName, MX, NS, TXT), Min TTL 600, SOA Modification allowed, Servers located in (Europe - 2), Web forward & Cloaking not allowed

ZoneEdit.com: Provides Primary Name server, 5 free zones, unlimited free records, Records of type (A, AAAA, CNAME, LOC, MX, NS, PTR, RP, TXT), Min TTL 1200, SOA Modification allowed, Servers located in (North America - 17, Oceania -1), Web forward with or without Cloaking

ZoneEdit seems to be a better option (although they provide only 5 free domains) as they have multiple servers located in North America.

Present your server-side data in a powerful visual format

Google has publicly released it Google Visualization API. The  Google Visualization API helps developers in embedding visualizations and lets you turn structured data into charts, tables, maps, and more on your page.

What are Visualizations?: Visualizations are small embedded objects that take structured data from a variety of sources (including Google Spreadsheet) and present them in new and interesting ways. Visualizations can be embedded on any web page by adding some simple Javascript and HTML. Many visualizations have also been wrapped as gadgets, for display on web pages or additional targets.

In a blog post Google has indicated - "Today, we're publicly documenting the Google Visualization API's open-wire protocol, thus dramatically expanding the capabilities of this API beyond what had been available since we first launched in March of this year. Organizations can now expose their server-side data, such as in SQL databases and even in Excel spreadsheets, and display this data through visualizations from our growing directory. This flexibility makes it possible to connect easily almost any data source to a wealth of 40+ visualizations, including standard pie and line charts and complex heat maps and motion charts." Read more:

Google Code Blog: Introducing Powerful Visualizations for your server-side data

They have a gallery of Visualizations

http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/gallery.html

In addition Salesforce.com has developed resources (on top of Google Visualization API) which will help Salesforce.com administartors to quickly add new dashboards and reporting applications on their data.

Google has documented an open-source Python library that enables any Python developer to quickly start using the API. What is more interesting  is that this library is that it also runs on Google's AppEngine.

Google Search integrated to Google Apps

Google Search is now integrated to Google Apps. Companies which are using Google Docs and Google sites have advantage of Google Search Appliance searching and indexing the Google Docs and Google Sites.



Google Apps Integration allows you to search your domain's Google Apps content using your Google Search Appliance. In just a few clicks, you can enable your search appliance to crawl, index, and serve your public Google Docs and Google Sites.

This is a very powerful feature as otherwise hidden documents can now be indexed and information will be unleashed for organization use. More details on this feature available with Google Search Appliance software version 5.2

http://code.google.com/apis/searchappliance/documentation/52/integrating_apps.html

This integration will be very useful for educational institutes and universities who have many users and large number of documents with useful information. Large organizations may also find this useful and can integrate them in existing Google Search Appliance setup.

Google Apps now can be managed with more powerful APIs

Google Apps enterprise customers who have large installations can take advantage of Google's new powerful APIs. This will make Google Apps fit into their unique businesses processes and technology environments. Recently they have released some of the APIs related to Gmail which we have covered in an earlier post.

Yesterday Google has release some more of the powerful API features:

* API for Google Docs: now capable of updating the actual content of documents, sharing documents, and moving documents into and out of folders programmatically. You can learn more about this API from Google's website at 

http://code.google.com/apis/documents/overview.html

* APIs are now more robust and versatile: Domain administrators can now use OAuth (#) authentication to access GData feeds for users on their domains. This means that admins can do things like integrate with document management systems, enable third-party workflow applications, centralize backup of documents and contacts, and monitor document sharing inside and outside of the company. Using OAuth, administrators can enable this type of functionality for end-users without any end-user involvement. 

# OAuth is an open standard authorization protocol which allows users to grant others access to their data without giving away their login credentials. Premier and Education Edition admins can enable OAuth in the Authentication section of the Advanced Tools tab of the Google Apps administrative control panel.

More administrative features in Google Apps for Gmail

Google has recently launched some more administrative features in Google Apps which will help administrators of large companies in managing users easily.

In a small businesses who use Google Apps, it is easy for administrators to help employees configure user settings account-by-account. But this approach was not appropriate for larger companies having users in excess of hundres. I have seen difficulty my clients are facing - when they have close to thousand users.

Google is now offering a streamlined way for admins to configure account settings is essential for its users. For this Google has launched Google Email Settings API, for Premier and Education Edition.

Using Google Email Settings APIs administrators can programmatically update Gmail settings for their users in bulk by making requests to a GData feed. The imporatnt modifiable settings are:

• labels
• filters
• signatures
• vacation responders
• "send mail as" aliases
• interface language
• email forwarding
• POP
• IMAP

For more details Premier and Education Edition customers can, check out the Google Email Settings API documentation.

Source: Official Google Enterprise Blog: More administrative controls for Gmail with Google Apps

Now have custom URLs for sites created using Google Sites on your domain

Now Google Apps domain administrators can map public sites hosted on Google Sites to their own domains. Sites can be mapped individually to a specific URL, like http://www.example.com, and as a group under a specific URL, like http://sites.example.com/[name of site].

So in your company if you have a site each for HR, Marketing, etc you can now have URLs like:

http://hr.example.com
http://marketing.example.com

and these URL will be diverted to site created using Google Sites. To do this you will need to set these URLs from admin control panel. The option is available in service settings in for sites - "web address".

Read more on Google blog
Google Sites Blog: Google Sites on your domain