More and more people are surfing the Internet from their phones these days. Take a look at the following graph. It shows the number of monthly visits to googlestore.com from Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry devices over the past 2 years. There were 277 visits in Sep, 2008. But in July of 2010, there were over 13,000 visits! Given this kind of growth, it makes sense for many businesses to set up a mobile device-friendly site. If you’ve been considering whether to create a mobile site, you may want to check out the Mobile Devices report in the Visitors section. You can see how many visits you received from each mobile operating system, how many pages they visit on average, how much time they spend on your site, as well as see conversion and ecommerce information. In next week’s Back to Basics, I’ll show you how to create your own trend graph like the one in this article, so you can really dig into the numbers for your own site. Posted by Alden DeSoto, Google Analytics Team

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Back-to-Basics: How much mobile traffic do you get?

Now that the excitement of the new Management API launch has just passed its zenith, you might have also noticed that there were some interesting changes to the Analytics for Developer pages on Google Code. Since Nick, Alex, and I were under the hood making docs and sample code for the Management API, it also seemed like a good time to spiff up the site and add some structure to handle this burgeoning developer resource. New Look and Feel Nick went to town on our new home page . If you attended his talk at the Google I/O conference this May, you might notice that the Analytics data model diagram has reappeared, but this time as a gateway into the key parts of our documentation on Google Code. We surfaced the most important links to provide deep access to the key parts of each section of the site. New Landing Pages Since we now have 3+ major sections on our site, it was time to provide landing pages for all the news and updates relevant to Tracking Code configuration, Management API , and Export API . Here you will always be able to see the latest release news and best practice guides for each API without having to dig down into the site. We’ve also redesigned our navigation bar to be more visually appealing and consistent across all three APIs. New Groups Pages We have three major developer groups to help you out with your Analytics coding–Async tracking, Management API, and Export API. Not only that, but our general Help Forum is great for issues with general tracking topics. Since we have so many different groups, we created a new groups landing page to help you figure out which group will help you best. Our Management API and Export API groups use the new Google Discussion Forum, which is embedded right in the page–a pretty nifty feature. We hope that you find the new design makes it clearer and easier for you to find what you need for Analytics development. We’d love to hear your feedback, so please post any comments on one of our developer groups pages and let us know. Patricia Boswell on behalf of the Analytics API team.

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A Better Developer Doc Experience

Webmaster Level: All Nobody likes to duplicate effort. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s a fact of life. If you want to use Google Analytics , you need to add a JavaScript tracking code to your pages. When you’re ready to verify ownership of your site in other Google products (such as Webmaster Tools ), you have to add a meta tag, HTML file or DNS record to your site. They’re very similar tasks, but also completely independent. Until today. You can now use a Google Analytics JavaScript snippet to verify ownership of your website. If you already have Google Analytics set up, verifying ownership is as simple as clicking a button. This only works with the newer asynchronous Analytics JavaScript , so if you haven’t migrated yet, now is a great time. If you haven’t set up Google Analytics or verified yet, go ahead and set up Google Analytics first, then come verify ownership of your site. It’ll save you a little time — who doesn’t like that? Just as with all of our other verification methods, the Google Analytics JavaScript needs to stay in place on your site, or your verification will expire. You also need to remain an administrator on the Google Analytics account associated with the JavaScript snippet. Don’t forget that once you’ve verified ownership, you can add other verified owners quickly and easily through the Verification Details page. There’s no need for each owner to manually verify ownership. More effort and time saved! We’ve also introduced an improved interface for verification. The new verification page gives you more information about each verification method. In some cases, we can now provide detailed instructions about how to complete verification with your specific domain registrar or provider. If your provider is included, there’s no need to dig through their documentation to figure out how to add a verification DNS record — we’ll walk you through it. The time you save using these new verification features might not be enough to let you take up a new hobby, but we hope it makes the verification process a little bit more pleasant. As always, please visit the Webmaster Help Forum if you have any questions. Written by Sean Harding, Software Engineer

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Verification time savers —  Analytics included!

Cross-posted on our Public Policy Blog . Over the past few days there’s been a lot of discussion surrounding our announcement of a policy proposal on network neutrality we put together with Verizon. On balance, we believe this proposal represents real progress on what has become a very contentious issue, and we think it could help move the network neutrality debate forward constructively. We don’t expect everyone to agree with every aspect of our proposal, but there has been a number of inaccuracies about it, and we do want to separate fact from fiction. MYTH: Google has “sold out” on network neutrality. FACT: Google has been the leading corporate voice on the issue of network neutrality over the past five years. No other company is working as tirelessly for an open Internet. But given political realities, this particular issue has been intractable in Washington for several years now. At this time there are no enforceable protections – at the Federal Communications Commission or anywhere else – against even the worst forms of carrier discrimination against Internet traffic. With that in mind, we decided to partner with a major broadband provider on the best policy solution we could devise together. We’re not saying this solution is perfect, but we believe that a proposal that locks in key enforceable protections for consumers is preferable to no protection at all. MYTH: This proposal represents a step backwards for the open Internet. FACT: If adopted, this proposal would for the first time give the FCC the ability to preserve the open Internet through enforceable rules on broadband providers. At the same time, the FCC would be prohibited from imposing regulations on the Internet itself. Here are some of the tangible benefits in our joint legislative proposal: Newly enforceable FCC standards Prohibitions against blocking or degrading wireline Internet traffic Prohibition against discriminating against wireline Internet traffic in ways that harm users or competition Presumption against all forms of prioritizing wireline Internet traffic Full transparency across wireline and wireless broadband platforms Clear FCC authority to adjudicate user complaints, and impose injunctions and fines against bad actors Verizon has agreed to voluntarily abide by these same requirements going forward – another first for a major communications provider. We hope this action will convince other broadband companies to follow suit. MYTH: This proposal would eliminate network neutrality over wireless. FACT: It’s true that Google previously has advocated for certain openness safeguards to be applied in a similar fashion to what would be applied to wireline services. However, in the spirit of compromise, we have agreed to a proposal that allows this market to remain free from regulation for now, while Congress keeps a watchful eye. Why? First, the wireless market is more competitive than the wireline market, given that consumers typically have more than just two providers to choose from. Second, because wireless networks employ airwaves, rather than wires, and share constrained capacity among many users, these carriers need to manage their networks more actively. Third, network and device openness is now beginning to take off as a significant business model in this space. In our proposal, we agreed that the best first step is for wireless providers to be fully transparent with users about how network traffic is managed to avoid congestion, or prioritized for certain applications and content. Our proposal also asks the Federal government to monitor and report regularly on the state of the wireless broadband market. Importantly, Congress would always have the ability to step in and impose new safeguards on wireless broadband providers to protect consumers’ interests. It’s also important to keep in mind that the future of wireless broadband increasingly will be found in the advanced, 4th generation (4G) networks now being constructed. Verizon will begin rolling out its 4G network this fall under openness license conditions that Google helped persuade the FCC to adopt. Clearwire is already providing 4G service in some markets, operating under a unique wholesale/openness business model . So consumers across the country are beginning to experience open Internet wireless platforms, which we hope will be enhanced and encouraged by our transparency proposal. MYTH: This proposal will allow broadband providers to “cannibalize” the public Internet. FACT: Another aspect of the joint proposal would allow broadband providers to offer certain specialized services to customers, services which are not part of the Internet. So, for example, broadband providers could offer a special gaming channel, or a more secure banking service, or a home health monitoring capability – so long as such offerings are separate and apart from the public Internet. Some broadband providers already offer these types of services today. The chief challenge is to let consumers benefit from these non-Internet services, without allowing them to impede on the Internet itself. We have a number of key protections in the proposal to protect the public Internet: First, the broadband provider must fully comply with the consumer protection and nondiscrimination standards governing its Internet access service before it could pursue any of these other online service opportunities. Second, these services must be “ distinguishable in purpose and scope ” from Internet access, so that they cannot over time supplant the best effort Internet. Third, the FCC retains its full capacity to monitor these various service offerings, and to intervene where necessary to ensure that robust, unfettered broadband capacity is allocated to Internet access. So we believe there would be more than adequate tools in place to help guard against the “cannibalization” of the public Internet. MYTH: Google is working with Verizon on this because of Android. FACT: This is a policy proposal – not a business deal. Of course, Google has a close business relationship with Verizon, but ultimately this proposal has nothing to do with Android. Folks certainly should not be surprised by the announcement of this proposal, given our prior public policy work with Verizon on network neutrality, going back to our October 2009 blog post , our January 2010 joint FCC filing , and our April 2010 op-ed . MYTH: Two corporations legislating the future of the Internet. FACT: Our two companies are proposing a legislative framework to the Congress for its consideration. We hope all stakeholders will weigh in and help shape the framework to move us all forward. We’re not so presumptuous to think that any two businesses could – or should – decide the future of this issue. We’re simply trying to offer a proposal to help resolve a debate which has largely stagnated after five years. It’s up to Congress, the FCC, other policymakers – and the American public – to take it from here. Whether you favor our proposal or not, we urge you to take your views directly to your Senators and Representatives in Washington. We hope this helps address some of the inaccuracies that have appeared about our proposal. We’ll provide updates as the situation continues to develop. Posted by Richard Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel

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Facts about our network neutrality policy proposal

It’s App Tuesday again , which means we’re excited to launch nine new apps in the Google Apps Marketplace . Like the other 150+ installable apps in the Marketplace, these apps help solve some of the toughest challenges that many businesses face today. While all apps are accessible from a user’s universal navigation bar , some of these apps integrate even further with Gmail, Calendar, Docs and more. This new batch of apps helps users seamlessly and easily tackle all kinds of issues—from time management with RescueTime to procurement with Ketera . Check out our post on the Enterprise Blog for more information on these apps as well as the other seven launching today, or go right to the Marketplace . Posted by Harrison Shih, Google Apps Marketplace Team

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App Tuesday: nine new apps introduced to the Google Apps Marketplace

Today, Eric Schmidt and Ivan Seidenberg, Chairman and CEO of Verizon, will announce a joint proposal for an open Internet. We’ve been working with Verizon to find common ground on the issue of net neutrality for nearly a year—last October we released a shared statement of principles , and in January, we made a joint filing to the FCC . We hope today’s proposal, a suggested legislative framework for consideration by lawmakers, helps to advance the debate over open Internet rules in Washington. We also believe that it is best for users and for the web. For more information, read the full post on our Public Policy blog . Posted by Karen Wickre, Editor, Google Blog team

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A joint policy proposal for an open Internet

Humans have always been fascinated by the night sky. And Googlers are no exception. Over the years, Google engineers have used their 20 percent time to create Google Sky, Moon, Mars and most recently Google Sky Map for Android . This handy app, built by engineers in our Pittsburgh office , turns your Android-powered phone into a live map of the night sky. You just point your phone to the sky and it gives you information about the stars and planets that you’re looking at. Since we introduced the app a year ago, Sky Map has been downloaded more than 5 million times. On Sunday night we had a wonderful opportunity to share our passion for astronomy with our community in Pittsburgh at the Deep Sky Urban Star Party , held in the abandoned swimming pool at Leslie Park in Lawrenceville . We loaded up a bunch of Android phones with Sky Map and joined the Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh —who brought along their telescopes—and several hundred local residents for a night of stargazing. As a Sky Map engineer the biggest thrill I get is when we get emails from people who have used our app to show a planet to their children for the first time. At the Star Party we were delighted to have the chance to show people around the night sky in person. It was great to meet so many people who were both excited by astronomy and interested in Google’s technology. Thanks for all of your ideas for new features, and a big thank you to the Leslie Park Pool Collective and all involved for organizing such a fun event. Photos by Jason Parker-Burlingham Posted by John Taylor, Software Engineer

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Stargazing in Pittsburgh

[ Cross-posted on Google Public Policy Blog ]� Bending, walking, breathing, hearing, seeing and sleeping are simple things that are often taken for granted, as are thinking, learning, and communicating. Twenty years ago today, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. This milestone legislation bans persons or companies from discriminating against anyone with limited abilities. It’s hard to imagine a world in which the right to participate in activities commonly enjoyed by the bulk of the population are denied or inadequately accommodated, but that was the case before ADA. The efforts of the advocates who came to Washington two decades ago to rally for their civil rights has transformed so much of the modern world around us. As someone who’s worn hearing aids since I was 13, for example, I very much appreciate that most television programs and DVDs or Blu-Ray disks are captioned. On my way home, I might pass through a door that I know is wide enough for a wheelchair — because the ADA set the building codes that require it. I see service animals on the DC Metro, accessible checkout aisles at my grocery store, ramps on sidewalks, and designated parking in movie theater lots: all there because of the important provisions included in the ADA. Whereas the ADA set legal standards for ensuring equal rights for Americans with disabilities, Google is keenly aware that technology can help all users better enjoy the world around them. From opening millions of titles of printed content to persons with visual impairments through Google Book Search , to providing ready and easy-to-use captions on YouTube , to including a built-in screenreader and text-to-speech engine in Android , to introducing new extensions on Chrome to make online text easier to read, we’re serious about honoring our mission to make the world’s information universally accessible and useful . You can keep up with our progress at google.com/accessibility . Congratulations to all those who work to make the ADA a living, breathing reality. For all the years I’ve been working on policy in Washington, it’s still rare to see a law that has had as positive and fundamental an influence on our lives as this Act. There still is work to be done to meet the goals of ADA, and we are committed to doing our part. Posted by Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist

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Honoring the 20th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act

While many IT departments spend the second Tuesday of the month patching the operating systems on their servers, Google Apps customers running their business in the cloud have some free time to evaluate and roll-out new applications. Lucky for them, today there are 10 new apps available today in the Google Apps Marketplace . Several of the new applications help you manage communications more effectively, from tracking contact with customers and partners to de-cluttering your inbox: Bantam Live : Bantam Live provides easy CRM and team collaboration to track contacts, prospects, deals and organize projects, tasks and events. It integrates with Google Apps and social networks to import and aggregate contacts. Etacts : This application and Gmail contextual gadget enable you to instantly find out who you talk to the most and who you’ve neglected. Organizer by OtherInbox : Organizer automatically organizes low priority email out of the way, leaving your inbox much smaller so it’s easy to find the important messages from real people. For a complete list of all 10 applications launching on the Google Apps Marketplace today, read our post on the Google Enterprise Blog . If you’ve #gonegoogle and tried the #appsmarketplace , let others know what you recommend via Twitter or Google Buzz, and submit your suggestions for additional apps . Posted by Ryan Boyd, Google Apps Marketplace team

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App Tuesday: 10 new apps in the Google Apps Marketplace

Every day, 6.7 billion people view the world through their own unique lens. Imagine if there was a way to collect all of these perspectives, to aggregate and mold them into the cohesive story of a single day on earth. Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of “Life in a Day,” a historic cinematic experiment that will attempt to do just that: document one day, as seen through the eyes of people around the world. On July 24, you have 24 hours to capture a snapshot of your life on camera. You can film the ordinary — a sunrise, the commute to work, a neighborhood soccer match, or the extraordinary — a baby’s first steps, your reaction to the passing of a loved one, or even a marriage. Kevin Macdonald, the Oscar-winning director of films such as The Last King of Scotland , Touching the Void and One Day in September , will then edit the most compelling footage into a feature documentary film, to be executive-produced by Ridley Scott, the director behind films like Gladiator , Black Hawk Down , Thelma & Louise , Blade Runner and Robin Hood . LG Electronics is supporting “Life in a Day” as a key part of its long-standing “Life’s Good” campaign and to support the creation of quality online content that can be shared and enjoyed by all. The film will premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and if your footage makes it into the final cut, you’ll be credited as a co-director and may be one of 20 contributors selected to attend the premiere. Want to take part? Here’s what to do. 1. Visit the “Life in a Day” channel and learn more about the project. Be sure to read through the steps you need to take to participate and the guidelines for creating your video(s). Also check out some of the sample videos for inspirational ideas. 2. On July 24, capture your day on camera. 3. Upload your footage to the “Life in a Day” channel any time before July 31. Regardless of whether your footage makes it into the final film, your video(s) will live on on the “Life in a Day” channel as a time capsule that will tell future generations what it was like to be alive on July 24, 2010. Posted by Tim Partridge, Product Marketing Manager, watching “Life in a Day” trailer

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Life in a Day