We’ll admit from the start: this development doesn’t rival Los Angeles’s embrace of Google Apps in terms of importance.  Or Orlando’s, for that matter.  But the City of Westerville, Ohio (which is home to about 37,000 people) has adopted Google Apps and is officially pleased with the result.

Google released a new Gmail Labs feature today that lets you search across email and Google Docs. If you turn it on and search from the Gmail search box, you will simply get results from both places, when applicable.

Today, Google Apps users have as many as nine new reasons to be glad they’re hooked into the service.  That’s because nine new apps have been introduced to the Google Apps Marketplace, making for a substantial number of ways people can save time and streamline their work routine.

Much to the disappointment of students (and perhaps teachers) everywhere, a new school year will soon start.  But Google’s celebrating something related to education this afternoon, as it’s secured the Maryland Education Enterprise Consortium as yet another Google Apps partner.

Los Angeles’s adoption of Google apps has been called groundbreaking by some onlookers.  It’s also been a cause for concern in certain circles, with delays cropping up and the police department citing security fears.  Now there’s (more) good news for Google, though, as the L.A. city council has again given Google Apps a thumbs up.

Earlier today, Google made known that Google Apps for Government is available, and a representative of Berkeley Lab has now made clear that it should be popular, too.  Dr. Rosio Alvarez, Chief Information Officer at the institution, discussed the migration process in a special blog post this afternoon.

Google has introduced a new Government Edition of Google Apps. It includes all of the features of other Google Apps editions, but adds policy and security features. Google says it was designed with guidance from the federal government, as well as the Cities of Los Angeles and Orlando.

Google Apps for Government stores Gmail and Calendar data in a segregated system located in the continental United States, exclusively for government customers.

MarketWatch reports that Google has missed a deadline for the implementation of Google Apps in the city of Los Angeles, due mainly to security concerns expressed by the LAPD. This has got to be an unwelcome snag for Google, who is spending a great deal of time marketing Google Apps for cloud computing.

After launching multi-domain support a couple weeks ago, Google has now launched user policy management for Google Apps. These features are designed to give IT administrators greater control and flexibility within Google Apps, the company says.

A country that’s known for its fast-developing tech industry – and for its enormous population – should soon have improved access to Google Apps.  Google and Tata Communications announced a deal today that involves both Google Apps and India (for starters).

Google has announced some new mobile device management options for Google Apps administrators. The options will be available to all Google Apps Premier and Education customers starting this week.

New options include:

Google announced today that Colorado and Iowa are now offering Google Apps to public schools. Oregon did the same back in April, and now 3,000 more schools across Colorado and Iowa will have Google Apps available to them.

Google has introduced multi-domain support in Google Apps. This comes in a new admin control that lets businesses and organizations with two or more domains on Google Apps manage them from a single control panel.

Google launched the Google Apps Marketplace in March, and it didn’t take long for Manymoon to become the most installed application in it. Manymoon is a social productivity tool that helps businesses accomplish tasks online with their connections, and its Google app is only one of the options it provides.

Manymoon spoke at Google I/O a couple weeks ago, and CEO and co-founder Amit Kulkarni spoke with WebProNews about how businesses can use its tool:

As Google continues its push to get businesses using Google Apps, the company has now introduced the "Go Google Cloud Calculator". This is a tool that lets you enter your company’s name, tell it how many employees you have, and gives you Google’s estimates for how much money you could save, how much more productive you will be, how much more storage you will get, how many hours you will save, etc.

Polls are tricky things under the best of circumstances, and extra caution is necessary when the results of a poll appear to favor the same company that sponsored it.  However, Google seems to have demonstrated that a significant majority of Americans are interested in seeing their state and local governments adopt Google Apps.

Update: Microsoft has now announced the worldwide availability of Office 2010 and Sharepoitn 2010. See all the details here.

Also, Microsoft has a response to Google’s claims here (thanks Pradeep).