Google has launched a new API for Google Sites as a Google Labs feature (meaning it may have some flaws). The Google Sites data API allows client applications to access, publish, and modify content within a Google Site. It is available to both Google account and Google Apps users.

Some Gmail users have been experiencing yet another instance of the service being down. This seems to be happening quite a bit lately, and at a particularly odd and unfortunate time for Google, as the company has recently increased its efforts to push Google Apps on Businesses.

Right now, when I log into Gmail I get the following message:

Google has quietly announced that Google Docs documents that are published will soon be crawlable. This means if you have published documents as web pages, or used the publish/embed option for a document, and it has been linked to on the web, it can be indexed by Google and other search engines.

Google has launched some new features for Google Docs. They have made a couple improvements to drawings and added several new features to Forms.

Google has introduced some new features to Google Sites, the company’s web site creation and publishing app. The new features were made to make it easier for users to copy their site, and use more options to search and announce updates.

Google Sites now allows users to copy entire sites. You can do this by simply going to "Manage Site," then "General," and "Copy Site."

If you use Gmail, know someone who use Gmail, use Facebook or Twitter, or read blogs or online news, you probably know that Gmail had some problems yesterday. The service experienced a widespread outage, which lasted for about 100 minutes according to Google.

There’s fresh word this afternoon about when (and to whom) Google Wave will become available.  Schools and businesses that use Google Apps appear to be first in a line that should start moving this fall.

Google has introduced a feature for Google Video for Business that allows viewers to adjust the playback speed. There is a speed control button/slider on the video player that can be used to speed up or slow down a clip.

If you’re unfamiliar with Google Video for Business, it’s part of Google Apps Premiere and Education editions, and lets users share rich video information, keep videos secure and private, and collaborate on videos.

Google has added the ability to include tables in presentations in Google Docs. The feature has apparently been in high demand, and the company says they really wanted it too.

Users can insert a table into their presentation, then easily add, select, and resize rows and columns, format and align text across the table, and set background colors for cells and borders. Rows will resize themselves to fit content.  Google provides the following example table:

For at least the next three years, Google will play a significant role in the delivery of New Zealanders’ mail.  The Postal Services Group of New Zealand Post has entered an agreement that’ll have it putting Google Apps in front of 2,100 employees.

This counts as Google’s largest commercial deal yet in New Zealand or Australia.  It’s supposed to save New Zealand Post (which is a state-owned enterprise) in the neighborhood of $2 million over the course of three years.

Today is a landmark day for Google. The company has finally announced that Google Apps is no longer in beta. I suspect this is more of a way to increase the adoption of its services, particularly among businesses, than any new accomplishment being met, but it is what it is. No more beta label on Gmail and other products that fall into Google’s cloud offerings category.

Here’s a simple fact: no matter what the industry, there are few things quite as nice as a lifelong customer.  Here’s another: while attending college, students often establish patterns that they’ll follow for the rest of their days.  Now, Microsoft and Google seem to be acknowledging both issues as they promote school-oriented software suites.

Suppose, for Father’s Day, you got dear old Dad some new power tools, and he then had trouble adjusting to them.  One way of speeding up the acclimation process could involve trashing the old ones, right?  Now, Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook seems to have created a similar situation. 

Not everyone likes change, and complaints are especially sure to occur when changes are forced upon people.  So a certain Mountain View-based search giant, while still pushing its products as replacements for Redmond’s offerings, is trying to bridge the gap with Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook.

Google announced today that it has added a couple filetypes to its list of supported ones. The new additions are .xlsx and .docx files.

Recalling his first encounter with Google Docs, Anil Sabharwal on the Google Docs Blog writes:

Update: Google has addressed the issue on the Official Blog. The company says:

A while back, Google launched a Tasks lab for Gmail. Now they have added a new tasks feature for Google Calendar after many requests for one.

There is now a "tasks" link in the upper right-hand corner of the Google Calendar page. Once you click on it, a box will come up on the opposite side of the screen, where you can add tasks in list form. They come with checkboxes so you can check them off as you accomplish them, and a form to enter a due date. The task will then appear on your calendar on the day it is due.

Google has recently launched a standalone contacts manager, which lets you manage your contacts outside of Gmail. This would be particularly useful for those who don’t use Gmail, but use other Google products that offer sharing capabilities.

If you use Google Docs, Picasa, or Google Calendar for example, you can now update people’s contact information without having to use Gmail. This was not an option before.

In a roundabout way, the use of Gmail is about to become much more common in the UK.  Virgin Media and Google announced a deal this morning that’ll allow four million home broadband customers to benefit from the service’s perks while using either new or existing email addresses. 

Google Docs has started including a new feature – the ability to insert drawings into documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. To use this feature, simply go to the Insert menu and click Drawing.

Google has announced three new feaures in Google Sites for making gadgets more useful for Google Apps Premier Edition cusotomers. These are:

1. Start Page Template
2. Private Gadgets
3. End-to-End Security

With the Start Page template, site owners can allow individual users to personalize specific areas of the site, presumably similar to what users can do with iGoogle.