Office Depot teams with Google to create small business resource center

DELRAY BEACH — Office Depot Tuesday launched a new online business resource center with Google, providing small business customers marketing and communications tools.

The business resource center is available online at www.officedepot.com. Tools include:

— Google AdWords, the online pay-per-click advertising service, which businesses can use to market their products and services to a targeted audience.

— Google Apps. Includes Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs, which offer small businesses communication and collaboration tools.

Google Local Business Center, which provides businesses with free online listings that include an address, phone number, hours of operation, and photos. The listings can be found on Google search and Google Maps™, and can link to the company’s website.

“As one of the world’s largest e-commerce retailers, Office Depot knows what it takes to be successful in the online space, and is excited to provide small businesses with innovative tools that will help their business to be successful as well,” said Office Depot Jeffrey Rohling said. “By working with Google, we will be able to provide Office Depot customers real tools that will help them to grow and expand amid a very challenging business environment.”

Said Google’s Eric Stein: “Office Depot has a loyal base of small business customers, and we’re excited about the opportunity to help these businesses cost-efficiently use the Internet to drive their success. Our suite of effective and simple-to-use programs really helps small businesses take the guesswork out of their initial online marketing and internal organization efforts.”