Daily Archives: June 24, 2021

Ryan Sammy is director of strategy at Fractl, a growth marketing agency that helps Fortune 500s and boutique businesses improve backlink portfolios, brand awareness and organic traffic through high-quality content.More posts by this contributor

Search is changing. Most search engines now dont just bring up a page of 10 search results and two ads at the top when you type in a query. Instead, Google search queries can bring up a whole range of results, and sometimes answer your questions without you ever having to click through to a page.

Take, for example, a search like this: how many days until halloween.

A featured snippet counting down the days to Halloween. Image Credits: Ryan Sammy

You can see that instead of displaying the top result right away, Google answers the question for you in a rich snippet. It also gives you related search queries featuring countdowns for other holidays. On the right is a knowledge panel from Wikipedia about Halloween, and below that, youll see the featured snippets section. These snippets will expand when clicked with answers for related questions.

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Finally, after these answers to your queries and any related questions, you get to the first result. At this point, do you even need to visit the website?

Google search is not what it used to be. We all want to be No. 1 on the search results page, but these days, getting to that position isnt enough. It might be worth your while to instead go after the top featured snippet position.

Featured snippets are collections of sentences or words that Google pulls directly from a webpage relevant to the search query. These snippets are displayed right below the search box and are meant to answer search queries quickly. The snippets can appear in the form of lists, how-to steps, tables, short paragraph boxes and other formats.

Earning a featured snippet is one of the best things you can do for your SEO. When you have the featured snippet for a popular search term, youll enjoy improved organic traffic from Google search results. According to Ahrefs, about 12% of search queries have featured snippets thats about 14 million opportunities for you to earn the top featured snippet position.

The average click-through rate for featured snippets. Image Credits: Ahrefs

On a page without a featured snippet, the top result will generally receive 26% of clicks. But when your content is included in a featured snippet, you will essentially usurp 8% of those clicks from the top result for your featured snippet.

Its true that one blog post can rank for thousands of search keywords, and that holds true for featured snippets as well. If you work hard on a blog post and make it 10 times better than anything else out there, you will reap the benefits over and over. You can even become an authority on the topic because your sites content or data table is featured. This brand authority allows you to generate passive links as other sites that discuss the topic reference your definition.

For example, for CollegeFinance.com, we created a pell grant guide that ranks for a variety of terms in featured snippet results, like pell grant income limits. CollegeFinance benefited from the traffic and also from the authority of the position. Other sites researching the topic have linked back to their explainers and guides, creating passive link generation for this page. For example, Good.IS (DA 80) linked to our guide as additional research on the topic.

Featured snippet created for CollegeFinance.com. Image Credits: Ryan Sammy

Featured snippets, obviously, decrease the number of user clicks. If a question is already answered, like in my Halloween example above, there is no need to click through. Organic traffic, therefore, is less than it would be on a result from a search engine results page (SERP) without a featured snippet.

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How to land the top spot in Google search with featured snippets in 2021 - TechCrunch

Google may be working on turning Android phones into a hivemind capable of finding lost devices, similar to Apples Find My network, according to analysis done by 9to5Google. A toggle for the feature showed up in a beta of Google Play Services, with code referencing the ability for phones to help locate other devices, potentially signaling that Android phones could soon become easier to find.

According to Googles support page, the current Find My Device system can only find phones that are powered on, have a data or Wi-Fi signal, and have location services enabled. At this early stage, its unclear which, if any, of those limitations the relay network feature apparently called Spot would solve, but when youre looking for a lost phone any advantage is good to have.

Google has other projects that involve using a network of Android phones notably, its earthquake detection feature. While the implementation is different, the underlying concept is likely very similar: there are more than 3 billion active Android devices, which is a large crowd to source information from, be it accelerometer data, or the location of a misplaced phone.

9to5Google did find a setting that would allow users to turn off the feature, making it so their phone wouldnt help locate other devices. Given the limited information, its unclear whether the Find My Device network will be able to find things other than phones, like Apples Find My network or Samsungs Galaxy Find network are capable of doing. And of course, this being unpacked code from a Beta release, these changes may never see an actual public release.

Google did not immediately respond to request for comment about the prospective feature.

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Googles Find My Device might soon work - The Verge

Real-time collaborative chat, as exemplified by apps such as Slack, has become a common way to communicate between colleagues and friends, especially since last year when so many of us transitioned to working from home. Google has apparently taken note of this and is pitting itself against Slack by taking two of the features from its corporate Workplace app suite Chat and Rooms and integrating them into its standard Gmail app.

Google Chat allows you to hold chat sessions with friends and groups of friends either on an informal or formal basis. The former can be done just between two people or between several in what Google calls a group conversation. The latter is done via a separate space that Google currently calls a Room.

Whats the difference? According to Google, Chat is simply a way for two or more people to chat together without any formalities for example, if you wanted to quickly talk about where you were going to meet for lunch, youd create a group conversation among your friends. Once the conversation is done, its done.

A Room, on the other hand, is for more long-term conversations. Each Room has its own name, remains available for people to leave and rejoin, will send out notifications, and can share files. Its for work projects, party planning, or any other activity where you want to keep the conversation going over the course of days, weeks, or longer.

If this sounds useful to you, then the first thing you need to do is activate Google Chat for your Gmail account. Currently, at least, you need to do it separately on your browser and on your mobile device.

On the bottom of the screen, instead of just Mail and Meet icons, youll now also have Chat and Rooms icons.

Your Gmail screen will refresh, and you will probably get a pop-up welcoming you to the new Gmail. Instead of the Meet and Hangouts boxes that used to be on the left-hand side of your Gmail screen, youll now have a Chat box, a Rooms box, and a Meet box. Any contacts with whom you previously had chats with via Hangouts will appear in the new Chat box; click on their names, and a small pop-up window in the lower left will show you those previous chats. (Note that if you blocked anyone in Hangouts previously, that blocking isnt going to carry over to Chat.)

Before we go into the specifics of how to use Google Chat, you may notice some other small differences after the refresh. To begin, the icon that looked like a quote mark at the bottom of your left column which referred to Google Hangouts will now be replaced by a couple of quote bubbles. The previous large Compose button on the upper-left corner will be replaced (why, Im not sure) by an inconveniently small pencil icon. And you now have a button on the right of the search box that lets you choose to be active, away, or undisturbed; you can also type in your own status.

People who are invited to your chat will get an email with a link, and will have the option of joining the conversation or blocking it; if they are on Hangouts or Chat, they will get a notification.

Whether youre using the web or a mobile app, to add a new message, type into the field at the bottom of the screen. A series of icons to the side or below the entry field lets you add emoji, upload a file, add a file from Google Drive, start a video meeting (essentially, starting Google Meet), and schedule an event.

A couple of notes about rooms: if youve created a room using a personal account (as opposed to a business account), anyone in the room can change its name. There are a few other rules as to the use of rooms that can be found on a Google support page; its a little confusing as to which apply just to business accounts and which to personal accounts, but hopefully Google will fix that in the near future.

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that You can even have rooms within rooms. That is not an available feature, and the line has been deleted. We regret the error.

See the original post here:

How to activate and use Google Chat - The Verge

Every year, I make time reflect on the promises, lessons and ideas that I want my two young daughters to learn when they're older.

As an Asian American parent, husband and business leader, I wrote a Father's Day letter encompassing many of those things that I look forward to sharing with my kids one day:

This past year and 2021 (so far) have been incredibly challenging. A global pandemic killed hundreds of thousands, sickened millions and affected the daily lives of billions.

We're also living through historic social unrest, ignited by long-standing racial injustice. The Black Lives Matter movement feels more profound than any I've experienced in my lifetime.

These events have changed how we live, work, learn and relate to one another. So here are some valuable life lessons I hope you'll contemplate on when you're older:

1. Your mother and I will never stop fighting for the fairness that everyone deserves and you should commit to do the same.

When I was growing up, my family and I didn't have the open dialog about race and human rights that your mother and I do with you today. Nor did we participate in marches. Your grandparents were Chinese immigrants whose aspirations were more centered around survival.

When you're old enough to have kids of your own, I hope you'll look back with deep appreciation for my and your mother's commitment to raising anti-racist daughters.

2. Always look for opportunities to grow as an individual, in both your personal and professional lives.

Beyond family, there are broader cultural forces that will continue to shape your lives and worldviews, and I'm increasingly seeing the positive, amplifying role they can play. Most obvious? Technology and social media.

I hope you'll join these conversations not merely to participate, but to grow. Seek out diverse perspectives. Find ways to educate yourselves. Recognize the risk of "echo chambers."

3. The conversation will always be just the start.

Starting a conversation makes a huge difference. But taking action is the standard, in part because there are fewer barriers today. It's so much easier to discover and support causes you believe in. Advocacy and donation resources, for example, are a click away.

These recent months have been an especially difficult time for Asian Americans. Long-standing issues of discrimination and racism toward us have come to the forefront.

4. Amplify your voices, share your stories and listen to other people's stories, too.

At an alarming rate, Asian Americans have been physically attacked and verbally abused. (Remember when you asked about why there was a guy yelling at us at the mall? He was blaming us for causing Covid-19.)

While these events have made me sad, they've also motivated me more than ever. I'm starting to understand the power of using my voice and sharing my stories. I've spoken on panels, sat in more listening sessions than I can count and have tried to better educate myself and those around me.

5. You're not just an ally to the communities around you, but also to yourself.

In both of you, I already witness deep ownership of your identity, and an abundant sense of self-worth much more than I had at your age.

Your support and pride of Asian culture astounds me every day. When I came home to find you both working on this poster (unprompted), I was filled with pride ... and a bit of sadness.

Your passion, energy and commitment makes you an ally to all communities around you. But as you grow up and the societal pressure to conform intensifies, never forget that you are your own ally, too.

Don't let your support for others overshadow the progress you want to make for your own community. Teach others, and yourselves, about the richness of your culture and history.

Find ways to proudly stand with and stand up for all in the broader Asian American and Pacific Islander community. As with every dimension of your voice, the world will become a better place for hearing it.

Love always,

Dad

Marvin Chow is the VP of Marketing at Google, where he leads marketing for some of the company's largest and most strategic products, including Search, Maps, Chrome, Photos and Messaging. He also oversees global efforts in social media and advises on select stealth products. Marvin and his wife JiYoung live with their daughters, Polaire and Ceboline, in California. Follow him on Twitter @theREALmarvin.

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A Google VP's Father's Day letter to his Asian American kids: 5 lessons to learn when you're older - CNBC

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Google has the ability to remotely install apps on your phone without your explicit permission or even any notification. Thats the lesson from the confusing rollout of MassNotify in June 2021. But how does that work? And what about Apples iPhones?

The rollout of MassNotify is instructive. According to user reports, the MassNotify COVID-19 exposure notifications app was automatically installed on many Android smartphones around June 19, 2021. It appears as if the app was automatically installed on nearly every Android smartphone in the state of Massachusettsand some Android phones beyond that.

While I believe in what this app was meant to do, installing it without so much as a notification is extremely alarming, wrote one userin a review of the app on the Google Play Store. The app doesnt even have an app icon to let users know its installed.

Google told news website9to5Google that the automatic install of the app was intentional and that the app wouldnt do anything unless a user chooses to enable it.

This is particularly strange because no other states COVID-19 exposure app appears to work in this way. All the other apps are installed when you as a user chooses to enable the exposure notifications.

So, under what circumstances will Google remotely install an app on your phone? Did Google audit the apps code for security problems before distributing it? Google isnt really saying muchbut its clear Google has the ability to remotely install Android apps.

While were not aware of Google ever remotely and silently installing an app in this way on Android, you can remotely install apps on your own Android phone.

Just head to the Google Play Store site, sign in with the same account you sign in with on Android, and you can use the Install button on an apps store page to push it to your phone. The Play Store on your phone will begin downloading and installing the app you choose.

Unlike the situation around MassNotify, this isnt silent. You do see a notification while the app is being installed.

Were not aware of Apple ever remotely installing an iPhone app on anyones phones in this way. In fact, iPhones work a bit differentlyto install an iPhone app, you have to go to the App Store on an iPhone and install the app. You cant just sign into a web browser with your Apple ID and click a button to remotely install apps, as you can on Android.

Of course, operating system updates can install new apps on your device. You might install a new version of iOS for iPhones to find a new app, like the Apple Watch app or Apple News app. You might install a new Android update to find a new Google app on your phone.

However, were not aware of third-party apps not written by Google or Apple ever being installed in this wayespecially not outside of normal operating system updates!

Its worth noting that both Google and Apple can remotely delete apps from your phone if they want. This capability was created to protect devices from malware. If a terrible malicious app sneaks into Google Play or Apples App Store and is downloaded by millions of people, both companies want a kill switch they can flip to remotely disable the app.

Google has remotely removed malicious Android apps in the past. In fact, Google has even remotely removed malicious Chrome extensions from Google Chrome browsers.

While we know Apple can remotely disable apps installed on iPhones, were not aware of Apple ever using this capability as of June 2021

Of course, its not like remote-installed app problems are restricted to smartphones. They happen on Windows 10, too. Design firm FTDI has repeatedly used Windows Update to push drivers that brick (disable) counterfeit hardware.

Apps like Candy Crush, Facebook, and FarmVille just keep popping up on Windows 10 PCs, whether you want them or not.

Windows 10 has been teaching PC users this lesson for years: Its Microsofts PCnot yoursand Microsoft will install whatever it wants.

RELATED: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps On My PC Without Asking

All this being said, even if a company like Apple cant remotely install appsand it seems like its possible Apple cant remotely install apps on iPhones at the momentthat company could roll out a small operating system update that would give the company the capability to do this.

That operating system update would likely be installed automaticallyafter all, these automatic updates are good for security purposes.

Perhaps what matters more is a companys culture. Rather than asking whether a company can remotely install apps on our devices, we should ask whether the company has a history of doing so.

Both Google and Microsoft have remotely installed third-party apps without user consent. Apple hasnt done soyet.

Then again, Apple did once add a U2 album to everyones iTunes libraries. Nobodys perfect.

See more here:

Can Google and Apple Remotely Install Apps on Your Phone? - How-To Geek