Monthly Archives: June 2022

Get fast access to Google Search with the new Google home screen widget built for iOS 14. The Google app keeps you in the know about things that matter to you. Find quick answers, explore your interests, and stay up to date with Discover. The more you use the Google app, the better it gets.

More ways to access Google: Google Search widget Search from your home screen with the new Google widget built for iOS 14. Choose from 2 widgets, giving you a quick search bar in both sizes, and shortcuts to choose how you Search with Lens, Voice, and Incognito in the medium size widget. Google Lens Search with your camera, copy and translate text, find similar apparel, identify plants and animals, scan QR codes and more. Voice Search Search conveniently and quickly using your voice, no typing needed. Incognito Search in Incognito mode whenever you want. Its always a tap away from the homescreen.

Search safely and securely: All searches in the Google app are protected by encrypting the connection between your device and Google. Privacy controls are easy to find and use. Just tap your profile picture to access your menu and delete recent search history from your account with one click. Search proactively filters webspam to help ensure that you see safe, high-quality results.

Search and browse: Nearby shops and restaurants Live sports scores and schedules Movies times, casts, and reviews Videos and images News, stock information, and more Anything youd find on the web

Get personalized updates in Discover: Stay in the know about topics that interest you Start your morning with weather and top news Get real-time updates on sports, movies, and events Know as soon as your favorite artists drop new albums Get stories about your interests and hobbies Follow interesting topics, right from Search results

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In a technological twist to the plans for a renovated James R. Thompson Center, search engine giant Google stoked speculation Wednesday that it could buy the 17-story building in the Loop.

Developer Michael Reschke struck a deal last year with Gov. J.B. Pritzker to buy most of the former state government building for $70 million and renovate it. The state would retain ownership of about 30% of the building for its offices.

A Google spokesperson would not confirm or deny a report by real estate data firm CoStar Group that Google is negotiating to buy the Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph St., but issued a statement about the companys need to expand in Chicago. CoStar said the deal is not done and could change.

Chicago continues to be an important and growing hub for Google here in the Midwest. What started as a two-person outpost in River North has expanded to a two-building campus thats home to nearly 2,000 employees in Fulton Market. As Google grows in Chicago, well continue to explore opportunities to ensure our physical space meets the needs of local Googlers, Google said in a statement.

Reached Wednesday, Reschke said he has had no contact with Google. I dont know where these rumors come from, he said, adding the Thompson Center is not for sale. It is not known what Reschkes ongoing role might be if Google becomes involved.

Reschkes sales agreement with the state was completed in March but is not due to close until this summer. A spokeswoman for the Department of Central Management Services, which handles state property, said the closing is on schedule. She did not address questions about Google.

The agreement calls for Reschke, chairman of Prime Group, to begin a top-to-bottom renovation of building systems, reconfigure office space and add a new glass skin designed to better regulate the buildings temperature, a problem for occupants since the offices opened in 1985. The work could take two years.

Any expansion of Google in Chicago would be a counterpoint to recent news about companies such as Boeing and Citadel pulling headquarters out of the city. And an influx of its employees at the Thompson Center would boost the Loops LaSalle Street corridor, where activity diminished during the pandemic and anchor businesses such as Bank of America and BMO Harris left for other downtown locations.

Google has made transformative real estate moves here before. In 2015, it signaled the corporate rush westward from the Loop by moving into a rehabbed cold-storage warehouse at 1000 W. Fulton Market and since then has expanded into 210 N. Carpenter St.

Karen Sauder, head of Chicago operations for Google, said in a speech here on June 7 that the company plans to add workers with an emphasis on racial equity. By 2025, weve pledged to hire an additional 10,000 employees across our offices in Chicago, Atlanta, New York and Washington, D.C. and Im happy to report that were already halfway there, she told the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.

Google did not make Sauder available for an interview.

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Google may be Googling the Thompson Center - Chicago Sun-Times

Google started rolling out an updated user interface for Gmail in February that pulls Meet, Chat, and Spaces closer and applies more of its Material You styling effects. Starting today, its becoming opt-out instead of opt-in, so your account will switch over to the new view by default pretty soon.

Its not a huge change, but as Google transitions through its current flavor-of-the-week messaging app and weaves its Workspace suite into a better competitor for Office, this puts more of a focus on the updated experiences.

If you cant tell whats different here, the updated UI collects buttons for Mail, Meet, Spaces, and Chat into one list at the top of the left rail instead of showing several conversations from each one in a list. Theyre still easily accessible without having everything on screen at once, and you can quickly jump into a conversation in any one section as a list will pop out when you mouse over its icon.

And if you just want to have one particular form of communication on screen without the others (like Gmail), its a little easier to do that since Chat and the rest arent listed underneath your inboxes and labels anymore.

According to Google, you can choose which apps are included there in the Quick Settings menu, where youll be able to switch back to the old look if you prefer. Unlike the usual 15-day rollout for new features, Google says this one is an extended rollout, so while its coming to Workspace and personal Gmail accounts alike, it could take longer than a couple of weeks for your interface to change over on its own. If you just want to try it, you should be able to opt-in (and back out) from the quick settings menu right now, as long as youve already switched to Chat from Hangouts and positioned Chat in the left-hand menu.

Originally posted here:

Google is about to switch your Gmail interface to this new look - The Verge

Googles Switch to Android app now supports all Android 12 phones. The free iOS app is designed to make it easy to switch to Android, transferring important data like your iPhone contacts and calendar entries. Google released the app earlier this year, but it was limited to its Pixel devices initially. Support for all Android 12 phones makes this a key app if youre moving from an iPhone to a new Android device.

The Switch to Android app initiates a transfer process by displaying a QR code on the iPhone, which you then scan to start transferring photos, videos, contacts, and calendar events. Data can be transferred wirelessly instead of having to connect two phones with a cable, but the cable option is faster and better suited to transferring large amounts of videos and photos.

The app even supports transferring WhatsApp messages. During the process, youll be prompted to launch WhatsApp to transfer over a full history of messages, photos, and voice messages.

And, if youre switching from an iPhone to an Android phone instead, theres an app for that. Apple has its own Move to iOS app that has been available to help Android users switch to iOS since 2015.

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Google's Switch to Android iPhone app now works with any Android 12 phone - The Verge

In April, Google announced plans to join the expanding list of tech companies that work with iFixit. The repair mavens distribute parts and tools for people interested in performing DIY electronics repairs, and starting today, iFixits store offers genuine Google parts for a number of Pixel phones.

You can order what you need to repair everything from the Pixel 2 to the latest Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, as well as the tools to install them and step-by-step guides to walk you through the process. (Aftermarket parts are also available if youre looking to fix an OG Pixel or Nexus device.)

Now, if you have a cracked screen or busted charging port, your choices arent just finding a repair shop or tossing the device in the trash. iFixit has all kinds of repair kits, and while they get more expensive for newer devices swapping out a Pixel 6 Pro screen for a genuine new one will cost $199.99 for the kit they vary widely, mostly based on age. Cheaper parts for older devices should help keep those phones viable for as long as youre comfortable with the Android software update support theyre receiving.

iFixits arrangements for parts and tools distribution already include companies like Microsoft, HTC, and even Valves Steam Deck. Theres also a partnership with Samsung in the works, and while well have to wait for more details there, it seems unlikely to require a 79-pound kit delivery.

Excerpt from:

Now iFixit has genuine repair parts for Google Pixels, from the 2 to the 6 Pro - The Verge

Google today announced a preview of Advanced API Security, a new product headed to Google Cloud thats designed to detect security threats as they relate to APIs. Built on Apigee, Googles platform for API management, the company says that customers can request access starting today.

Short for application programming interface, APIs are documented connections between computers or between computer programs. API usage is on the rise, with one survey finding that more than 61.6% of developers relied on APIs more in 2021 than in 2020. But theyre also increasingly becoming the target of attacks. According to a 2018 report commissioned by cybersecurity vendor Imperva, two-thirds of organizations are exposing unsecured APIs to the public and partners.

Advanced API Security specializes in two tasks: identifying API misconfigurations and detecting bots. The service regularly assesses managed APIs and provides recommended actions when it detects configuration issues, and it uses preconfigured rules to provide a way to identify malicious bots within API traffic. Each rule represents a different type of unusual traffic from a single IP address; if an API traffic pattern meets any of the rules, Advanced API Security reports it as a bot.

Misconfigured APIs are one of the leading reasons for API security incidents. While identifying and resolving API misconfigurations is a top priority for many organizations, the configuration management process is time consuming and requires considerable resources, Vikas Ananda, head of product at Google Cloud, said in a blog post shared with TechCrunch ahead of the announcement. Advanced API Security makes it easier for API teams to identify API proxies that do not conform to security standards. . . . Additionally, Advanced API Security speeds up the process of identifying data breaches by identifying bots that successfully resulted in the HTTP 200 OK success status response code.

With the launch of Advanced API Security, Google is evidently seeking to bolster its security offerings under Apigee, which it acquired in 2016 for over half a billion dollars. But the company is also responding to increased competition in the API security segment. Startups delivering API-focused cybersecurity products include Salt Security, Noname Securityand Neosec. Many established vendors have expanded their offerings in recent years, too, including Barracuda, Akamai, 42Crunch, Traceable, Ping Identity and Signal Sciences.

In March, Cloudflare launched a new gateway aimed at boosting API security. And in May, Imperva acquired API security company CloudVector.

While the jurys out on just how well these products perform comparatively, the threat of API-borne attacks is very real. Companies like Peloton, Parlerand evenLinkedIn have fallen victim to API-driven attacks within the last few months. Theyre not the only ones. According to a recent study by Cloudentity, 44% of companies have experienced substantial API authorization issues pertaining to privacy, data leakage and object property exposure with internal and external-facing APIs.

Continue reading here:

Google launches Advanced API Security to protect APIs from growing threats - TechCrunch

Google is going to start paying for its use of Wikipedia information to help power its knowledge panels in Google Search. The search giant, along with the digital library the Internet Archive, are the first customers for the still relatively new commercial product launched by the Wikimedia Foundation the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia. Its new service, Wikimedia Enterprise, offers access to Wikimedia content to companies that reuse and source Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects at a high volume.

For years, Google has used information from Wikipedia to offer web searchers quick answers and basic facts through the use of what it called knowledge panels, first introduced in 2012. This feature pulls information from freely available online resources, including Wikipedia, Google Books and other sources. Other tech giants have also leveraged Wikipedias information in their own products. Facebook, for example, in 2020 had tested Wikipedia-powered information panels similar to Googles. Apple today returns Wikipedia-powered results in its Spotlight Search feature.

Various tech companies large and small have also relied on Wikipedia data to enhance their own products and services.

The Wikimedia Enterprise service has been live for a year, servicing commercial customers on an opt-in basis. However, it hadnt announced its first customers until now. With Wikimedia Enterprise, customers of any size gain access to the services offerings including customer support and Service Level Agreements at prices based on their volume of use, much like any other product aimed at businesses. Theres also a self-serve free trial offering 10,000 on-demand requests and unlimited access to a 30-day Snapshot.

The organization says the product is now covering its current operating costs and has a growing list of users who are exploring its use. But it is not a requirement to use the commercial product, even if the customer accessing the data is large, like Google. All Wikimedia projects, including its suite of publicly available datasets, tools and APIs the Wikimedia Foundation offers will continue to be available for free use to all users, the foundation said in a June announcement.

As a result of their deal, Google and Wikimedia said theyre working together to make the content sourcing process more efficient.

Wikipedia is a unique and valuable resource, created freely for the world by its dedicated volunteer community, said Tim Palmer, managing director, Search Partnerships at Google. We have long supported the Wikimedia Foundation in pursuit of our shared goals of expanding knowledge and information access for people everywhere. We look forward to deepening our partnership with Wikimedia Enterprise, further investing in the long-term sustainability of the foundation and the knowledge ecosystem it continues to build.

Meanwhile, the Internet Archive, which runs the digital archive known as the Wayback Machine, will leverage the commercial service as well to improve its own offerings.

The Wikimedia Foundation and the Internet Archive are long-term partners in the mission to provide universal and free access to knowledge. By drawing from a real-time feed of newly added links and references in Wikipedia sites in all its languages, we can now archive more of the web more quickly and reliably, said Mark Graham, director of the Internet Archives Wayback Machine.

The commercial product was a part of the Wikimedia Foundations long-term strategy, which included recommendations involving advancing knowledge equity and knowledge as a service, it said.

Correction, 6/29/22, 5:36pm et: The Internet Archive will be leveraging the enterprise service but will not be a paying customer, we understand. Weve updated to correct this.

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Google and the Internet Archive are the first customers to gain commercial access to Wikipedia content - TechCrunch

Googles Android Automotive OS has been gaining traction in the industry, and this week, BMW announced it will be adopting the platform for some future vehicles. The company plans to develop their BMW Operating System 8 infotainment software using Android Automotive for some vehicle models beginning in March 2023 but also maintain the current Linux-based version for others.

BMW Groups lead developer for the digital driving experience, Stephan Durach, said its about having a second technological approach. We are integrating the best aspects of all worlds that could be our own in-house developments, Open Source or commercial software products, depending on what the specific solution looks like, said Durach.

Android Automotive is a full-on vehicular operating system that can be embedded into car infotainment and instrument clusters. Not to be confused with Android Auto, which is Googles phone-to-dash connection system equivalent to Apples CarPlay.

Durach said they make sure customers always have a unique, customized digital experience in their vehicle, and the approach for two software platforms can vary based on what BMW series its running on, though the company did not provide any details beyond that. The new OS will also have over-the-air software updating capability, a crucial feature that let the company recently ship customers vehicles with missing features like Apple CarPlay due to supply chain issues.

BMW is usually ahead of the curve in adopting new connectivity technologies. It was one of the first automakers to include wireless Apple CarPlay, and it also was early getting in on Apples version of a phone-as-a-key feature that lets you drive away without a fob. BMW was late on adopting Android Auto, though, since the majority of BMW owners were found to be iPhone users. But with Android Automotive, BMW is dipping into a relatively empty pool that includes Polestar, some Volvo models, GMC Hummer EV, Honda, and some future Ford and Lincoln vehicles.

With Android Automotive, Google is looking to take its software mass-market into many cars. And with BMW on board, the clock is ticking for Apples next-generation CarPlay to catch up. But if BMW decides to support Apples latest integrations in the future, hopefully it wont try to make it a subscription service again.

Original post:

Google's Android Automotive OS is coming to BMW cars next year - The Verge

Googles Freshness Update was a significant ranking algorithm change that introduced the trend of making the search results more precise and responsive to user intent.

The result of the update was the ability to add time as a relevance measure for search queries. This enabled Google to surface content that is trending, regularly occurring (like a yearly event), or subject to frequent updating (like new product models).

The Freshness Update was made possible by the infrastructure changes introduced by the Caffeine Update, which enabled Google to scale up web indexing at an unprecedented scale, enabling Google to surface the most up-to-date content that is literally up-to-the-minute relevant.

The algorithm update was announced on November 3, 2011.

Googles official blog post announcement stated that the change impacted about 35% of search queries and noticeably affected approximately six to 10% of search queries.

That is a significant change in how webpages are ranked.

The freshness name for this update is directly taken from the official Google announcement:

Google Search uses a freshness algorithm, designed to give you the most up-to-date results.

A reason why Google released the Freshness Update was that the new Caffeine indexing system provided Google the ability to process more webpages faster.

The Caffeine infrastructure made it possible for Google to provide fresh results with a higher degree of relevance by using a more granular definition of what freshness means.

Specifically, Google determined that some queries have three different kinds of time-related relevance factors.

The three kinds of time-related queries are:

Google shows fresh results for certain queries, particularly if they are trending.

Heres an example with the keyword LIMoE, which is the name of a Google algorithm:

When the algorithm was released there was no such thing as the Top Stories news section for current events.

Google simply showed news results related to recent events at the top of the search results.

Today, Google will show a Top Stories section when a search query has a recent event type of relevance component.

For example, a search query for Ukraine surfaces the following search result:

This kind of freshness relates to events that happen on a regular basis but arent necessarily trending.

Google used the example of a search query that is related to sports as a recurring event type of search query.

A search for NBA surfaces recent sports scores:

A presidential election recurring event will have to be updated every four years.

The third type of freshness is related to search queries about topics that are always updated, like queries related to product reviews.

For example, the Samsung Galaxy phone has been around for many years and has cycled through multiple models.

Ideally, when searching for Samsung Galaxy Review, the best result will be reviews about the latest models.

This is a search result for that search query:

Googles Freshness Algorithm update was not the first time Google used time-related relevancy ranking factors.

In 2007, Amit Singhal (then a Google engineer and a senior vice president), introduced the Query Deserves Freshness (QDF) algorithm in an interview with the New York Times.

In a New York Times interview he explained what QDF was:

Mr. Singhal introduced the freshness problem, explaining that simply changing formulas to display more new pages results in lower-quality searches much of the time.

He then unveiled his teams solution: a mathematical model that tries to determine when users want new information and when they dont.

(And yes, like all Google initiatives, it had a name: QDF, for query deserves freshness.)

THE QDF solution revolves around determining whether a topic is hot.

If news sites or blog posts are actively writing about a topic, the model figures that it is one for which users are more likely to want current information.

The difference between QDF and the Freshness Algorithm Update is that the QDF algorithm appears to have been more limited in scope and less nuanced than the Freshness Algorithm.

As mentioned earlier, the Caffeine web indexing system, introduced five months before the Freshness Algorithm, provided Google the ability to provide search results that were relevant to the minute.

The fact to remember about QDF is that the 2007 Query Deserves Freshness algorithm preceded the 2010 Freshness Algorithm.

What can cause confusion is that Googlers continued to make references to the concept that a Query Deserves Freshness well past 2010. So even in 2012, Matt Cutts was referencing the concept in a Google Webmaster Video that certain queries deserve freshness.

Nevertheless, they are two different algorithms that were introduced three years apart and apparently did different things, since the technology that made the Freshness Algorithm possible in 2010 (the Caffeine web indexing system) didnt exist in 2007.

Not all search queries require fresh results. Many search queries are evergreen.

Evergreen, in relation to the information needs of search queries, means that the answer to some queries doesnt change much, if at all.

An example of evergreen content is a recipe. The method for how to make chocolate cookies stays relatively the same for many years.

Sometimes, there are cultural changes that affect evergreen content, such as a trend to low fat or low sugar cookies, which might change how cookies are made.

But the cookie recipe is still evergreen.

The Freshness Algorithm only kicks in when the search query fits into one of the following three categories:

There is an SEO strategy that recommends changing the date of publication or the modification date every week, month, or year because, according to the strategy, Google loves fresh content.

There are even WordPress plugins that will bulk update the post-update dates.

But the truth has always been that the Google loves fresh content idea is a myth.

Even three years after the launch of the Freshness Algorithm, Matt Cutts, a Google engineer, was still explaining that freshness is not always a ranking signal.

Matt explains this in a 2013 video where he answers how important freshness is for ranking.

How important is freshness?

So theres a little bit of an interesting twist in this question where its not just the case that something is frequently updated in terms of the pages on your blog or on your site, that you automatically should be ranking higher.

So I wouldnt have that interpretation of freshness. not every query deserves freshness.

So if its a navigational thing, if its evergreen content, sometimes people are looking for long-form content or doing more research, then freshness wouldnt be counting as that much.

we have over 200 signals that we use and the thing that I would not do, the pitfall, the trap that I would not fall into is saying, okay, I have to have fresh content, therefore Im going to randomly change a few words on my pages every day and Ill change the byline date so that it look like I have fresh content.

Thats not the sort of thing thats more likely to actually lead to higher rankings.

And if youre not in an area about news, if youre not in a sort of niche or topic area that really deserves a lot of fresh stuff, then thats probably not something that you need to worry about at all.

theres some content thats evergreen that lasts and stands the test of time. It might be better to work on those sort of articles

if you write about video games, theres a lot of like topical breaking news, then it is good to try to be fresh and make sure that you have, you know, content thats especially relevant.

Publishing new content regularly is generally a good strategy for many kinds of websites.

However, publishing up-to-date content for websites on certain topics is especially important.

Websites on topics related to rapidly changing consumer trends, topics surrounding regularly occurring events, and sites about products that are frequently updated require a steady stream of fresh content.

The upside of publishing news and trending content is that it can result in high levels of traffic, sometimes immense amounts of traffic.

The downside is that after a couple of weeks it may no longer be fresh or relevant to the same search queries that triggered the massive traffic when the topic was trending.

The best thing to do is to understand if your content topics fit into one of the three freshness categories and if so, get writing.

If the content topic doesnt fit into those categories, then the topic is evergreen.

And its not a bad idea to have a mix of both fresh and evergreen topics so that visitors arriving for the freshness have the opportunity to stay for the evergreen.

Knowing what the Freshness Update was about is still useful for developing a content strategy because Google today is better able to understand which queries deserve freshness, which creates opportunities for publishers to gain more traffic.

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Featured Image: A.Azarnikova/Shutterstock

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Google Freshness Algorithm: Everything You Need To Know - Search Engine Journal