Daily Archives: August 2, 2022

Until recently, one of the most convenient ways to set a timer was to simply search for one on Google. Punch in a query like 10 minute timer, and, hey presto, youd get a ten-minute timer. But last month, reports started to emerge that this feature had disappeared from Google without warning. Search Engine Roundtable was among the first to cover the missing timer on July 20th, citing tweets from around July 18th. The feature is still missing today.

It turns out that Google hasnt decided to remove the handy feature without warning. In a tweet, the companys public search liaison Danny Sullivan confirmed that the feature is temporarily unavailable because of an unspecified problem. We have an issue that weve been looking [into], Sullivan tweeted in response to this story, we expect to have it back fairly soon.

Although there is no shortage of timers elsewhere on the web (or provided as stock apps on iOS and Android) Googles built-in version is a simple, accessible alternative. And, as well as the timer, there was also a stopwatch feature built into the same widget for when you need to count up rather than down. The feature dates back almost a decade, having been introduced in 2013.

Googles Danny Sullivan first said hed look into the issue on July 21st. Almost a week later, on July 27th, the team was still checking on it. It seems whatever issue is causing the features absence is proving tricky to squash.

Initially, concerns were raised that Google had removed the feature intentionally, although that would have been a strange move given the company has spent much of the last decade building more features natively into its search results page, rather than removing them. What started out as a simple list of hyperlinks now includes everything from rich snippets that attempt to answer your search query directly to a dedicated box for news stories and even more specific features, like a built-in price comparison tool for airplane flights. None of these appear to be going anywhere.

And, in case youre wondering, Google Searchs built-in metronome is still alive and ticking thank goodness.

Update August 1st, 12:15PM ET: Updated throughout to reflect response from Googles Danny Sullivan about the features return.

Correction: August 1st, 9:33AM ET: This article originally erroneously referred to the site Search Engine Roundtable as SEO Roundtable. We regret the error.

Link:

Google Search's built-in timer has disappeared but it should be returning soon - The Verge

The Pixel 6A may have only been released last Thursday, but Google is wasting no time in bringing the latest beta version of Android 13 to its new midrange device. 9to5Google reports that Android 13s latest beta, version 4.1, is now available for the Pixel 6A. The software was first released last Monday, when it was initially available for the Pixel 4 through 6 Pro.

Android 13 is shaping up to be a relatively minor update for Googles mobile operating system. It builds on some of the design changes seen in last years Android 12 update with expanded support for theming app icons, and also adds support for the new Bluetooth LE Audio standard, as well as new privacy features.

You shouldnt have long to wait for Android 13 to be officially released if you dont want to get your hands dirty with beta software. Google said its fourth public beta, released last month, would be its final major beta and that Android 13 was just a few weeks away. Subsequent details reported by 9to5Google suggest we could see the update arrive in September. For context, Android 12 released last October, while Android 11 released in September 2020.

If you dont mind running beta software and want to give Android 13 a try a little early, head over to Googles developer site for instructions on how to install it.

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Android 13s beta can now be installed on the Pixel 6A - The Verge

Google is trying to cut down on annoying, unskippable ads in Android apps and overall bad behavior in the Play Store (via TechCrunch). The company announced wide-ranging policy changes on Wednesday that update rules across several categories to be more specific, clamping down on loopholes developers may have used to skirt existing rules.

One of the changes that will impact your everyday phone usage the most is for ads. Google says its updated guidelines, which will go into effect on September 30th, help ensure high quality experiences for users when they are using Google Play apps. The new policy tells developers that apps cant pop up a full-screen ad that wont let you close it after 15 seconds. There are some exceptions if you voluntarily choose to watch an ad to get some sort of reward points, or if they pop up during a break in the action, those rules wont necessarily apply.

Googles current policy says ads must be easily dismissible without penalty and that you have to be able to close out of full-screen ads, but the 15-second benchmark is new. While thats still a bit of a wait, it does make it so that you wont have to sit through a two-minute long ad where the (tiny, hard to see) x only appears after 70 seconds, right in the middle of a game or while trying to do something else.

The new rules also specify that ads shouldnt be unexpected, popping up right after you load a level or article. Again, the current rules already say that surprise disruptive ads arent allowed, but the new rules give additional concrete examples of violations.

Its worth noting that the ad policies for apps made for children are stricter. While Googles not changing a ton about what types of ads developers can show to kids, it will be making some changes to the tools that developers use to deliver those ads, starting in November.

Googles also making changes to how apps can implement and use Androids built-in VPN (or virtual private network) tools. Apps wont be allowed to implement their own VPNs to collect user data unless they get explicit permission from the user, nor will they be able to use VPNs to help users bypass or change ads from other apps. Mishaal Rahman, a technical editor for Esper, pointed out on Twitter that this could help clamp down on ad fraud where users pretend to be clicking on ads from one country while actually being in another but says that it could also affect things like DuckDuckGos privacy-focused app tracking protection.

Googles new rules include several other changes as well. For example, developers will be required to link to an easy-to-use, online method for canceling subscriptions in their app if their app sells subscriptions the company does say that linking to Google Plays subscription center counts. Googles also cracking down on health misinformation, adding a section that says apps cant contain misleading information about vaccines, unapproved treatments, or other harmful health practices, such as conversion therapy.

The update also makes some changes to the language around monitoring apps, or stalkerware, saying that any app made to track people has to use a specific flag telling Google what its doing and that apps have to say that they can monitor or track you in their Play Store description. (These sorts of apps are still only allowed to track employees and children Google explicitly says using these apps for tracking someone else, like a spouse, is banned, even if the user claims the person being tracked is aware of it.)

Theres one slightly humorous tidbit in the updated Impersonation section in addition to other companies, developers, and organizations, Googles new rules say that developers cant try and trick people into thinking that their app is associated with an entity if its not. As an example of what this means, Google shows an app with iconography that could trick users into thinking its associated with a government or cryptocurrency project. (Theres also a funny line about how you cant name your app Justin Bieber Official unless youre actually Justin Bieber or have his permission, but it was already in the existing guidelines.)

This example appears to be perfect timing on Googles part. While the policy wont go into effect until the end of August, the company announced it just a day before Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) sent it a letter asking for more information on scammy crypto apps on the Play Store.

See more here:

Google's new Play Store rules target annoying ads and copycat crypto apps - The Verge

This seems to be a significant, yet largely buried element within GooglesTAG Bulletin reports, which provide an overview of all of the coordinated influence operations that its team has detected and shut down over time.

As we reported back in May, at the time of Googles Q1 TAG Bulletin, Google removed more 31,000 YouTube channels linked to Chinese-based influence operations between July last year and March 2022, a huge amount, which far outweighed any other element.

And today, Google has shared its Q2 Tag Bulletin, which, along with its various efforts to combat Russian-backed misinformation efforts about the invasion of Ukraine, also details that it shut down another 7,169 YouTube channels linked back to China in the last three months.

For comparison, Google removed 231 YouTube channels, in total, in connection to the Ukraine conflict.

As explained by Google:

These channels mostly uploaded spammy content in Chinese about music, entertainment, and lifestyle. A very small subset uploaded content in Chinese and English about China and U.S. foreign affairs.

Which is the explanation Google has provided for all of these removals, a templated, and somewhat vague summary of whats going on with these channels.

So what is going on, exactly?

Theres not a lot of detail provided, but it seems that the main purpose of these channels is to first build an audience in the app by posting engaging, light content, which grabs viewer attention. The channels then eventually use that reach to sprinkle in some pro-China sentiment, in order to seed such among broader audiences.

That then enables the CCP, and/or related groups, to potentially sway public opinion through subtle means, by gently nudging these viewers towards a more positive view of Chinas activities.

And the scale of the operation is significant in total, over the past year, Google has now detected and removed more than 50,000 YouTube channels (not individual videos, mind you, channels) connected to this effort.

Thats a lot, and if you look at the data, the program seems to have ramped up significantly this year, which likely suggests that whoever is behind it sees YouTube as a powerful vector for influence.

The data further underlines the importance of social platforms taking proactive, definitive steps to stop such programs before they can gain traction, while also pointing to how state-based actors are looking to utilize the scale of social networks to influence global opinion.

Which is also a concern linked to the rise of TikTok, with many security experts warning of the potential dangers of the Chinese-owned app gathering information and/or enabling pro-China narratives to proliferate.

Indeed, TikTok has come under scrutiny on several occasions over its perceived efforts to suppress anti-China content, and with recent analysis also showing that the app is becoming a key news and information resource for younger users, that may well become a bigger issue over time.

Add to this the fact that the Chinese Government continues to clash with other world leaders, on various fronts, and theres clearly reason for some concern there.

And with pro-China groups also looking to infiltrate YouTube at this scale, there does appear to be some important trends emerging within the broader flow of news and information online.

Weve asked Google for more information on exactly whats going on with these YouTube removals, and well add to this story if/when we hear back.

UPDATE: Google has referred us to this Twitter thread, on a China-linked group named DragonBridge, for more context on the removals.

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Google's Removed Over 50k YouTube Channels Linked to Influence Operations Originating from China - Social Media Today

Googles search engine business is demonstrating resilience in the face of a slowing economy and rising inflation, but its other businesses have not been able to escape a downturn in online advertising.

Googles parent company, Alphabet, reported on Tuesday a net profit of $16 billion in the second quarter, down 14 percent from a year earlier, while revenue climbed 13 percent to $69.7 billion. The earnings were below analysts estimates of $17.5 billion in profit on $69.9 billion in revenue, according to data compiled by FactSet.

Lifted by retail and travel advertisers, the companys search ad sales grew more than 13 percent to $40.7 billion, above analysts expectation of $40.2 billion. Ad sales for Googles search engine a crucial gateway to the internet proved less vulnerable to economic conditions than YouTube, which Google owns, and the companys network division that places digital ads on various sites across the internet.

Tuesdays earnings report provides more evidence that Google search ad revenue is reasonably recession-resistant, Mark Mahaney, an analyst at Evercore ISI, said in an interview.

Even with the financial cushion of its popular products, Google must contend with a raft of uncertainties that have roiled global markets in recent months. These include slowing economic growth and rising inflation in the United States and other major economies, which influence advertising budgets and consumer behavior both crucial to Googles business. The company must also navigate effects from a persistent pandemic and Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Alphabet, known for its rapid personnel expansions, has exercised caution in response to the macroeconomic environment, saying it will slow hiring for the rest of the year and put a priority on the roles it needs.

Shares of Alphabet rose 5 percent in after-hours trading.

Ruth Porat, Alphabets chief financial officer, had warned that Alphabets growth may appear more modest because of unfavorable comparisons in the second quarter. In the previous spring, financial results were indicative of a recovery since the early days of the pandemic, when advertisers were spooked. The most recent quarter also reflected the companys decision to halt business in Russia because of the war. In 2021, Russia contributed 1 percent to Googles total revenue.

Ad revenue for YouTube, the most popular destination for online videos, grew 5 percent in the three months that ended on June 30, to $7.3 billion. This was a decline from 14 percent growth in the first quarter. Besides weaker spending from advertisers, Ms. Porat said, YouTubes results appeared more meager because of difficult comparisons from a year earlier.

The pullback in spending on YouTube and Googles advertising network by some advertisers in the second quarter reflects uncertainty about a number of factors, Ms. Porat said on a call with financial analysts.

The companys profit was dented by rising costs and losses on some investments. Ms. Porat said Google had spent more on data centers and hiring in the second quarter. The company also recorded a $790 million loss from debt investments, and a $251 million loss from stock holdings.

Alphabet said it now had 174,014 employees, an increase of more than 10,000 from the figure it reported in April. Like many of its peers, the company has since said it will slow hiring.

Googles cloud computing unit posted a 36 percent increase in revenue, though it lost $858 million in the second quarter. A year earlier, the division posted a loss of $591 million. The unit still lags behind rival services from Amazon and Microsoft.

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Alphabets Profit Dropped 14 Percent in the Second Quarter - The New York Times

Weve been tracking the progress of Googles interface refresh for Gmail since February, and as promised, the company says its now becoming available for all Gmail users. The rework pulls Meet, Chat, and Spaces closer together as part of the overall experience and includes elements from Googles Material Design 3.

Its not stopping there and says that, later this year, we should see improvements to Gmail for tablet users, better emoji support, and more accessibility features, among other upgrades.

If you use Gmail for work, it may have already rolled out to your account. For those who just cant stand the change, you can opt out and switch back to the old look, at least for now. If you dont have Chat enabled, youll still get the new look, but in a Gmail-only view by default, and if you dont use some or any of those apps, you can disable or enable them from the Quick Settings menu.

If you want to switch back, Googles instructions are pretty easy to follow:

The updated UI moves Mail, Meet, Spaces, and Chat buttons 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 the screen at once, and you can quickly jump into a conversation in any one section, as a list will pop out when you hover over its icon.

The changes are a part of Googles overall new approach to the Workspace suite (including Docs, Sheets, etc.) thats supposed to provide a more unified style and new AI-powered features like the Gmail search improvements that were just announced.

Original post:

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

When most people think of TikTok and Instagram they picture selfies, dance videos, and the occasional "TikTok Challenge".

Generation Z sees these two social networks all-together differently. They're using them for shopping and searching.

According to a report in TechCrunch, 40% of Gen Z'ers say TikTok and Instagram are the apps they primarily use for searching.

This is kind of a shock because Google doesn't often lose out to other companies. According to many Generation Z'ers, Google is sort of 'old school. 'Rather than "googling" something, they find it easier to just search within the app they are using.

The surprising findingcomes from Google itself, showing that when Gen Z is looking for a place to eat or something to do, they hop on TikTok or Instagram to see what other users recommend. And those social networks are coming after an even larger percentage of online searchers.

Instagram added a map function this week to its 'explore' tab. If someone searches for "restaurants in Baltimore," or "food trucks in Austin," images appear on a map posted by other users. There are also reviews, phone numbers, business hours, and everything someone needs to know before deciding where to eat, sleep or have fun.

When I searched "hotels in San Francisco" on Instagram, I found millions of relevant results. I could see what users posted and where they posted from. You can zoom in on the map for even more recent posts.

Search is similar on TikTok. When I searched for "things to do in Denver with kids," I found not only recent videos and recommendations, but questions and answers from other TikTok'ers.

Many of the results are from influencers and paid posts so reviews aren't always trustworthy. While many of us may still Google things we're looking for, it's clear young people are using TikTok and Instagram for everything.

TikTok is already threatening YouTube, with some predicting TikTok's advertising revenue will surpass YouTube in less than 2 years something no one could foresee just a couple of years ago.

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What The Tech: Are Instagram and Tiktok the new Google? - WPSD Local 6

Figures from Canalys (see chart) show that both Google and Azure are growing faster than the industry average, while AWS is tracking the global industrys growth rate of 33%.

The total global market for cloud services in the second quarter of 2022 was US$62.3 billion, says Canalys in its report.

The market is driven by a range of factors, including demand for data analytics and machine learning, data centre consolidation, application migration, cloud-native development and service delivery, says Canalys.

The growing use of industry-specific cloud applications also contributed to the broader horizontal use cases seen across IT transformation. In a global economy rife with inflation, rising interest rates and recession, demand for cloud services remains strong.

In terms of market share, AWS accounted for 31% of total cloud infrastructure services spend in the second quarter of 2022, making it the leading cloud service provider.

Azure was the second largest cloud service provider, with a 24% market share. Google Cloud accounted for a market share of only 8%.

The hyperscale battle between leader AWS and challenger Microsoft Azure continues to intensify, with Azure closing the gap on its rival, says Canalys.

Fuelling this growth, Microsoft pointed to a record number of larger multi-year deals in both the $100 million-plus and $1 billion-plus segments.

The analyst said that a diverse go-to-market ecosystem, combined with a broad portfolio and wide range of software partnerships is enabling Microsoft to stay hot on the heels of AWS.

Canalys VP Alex Smith commented: Cloud remains the strong growth segment in tech. While opportunities abound for providers large and small, the interesting battle remains right at the top between AWS and Microsoft. The race to invest in infrastructure to keep pace with demand will be intense and test the nerves of the companies CFOs as both inflation and rising interest rates create cost headwinds.

Both AWS and Microsoft are continuing to roll out infrastructure, said the Canalys report. AWS has plans to launch 24 availability zones across eight regions, while Microsoft plans to launch 10 new regions over the next year. In both cases, the providers are increasing investment outside of the US as they look to capture global demand and ensure they can provide low-latency and high data sovereignty solutions.

Smith said: Microsoft announced it would extend the depreciable useful life of its server and network equipment from four to six years, citing efficiency improvements in how it is using technology. This will improve operating income and suggests that Microsoft will sweat its assets more, which helps investment cycles as the scale of its infrastructure continues to soar.

Canalys said that, beyond the capacity investments, software capabilities and partnerships will be vital to meet customers cloud demands, especially when considering the compute needs of highly specialized services across different verticals.

Most companies have gone beyond the initial step of moving a portion of their workloads to the cloud and are looking at migrating key services, said Canalys research analyst Yi Zhang. The top cloud vendors are accelerating their partnerships with a variety of software companies to demonstrate a differentiated value proposition. Recently, Microsoft pointed to expanded services to migrate more Oracle workloads to Azure, which in turn are connected to databases running in Oracle Cloud.

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Google Cloud growing 45% a year, with Azure at 40%, says Canalys - Capacity Media

Recently, Google announced its Cloud Virtual Machines (VMs) based on the Arm architecture of Compute Engine called Tau T2A. These VMs are the latest addition to the Tau VM family that offers VMs optimized for cost-effective performance for scale-out workloads and are available in preview.

The company added Tau VMs to the Compute Engine based on AMDs 3rd Generation EPYC Processor (codenamed Milan) and claims up to 42% higher price-performance compared to general-purpose VMs of any of the leading public cloud vendors. The Tau T2A VM is a new addition to the Tau VM and is based on the Arm architecture. It is powered by Ampere Altra Arm-based processors and comes in multiple predefined VM shapes, with up to 48 vCPUs per VM and 4GB of memory per vCPU.

Furthermore, it offers up to 32 Gbps networking bandwidth and a wide range of network-attached storage options, making Tau T2A VMs suitable for scale-out workloads, including web servers, containerized microservices, data-logging processing, media transcoding, and Java applications.

T2A VMs support the most popular Linux operating systems such as RHEL, Suse Linux Enterprise Server, CentOS, Ubuntu, and Rocky Linux. In addition, T2A VMs also support Container-optimized OS to bring up Docker containers quickly, efficiently, and securely. Ishan Sharma, senior product manager, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), wrote in a Google Cloud blog post on Tau T2A VMs and GKE:

We are also thrilled to announce that you can run your containerized workloads on the Arm architecture using GKE. Arm nodes come packed with the key GKE features you love on the x86 architecture, including the ability to run in GKE Autopilot mode for a hands-off experience or on GKE Standard clusters where you manage your own node pools.

In addition, developers building applications on Google Cloud can now use several Google Cloud services with T2A VMs besides GKE, using the recently launched Batch service to run batch jobs on T2A instances and Dataflow workloads, benefiting from cost savings and minimizing processing time. Google also intends to bring integrations with other Google services later this year.

Other public cloud providers such as Azure and AWS also offer a wide selection of instance types, varying combinations of storage, CPU, memory, and networking capacity, allowing customers to scale resources to the requirements of their target workload. Some instances run on Arm-based processors, for example, the AWS C7g EC2 instances running on the Arm-based Graviton3 processors or the Azure Dpsv5 VM-series (preview) running on Ampere Altra Arm-based processors.

In another Google Cloud blog post,Subra Chandramouli and Jamie Kinney, both product managers at Google, provided a reason for the Tau T2A VM:

Google Cloud customers and developers now have the option of choosing an Arm-based Google Cloud VM to test, develop and run their workloads on the optimal architecture for their workload.

However, a respondent on the Hacker News thread on the preview release of Tau T2A VMs said:

I'm glad to see this, but I'm disappointed that this tops out at 48 vCPUs. The equivalent from Amazon has 64, and Altra processors support up to 128.

Currently, the TAU T2A VMs are in preview in several Google Cloud regions: US-central (Iowa - Zone A,B,F), Europe-west4 (Netherlands - Zone A,B), and Asia-southeast1 (Singapore - Zone B,C) and will be in general availability in the coming months. Pricing-wise, the VMs are price-performance optimized, for instance, a 32vCPU VM with 128GB RAM will be priced at $1.232 per hour for on-demand usage in US-central1. More details on pricing are available on the pricing page.

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Google Expands the Tau VM Family with Arm-Based Processors - InfoQ.com