Monthly Archives: January 2024

SAN FRANCISCO: Google parent Alphabet on Tuesday (Jan 30) credited artificial intelligence (AI) with helping boost profits in the final quarter of last year.

Alphabet reported a profit of US$20.7 billion (RM97.85 billion) on revenue of US$86.3 billion, with strong contributions from video-sharing platform YouTube and its cloud computing unit.

Each of these is already benefiting from our AI investments and innovation, Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai said in an earnings release.

Google ads brought in a total of US$65.5 billion in the quarter, compared with US$59 billion in the same period the prior year, according to the earnings report.

Ads served up at YouTube accounted for US$9.2 billion in revenue, up from US$8 billion in the final three months of 2022, earnings figures showed.

Some US$9.2 billion was brought in by Googles cloud computing unit, compared with US$7.3 in the same quarter a year earlier.

The earnings come as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and other rivals competing in the hot field of AI face scrutiny from regulators in the US and Europe.

The US Federal Trade Commission recently launched a study of AI investments and alliances as part of an effort to make sure regulatory oversight can keep up with developments in artificial intelligence, and stop major players shutting out competitors in a field promising upheaval in multiple sectors.

Our study will shed light on whether investments and partnerships pursued by dominant companies risk distorting innovation and undermining fair competition, said Lina Khan, head of the Federal Trade Commission, in a statement.

One major concern is that generative AI, which allows for human-level content to be produced by software in just seconds, requires a massive amount of computing power, something that big tech companies are almost uniquely capable of delivering.

Amazon through its Amazon Web Services arm Microsoft and Google are the worlds biggest providers of cloud-based data centres, which store and process data on a vast scale, in addition to being some of the worlds richest companies.

Microsoft has moved the fastest in the generative AI revolution with a reported US$13 billion investment in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.

In another sign that there may be more layoffs on the way at Alphabet, chief financial officer Ruth Porat said in the earnings report that the tech giant remained committed to our work to durably re-engineer our cost base as we invest to support our growth opportunities.

Pichai earlier this month warned employees that more layoffs are in store at the search engine giant as it focused on new priorities, including artificial intelligence.

These role eliminations are not at the scale of last years reductions, and will not touch every team. But I know its very difficult to see colleagues and teams impacted, Pichai said in an email to staff seen by AFP on Thursday.

Many of these changes are already announced, though to be upfront, some teams will continue to make specific resource allocation decisions throughout the year where needed, and some roles may be impacted, he added.

Google laid off around 12,000 people this time last year, about 6% of its workforce, in the face of inflation and rising interest rates.

The company this month confirmed it is eliminating a few hundred positions from its global ad team, amid a push to use AI for efficiency and creativity.

The company also laid off about 100 employees at its YouTube arm, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. AFP

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Google parent Alphabet says AI helped it beat profit expectations - theSun

Video ads on Google TVs homepage are nothing new, but theyve generally been limited to entertainment-based content. The latest shift brings full-length fast food ads to Google TVs homescreen, something you cant stream from an app.

Google TV itself isnt entirely that old. It formed from Android TV, which continues to remain an operating system used by a good many devices. However, Google TV has recently stolen the throne as the better-supported and feature-favored OS.

That change also brings a new need for revenue, and the most common way to gain residual income from users without selling their data is by showing them ads something Google TV has been doing for a while. In short bursts and small form factors, we could care less. But when ads start to take over the first slot in your recommended carousel while triggering a video if you hover too long, then it becomes more of an issue.

Google TV has officially begun showing full-screen, full-length video ads in the homescreen carousel. The newest one includes an ad from Hardees Carls Jr. for you west-coasters.

We noticed this yesterday while scrolling through content, just looking for something new to watch something Google TV is usually very useful for. We were then stopped dead in our tracks by a massive Hardees ad that shoved chicken tender wraps down your visual throat. The ad lasts for around 15 seconds or more, and takes up the entirety of the screen. You can easily back out of it by hitting the back button or moving to the next carousel item, which should be an actual show/movie recommendation. Again, weve seen video ads here before, but not for a product like this.

Today, the ad is becoming far more prevalent, and it looks like Google is trialing the new ad category with a larger audience. Users on Reddit have noted that a Carls Jr. ad has appeared on their Google TV homescreens. The response to these posts is rather intense. Many commenters seem to be more upset than hungry for a wrap, which is understandable.

Id argue the OS offers much more functionality to make up for one skippable ad. Now, if Google TV started utilizing YouTube-like unskippable ads, then thered be a larger problem at hand, but this is nothing to sell your TV or Chromecast over at least, not yet.

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Google TV's homescreen video ads now include fast food too - 9to5Google

As part of the December Feature Drop, the Google Password Manager on Pixel devices introduced the ability to upgrade supported online accounts to passkeys. Google is partnering and highlighting several services that offer passkey upgrades today.

Going to the Google Password Manager on a Pixel reveals a Simplify your sign-in card in-between the Password Checkup tool and your list of credentials. Google explains how you can upgrade to passkeys on these X accounts so that you dont need to create or remember complex passwords.Going forward, you just need your face, fingerprint, or device PIN/pattern/password to sign-in.

Googles ongoing work to accelerate passkey adoption continues by partnering with Adobe, Best Buy, DocuSign, eBay, Kayak, Money Forward, Nintendo, PayPal, Uber, Yahoo! Japanand soon, TikTok on passkey upgrades.(TikTok announced iPhone support last year.) While any web service can support passkey, Google working to get the biggest names onboard feels notable.

If you have an account with one of these early launch partners, Google Password Manager on Pixel will helpfully guide you to the exact location on the partners website or app where you can upgrade to a passkey.

The Google Password Manager will offer passkey upgrades on other platforms in the future, and its currently available on the Pixel 5a and newer, Pixel Tablet, and Pixel Fold.

Meanwhile, the Pixel Launcher recently added a Password Manager shortcut if you dont use homescreen icon or Settings > Passwords & accounts.

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Google partners on passkey upgrades, dropping Pixel exclusivity in the future - 9to5Google

Not only do we have ads on our streaming services now, but also, they're now becoming increasingly common in our TV operating system as well. While ads were previously limited to movies and shows that were streaming on specific streaming services, lately they have been opened up to real-life products and services. Google TV was one of the first ones to "worsen" its ad experience, and now, it's getting even more annoying.

Owners of the Chromecast with Google TV are sharing their fustrations with an increase in auto-playing video ads on their home screens. Previous ads focused on digital content, and they recently started pivoting towards real-world products. Now, though, the ads have seemingly hit a new low. Some owners have spotted some annoying auto-playing ads from sister brands Carl's Jr and Hardee's. The ads feature sound and take up the majority of the screen, overshadowing other user interface elements. You can back out of the ad by hitting the back button, moving on to the next carousel item, or let it autoplay.

This is the end result of a slow ramp-up in Google TV ads: first were full-screen banners for new movies and TV shows, then ads with sound, and now the ads aren't limited to something you can watch. The shift towards advertisements has led some TV makers to seek out alternative smart TV platforms (like TiVo), and we wouldn't be surprised if more TV owners do the same.

Amazon has very recently also announced very similar changes to its Fire TV experience, opening up top-banner ads to third-party advertisers. By this point, it wouldn't be surprising if almost every major TV operating system goes a similar route. Companies want more money, and putting paywalls on everything and increasing subscription prices isn't cutting it alone. Smart TVs are so inexpensive partially because they are subsidized with software promotion and ad revenue, and non-smart TVs ("dumb TVs", if you will) are increasingly rare.

If you haven't seen these ads yet, they might show up over the course of the next few days or weeks.

Source: 9to5Google, Reddit (1, 2) via Android Authority

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Google TV Has New Annoying Ads - How-To Geek

Atropos Health, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based healthcare startup, announced a new partnership with Google Cloud today. The collaboration allows Atropos to optimize its Generative Evidence Acceleration Operating System (GENEVA OS) to work with Google Clouds healthcare data tools.

Google Clouds real time capabilities align perfectly with our delivery model to the clinicians and researchers who rely on the Atropos Evidence Network, said Dr. Brigham Hyde, CEO and co-founder of Atropos Health, in an interview with VentureBeat, referring to the access to more than 160 million patients de-identified medical data that the company offers. The partnership will enable data sets hosted in Google Cloud to join the Atropos Evidence Network seamlessly.

In short, the integration will help health systems and pharmaceutical companies generate insights from their data almost instantly. While other healthcare AI solutions can take months to produce actionable insights, Atropos claims its new generative AI application called ChatRWD will provide answers in minutes using natural language queries.

ChatRWD represents an evolutionary jump in the speed by which evidence can be generated coupled with seamless user experience, Hyde told VentureBeat. Unlike other NLP tools, ChatRWD includes a chat interface to go directly from questions to novel real-world evidence studies using deidentified patient data.

The partnership exemplifies a growing trend of healthcare organizations teaming up with big tech companies to unlock value from their troves of patient data. While data privacy and security remain top concerns, Atropos states they take rigorous measures to protect customer data within Google Clouds secure infrastructure.

This allows health systems to redirect resources from maintaining servers to leveraging insights for operational and clinical improvements. Use cases include optimizing formularies (drugs), reducing the length of stay, accelerating research, and enabling evidence-based shared decision-making for patients.

For Atropos, the collaboration accelerates its mission to close evidence gaps in medicine worldwide. Along with the Google Cloud partnership, the company recently raised an undisclosed amount in strategic financing from Presidio Ventures, the venture arm of Sumitomo Corporation Venture Group, and Samsung Next, a venture arm of Samsung Electronics, among others.

The best part about working in this company is every single day, theres a new question that comes in, which is going to have a massive impact on a patient, Hyde told VentureBeat. Its so exciting and this announcement is another step to increasing that impact on medicine.

As artificial intelligence continues disrupting the $4 trillion healthcare sector, Atropos Healths innovations showcase how AI and cloud can make evidence-based care more accessible. With lives on the line, the speed and accuracy provided by these technologies could greatly improve clinical decision-making and patient outcomes.

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Atropos Health partners with Google Cloud to rapidly generate insights from healthcare data using AI - VentureBeat

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Spring a leak? Google will find it through a new partnership aimed at saving water in New Mexico - El Paso Inc.

Hugging Face and Google Cloud have announced a strategic alliance to advance machine learning and open AI research. Google Cloud customers, Hugging Face Hub users, and open source are the three main focuses of the strategic partnership. Google wants to make cutting-edge AI discoveries available through Hugging Face's open-source frameworks.

Google is well-known for its contributions to open-source technologies like TensorFlow and JAX. Thanks to Google's specialized hardware, Hugging Face models can be trained and deployed more quickly for Google Cloud users.

Through this partnership, Hugging Face's platform will be integrated with Vertex AI and other Google Cloud services, increasing the usefulness and accessibility of generative AI for developers. Hugging Face users and Google Cloud customers will benefit from the cooperation by being able to quickly accelerate applications with TPUs on Hugging Face Spaces, deploy models for production on Google Cloud with Inference Endpoints, and monitor use through their Google Cloud account. Additionally, by supporting Google Kubernetes Engine installations, the cooperation enables the development of new generative AI applications.

Hugging Face users can opt to utilize Vertex AI as the designated deployment platform for hosting and administering open models. This seamless integration facilitates the process. Moreover, they also have the choice of selecting GKE, a hosted Kubernetes managed service, which provides a significant level of flexibility and control over their operations.

Our new partnership with @huggingface will give developers access to Vertex AI and our AI-optimized infrastructure to serve and train more than 100K AI models, and help accelerate the next generation of AI services and applications,said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud on his X account.

The benefits of this partnership will also be available to Hugging Face Hub users, who will be able to facilitate model deployment on Google Cloud, accelerate applications using TPUs, and streamline Enterprise Hub subscription management via their Google Cloud accounts until 2024. Vertex AI and GKE will be available in the first half of 2024 as deployment options on the Hugging Face platform.

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Hugging Face and Google Cloud Announce Collaboration for Open AI Initiative - InfoQ.com

Googles parent company Alphabet reported a 51.8 per cent jump in its fourth-quarter net profit, fuelled by an increase in Search, YouTube and advertising businesses.

The world's largest provider of search and video advertisements reported a net profit of almost $20.7 billion, the company said. It was 5 per cent up on a quarterly basis.

The California company reported a 13 per cent annual surge in last quarters revenue to more than $86.3 billion, beating analysts estimates of $85.3 billion.

This was the second straight quarter with a double-digit increase in revenue after four consecutive quarters of single-digit growth.

Alphabets full 2023 fiscal net profit increased 23 per cent to $73.8 billion, while revenue soared 9 per cent to $307.4 billion during the 12-month period.

A healthy correction should make Google an interesting stock again, particularly due to the good numbers in the cloud business

Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com

Despite better-than-expected quarterly earnings, the company's stock dropped more than 4.42 per cent in after-hours trading to $146.28 a share.

The companys stock closed 1.16 per cent lower at $153.05 a share on Tuesday, giving Alphabet a market valuation of $1.90 trillion.

We are pleased with the ongoing strength in Search and the growing contribution from YouTube and Cloud, chief executive Sundar Pichai said.

Each of these is already benefiting from our AI [artificial intelligence] investments and innovation. As we enter the Gemini era, the best is yet to come."

Alphabet earned more than 48.6 per cent of its fourth-quarter revenue, or nearly $42 billion, from the US market.

In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the company earned more than $25 billion, or almost 29 per cent of its total sales.

Alphabets operating income soared 27 per cent on an annual basis in the fourth quarter to about $23.7 billion. Its earnings for each share increased 56 per cent yearly to $1.64.

Google services business which includes advertisements, Android, Chrome, hardware, Maps, Search, Google Play and YouTube accounted for nearly 88.4 per cent of the companys total sales.

It added more than $76.3 billion to overall revenue, nearly 12.4 per cent more than the fourth quarter of 2022.

Googles advertising revenue from Search, YouTube and other businesses increased 11 per cent to more than $65.5 billion in the fourth quarter. It missed analyst estimates of $65.9 billion, according to StreetAccount.

"Alphabet's disappointing ad revenue numbers suggest that corporations worldwide are still uncertain about the pace of interest rate cuts from global central banks, thus keeping some powder dry while waiting for more clues before opening up their wallets, Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com, told The National.

More than actual EPS, investors want to see improving margins and free cash flows still, a healthy correction should make Google an interesting stock again, particularly due to the good numbers in the cloud business."

The total revenue from the cloud business grew an annual 25.6 per cent to nearly $9.2 billion in the December quarter, exceeding analysts expectation of $8.9 billion.

Google Cloud includes the companys infrastructure and data analytics platforms, collaboration tools and other services for enterprise customers.

It generates revenue mainly from fees received for cloud platform services and workspace collaboration tools.

Alphabets cloud business, which has been bolstered by generative AI solutions during the past months, is facing a stiff competition from companies including Oracle, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

Alphabet said its operating income in the cloud segment reached $864 million during the quarter. It improved from the fourth quarter of 2022, when the divisions loss was $186 million.

The companys operating loss from other bets, or subsidiaries, reached about $863 million in the last quarter, from a loss of more than $1.2 billion in the same period for 2022.

Other bets are derived mainly through the sale of internet offerings, and licensing and research and development services.

This includes Alphabets X lab, self-driving unit Waymo and other non-Google companies.

Alphabet spent over $12.1 billion on research and development, nearly 14 per cent of its total sales in the fourth quarter. This was about 18 per cent more than the R&D expenditure for the same period in 2023.

YouTube added more than $9.2 billion to Alphabets revenue, increasing about 10.6 per cent annually.

Googles total acquisition costs stood at $13.9 billion, up nearly 8.2 per cent on an annual basis, against analysts expectations of $14.1 billion.

TACs are payments that search companies make to affiliates and online companies for bringing traffic to their websites. It is a major expense for companies such as Google and Yahoo.

Alphabets total cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities reached more than $110.9 billion as of December, from $113.7 billion at the end of 2022.

Alphabet said that due to last year's workforce reductions, the company incurred severance and related charges amounting to $2.1 billion in 2023.

And Google's departure from certain offices led to charges of $1.2 billion for the quarter and $1.8 billion for the entire year.

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Google founders Sergey Brin, left, and Larry Page at the company's HQ in Mountain View, California, in 2003. Getty Images

Updated: January 31, 2024, 12:34 AM

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Google parent Alphabet reports 52% surge in profit on strong business - The National

On Windows 11 (or 10), if you use Chrome, you probably still haven't noticed the "Side Panel," which gives you access to various features.

The Side Panel is accessible from any website and serves as a handy tool that provides quick access to several features, some of which you're probably not using, including Reading List, Bookmarks, History, Reading mode, Customize Chrome, and Search.

In this how-to guide, I will walk you through the features available through the Side Panel on Google Chrome.

To access the Side Panel, use these steps.

Once you complete the steps, you will have access to the available functionalities.

"Reading list" is a feature that allows you to bookmark pages temporarily. The feature is helpful when you find the content you want to read later and don't want to save in the bookmarks, since you won't return to that page once read.

To use Reading list on Chrome, use these steps:

Once you complete the steps, you can always open the panel, and as you go through each page, you can click the"Mark as read"button on the link or the"Mark current tab as read"button at the bottom of the panel. Or click the"Delete"(X) button to remove the link from the panel.

"Bookmarks" is the same feature that has been around for a long time, but the experience from the "Side Panel" is new. The most significant difference is that the new interface manages your favorite links and tracks products with the Google pricing tracking feature.

To use Bookmarks from the Side panel, use these steps:

You can also use the search box at the top to quickly look for any bookmark. If you want to organize your saved links further, you can right-click a link to access the available options. Also, the"Edit"button in the top-right allows you to select multiple bookmarks that you can then delete, move, or open in a different tab or window with the options available at the bottom of the page.

The interface even includes an option to create new folders, making this experience much better than the legacy "Bookmarks Manager."

If you want to see the products you're tracking with Google, click the"Tracked bookmarks"button at the top of the page.

The "History" feature shows the pages you have visited in the past. However, they are sorted by search terms, meaning you will only find the history of pages you visited using a Google search. If you want to view all your activities, you will have to open the legacy history feature.

To use History, use these steps:

Each group is labeled using the search term, and you can use the context menu on the right to take different actions, including opening all pages in a tab group, hiding the items, or removing them from history.

The "Reading mode" feature converts the page into a clean document without clutter, but without closing the original page on the left.

To use Reading mode, use these steps:

Optionally, you can customize the font size and family, background, line height, and spacing between the words and letters to improve the reading experience.

The "Customize Chrome" feature is usually available from the new tab page, not a web page. The feature allows you to customize various browser aspects, including themes, shortcuts, and cards.

Change colors

To customize the appearance of Chrome, use these steps:

After you complete the steps, the new color will apply to the browser.

Change themes

On Chrome, themes allow you to use background images and colors to change the look and feel.

The browser comes with various themes, and you can download more from the Chrome Web Store, but starting with version 121, you can now use AI to create custom themes for Google's browser.

To change themes, use these steps:

Once you complete the steps, the new theme with the custom background for the new tab page will apply to the browser.

Manage shortcuts

In the new tab page, Chrome can show shortcuts to specific websites you created manually, or set it to show the most visited sites.

To manage Chrome shortcuts, use these steps:

After you complete the steps, the shortcuts will appear on the new tab page of Chrome.

Manage cards

In the new tab page, the browser can also show cards to help you resume previous searches and continue shopping, and you can either turn this feature on or off.

To turn cards on or off, use these steps:

Once you complete the steps, the cards will appear on the new tab page, according to your configuration.

The "Search" feature allows you to research the website or the content in the tab. Although you can access the feature from the Side Panel, Chrome also has a dedicated option in the toolbar next to Omnibar.

To get started with the Search feature on Chrome, use these steps:

In the experience, you can learn to click the "More about this page" to access the available details. Or you can use the search box to perform other related searches without leaving the tab. (This feature works more like a split screen feature.)

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10 and Windows 11, visit the following resources:

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How to get started with Side Panel on Google Chrome - Windows Central