Category Archives: Google

Google Completes Rollout of iOS 16 Lock Screen Widgets With Updates to Maps and Search – MacRumors

Posted: October 17, 2022 at 10:24 am

Google has now rolled out all of the promised Lock Screen widgets for its iPhone apps, including the Google app, Gmail, Google Maps, Chrome, Google News, and Google Drive.

The rollout was completed today with two Lock Screen widgets for Maps, following five widgets for the Google app that were released on Wednesday. In version 233.0 of the Google app, the widgets include the following descriptions, with two widget sizes for Search:

Version 6.40 of Google Maps adds widgets for Search and Frequent Trips, with the latter displaying the location, estimated time of arrival, and traffic conditions:

Equivalent widgets can be found in Google News, Gmail, Drive, and Chrome. Once the apps are updated on your device, launch the new versions first before trying to add the widgets, otherwise they won't appear in the Lock Screen editor.

Google Earth is an illusion: how I am using art to explore the problematic nature of western maps and the myth of ‘terra nullius’ – The Conversation

Posted: at 10:24 am

Within western society, maps are often perceived as scientific, neutral and objective tools. Map making has always been shaped by our social and cultural relationships to the land. In the last 20 years, approaches to map creation have become much more reliant on photographic and digital technologies, including Google Earth.

However, these technologies carry a rarely acknowledged subjective and colonial agenda towards representing place.

My artistic exploration of western maps began during my honours year in 2020 and has since become a key part of my PhD research. Due to the pandemic, travel to Pitta Pitta Country was prohibited, therefore making it impossible for me to create photographs of Country for my project.

Pitta Pitta is located in western Queensland, 300 kilometres south of Mount Isa. My maternal great-grandmother Dolly Creed was stolen from Country as a young child and my family has been dislocated since. My understanding of this landscape is informed by oral history, and my relationship to it is shaped by my distance from it.

I grew up on Wadawurrung Country, an hour south from Naarm (Melbourne), and have lived in Victoria my whole life. Like many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, my understanding of self is scarred by the atrocities my family have experienced due to colonisation.

These experiences heavily inform my practice and research.

Read more: Drawing data: I make art from the bodily experience of long-distance running

In response to COVID travel restrictions, I decided to go to Pitta Pitta virtually via Google Earth. While looking around Pitta Pitta via the street view function, I began noticing the inaccuracy of the technology. The images hadnt been updated since 2007, the technology glitched a lot and, most importantly, there was no acknowledgement of Indigenous Custodianship.

I went looking for places I recognised on Country within Google Earth to see what had been photographed.

On the outskirts of Boulia, a small town on Country, a Waddi tree sits. Waddi trees are rare species of Acacia endemic to central parts of Australia. This particular tree was a significant gathering place for my people.

Within Google Earth it had been reduced to a blob of pixels, a dark shadow smeared on a reddish landscape. I was angered that Google decided this tree was unimportant, but also began to wonder why.

Responding to Googles representation of the tree, Waddi Tree from my series (Dis)connected to Country aims to demonstrate where Google Earth has erased topographical information and Indigenous Knowledges of place.

My research addresses this gap. Waddi Tree layers a photograph I made of the tree during my last visit to Country in 2019 onto a screenshot from its location within Google Earth.

Through the omission of Indigenous Knowledges of place, western maps of Australia continue the false colonial narrative of terra nullius land belonging to no one.

The photographic technologies used within Google Earth dont allow, nor represent, the significant relationships Indigenous peoples have with Country. Photographic and digital images have also become intertwined with mapping in Google Earth. This changes how we relate to place, normalising a flattened and very limited view.

Read more: An Ode To My Grandmother: remaking the past using oral histories, theatre and music

Indigenous Knowledges of place are rooted in relationships which recognise that all forms of life have agency and are interconnected.

Put very simply, Country, all that it encompasses, and self are intertwined and valued equally.

Other images from the series seek to identify where the technology dysfunctions and breaks down within itself. I like to think of these glitches as tears in the technological fabric of Google Earth, and therefore the narratives the technology enforces. Pitta Pitta (Googles Earth) and Pitta Pitta (Published Without Permission) are freeze-frames from transitions between the aerial and street view functions which emphasise this glitch.

My research and arts practice are informed by my family history and my positionality as a Pitta Pitta woman.

I acknowledge my Ancestors and my great-grandmother Dolly whose story has shaped my family in unimaginable ways. Additionally, I extend my respects to the ongoing Custodians of the Kulin Nations where I work and live.

Sovereignty has never been ceded and it always was, and forever will be, Aboriginal land.

Ill finish with a quote from Indigenous scholar Aunty Mary Graham:

There is no Aboriginal equivalent to the Cartesian notion of I think therefore I am but, if there were, it would be I am located therefore I am. Place, being, belonging and connectedness all arise out of a locality in Land.

Read more: The air we breathe: how I have been observing atmospheric change through art and science

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Google Earth is an illusion: how I am using art to explore the problematic nature of western maps and the myth of 'terra nullius' - The Conversation

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Clouded in secrecy: presumptively Amazon- and Google-backed U.S. lobbying front (Coalition for Fair Software Licensing) sets new opacity record by not…

Posted: at 10:24 am

In the previous post I quoted from the official complaints of three Members of the European Parliament (all of them well-respected experts in technology policy-making) alleging violations of EU transparency rules by Google, Amazon, CCIA (an entity funded by them as well as by others, such as Apple), Meta, and four smaller lobbying fronts. There are strong indications that some of the same organizations--the ones whose names I just put in bold face--are also involved, in one form or another, with a dubious lobbying entity based in Washington, D.C., named "Coalition for Fair Software Licensing" (CFSL). That one was launched only a couple of weeks ago.

The extent of astroturfing by some Big Tech companies is as appalling as it is becoming absurd. I will call them out, relentlessly.

The CFSL was started to advocate in the U.S. nine of the ten principles for software licensing in the cloud that have previously been espoused by Amazon-backed CISPE in the EU. The primary targets of both CISPE and CFSL are Microsoft and Oracle. CISPE has been trying for a while to instigate an EU antitrust investigation against Microsoft, but the latter's new software licensing terms create new opportunities for the very type of company CISPE pretends to speak for: European cloud service providers (CSPs). I just emphasized the word "pretends" for a couple of reasons:

It's paradoxical that a group claiming to promote European digital sovereignty is primarily funded by Amazon, the biggest bully on the cloud services block. No company diminishes the business opportunity for European CSPs even half as much as Amazon does.

Benjamin Henrion, who was a key player in the fight against the EU software patents directive, drew my attention via Twitter to a recent event in Brussels where the CEO of a key complainant--Nextcloud--said (via video) that he didn't want to work out a solution when Microsoft contacted him: he prefers to keep fighting.

If I were an antitrust enforcer, I'd be unprepared to investigate a complaint by someone with that attitude. There's nothing wrong with having a set of values, but regulation is more like litigation than like legislation in the sense that if someone has a problem and the problem can be solved, a settlement is preferable--also from a public-interest perspective--over an unnecessary dispute. Mr. Karlitschek's belligerence raises the question of whether he's actually complaining as the CEO of a German open source company or as a sock puppet for Amazon. By contrast, the CEO of Epic Games is very serious about opening up mobile app distribution, but last year he testified under oath that if Apple had offered him terms that Epic would have considered acceptable, he'd have accepted them (which doesn't mean giving up one's policy positions). A smaller app developer, Kosta Eleftheriou, settled his U.S. litigation with Apple last month (previously he fended off Apple's motion to dismiss), yet keeps criticizing Apple's App Store terms and practices. Those who truly face a problem will be open to working out a solution.

It's also remarkable that Nextcloud's CEO claimed to know that the EU Commission would soon launch an investigation. Not only may DGCOMP--which has to prioritize wisely--very well conclude that Microsoft's modified licensing terms satisfactorily address any potential concerns, but even if an investigation was imminent, the Commission would communicate it through other channels than having a complainant reveal its plans at a small conference.

Interestingly, right after Nextcloud's Frank Karlitschek, Quentin Adam--the CEO of Clever Cloud-- raised some issues that small European CSPs are more concerned about, such as Google's advertising business (against which the EC is reportedly preparing a Statement of Objections) and Amazon's pricing model being allegedly designed to complicate multiclouding (combining services from multiple CSPs).

It really looks like some who complain about unfair software licensing terms would actually prefer to divert attention away from their own terms and practices, hoping to use the regulatory process to cement their own market position.

That newly-created Coalition for Fair Software Licensing has an "About the Coalition" page--but it doesn't list a single company. There's a CV of the organization's executive director, a former Senate aide and tech industry lobbyist (Ryan Triplette). But not a single company is named that would say it has problems with Microsoft's or Oracle's software licensing terms.

The Register reported on the CFSL's launch, and was told that "customers are concerned about speaking out publicly for fear of 'retaliatory behavior from software providers.'"

That is a serious allegation, but can it be taken seriously? A plausibility check is in order.

Why would any of those companies believe that the targets of their complaint would try to silence critics? And what do they believe would happen?

The Register continues: "Nobody wants the compliance team from Microsoft or Oracle knocking at the door."

Why would that be so much of a concern? If a company meets its obligations under a license agreement, it doesn't have to fear an audit. And even if it had anything to hide, what would the consequences be? Presumably they'd just have to pay the difference between what they reported before and what they were actually using the licensed software for. How is that retaliation by any reasonable standard?

A potential audit is not a reason to hide one's identity. If potential complainants have to be afraid of something, it's that gatekeepers abuse their power such as by rejecting apps or delaying reviews. It didn't prevent me from bringing formal complaints over Apple's and Google's COVID-related app rules. It's not preventing dozens of app makers, large and small, from being publicly listed as members of the Coalition for App Fairness.

I have heard from two major app makers (one very, very large company and a medium-sized European one) that they don't want to publicly complain over Apple's App Store rules. The larger one considers Apple's terms unreasonable, but at least they have dedicated contacts in Apple's App Review department (as did Epic Games until it threw down the gauntlet) that help them get updates reviewed quickly. They don't want to lose that privilege, so they hope others will do the job of bringing about change. The medium-sized one has some rather conservative shareholders who fear that Apple might make their company's products less discoverable. So, it is true that fear of retaliation sometimes does prevent companies from officially complaining. But fear of an audit--in other words, that you might just have to abide by a contract you signed--is not a credible reason, when some other companies even speak out publicly against tyrannical gatekeepers who have the power to arbitrarily prevent you from reaching billions of customers, or to make your life miserable in other ways.

Who is footing the Coalition for Fair Software Licensing's bills?

According to information they published on LinkedIn, they have 11-50 employees. That means a multi-million dollar budget. Where is the money coming from?

I have found two clues. The first one is so ridiculously hypocritical that it actually made me laugh (click on the image to enlarge):

There you have the so-called Computer & Communications Industry Association--which is actually, as I explained in a recent post, a Cash & Carry Industry Association--describing itself as a "longtime advocate for open systems and open networks." That's the same CCIA that supported its most influential member, Google, against the European Commission (fortunately the Commission has already prevailed twice in the EU General Court). It's also the same CCIA that is supporting Apple against Epic Games (the Ninth Circuit will hear Epic's appeal later this week). Presumably that's the #1 reason why Apple joined CCIA about a year ago.

CCIA doesn't give a damn about open systems and open networks or "competitive ideals." It's the enemy of open markets, of open systems, and of open networks. It's just a lobbying front for entrenched monopolists, and in the formal complaints I mentioned further above, three MEPs are accusing CCIA of having astroturfed for Google and Amazon: CCIA lobbied against legislation designed to open up markets and restore competition, and according to the complaints falsely claimed to do so on startups' behalf.

It's my sense of humor when a new lobbying entity springs up somewhere, claims to speak for a certain category of stakeholders it says are too afraid to reveal their identity (without any plausible reason why they'd have to be all that concerned)--and CCIA appears to have a hand in it. It reminds me of that Save Our Standards group that is also backed by CCIA (Despicably deceptive: Big Tech's Save Our Standards campaign presents small app developer as victim of standard-essential patent abuse though it NEVER had to license SEPs). Now all that's missing is ACT | The App(le) Association. But unlike CCIA backers Google and Amazon, Apple isn't in the CSP business.

While Google is not (at least not officially) involved with the CFSL's older European sister CISPE (unlike Amazon), it appears that Google is one of the backers of CFSL. On LinkedIn, Omid Ghaffari-Tabrizi (title: U.S. Federal Civilian Policy - Google Cloud) endorsed and amplified the CFSL's first statement.

Google and Amazon trying to harm the third large CSP, but hiding behind unnamed customers.

That cast of characters says a lot.

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Google selects Coinbase to take cloud payments with cryptocurrencies and will use its custody tool – CNBC

Posted: at 10:24 am

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian speaks during the Google Cloud Next event in San Francisco on April 9, 2019.

Michael Short | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Google said Tuesday that it will rely on Coinbase to start letting some customers pay for cloud services with cryptocurrencies early in 2023, while Coinbase said it would draw on Google's cloud infrastructure.

Coinbase shares rose as much as 8.4% in Tuesday's trading session, although the stock is still down over 70% for the year.

The deal, announced at Google's Cloud Next conference, might succeed in luring cutting-edge companies to Google in a fierce, fast-growing market, where Google's top competitors do not currently permit clients to pay with digital currencies. The cloud business helps diversify Google parent Alphabet away from advertising, and it now accounts for 9% of revenue, up from less than 6% three years ago, as it is expanding more quickly than Alphabet as a whole.

Coinbase, which generates a majority of its revenue from retail transactions, will move data-related applications to Google from the market-leading Amazon Web Services cloud, which Coinbase has relied on for years, said Jim Migdal, Coinbase's vice president of business development.

The Google Cloud Platform infrastructure service will initially accept cryptocurrency payments from a handful of customers in the Web3 world who want to pay with cryptocurrency, thanks to an integration with the Coinbase Commerce service, said Amit Zavery, vice president and general manager and head of platform at Google Cloud, in an interview with CNBC. Web3 is a buzzword that has come to stand for decentralized and distributed internet services that can't be controlled by big internet outfits such as Facebook or Google.

Over time, Google will allow many more customers to make payments with cryptocurrency, Zavery said. Coinbase Commerce supports 10 currencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dogecoin, Ethereum and Litecoin. Bitcoin, Dogecoin and Ethereum prices have all declined over 60% in the past year.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. But like other Coinbase Commerce arrangements, Coinbase will earn a percentage of transactions that go through it, Migdal said.

It wasn't a guarantee that Google would go with Coinbase for the payments portion of the deal. PayPal, for one, offers businesses a way to take payments with digital currencies. "We did look at other companies for the cryptocurrency side of it," Zavery said. Ultimately, he said, Coinbase had the greatest capability.

Google is also exploring how it can use Coinbase Prime, a service that securely stores organizations' cryptocurrencies and allows them to execute trades. Zavery said Google will experiment and "see how we can participate" with managing cryptocurrency assets. Block (the payments company formerly known as Square), Coinbase, MicroStrategy and Tesla are among the companies that have added digital currencies to their balance sheets. That can be a risky endeavor. Coinbase announced a $377 million impairment charge tied to a decline in the value of its cryptocurrency holdings in August.

Google had previously indicated in May that it was exploring the possibility of adding support for payments with digital currencies. Migdal said Coinbase had been in discussion with Google for months, with conversations about supporting commerce transactions, cloud usage and the Prime service all happening in parallel. "We decided to bring them together," he said.

Blockchain technologies such as nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, have become a bigger focus for Google's cloud division. Previously, Google's cloud chief, Thomas Kurian, has pushed for growth in major industries such as media and retail. This year it announced the formation of teams to drum up blockchain business and build tools that third-party developers can draw on to run blockchain applications.

WATCH: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong reveals new details about pivot to subscriptions: CNBC Crypto World

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Move Over, Google: Samsung Wants to Reinvent the Phone Call, Too – CNET

Posted: at 10:24 am

Samsung is taking a page from theGoogle Pixelplaybook with its upcomingOne UI 5software update, which will be adding a new way to take calls onGalaxy phones. The Bixby Text Call feature will bring the ability to answer a phone call by texting, with the Bixby assistant transcribing between voice and text on both ends.

The feature is only available in Korean to start, but it's part of Samsung's effort to make multitasking on Galaxy devices easier in the future -- a theme it's leaning into throughout One UI 5 to further differentiate its devices from Apple's and Google's. The company plans to expand into other languages, including English, next year.

Samsung isn't the only one experimenting with ways to enhance the basic phone-calling experience. Google has rolled out a suite of new phone-centric features to Pixel devices that can screen calls on your behalf, wait on hold for you and even predict wait times when dialing toll-free numbers. Bixby Text Call is Samsung's most prominent answer yet to Google's ambitions to modernize phone calls.

"Bixby has evolved over many years as a specialized voice control agent," Sally Jeong, vice president and head of the Framework Research and Development Group for Samsung's Mobile Experience Business, said via a translator. "And it requires a lot of training of Bixby so that it can actually identify and understand the voices during phone calls."

However, Samsung's approach differs from Google's. Rather than having Bixby take over a phone call, it assists with your call by transcribing between voice and text for situations where it might not be suitable to answer a phone call. It's essentially blending texting and phone calls together.

Samsung's Bixby, as seen here on the Galaxy S10, has had limited success compared to other virtual assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant.

Part of why this feature is only launching now, roughly five years after Bixby's debut, is because the technology has reached a point where it can accurately understand colloquial speech. Differentiating between speech being received through the phone's microphone and the caller on the other end is another technical challenge that Samsung had to perfect before launching this feature.

"We have identified phone calls as the most effective or useful scenario for leveraging the technology," Jeong said in reference to how Bixby's speech recognition has progressed. "Because as you know, we all have experienced the pain points of having to leave the room to take an unexpected phone call."

When using Bixby Text Call, you'll be able to type a text message to answer an incoming call, which Bixby will then translate to speech for the caller on the other end. The caller will hear an automated message alerting them that the call is being answered through Bixby. After that, Bixby will translate the caller's speech to text for the recipient. The feature works on-device, meaning it's not sent to the cloud for processing, and the conversation transcript is saved in the Samsung call app. The audio itself is deleted right after the recognition process takes place, Samsung says.

Samsung sees an opportunity to further expand this technology in the future. Jeong said Samsung intends to eventually have Bixby screen for spam calls, similar to how the Google Assistant does thison Pixel phones in the US.

The Bixby spam filtering feature could be similar to the one seen on Pixel phones, which can intercept potential spam calls before they reach you.

"Filtering spam calls will definitely be one direction that we'll explore in addition to using your speech to turn it into text and vice versa," Jeong said, although she couldn't provide a timeline.

Samsung's Bixby voice assistant launched in 2017, but it hasn't gained as much traction as Apple's Siri, the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. A 2020 report from Voicebot.ai examining voice assistant adoption among US adults found that Samsung's Bixby only accounts for 6.7% of the phone-based voice assistant market, while Siri leads the pack at 45.1%. The Google Assistant placed in second with 29.9%, while Amazon's Alexa claimed 18.3%.

But Bixby usage has grown since 2018. That same report indicates that Samsung's market share jumped from 4.7% in 2018 to 6.7% in 2020, while Apple and Google's respective slices had slightly shrunk.

It remains to be seen whether features like Bixby Text Call will help bring Samsung's digital helper up to speed with alternatives from Apple and Google. But what is clear is that Apple, Google and Samsung are using their virtual assistants in attempts to improve the phone-calling experience.

Google, for example, just updated its Direct My Call feature, which uses the Google Assistant to transcribe automated phone menus. With the Pixel 7, the Google Assistant will transcribe those menus before they're spoken. Apple also added the ability to have Siri hang up a call hands-free and automatically send texts without requiring a confirmation in iOS 16.

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You Can Now Google the Balances of Ethereum Addresses – Decrypt

Posted: at 10:24 am

Google is now providing data on Ethereum addresses via its search engine. The worlds biggest website now tells you how much ETH some wallets hold when you punch an Etheruem address into the search bar.

The new feature works via block explorer Etherscan, a website that provides data on the Ethereum blockchain.

Crypto investor at Google Ventures Han Hua tweeted about the feature Tuesday. But when Decrypt tried it with several addresses, some worked and others didnt, which could mean that Google is rolling out the feature incrementally.

Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap after Bitcoin. Its blockchain is used to build popular apps that are decentralized (known as dapps). It plays host to billions of dollars worth of DeFi and NFT trading activity.

Ethereum addresses are public and anyone can find out, with the right tools, how much ETH a wallet holds, what transactions it has made, and what applications its owner has interacted with on the network. Its the kind of data that can be very valuable to traders and analysts, and companies like Nansen have built businesses around making such data more easily accessible.

Google is becoming more crypto-focused: as first reported today by CNBC, the internet giant said that it would start using Coinbase to accept cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin to make payments for cloud services early next year.

And last month, Googles Web3 and Cloud head of strategy Richard Widmann told Decrypt that the company was working to grow its Web3 features. This suggests that Google, arguably one of the most important tech companies in the world, has its eyes firmly set on what is believed to be the next interaction of the internet which relies heavily on blockchains to function.

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Halloween 2022 Google trends: Heres what people are searching for – SILive.com

Posted: at 10:24 am

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Its spooky season!

Google has released its annual Fright Geist site, which captures the top Halloween trends nationally and locally.

This years most searched Halloween costumes in New York City include:

1. Fairy

2. Witch

3. Spiderman

4. Dinosaur

5. Stranger Things

The most searched Halloween costumes nationally include:

1. Witch

2. Spider-Man

3. Dinosaur

4. Stranger Things

5. Fairy

The site outlines that a spike in Halloween searches include spider webs, skeletons, witchcraft, vampires and cat eye contacts.

Many Halloween-related Google searches also include:

Top Partner/Couples costumes:

Most searched dog costumes:

Most searched baby costumes:

Most searched childrens costumes:

Top searched Halloween themed nails

Top searched Halloween makeup looks

Trending Halloween makeup looks

Top searched how to make decorations

Top searched jack-o-lantern patterns

Trending spooky cocktails

Trending Halloween-themed foods

Most searched Halloween episodes

Most searched Halloween movies

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Halloween 2022 Google trends: Heres what people are searching for - SILive.com

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Google Clock 7.3 rolls out with alarm pausing and more obvious multi-timer UI – 9to5Google

Posted: at 10:24 am

After debuting on the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, the latest version (7.3) of Google Clock is widely rolling out with a pair of appreciable usability tweaks.

In the first tab, youll notice that expanding alarm reveals a Pause alarm button that lets you select the dates to pause your alarm. You can either select start and end dates by tapping on the month view or entering via numpad.

This is much better (and safer) than toggling an alarm off and potentially forgetting to re-enable once youre back on schedule.

Meanwhile, the Timer tab does a better job of handling multiple active countdowns. Instead of only being able to see one at a time (and needing to scroll), each timer is a compact card with the Clock app fitting multiples on the same screen. The original increment is noted at the top with a tap letting you rename. A delete button is to the right of that, while you can quickly reset from within the circular countdown indicator.

The button for adding another minute is much more prominent with Google doing a good job of making things more obvious. The previous interface could be described as nice to look at and minimalistic, but its too clever by half for a tool that should be very straightforward given the heavy usage. Hidden UIs are unnecessary here, while it looks great on a tablet.

Google has also changed the screen that appears when a timer goes off to be brighter with a background color and tweaked buttons that are smaller.

Version 7.3 of Google Clock is widely rolling out to Pixel phones and other devices via the Play Store. Meanwhile, Google is also rolling out an update to Calculator (8.3) that doesnt appear to have any significant changes.

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Google Cloud To Unfreeze Hiring Process By Next Month – CRN

Posted: September 27, 2022 at 8:54 am

Cloud News Mark Haranas September 26, 2022, 12:15 PM EDT

Google Cloud will unfreeze its hiring pause, which initially was taken by Google several months ago in a few areas, according to an internal Google memo.

Google Cloud is in the process of unfreezing Googles hiring pause in a few areas at the fast-growing cloud giant, according to a recent internal memo sent to employees.

By October, Google Cloud plans to complete the unfreezing of employee hiring in some areas, which was first implemented across parent company Google in July.

Brad Calder, vice president of Google Cloud Platform and technical infrastructure, said in a memo to employees that executive leaders in certain cloud teams were still trying to restart the hiring process in a few Google Cloud areas as of September.

We plan to complete this process by the start of October, Calder said in his memo, which was obtained by CRN.

[Related: Googles $5.4B Mandiant Merger Complete: 5 Big Security Plans Ahead]

In July, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said Google Clouds parent company was temporarily pausing hiring employees.

Well be slowing our hiring and sharpening our focus as a company, said Pichai during Googles second- quarter financial earnings call with media and analysts in July.

However, it appears that Googles red-hot cloud business would not feel too big of an impact in terms of the companywide hiring freeze as Google would still be hiring technical talent.

We are still focused on hiring engineering, technical and other critical roles, Pichai added.

In the second quarter of 2022, Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat said the company added more than 10,000 employees to its head count.

With respect to Alphabet head count, we added 10,108 people in the second quarter with the majority of hires for technical roles, said Porat.

Googles CFO said although the company would slow the pace of hiring in its second quarter, Google expects our actions on hiring to become more apparent in 2023.

Our head-count additions in the third quarter will reflect we already have a strong number of commitments, including new graduate hires, said Porat.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based companys third fiscal quarter ends Sept. 30, 2022.

Google also on-boarded thousands of new employees from Mandiant, which the company officially acquired in September for $5.4 billion in a blockbuster security move.

Although we expect the pace of head-count growth to moderate next year, we will continue hiring for critical roles, particularly focused on top engineering and technical talent, said Porat.

Google Cloud generated $6.3 billion during its second quarter of 2022, representing an increase of 36 percent year over year.

However, Google Cloud reported a loss of $858 million during second-quarter 2022, compared with a loss of $591 million in second-quarter 2021.

Google Cloud business includes Googles infrastructure and platform services, collaboration tools and other services for customers.

Pichai has been steadfast in recent years about technology being the focus and long-term vision for the company as a whole.

With an uncertain global economic outlook, our strategy to invest in deep technology and computer science to build helpful products for the long term is the right one, he said in July.

Mark Haranas is an assistant news editor and longtime journalist now covering cloud, multicloud, software, SaaS and channel partners at CRN. He speaks with world-renown CEOs and IT experts as well as covering breaking news and live events while also managing several CRN reporters. He can be reached at mharanas@thechannelcompany.com.

Google Cloud To Unfreeze Hiring Process By Next Month - CRN

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Googles Long-Tail Ads.txt Takeover; The New Barnacles Of Digital Media – AdExchanger

Posted: at 8:54 am

Heres todays AdExchanger.com news round-up Want it by email? Sign uphere.

Googles Pub Crawl

Ads.txt was created to identify and help prevent fraud or non-transparent dealings in programmatic. But ads.txt also helps to quantify Googles ad tech footprint.

Of the top one million sites that carry the ads.txt spec and are tracked by Well-Known, an index of web domains and standards they carry, 99% authorize at least one Google account and 97% list Google as a direct seller. (H/t to Well-Known creator @braedon.)

The second-largest vendor by ads.txt penetration, Magnite, claims 24% coverage and 19% direct status. Although, if you cut it down to the top 100,000 domains, Magnite improves to 73% of domain listings and 61% direct.

One lesson from that anecdotal data is that where Google dominates most and gets much of its differentiation is the long tail. The top 100,000 domains are fairly competitive, but the next 900,000 default almost entirely to Google. The vast majority dont list Magnite or any other vendor.

Ninety percent of mobile apps list Google as an app-ads.txt seller. The next closest, Magnite again, reaches 74% of the top 100,000 app domains.

IDs Are The New Tags

Digital publishers underwent a spring cleaning in recent years, whittling down their vendor rosters and companies they allow to put a pixel on their site.

For years since the inception of programmatic, really ad tech companies wheedled their way into web domains in the form of tags and server calls. Each tiny bit of code was insignificant on its own, but collectively they bloated the web and gave Google air cover to launch AMP.

Publishers seem concerned that the seem dynamic is in effect again with the alternative identity systems, Digiday reports.

[Site] performance issues is death by a thousand paper cuts. Every single one of those adds up, says one publisher exec.

Adding to the frustration is that programmatic IDs, the hot new tech debt for publishers, are highly strategic for ad tech, meaning publishers are being pressed to adopt them.

Whether The Trade Desk or Yahoo, to actually work with them youre going to have to adopt [Yahoos] Next-Gen ID or UID [which was originally developed by The Trade Desk] in order for that to happen, says another publisher exec.

Truth Be Told

Teens say TikTok needs to remove harmful content from its platform.

Fifteen-year-old Naomi Sanders, for one, cant avoid content that glorifies eating disorders, despite trying, she tells The Wall Street Journal.

TikTok has expanded its ban on eating disorder-related content since the Journal published an investigation last year. TikTok says it released a tool for users to block content with a Not Interested tag.

But Sanders is still served videos about calorie counting, she tells WSJ.

One problem is that some users circumvent TikToks algorithms with tactics like intentionally misspelling eating disorders to post content that otherwise might be flagged or have stifled distribution.

YouTube has also been dinged recently because its dislike and not interested buttons barely affect distribution.

Algorithmic decision-making easily backfires on social media. For instance, TikTok filled in half-complete searches like diet hack with automated suggestions such as diet hacks for women and diet hack snacks.

How can we expect kids to sift through all of that and know whats safe and medically sound? Rachel Fortune, a physician, asks the Journal.

But Wait, Theres More!

Mobile gaming goes full circle with Clawee. [Financial Times]

Amazon will have a Prime Day in October, the first time it will host the shopping event twice in a year. [Bloomberg]

Two private equity firms invest in MediaRadar. [release]

Netflix is building its own in-house game studio in Finland. [Engadget]

The biggest mystery of Googles algorithm: Everything ever said about clicks, CTR and bounce rate. [Search Engine Land]

TikTok is making progress on a US security deal, but hurdles remain. [NYT]

Youre Hired!

Mobile gaming vet Kim Carlson joins Mobivity as chief revenue officer. [release]

Former Zoom Exec Heather Macaulay Appointed President of MadTech Advisors. [MediaPost]

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Googles Long-Tail Ads.txt Takeover; The New Barnacles Of Digital Media - AdExchanger

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Category Archives: Google

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Googles Long-Tail Ads.txt Takeover; The New Barnacles Of Digital Media – AdExchanger

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