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Youtube logo is placed on a Russian flag in this illustration picture taken February 26, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

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March 18 (Reuters) - Russia on Friday demanded that Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google stop spreading what it called threats against Russian citizens on its YouTube video-sharing platform, a move that could presage an outright block of the service on Russian territory.

The regulator, Roskomnadzor, said adverts on the platform were calling for the communications systems of Russia and Belarus' railway networks to be suspended and that their dissemination was evidence of the U.S. company's anti-Russian position. It did not say which accounts were publishing the adverts.

"The actions of YouTube's administration are of a terrorist nature and threaten the life and health of Russian citizens," the regulator said.

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"Roskomnadzor categorically opposes such advertising campaigns and demands that Google stop broadcasting anti-Russia videos as soon as possible."

Google removed an advertisement that was flagged by the Russian government, according to a source familiar with the matter who declined to describe it.

The dispute was the latest in a series between Moscow and foreign tech firms over Ukraine.

YouTube, which has blocked Russian state-funded media globally, is under heavy pressure from Russia's communications regulator and politicians.

Outraged that Meta Platforms (FB.O) was allowing social media users in Ukraine to post messages such as "Death to the Russian invaders", Moscow blocked Instagram this week, having already stopped access to Facebook because of what it said were restrictions by the platform on Russian media. read more

Russian news media including RIA and Sputnik quoted an unnamed source as saying YouTube could be blocked next week or as early as Friday.

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Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday wrote a fierce criticism of foreign social media firms, mentioning by name both Meta and YouTube, but he hinted that the door leading to their possible return to the Russian market would be left ajar.

"The 'guardians' of free speech have in all seriousness allowed users of their social media to wish death upon the Russian military," Medvedev, who served as president from 2008 to 2012 and is now deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council, wrote on the messaging app Telegram.

Medvedev said Russia has the necessary tools and experience to develop its own social media, saying the "one-way game" of Western firms controlling information flows could not continue.

"In order to return, they will have to prove their independence and good attitude to Russia and its citizens," he wrote. "However, it is not a fact that they will be able to dip their toes in the same water twice."

VKontakte, Russia's answer to Facebook, has been breaking records for activity on its platform since Russia sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

The site attracted 300,000 new users in the two weeks after Russia began what it calls a "special operation" to demilitarise and "de-Nazify" its neighbour.

On the day Instagram was blocked in Russia, VKontakte said its daily domestic audience grew by 8.7% to more than 50 million people, a new record.

Anton Gorelkin, a member of Russia's State Duma committee on information and communications, pointed Russians to services that would help them move videos from YouTube to the domestic equivalent, RuTube.

"It's not that I'm calling for everyone to immediately leave YouTube," he said on his Telegram channel. "But, probably, in light of recent events it is worth following the principle of not keeping all your eggs in one basket."

He said earlier this week that YouTube may face the same fate as Instagram if it continues "to act as a weapon in the information war".

Russian tech entrepreneurs said this week they would launch picture-sharing application Rossgram on the domestic market to help fill the void left by Instagram. read more

In November, Gazprom Media launched Yappy as a domestic rival to video-sharing platform TikTok.

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Reporting by ReutersEditing by Andrei Khalip, Angus MacSwan, Frances Kerry and Grant McCool

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Russia tells Google to stop spreading threats against Russians on YouTube - Reuters

Google is making some tweaks to the Play Store to make it easier for people with big screen devices to find apps thatll take advantage of the display real estate. According to a post on its Developers blog, the company has some changes planned for how apps are ranked and promoted, how reviews are displayed, and the alert messages you might see if youre browsing apps on a tablet, foldable, or Chromebook.

In the post, Google says that it will update how the Play Store ranks and features apps on big-screen devices, with the logic taking account of factors like the support of different device orientations, keyboard support, and more. The company says that the change, which will take place in the coming months, is meant to prioritize high-quality apps and games and help make sure the first apps people find are ones that will work well on their device.

Googles post also mentions that the Play Store will start showing people reviews and ratings from devices in the same category e.g., phone users will see reviews left by other phone users, tablet users will see reviews left by tablet users, and so on, so they can get a better idea of how well the app will work on their type of device. The company announced this change was coming last summer, but its good to hear that its still being worked on. Google says developers can see which reviews and ratings a user with a specific device will see in the Play Store console.

Finally, Google says itll be changing the alerts for apps that dont meet compatibility requirements to make sure big screen device users know how something will run after they install it. Its post is vague on what this actually means, saying that itll provide additional communications on this change later this year.

Google has been giving tablets and larger-screen phones a lot of attention recently. Its Android 12L update is focused on improving the big-screen experience with changes to the notification and Quick Settings shades and the addition of a taskbar. There have also been some interesting developments at its Platforms and Ecosystems team, where one of Androids original founders is working on developing Android for large screens.

Googles push on big screen devices is interesting, given that it makes no tablets, no folding phones, and all of one Chromebook (which was introduced in 2019). Of course, its got plenty of partners that make them, but if I were in the business of predicting what a company was working on, I think my ears would be perked up at this point. There are rumors of an upcoming Pixel foldable, and maybe thats all well see but maybe Google will make Android so good for tablets that itll just have to make one of its own.

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Google's tweaking the Play Store to make it better for tablets and folding phones - The Verge

Google grabbed headlines last week when it announced it will pay $5.4 billion to buy cyber firm Mandiant. While the size of the deal alone is impressive, it may also be a harbinger for a record-setting year of M&A in the space.

Less than three months into the year, some noteworthy deals aside from the Mandiant/Google acquisition have already been announced both by companies in cyber and outside the space, including:

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Other companies, including Darktrace, ForeScout and Cloudflare, all announced deals early in the year. In total, more than two dozen deals have been announced thus far in 2022. While only a handful of announced deals disclosed terms, those that did were worth nearly $7.4 billion, easily on pace to beat the $13.7 billion for deals with announced terms in 2021which was a record year in terms of volume with 134 deals.

While the Google/Mandiant proposed marriage made big headlines because of what it could mean for cloud security, last year had an even larger deal in the greater cyber ecosystem when Okta paid $6.5 billion in a stock deal for Bellevue, Washington-based Auth0.

However, that was a very different spaceidentification and authenticationand did not involve one of the largest tech giants in the world in its cloud battle with Microsoft and Amazon.

Google is a late comer to the enterprise (space) in general, said Ofer Schreiber, partner and head of the Israel office for cyber venture firm YL Ventures. This is the cloud vendors war.

Those involved in the cybersecurity sector agree the Mandiant dealGoogles second-largest acquisition everand the Siemplify buy are both aimed at taking on AWS and Microsoft for cloud supremacy. Perhaps more specifically, it is to take on Microsoftwhich had been a rumored suitor for Mandiant earlier this yearand the security it has built around its Azure cloud offering.

Through the years, Microsoft has prioritized securityparticularly around the Azure cloudboth through internal development and through dealmaking, picking up cybersecurity startups such as Adallom, CyberX, Aorato and Hexadite.

Microsoft has a better standing in the enterprise market, Schreiber said.

With the acquisition of Mandiant, which can help automate incident response, Google strengthened its cloud security offering to potential customers. Schreiber said he believes the next buzzword in the industry could be XDRor extended detection and responsewhich collects and correlates data across multiple security layers such as cloud workloads, servers and endpoints.

Security really is a data issue, he said. You need data for sophisticated attackers.

Taking its cloud offering more to large enterprises was something Google had in mind back in 2019 when it named Thomas Kurian CEO of Google Cloud after his time at Oracle, said Alberto Ypez, co-founder and managing director at Forgepoint Capital, which specializes in cybersecurity and infrastructure software investments. Ypez sold his last cyber company to Oracle while Kurian was there, and Kevin MandiaMandiants founderserves on Forgepoints advisory council.

Ypez said he can see both the Mandiant and Siemplify deals working in unison for Google Cloudas Siemplifys orchestration aspect acts as a middleware layer and helps with integration.

Ypez, whose portfolio company Area 1 Security was acquired by Cloudflare just last month, does not necessarily expect the dealmaking to cease any time soon. Along with large players like those mentioned above continuing to buy select point solution specialists with strong IP, Ypez said he also believes the current uncertainty in the market will play a role.

I think this is a prime time for exits, said Ypez, who also was an early investor in Attivo. Companies may have to raise money at lower valuations these overfunded companies will have to make a choice.

Companies will look at targets in cybersecurity to expand their total addressable market, Ypez said. Acquisition targets that can do that and have high intellectual property can still see 20x trailing revenue, said Ypez, adding that potential acquirers consistently reach out to his portfolio investments.

However, Schreiber said due to the sheer amount of capital poured into the space through the last few years, valuations remain high and he is seeing a bit of slowing in dealmaking.

While deals in the range of $150 million to $400 million used to be seen in cyber, it now has become small deals for very young companies or big home run swings by tech giants.

You are seeing a lot of companies get bought early, he said. There just are not a lot of exits for a few hundreds of millions of dollars.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the Crunchbase Daily.

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Google Sets The Pace In What Could Be A Record Year For Cyber M&A - Crunchbase News

The Google Home app is getting a fresh design that should make it a lot more intuitive, according to a report from 9to5Google. The upcoming 2.49 update will let you interact with your devices from a single screen, resembling the device control panel on phones with Android 11 and up.

Judging by the updates release notes on the App Store, it seems Google is hoping to make the app a lot more user-friendly than what it is right now, saying it should help you quickly find what youre looking for, dim your compatible lights, and change the music volume in a snap. More specifically, youll be able to tap on a device to turn it on or off, slide left or right on certain elements, like lights or speakers to make adjustments to brightness and volume, as well as long press on a device to see more options.

Google Home received its last major design change in 2018 and later added controls to change the color of your lights but has largely remained the same ever since. This has left us with a clunky app that forces us to tap into each device to make specific adjustments (although there are still some single-tap controls like turning things on or off).

Google says the redesign will roll out over the next few weeks, and even having the most recent version of the app on iOS or Android might not be enough to see the changes. Some users, like former editor in chief of XDA-Developers Mishaal Rahman, have successfully sideloaded the 2.49.1.8 update on Android and accessed the new settings.

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Google Home app gets much-needed redesign with interactive buttons - The Verge

Googles big annual developer conference, Google I/O, will take place May 11th and 12th, the company announced Wednesday. The event will once again be fully online, though it sounds like at least some of the conference will be streamed live from the Shoreline Amphitheatre, a frequent Google I/O venue.

This years event will be broadcast in front of a limited live audience, and is completely free and open to everyone virtually, Google spokesperson Alex Garcia-Kummert said in a statement to The Verge. That limited audience will be comprised primarily of Google employees and some partners, according to a Google statement shared with Axios Ina Fried.

Registration will be free and will begin sometime this month, according to an FAQ. There will be no tickets, which seems to mean that everyone who wants to attend will be able to.

Google I/O was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and returned as an online event in 2021. The company made a number of big announcements at last years event, including debuting Android 12s Material You design, revealing updates to Google Workspace, and saying that Googles Wear OS and Samsungs Tizen would be merging into one platform (now known as Wear OS 3).

We dont know exactly whats coming this year, but given that Google has already released the first preview of Android 13, it seems likely that one of the focuses will be that OS.

Update March 16th, 6:08PM ET: Added Google statement and additional context from Axios.

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Google I/O takes place May 11th and 12th, and it will be fully available online - The Verge

Google is rolling out a new feature in its Docs thats designed to make it easier to use its word processor to draft emails, the company has announced. Its part of Googles smart canvas initiative, which aims to seamlessly weave together the search giants productivity software like Meet, Docs, and Gmail.

Much like Google Docss other smart canvas features, the email draft template is accessed with the @ symbol, before selecting Email draft from the context menu. You can then draft the email, including defining recipients, a subject line, and its body text. When its ready to send, click the Gmail icon on the left to open the email service.

The feature seems most useful for emails that multiple people need to contribute to, allowing everyone to collaboratively edit them in a Google Doc and post comments and suggestions. Sure, there was nothing to stop you from copying and pasting text between the two Google services before, but the whole point of smart canvas is to make switching between products like this more seamless.

Google says the email draft feature, which it teased last month, will be available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as anyone on legacy G Suite Basic and Business plans. Its gradually rolling out to rapid release domains now, but will start appearing for most users from next week.

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Google Docs update lets you draft emails and send them to Gmail with a click - The Verge

Google Domains, the companys domain registration service, is losing the beta tag after first launching more than seven years ago, Google announced Tuesday. The service is now generally available in 26 countries, and the company says it already has millions of active registrations.

If you register with Google Domains, you can pick from more than 300 different domain endings, have access to high performance DNS (Google says its the same infrastructure it uses for itself), around-the-clock customer support from real people, and more. The company is also offering a 20 percent discount off any single domain registration or transfer-in to Google Domains for new and returning users with the code DOMAINS20.

However, if you register a domain with Google Domains, youll still need to actually build a website to use with it. Google unsurprisingly suggests its Google Sites product but also recommends its premium partners, which include Wix, Shopify, Squarespace, Weebly, and Bluehost.

Google Domains has been in development for quite a while it first launched in an invite-only beta in June 2014 and was opened up to a public beta in the US in January 2015. Even Gmail wasnt in beta for that long.

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Google Domains is finally out of beta after more than seven years - The Verge

Google today announced two new tools for businesses that operate extensive delivery fleets: the Last Mile Fleet Solution and the Cloud Fleet Routing API. The new Last Mile Fleet Solution, which is part of the Google Maps platform, puts an emphasis on optimizing every step of the last-mile delivery process from ordering to delivery. As the name implies, the new Routing API, which is part of Google Cloud, focuses on route planning across fleets of delivery vehicles.

The Last Mile Fleet Solution is now in public preview. The Cloud Fleet Routing API will become generally available in the second quarter of the year. Since both are enterprise services, theres no public pricing information available, and potential customers of either product have to work with Googles sales team.

The pandemic further accelerated both e-commerce and the number of deliveries, which were already growing rapidly. The increased strain on delivery networks, plus many other factors like driver shortages, poor address data, factory closures, and an increase in fuel prices have impacted delivery time and success, said Hans Thalbauer, Google Clouds managing director for Global Supply Chain & Logistics Industries. With Google Maps Platforms Last Mile Fleet Solution and Cloud Fleet Routing API, were making it easier for delivery fleet operators to address these issues and create seamless experiences for consumers, drivers and fleet managers.

Image Credits: Google

Google Maps Platform already features the On-demand Rides & Delivery solution, which helps businesses dispatch on-demand drivers. The company said the new Last Mile Fleet Solution builds upon this service.

The Fleet Routing API, on the other hand, is a completely new Google Cloud service that helps businesses with their route planning. Users will be able to use it to build tools for their internal fleet management systems and have the system optimize delivery routes based on their specific constraints like time window, package weight and vehicle capacity and in the process, they can also optimize their routes to meet their sustainability targets.

At Paack, we are obsessed with helping some of the largest e-commerce retailers in Europe create exceptional delivery experiences for the millions of orders they receive each month, said Olivier Colinet, the CTO and CPO of U.K.-based courier service Paack. To scale quickly, we adopted Last Mile Fleet Solution and Cloud Fleet Routing, which enables our drivers and fleet managers to maintain peak efficiency and go beyond our 98% on-time, first-time delivery rates.

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Google launches new tools to help businesses optimize their delivery operations - TechCrunch

Googles Threat Analysis Group has observed a financially motivated threat actor working as an intermediary for the Russian hackers, including the Conti ransomware gang.

The group, which Google refers to as Exotic Lily, acts as an initial access broker, finding vulnerable organizations and selling access to their networks to the highest bidder. By contracting out the initial access to a victims network, ransomware gangs like Conti can focus on the execution phase of an attack.

In the case of Exotic Lily, this initial access was gained through email campaigns, in which the group masqueraded as legitimate organizations and employees through the use of domain and identity spoofing. In the majority of cases, a spoofed domain was nearly identical to the real domain name of an existing organization, but changed the top-level domains to .us, .co or .biz. In order to appear as legitimate employees, Exotic Lily set up social media profiles and AI-generated images of human faces.

The attackers, which Google believes are operating from Central or Eastern Europe due to the threat actors working hours, would then send spear-phishing emails under the pretext of a business proposal, before ultimately uploading a payload to a public file-sharing service such as WeTransfer or Microsoft OneDrive.

This level of human interaction is rather unusual for cybercrime groups focused on mass-scale operations, notes Google researchers Vlad Stolyarov and Benoit Sevens in a blog post shared with TechCrunch before publication.

These malicious payloads initially took the form of documents containing an exploit for a zero-day in Microsofts MSHTML browser engine (tracked as CVE-2021-40444), before the attackers switched to the delivery of ISO disk images containing hidden BazarLoader payloads. Google researchers say this shift confirms Exotic Lilys relationship with a Russian cybercrime group tracked as Wizard Spider (also known as UNC1878), which is linked to the notorious Ryuk ransomware that has been used to target businesses, hospitals including U.S-based Universal Health Services and government institutions since 2018.

While the nature of this relationship remains unclear, Google says that Exotic Lily appears to operate as a separate entity, focusing on acquiring initial access through email campaigns, with follow-up activities that include deployment of Conti and Diavol ransomware.

Exotic Lily, which was first observed in September 2021 and is still active today, was sending more than 5,000 phishing emails a day to as many as 650 organizations during the peak of its activity, Google said. While the group initially seemed to be targeting specific industries such as IT, cybersecurity and healthcare, it has more recently begun attacking a wide variety of organizations and industries, with less of a specific focus.

Google has also shared indicators of compromise (IOCs) from Exotic Lilys large-scale email campaign to help organizations defend their networks.

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Google discovers threat actor working as an initial access broker for Conti ransomware hackers - TechCrunch

Google announced that some ChromeOS users would finally be able to start testing Steam during its Google for Games Developer Summit but later revised that message to say that the alpha would be coming soon.

During the keynote, Googles product director for games, Greg Hartell, announced that the Steam alpha just launched for select Chromebooks and pointed viewers to the Chromebook Community Forum for more information. At the time, the promised post didnt seem to be there yet, but it was later added with a slightly revised message:

Hello Chromebook Community,

As you may have already heard, our team is working with Valve to bring Steam to Chrome OS. We are very excited to share that well be landing an early, alpha-quality version of Steam on Chrome OS in the Dev channel for a small set of Chromebooks coming soon. Please come back to the forum for more information!

Anyone holding their breath for Steam on ChromeOS is probably used to it, as its been a long time coming Google announced that it was working on supporting the software on Chromebooks in the beginning of 2020, and there hasnt been much info since. There have been whispers that wed see it soon, though, as recent reports indicated that companies are working on gaming-focused Chromebooks.

Despite how long weve been waiting, Hartells announcement came as a bit of a surprise. As 9to5Googles Kyle Bradshaw tweeted, people have been trying to learn more about Steam on ChromeOS for months, combing through code and developer comments only for Google to announce it with a casual mention during a developer keynote.

That keynote also went over Googles revised plans for its Stadia service the TL;DR is that it plans to introduce free demos and trials, as well as make things easier for developers. You can watch it here, or below (the Steam mention is about 14 minutes in).

It is understandable why Google would want to be relatively quiet about the launch; since its slated to arrive as an alpha, itll probably be a little rough around the edges. Theres also limited availability. Google didnt mention which computers Steam will be available on, but 9to5Google has a list that it discovered last month. It includes the x86-powered laptops like the Acer Chromebook Spin 713 and the Asus Flip CX5, along with a few other models.

Update, March 16th 5:18PM ET: Updated to reflect Googles community post, which stated that the Steam alpha wasnt immediately available and was instead coming soon.

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Google said Steam had arrived on Chromebooks, but now says it's 'coming soon' - The Verge