Thursday 28 February 2019
Wednesday 27 February 2019
Tuesday 26 February 2019
Monday 25 February 2019
Google and Samsung simplify choosing Android in the Enterprise
With Android Enterprise, we've always been focused on working alongside partners, like Samsung, to support businesses as they secure and manage millions of Android devices around the world. Samsung has also pioneered advanced security with its Knox enterprise platform, building a deep set of features upon the flexible and enterprise-grade framework of Android.
Over the past few years, we’ve worked with Samsung to harmonize our enterprise investments to simplify mobility for customers and reduce duplication. With the introduction of Knox Platform for Enterprise (KPE) in Android 8.0 Oreo, Knox features are now built on top of the core Android Enterprise framework. This means that our validated management partners can now offer a single foundation for customers to deploy Android Enterprise, while adding supplementary Samsung Knox features as they see fit.
We’re here at Mobile World Congress this week, beginning the next chapter of our partnership with Samsung with two new joint projects that will enable more enterprise feature management and expanded enrollment options for partners and customers.
Samsung leverages Android OEMConfig to accelerate delivery of Knox features to customers
Today, Samsung announced support for OEMConfig, a new Android standard that enables OEMs to create custom device features and controls that can be immediately and consistently offered by Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) providers. The premise of OEMconfig is simple: allow an OEM provided app to configure all of the customized OEM-specific features on the device, instead of having EMMs build support for each and every OEM-specific feature in their products. OEMConfig leverages a feature of Android Enterprise known as managed configurations, and is part of the standard published on the Appconfig community.
Expansive feature sets like Samsung KPE, which deliver a broad range of security and fine-grained hardware controls, have presented a challenge for EMMs to implement. With OEMconfig, EMMs can now offer their customers a full complement of KPE features on Android Enterprise without having to build the supplemental feature support in their consoles. They can also make these features available immediately as Samsung releases them.
To support OEMConfig, Samsung will be releasing the Knox Service Plugin (KSP) app this spring. All EMM vendors that have validated their solutions for Android Enterprise can immediately support Samsung KPE features as they are updated through the Knox Service Plugin app.
Collaborating with Samsung to streamline bulk enrollment of enterprise devices
Android Enterprise offers a simple bulk, over-the-air enrollment method called zero-touch enrollment. Samsung also offers Knox Mobile Enrollment, which provides similar functionality for Samsung devices as part of their Knox Deployment Program (KDP). Both automate device and user enrollment, providing a seamless out-of-the-box configuration experience.
While these enrollment methods have been valuable to customers in setting up large Android deployments, it has been a burden for operators and resellers to integrate and offer both services. To help alleviate this challenge, Google and Samsung have developed a common client library for service providers with a single set of APIs that will integrate with both Android zero-touch capable devices and Samsung devices. Distribution of the library will begin this spring 2019 with Google and Samsung supporting ecosystem partners as they move to this simplified integration model.
A simplified path forward
By working together to reduce complexity, customers can confidently choose a single foundation for modern Android device management using Android Enterprise. Partners will now be able to offer automated enrollment services, as well as rapidly support feature enhancements like Samsung Knox Platform for Enterprise. We’re looking forward to continuing our partnership with Samsung as we collaborate on improving enterprise mobility for customers.
by via The Keyword
Sunday 24 February 2019
Thursday 21 February 2019
How I started a new career while raising three kids, thanks to Google
Editor’s Note: Since 2016, more than 73,000 people have explored new opportunities with the Google Developer scholarship, part of Grow with Google’s commitment to help people across Europe–from Hungary to rural France–succeed in the digital economy.
Zuzana, a working mother from the U.K., was awarded the Google scholarship and graduated from a Udacity Nanodegree program, enabling her to launch a new career as a web developer. She’s among 21% of all Udacity Nanodegree students in the Grow with Google program in Europe who have received job offers after graduating. With her newfound confidence and skills, Zuzana was able to find the flexibility she needed to balance motherhood and her ideal career. Here is her story:
Being a mom to young kids isn’t easy. There’s always something you need to do for them, and it’s really hard to make time for yourself. So it was a special moment when in 2014, as a 33-year-old mother of two, I graduated with an undergraduate degree in psychology.
I looked forward to applying my new skills, but none of the jobs for psychology graduates offered the flexibility I needed to look after my young family. For a while I worked as a teaching assistant in a school, but though the hours were great, I wasn’t utilizing my degree. I felt stuck. So when I became pregnant with my third child, I decided to make a change.
I searched online for flexible jobs and started reading about people who had learned how to code and just months later were working from home. I’d never been interested in technology before– I simply thought that wasn’t me. But out of curiosity, I started to look into what developers do.
When I read about web accessibility, something clicked. Web accessibility is about making the web accessible to all, regardless of a person’s disabilities. Since I knew about the issues disabled people might have (like attention disorders, fine motor skills deficiency and sight impairment), I could see how these issues could affect them when using the web.
Learning web accessibility would allow me to apply psychology in a flexible work arrangement, and I could learn how to do it in my own time. I thought, Wow! Finally, there's something for me as a mom and as a person!
The Udacity Nanodegree program offered both a course on accessibility and a schedule that would fit my family commitments. I never thought I would get the Developer Scholarship from Google when I applied, so I was amazed to get an email saying I had been accepted.
I’d found it hard to think of myself as a web developer, but the scholarship changed that. It made me feel that someone believed in me, so I should believe in myself. The online interaction on the course was incredible, so I never felt like I was studying alone. Even so, when I was completing my Nanodegree program, it was a big step for me to go to a local tech meetup and present a talk to experienced developers. After I spoke, developers came up to me and told me how much they enjoyed my presentation. And shortly after that, one of them offered me my first job, as a web developer for a branding agency.
Whether it was psychology or programming, I've been hard at work studying ever since my first child was born. When I got that very first job, the kids celebrated with me because they knew how much hard work I’d put into it. I’m so glad I can be there for them–cooking, spending time together, helping them with their homework–and also focus on myself. The opportunity has opened new doors for my career, while keeping the door to my family wide open, too. I feel like I’ve finally found my perfect balance.
by via The Keyword
Wednesday 20 February 2019
Tuesday 19 February 2019
Android Enterprise Recommended expands to include Managed Service Providers
As organizations increasingly turn to Android as their enterprise mobility platform, we want to make sure they can easily identify partners with experts who are best equipped to support them.
That’s why we’re expanding the Android Enterprise Recommended program to Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and companies with MSP business units who provision, manage and support millions of devices around the world on behalf of customers. Under the Android Enterprise Recommended program for MSPs, validated partners are trained on the latest best practices from Google to help customers simplify and expand their mobility deployments.
We’re pleased to announce that Accenture, Brodos, Cognizant, DXC Technology, Econocom, Honeywell Enterprise, Mobile Mentor, Mobility MEA, Offshore Tech, SCC, SHI, Skywire, Stratix, Tech Data and Vox Mobile and have been validated as Android Enterprise Recommended partners. Over time, we plan to add more MSP partners to the program.
Android Enterprise Recommended MSPs are required to deliver the following capabilities for customers (the full list of requirements can also be found here):
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Technical expertise and leadership with dedicated personnel trained by Google on implementing and supporting Android
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Certified experience with Android Enterprise Recommended Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) systems
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A close working relationship with Google with an assigned account manager and access to a 24/7 Google partner escalation desk
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A commitment to staying current on the latest Android product features and training requirements as part of annual program re-validation
When we launched the Android Enterprise Recommended program a year ago, we set out to make it simple for businesses to find Android devices and services that have been validated by Google for meeting elevated enterprise requirements. Since then, we’ve applied this framework to knowledge worker devices, then rugged devices,and—most recently—services with last month’s launch of Android Enterprise Recommended for EMMs. With each step, we’re aiming to give customers more confidence in deploying Android and ensuring their deployment is as consistent and current as possible.
Since Android Enterprise Recommended launched, we’ve received great feedback from customers who are putting the program to use. Research firm IDC found that 82 percent of European Android Enterprise Recommended customers said their devices are more secure and more enterprise grade than other devices. We’ll continue to look for ways to expand this program and consistently raise the bar to help customers get more value from their investment in Android.
by via The Keyword
Hello, .dev!
Developers, designers, writers and architects: you built the web. You make it possible for the billions of people online today to do what they do. Have you ever tried to register your preferred domain name, only to find out it's not available? Today, Google Registry is announcing .dev, a brand new top-level domain (TLD) that's dedicated to developers and technology. We hope .dev will be a new home for you to build your communities, learn the latest tech and showcase your projects—all with a perfect domain name.
Check out what some companies, both big and small, are doing on .dev:
- Want to build a website? Both GitHub.dev and grow.dev have you covered.
- Trying to create more inclusive products? Visit accessibility.dev for digital accessibility solutions.
- Learn about Slack’s helpful tools, libraries, and SDKs at slack.dev.
- Connect with Women Who Code at women.dev.
- Who doesn’t want to do more with their time? Jetbrains.dev offers software solutions that make developers more productive.
- Want to brush up on your skills (or learn new ones)? Check out Codecademy.dev.
- Learn how to build apps on the Salesforce platform at crm.dev.
- Interested in learning how to increase the agility and productivity of your data team? Visit dataops.dev.
- Want to build & deploy serverless apps on a global cloud network? You can do that with Cloudflare at workers.dev.
- Get a sneak peek of what’s running under the hood of the Niantic Real World Platform at ar.dev.
Like our recent launches for .app and .page, this new domain will be secure by default because it requires HTTPS to connect to all .dev websites. This protects people who visit your site against ad malware and tracking injection by internet service providers, and from spying when using open WiFi networks. With every .dev website that’s launched, you help move the web to an HTTPS-everywhere future.
Starting today at 8:00 a.m. PT and through February 28, .dev domains are available to register as part of our Early Access Program, where you can secure your desired domains for an additional fee. The fee decreases according to a daily schedule. Beginning on February 28, .dev domains will be available at a base annual price through your registrar of choice. To find out pricing from our participating partners, visit get.dev.
Google has already started using .dev for some of our own projects, like web.dev and opensource.dev
https://amp.dev
. Visit get.dev to see what companies like Mozilla, Netflix, Glitch, Stripe, JetBrains and more are doing on .dev and get your own domain through one of our registrar partners. We look forward to seeing what you create on .dev!by via The Keyword
Get the scoop on Hollywood’s big night with help from Google
It’s awards season, and that means glitz, glam and gold statues. Google is making it easy to keep up with your favorite flicks and celebs no matter where you turn, with new ways to stay up on the buzz with Google Search, Google Images and Google News.
And as we await the announcements of Sunday’s winners, we took a look at the celebs and movies people have searched for—and the trailers they’ve watched on YouTube—to see who and what is capturing our attention, both on and off the screen.
Red Carpet Read-out
It’s arguably everyone’s favorite part of the night. Actors and actresses alike strut their stuff on the red carpet, and many people turn to Google Images to check out their camera-ready looks.
Stay up-to-date on your favorite celebrities this Sunday with a special “Latest” section on Google Images, available on mobile web browsers. If you search for pictures from the red carpet, or a celebrity nominated for an award, Google Images will not only show you the most relevant web pages and photos from across the web related to your search, but will show you the most recent images, too.
But before we get into this year’s red carpet looks, we decided to look back at the past 10 years of worldwide Oscars fashion searches on Google Images to see which stars shone brightest:
- Anne Hathaway
- Jennifer Lopez
- Jennifer Lawrence
- Charlize Theron
- Scarlett Johansson
- Cate Blanchett
- Natalie Portman
- Halle Berry
- Angelina Jolie
- Olivia Wilde
Popular Performers
To help you learn more about your favorite celebrities, we recently launched stories on Knowledge Panels in Search, which provide an overview of notable moments from their lives and help you visually discover information from across the web. For the first time, we’re bringing these stories to Google Images, and we’re also introducing new stories about popular events like award shows.
Rolling out this week, if you search for nominees on Search or Google Images, you’ll see a story showcasing information about their nominations, fellow nominees and other nods they’ve received throughout the 2019 awards season. Searches for “Oscars” have been on the rise leading up to the big night, and Search can help you explore more info about the films and actors, and stay up to date as results roll in on Sunday. If you want to go in depth, Google News will help you dive into all the news stories behind the nominees, red carpet, presenters and more.
You may have your guesses about which roles will earn top acting prizes, and we have the trends to see who’s coming out on top in Search. Here are the nominees leading the pack in search interest for Sunday’s top categories:
Actor in a leading role
Actress in a leading role
Actor in a supporting role
Actress in supporting role
Favorite Flicks
If you’re placing any bets on the big screen’s best films of the year, perhaps you can take a hint from top lists from Search and YouTube. Even if they don’t take home a statue, these films have captured people’s hearts this year.
Top viewed Best Picture trailers on YouTube
Top searched Animated feature film nominees
Top searched Foreign Language Film nominees
Thank you to my agent, producer, director, fellow castmates and everyone who made this blog post possible. *orchestra begins playing, exit stage right*
by via The Keyword
Saturday 16 February 2019
Fighting disinformation across our products
Providing useful and trusted information at the scale that the Internet has reached is enormously complex and an important responsibility. Adding to that complexity, over the last several years we’ve seen organized campaigns use online platforms to deliberately spread false or misleading information.
We have twenty years of experience in these information challenges and it's what we strive to do better than anyone else. So while we have more work to do, we’ve been working hard to combat this challenge for many years.
Today at the Munich Security Conference, we presented a white paper that gives more detail about our work to tackle the intentional spread of misinformation—across Google Search, Google News, YouTube and our advertising systems. We have a significant effort dedicated to this work throughout the company, based on three foundational pillars:
- Improve our products so they continue to make quality count;
- Counteract malicious actors seeking to spread disinformation;
- Give people context about the information they see.
The white paper also explains how we work beyond our products to support a healthy journalistic ecosystem, partner with civil society and researchers, and stay one step ahead of future risks.
We hope this paper and increased transparency can lead to more dialogue about what we and others can do better on these issues. We're committed to acting responsibly and thoroughly as we tackle this important challenge.
by via The Keyword
Friday 15 February 2019
Thursday 14 February 2019
Smart regulation for combating illegal content
We've written before about how we're working to support smart regulation, and one area of increasing attention is regulation to combat illegal content.
As online platforms have become increasingly popular, there’s been a rich debate about the best legal framework for combating illegal content in a way that respects other social values, like free expression, diversity and innovation. Today, various laws provide detailed regulations, including Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in the United States and European Union’s e-Commerce Directive.
Google invests millions of dollars in technology and people to combat illegal content in an effective and fair way. It’s a complex task, and–just as in offline contexts—it’s not a problem that can be totally solved. Rather, it’s a problem that must be managed, and we are constantly refining our practices.
In addressing illegal content, we’re also conscious of the importance of protecting legal speech. Context often matters when determining whether content is illegal. Consider a video of military conflict. In one context the footage might be documentary evidence of atrocities in areas where journalists have great difficulty and danger accessing. In another context the footage could be promotional material for an illegal organization. Even a highly trained reviewer could have a hard time telling the difference, and we need to get those decisions right across many different languages and cultures, and across the vast scale of audio, video, text, and images uploaded online. We make it easy to easily submit takedown notices; at the same time, we also create checks and balances against misuse of removal processes. And we look to the work of international agencies and principles from leading groups like the Global Network Initiative.
A smart regulatory framework is essential to enabling an appropriate approach to illegal content. We wanted to share four key principles that inform our practices and that (we would suggest) make for an effective regulatory framework:
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Shared Responsibility: Tackling illegal content is a societal challenge—in which companies, governments, civil society, and users all have a role to play. Whether a company is alleging copyright infringement, an individual is claiming defamation, or a government is seeking removal of terrorist content, it’s essential to provide clear notice about the specific piece of content to an online platform, and then platforms have a responsibility to take appropriate action on the specific content. In some cases, content may not be clearly illegal, either because the facts are uncertain or because the legal outcome depends on a difficult balancing act; in turn, courts have an essential role to play in fact-finding and reaching legal conclusions on which platforms can rely.
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Rule of law and creating legal clarity: It’s important to clearly define what platforms can do to fulfill their legal responsibilities, including removal obligations. An online platform that takes other voluntary steps to address illegal content should not be penalized. (This is sometimes called “Good Samaritan” protection.)
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Flexibility to accommodate new technology:While laws should accommodate relevant differences between platforms, given the fast-evolving nature of the sector, laws should be written in ways that address the underlying issue rather than focusing on existing technologies or mandating specific technological fixes.
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Fairness and transparency: Laws should support companies’ ability to publish transparency reports about content removals, and provide people with notice and an ability to appeal removal of content. They should also recognize that fairness is a flexible and context-dependent notion—for example, improperly blocking newsworthy content or political expression could cause more harm than mistakenly blocking other types of content.
With these principles in mind, we support refinement of notice-and-takedown regimes, but we have significant concerns about laws that would mandate proactively monitoring or filtering content, impose overly rigid timelines for content removal, or otherwise impose harsh penalties even on those acting in good faith. These types of laws create a risk that platforms won’t take a balanced approach to content removals, but instead take a “better safe than sorry” approach—blocking content at upload or implementing a “take down first, ask questions later (or never)” approach. We regularly receive overly broad removal requests, and analyses of cease-and-desist and takedown letters have found that many seek to remove potentially legitimate or protected speech.
There’s ample room for debate and nuance on these topics—we discuss them every day—and we’ll continue to seek ongoing collaboration among governments, industry, and civil society on this front. Over time, an ecosystem of tools and institutions—like the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, and the Internet Watch Foundation, which has taken down child sexual abuse material for more than two decades—has evolved to address the issue. Continuing to develop initiatives like these and other multistakeholder efforts remains critical, and we look forward to progressing those discussions.
by via The Keyword
Wednesday 13 February 2019
Tuesday 12 February 2019
With Founder Gym, a new approach to supporting tech entrepreneurs
As a public school teacher and a leader of education nonprofits, Shani Dowell saw an opportunity to better communicate parents’ feedback to their kids’ schools. The parents shared ideas, praise and frustrations with one another, yet there was no system in place to give more routine feedback to school administration. So Shani created Possip, a platform for parents to give weekly feedback in less than a minute. It gives the schools actionable reports and helps them see trends, while allowing parents to track their school's progress and responses to feedback.
Shani didn't have all the resources and connections to grow her budding tech company, so she joined a six-week, online training program called Founder Gym. Over the course of the program, Shani and founders from around the world received training from seasoned founders and investors from firms like Y Combinator and Backstage Capital. The program helped Shani improve her company—schools using Possip now get more parent feedback in a month than they previously received in a full year, and 100 percent of Possip's first schools outperformed their district in achievement or growth.
To bring a diversity of perspectives to the startup community and empower more founders like Shani, we’re becoming a founding partner of Founder Gym. We’ll provide scholarships for people to attend the Founder Gym training program, which addresses the challenges that underrepresented founders face, like access to networks and funding.
Big ideas can come from anywhere, but the resources needed to succeed are not evenly distributed. We proudly took an early bet on Founder Gym to help them achieve their mission of developing the next generation of great leaders. And in the words of Mandela SH Dixon, CEO of Founder Gym, “As any founder knows, you never forget the first people to say ‘yes’ to your dream.”
by via The Keyword
Celebrating community leaders bridging the digital divide
Local leaders know their communities best, and this Black History Month we’re celebrating organizations across the country that help people gain new skills, find jobs and grow their businesses. Over the past year, through our Grow with Google initiative, we've worked with leaders and organizations in Black communities across the US who are helping to close the digital skills divide.
One of these standout organizations with deep community roots is the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio. In the 1960s, the church worked tirelessly with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to expand voter registration, paving the way for Carl Stokes to become the first Black mayor of a major U.S. city. Today, under the leadership of Reverend Dr. Jawanza Colvin, community activism and social justice remain at the heart of Olivet Church and its associated Olivet Housing & Community Development Corporation (OHCDC).
Cleveland has the second highest poverty rate among big cities in the U.S., so pathways to jobs is one of Rev. Colvin’s top priorities. Some members of his community and congregation are struggling to get access to good jobs and oftentimes don’t have the training required to change careers. To connect residents with the resources they need to compete for emerging information technology jobs in Cleveland, Rev. Colvin and OHCDC teamed up with Grow with Google to offer the IT Support Professional Certificate Program—an online curriculum designed to prepare people for roles in IT support. By creating cohorts of learners who are going through the IT Certificate curriculum together, Reverend Colvin and the OHCDC are helping members of the Cleveland community prepare for jobs in a growing industry.
OHCDC is among many organizations who are helping their communities learn new digital skills to grow their careers and businesses. In Indianapolis, Larry Williams, President of the Indy Black Chamber of Commerce, is leveraging our tools and resources to teach local small businesses how to grow online. His first workshop was so popular that he’s continued to offer workshops to more than 100 business owners who are growing and creating more local economic opportunity. And in Columbia, South Carolina, JT McLawhorn—who leads the Columbia Urban League—used the Applied Digital Skills curriculum at their annual STEM careers summit, helping 400 teens in foster care prepare for summer jobs. The Columbia Urban League is now expanding these offerings across the state.
This year we launched the Grow with Google Partner Program to make sure that more community heroes like Reverend Colvin, Larry Williams and JT McLawhorn have access to free digital skill resources that help their communities thrive. We invite local heroes and organizations to learn more and apply at grow.google/partners. We look forward to continuing to support and celebrate the important work you’re leading in your communities.
by via The Keyword
Monday 11 February 2019
From Doodling to Design: A Q&A with Nicola Formichetti
Nicola Formichetti is a designer, stylist and bonafide fashion icon. He’s created some of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring red carpet looks of the past decade—and now, he’s also the latest addition to #teampixel, thanks to his new collection of My Cases designed for Pixel 3 and Pixel 2 users.
Nicola’s effortless and cool style pairs nicely with the sleek phone design, bringing a bright pop of color to Pixel devices. We caught up with Nicola to learn more about what inspired him to create his My Case collection and how technology shapes his current work.
What excited you about designing a My Case Artist collection?
I love that I was able to do my own design very quickly using Google tech—I used the Pixelbook and Pixelbook Pen to design this collection. I’m just one example of what fun you can have drawing with these new tools.
How does technology play a role in your creative process?
Technology is at the core of everything I do, from capturing my inspiration at the very beginning of the process to sharing the final product.
Tell us about what inspired your design of the phone cases?
When I was creating the concept for these cases with the Pixelbook Pen, I was reminded of when I was a kid and would doodle...everywhere! First on notebooks, then on walls, then eventually I began graffitiing. I’ve used pens on clothes before, but not on a phone case so it was an exciting process.
What’s your favorite feature on Pixel 3?
The camera on the Pixel 3 is amazing and is able to capture photos and videos at an amazing quality. It’s perfect for taking a great selfie!
Welcome to #teampixel, Nicola!
by via The Keyword
Friday 8 February 2019
Thursday 7 February 2019
Encryption for everyone: How Adiantum will keep more devices secure
Editor's note: February 5 was Safer Internet Day, but we’ll be talking about it all week with a collection of posts from teams from across Google.
Encryption is incredibly important. It underpins our digital security. Encryption encodes data so that it can only be read by individuals with a key. With encryption, you are in complete control of this key, and you can store sensitive information such as personal data securely.
But encryption isn’t always practical, since it would slow some computers, smartphones and other devices to the point of being unusable. That changes with Adiantum, which we are introducing today in the spirit of Safer Internet Day.
Adiantum is a new form of encryption that we built specifically to run on phones and smart devices that don’t have the specialized hardware to use current methods to encrypt locally stored data efficiently. Adiantum is designed to run efficiently without that specialized hardware. This will make the next generation of devices more secure than their predecessors, and allow the next billion people coming online for the first time to do so safely. Adiantum will help secure our connected world by allowing everything from smart watches to internet-connected medical devices to encrypt sensitive data. (For more details about the ins and outs of Adiantum, check out the security blog.)
Our hope is that Adiantum will democratize encryption for all devices. Just like you wouldn’t buy a phone without text messaging, there will be no excuse for compromising security for the sake of device performance. Everyone should have privacy and security, regardless of their phone’s price tag.
by via The Keyword
Romance Report: A look at love in 2019
Hearts beating with worry over a potential conversation hearts shortage, people have been on the hunt for a candy-free way to express their affection this Valentine’s Day. Looks like we’re in the clear, but many people still turned to Google for ideas, advice, emojis and more.
To celebrate all the ways that people around the world show their love, we’re sharing our Romance Report to give you a global glimpse at how people look to say “Be Mine” in their own special way.
“What is love?”
Well, first of all, it’s one of the top questions people ask about love, according to Google Trends. But as Valentine’s Day nears, we dug into one of the other most popular questions about love since February 14 last year: “What are the 5 love languages?”
Gary Chapman’s 1995 book has caught people’s attention as they look to understand the ways in which they and their partners prefer to express love, and search interest in “love languages” is at an all time high. With that in mind, here are some of the top questions and insights about the love languages.
Let’s start with some quality time on our most searched love language (and searches are on the rise, to boot). These are the top questions related to both quality time with your S.O. since the last V-Day:
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How to spend quality time with your partner?
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How to set boundaries with your significant other for quality time?
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How to have more quality time with your partner?
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What does spending quality time with your other significant mean?
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What to do when your partner is touch and you are quality time?
If there’s one thing we can learn from Google Trends, it’s that words of affirmation can be hard, and people often look for advice on how to express their feelings. Here are the top searched “how to say” relationship questions:
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How to say sorry to your partner?
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How to say happy birthday to an ex?
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How to say happy birthday to a loved one?
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How to say something difficult to spouse?
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How to say love you to your partner?
The chocolate company in Hershey, PA isn’t the only one concerned with hugs and kisses. These expressions of physical touch (our next love language!) are on people’s minds and in their searches. “Kiss” is more searched than “hug” in every country, and on average, “kiss” is 7 times more searched than “hug” worldwide. So what are they searching for? Here are the sweet and simple questions many people ask:
Top “kiss” questions worldwide, since last Valentine’s Day:
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How to kiss a girl?
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How to kiss a guy?
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How to kiss someone?
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How to kiss a boy?
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How to kiss well?
Top “hug” questions worldwide, since last Valentine’s Day:
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How to cuddle?
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How to hug a girl?
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How to hug?
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What is cuddling?
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How to hug a guy?
With all the “gift for” searches around Valentine’s Day (the second busiest week for these searches apart from Christmas week), you’d think everyone’s love language is receiving gifts. If your partner is one of the many who appreciate a heartfelt token of admiration, or if you’ve got kids who are all about collecting Valentine’s cards, perhaps DIY is the way to go.
These are the top searched queries related to do-it-yourself and Valentines' Day in the past 12 months, worldwide:
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DIY valentine gifts for him
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DIY valentines cards
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DIY valentine decorations
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DIY valentine box
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DIY valentine gifts for her
At long last, we’ve reached our final (and apparently most enigmatic) love language: acts of service. Whether for him or her, near or far, these are the top searches from people looking to do a special something for their significant other:
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Acts of service love language ideas for her
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Acts of service love language ideas for him
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What are acts of service?
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Examples of acts of service
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Acts of service love language long distance
¡Te amo!
Saying “I love you” shouldn’t be bound by your preferred love language, or what language you speak. Every year, Google Translate sees translations spike on February 14, nearly doubling for those three simple words.
Translations from English to Spanish top the “I love you” list. Here are the top 10 languages into which people translate that phrase:
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Spanish
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Portuguese
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Korean
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French
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Arabic
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Russian
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Japanese
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German
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Indonesian
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Simplified Chinese
Call the love doctor
When in doubt, the Google Assistant is there to help you out with translations, animal inspo and even a serenade or two.
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To take a hint from our furry friends and learn how creatures across the animal kingdom show their affection, just say “Hey Google, tell me a fact about love.” Spoiler alert: did you know that a male penguin proposes to a female penguin by throwing the nicest rock he can find by her feet? If she picks it up, they’re engaged!
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For some extra words of affirmation, “Hey Google, serenade me” is guaranteed to land you a love song.
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Tell your Assistant, “Hey Google, Happy Valentine’s Day,” to learn how to say “I love you” in 8 different languages, including Korean, Mandarin, Hindi, French, Spanish, Danish, Gujarat, and Indonesian.
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Curious to uncover which “dynamic duo” you and your Assistant are? Just ask “Hey Google, do you love me?” and take a brief quiz to see just what kind of special bond you have with your Assistant. How sweet.
A 😍 is worth a thousand words
There’s nothing better than an emoji when words alone just aren’t enough. Whether it’s 😘,🍫, or 💘, Gboard helps you find and share the perfect emoji (or sticker, or GIF) all year long. Here are a few insights about romance and emoji from around the world:
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We love to love: the heart-eyes emoji 😍 is the #4 most popular emoji worldwide, followed by the heart ❤️ at #5
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It takes two: sometimes one emoji doesn’t cut it, so you gotta double up. And when we do, we’re usually feeling a bit mushy. Half of the most popular (non-repeating) emoji duos are about L-O-V-E:
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😍😘
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😘❤️
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😍❤️
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☀️😘
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Some languages love *love* more than others: the heart ❤️ is the most-used emoji for people who type in French, Portuguese and Dutch
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An emoji by any other word: Hindi speakers use the rose 🌹 more than any other emoji
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Living up to the country’s romantic reputation, Italian speakers use the kiss 💋 more than any other emoji. Bacio!
Anyway, I’m off to celebrate Singles Awareness Day.
by via The Keyword
Avoid the heartache of Valentine’s Day planning with Google
Whether you’re single, in a relationship, or planning a Palentine’s Day get-together, we’ve got a few ways to make planning your night out as sweet as Valentine’s Day candy. Here are a few helpful features on Maps and local Search that’ll help you plan a night out (or in) from start to finish.
The last minute lover
Although restaurants tend to book up on February 14, if you’re the spontaneous type you can still try your hand at walking in. To give you the best chance at a last minute table, just find the restaurant's Business Profile on Google and scroll down to see when they tend to get busy. For some restaurants, we can even show you whether it's busy in real time, so you can act like you actually had your night planned out all along.
The stay at home romantic
Sometimes, there’s nothing more romantic (and comfy!) than a nice night in. If you’re planning a party for two at home, it’s easy to get your dinner delivered right to your door. All you need to do is find the restaurant’s Business Profile on Google and select from any of the delivery services listed to have dinner on the table in a jiffy—saving time on cooking so you can spend more quality time together.
The fancy feaster
Dining out on Valentine’s Day probably takes the most advance planning. Lucky for you, Google has all the information you need to make a decision on where to go—and when you’re ready, make the reservation. Once you've found a place that interests you, just open the restaurant’s business profile to learn more by browsing photos, taking a look at menus and checking out the reviews. When you're ready to go, tap the "Reserve a table" button to make a res without ever leaving Google. Bon appetit!
The Palentine’s Day organizer
Prefer to spend this night out with pals? The group planning feature in the Google Maps app is perfect for helping you quickly find a spot that all of your friends will enjoy. Simply long press on a place to add it to a shortlist, and then share it with friends via your favorite messaging platform. From there, they’ll be able to vote on where they want to go, or add other places to the list if they have alternative suggestions.
So no matter how you plan to spend your Valentine’s Day, Google can help you get your planning done in just a few taps or clicks.
by via The Keyword
Wednesday 6 February 2019
Now is the time to fix the EU copyright directive
In the next few days, European legislators meet to decide on a final text of the European Copyright Directive. We continue to support updating copyright legislation for the digital age. With the right rules, content creators, right holders, consumers, and platforms all benefit. The draft text continues to generate debate—and we have shared our concerns about its unintended consequences. It’s clear that the details matter in crafting a workable system.
Let’s start with Article 13. The Parliament's version would hold internet services directly liable for any copyright infringement in the content that people share on their platforms. We stand by our conviction that the draft rules aren’t carefully balanced, and would harm the thriving creative economy in Europe, including YouTube’s creator community.
Companies that act reasonably in helping rights holders identify and control the use of their content shouldn’t be held liable for anything a user uploads, any more than a telephone company should be liable for the content of conversations. We are committed to protecting content, but we need rights holders to cooperate in that process. The final text should make it clear that rights holders need to provide reference files of content, and copyright notices with key information (like URLs), so that platforms can identify and remove infringing content.
Then there's Article 11. We reiterate our commitment to supporting high-quality journalism. However, the recent debate shows that there’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the value of headlines and snippets—very short previews of what someone will find when he or she clicks a link. Reducing the length of the snippets to just a few individual words or short extracts will make it harder for consumers to discover news content and reduce overall traffic to news publishers.
Let me illustrate this with an example. Every year, we run thousands of experiments in Search. We recently ran one in the EU to understand the impact of the proposed Article 11 if we could show only URLs, very short fragments of headlines, and no preview images. All versions of the experiment resulted in substantial traffic loss to news publishers.
Even a moderate version of the experiment (where we showed the publication title, URL, and video thumbnails) led to a 45 percent reduction in traffic to news publishers. Our experiment demonstrated that many users turned instead to non-news sites, social media platforms, and online video sites—another unintended consequence of legislation that aims to support high-quality journalism. Searches on Google even increased as users sought alternate ways to find information.
There’s a better way forward. Instead of a sweeping rule banning the use of even “individual words” or “very short extracts” without a specific contract, Article 11 should permit the sharing of facts and the use of traditional limited previews—whether text-based snippets or other visual formats like thumbnail photos—which provide needed context for web users.
Together with ensuring that publishers retain the freedom to grant free licenses for their content, the continued use of snippets will encourage viewers to click through to publishers’ sites. It’s not realistic to expect that online services would be able to put commercial licenses in place with every single news publisher. If it’s only payment, and not quality, that decides which headlines users get to see, the results would be bad for both users and smaller and emerging publishers.
Some claim this debate is all about big tech companies. But we are not alone in our concerns. Small publishers, civil rights organizations, academics, start-ups, creators, and consumers—with over 4.5 million people signing a Change.org petition that asks legislators to reconsider the Directive—all agree that the stakes are high, and the details matter. We recognize that a number of EU member states have also raised important questions. We call upon policy makers to listen to their ideas, and to find a solution that promotes rather than limits the creative economy.
by via The Keyword
Cloud Covered: What was new with Google Cloud in January
Our forecast is calling for plenty of clouds in this new year—not the kind that bring rain and snow, but the ones that bring data analytics, storage and lots more. We’re already off to a brisk start in 2019—here are a few highlights from January, in case you missed them.
New year, new skills: Cloud training and certification is here.
Cloud technology is changing the way that businesses work, letting them do even more at a faster pace. However, there’s usually one thing missing: The knowledge to run these cloud systems and create new ways to use them. So we’ve announced four new certifications, plus a bunch of new courses and labs in five languages, so that more people can learn Google Cloud skills. How will you grow your cloud career?
Sheets just got a data boost.
Performing data analysis in Google’s BigQuery can yield lots of interesting insights—but not all of us are data scientists. We want to make it easier for anyone to analyze their data, so we created the BigQuery data connector. The connector helps you import large datasets from BigQuery into Sheets so you can create reports or analyze data in a familiar spreadsheet interface. Great for sales, marketing or other departments. Here’s what it looks like.
Hardware chips make fast, clear web images possible.
If you’ve played high-resolution games or enjoyed crisp graphics on a web page, there might have been a GPU powering those experiences. A GPU, or graphics processing unit, is a type of hardware processor that’s faster than the usual computer CPU, and can handle more intense graphics rendering jobs. New NVIDIA GPUs are in beta (only from Google Cloud!) and can power machine learning jobs. Read more about this cool type of hardware.
Security trends keep IT on their toes.
Google’s security experts laid out some of what to expect this year in software security. You may see more use of tools like hardware security keys to prevent phishing, and more deployment of zero-trust architectures that increase flexibility while also enhancing security. See the entire list of 2019 security trends.
The first step to the cloud is often getting your existing apps there first.
There are plenty of great products and services available in Google Cloud—but for many of you, you'll want to start by moving some of your existing apps to Google Cloud Platform (GCP). That’s a big process, though, so planning and prioritizing will go a long way toward migration success. This checklist offers guidance on how you can decide which virtual machines (VMs) are the best candidates for migration. More on that decision-making here.
For all of what we covered in January, check out the Google Cloud blog.
by via The Keyword
How we're keeping Cloud users and businesses safe
We’re focusing on security all week in honor of Safer Internet Day, and while internet safety is top of mind for folks now, our responsibility to protect people is as important today as it is every other week of the year.
I recently joined Google after years in the financial services industry, motivated in large part by the opportunity to improve the security not just of one organization, but of many organizations that affect our everyday lives. Companies that provide us with healthcare, that help us manage our finances, that manufacture the things we use everyday—they all require secure tools and infrastructure to do what they do.
We understand this and feel a deep responsibility to protect you online when you use Google products. With Google Cloud, we help companies protect their users and their data, with security as a core design principle. Here are a few ways that cloud technology helps keep you safe.
Stopping spam, 100 million more times a day
Every time you use G Suite apps like Gmail, Docs or Drive, you have the full strength of Google’s global team of security engineers protecting you from threats. Those engineers have built automatic protections into G Suite, such as those that help block 99.9 percent of spam, phishing or malware from ever getting into your inbox. Because more than a billion people use Gmail and Drive, we’re able to identify and adapt to evolving threats quickly.
Increasingly, more and more businesses are turning to G Suite (5 million+) to help them stay ahead of threats, and one of the ways we help them do that is through machine learning (ML). Some of our newest protections are powered by TensorFlow, an open-source ML framework developed at Google, and they’re now blocking around 100 million additional spam messages in Gmail every day. You can read more about this on the Google Cloud blog.
Protecting organizations outside of Google
In addition to the automatic protections we have baked into our products, we also give organizations the tools to tailor security to meet their policy, regulatory, and business needs. For example, G Suite and Cloud Identity make it easier to manage who can access what information in an organization, whether it’s selecting what can be accessed on specific devices or which apps certain employees can use. If you’re a G Suite IT administrator, check out these tips to protect your organization—for example, have your users complete a Security Checkup and enforce 2-step verification with security keys.
Then there’s Chrome Enterprise, which combines the Chrome OS, browser and hardware, to help make work secure in the cloud. Together, G Suite, Cloud Identity and Chrome Enterprise provide a comprehensive approach to security, and help keep organizations safe—and productive—wherever they are working from.
Advancing cloud security with “confidential computing”
Google Cloud provides a secure platform and infrastructure for businesses to build on, whether they’re startups born in the cloud, or large companies who are just beginning to migrate their infrastructure there.
We work to give customers control of their data at every layer, for example encrypting data at rest by default and preventing data from getting in the wrong hands with VPC Service Controls.
To further that goal, we’re investing in “confidential computing,” a new security development that aims to protect applications and data while they are in use—even from someone with privileged access. Today, we published a blog post that goes into more detail about how we’re thinking about confidential computing at Google, and announced a Confidential Computing Challenge to encourage people to come up with interesting ways to apply it.
Whether its using cloud-based services to better protect Google users, or offering our cloud services and infrastructure to protect businesses, cloud has emerged as an important new tool that will make every day Safer Internet Day! You can find a round-up of all our Safer Internet Day activities here.
by via The Keyword
The Google Assistant is coming to Nest Secure
Let’s face it: getting out the door can be hectic sometimes. Between rushing to beat the traffic, making sure you’re dressed for the weather and running through your to-do list, there’s a lot to juggle—and we could all use a little assistance streamlining our routines.
Starting today, we’re adding a feature to Nest Secure to do just that: the Google Assistant will be available on your Nest Guard, so you can ask it questions like, “Hey Google, do I need an umbrella today?” before you set your alarm and leave the house.* Nest Guard is the brains of your Nest Secure; it contains a keypad and all the smarts that power the system. It’s usually placed in a spot with lots of traffic (like the front doorway) making it useful as you come and go.
Here are some of the ways the Google Assistant on Nest Guard can help you plan your day and keep your home safe.
- Get real-time information: Ask for traffic conditions, your flight status and the weather before you leave for the day, so you’re prepared for what’s coming.
- Control smart home devices easily: In addition to arming Nest Secure with your voice, you’ll now be able to initiate a Routine (for example, “Hey Google, I’m home” to turn your lights on and your Nest Thermostat up as you walk in the door), lock your Nest x Yale Lock or announce who’s at the door with Nest Hello ( Familiar Face alerts require a Nest Aware subscription and are not available on Nest Hellos used in Illinois).
- Manage tasks: Set reminders, create calendar appointments (“Hey Google, add a meeting to my calendar”) or add items to your shopping list (“Hey Google, add milk to my shopping list.”)
The Google Assistant on Nest Guard is an opt-in feature, and as the feature becomes available to our users, they’ll receive an email with instructions on how to enable the feature and turn on the microphone in the Nest app. Nest Guard does have one on-device microphone that is not enabled by default.
We’ve built Nest Secure around you and the way you live, so you won’t be able to disarm the system using your voice. With the Google Assistant built in, your security system is now even more helpful.
by via The Keyword
Tuesday 5 February 2019
Five things you can do right now to stay safer online
Editor’s note: Today is Safer Internet Day, but we’ll be talking about it all week with a collection of posts from teams from across Google.
When you’re online, you shouldn’t need to worry about the security of your information. That’s why we work to build security into our products, so the information in your Google account is automatically protected. We also share our best practices and security tools with other organizations, to help make the internet safer for everyone.
Even still, there are some simple things that you can do to make your information even more secure. Recent U.S. data from a survey we conducted with Harris Poll confirms that many people may not be familiar with these basics.
This Safer Internet Day, take a moment to strengthen your online security by following these five tips:
1. Set up a recovery phone number or email address, and keep it updated.
The majority of people surveyed said they have either a secondary email address (87 percent) or mobile device (73 percent) set for account recovery and security purposes—and that’s great.
For many web services, your Google Account included, having a recovery method can help alert you if there’s suspicious activity on your account or if you need to block someone from using your account without permission. And of course, adding recovery information to your account can help you get back in more quickly if you ever lose access or can't sign in.
To set up recovery information, visit your Google Account’s Security section and scroll down to “Ways we can verify it's you.”
2. Use unique passwords for your accounts.
65 percent of respondents in our poll said they reuse the same password for multiple accounts, which can increase your security risk. It’s like using the same key to lock your home, car and office—if someone gains access to one, all of them could be compromised.
Create a unique password for each account to eliminate this risk. Make sure that each password is hard to guess and better yet, at least eight characters long. It can be hard to keep track of many different passwords—60 percent of people report having too many passwords to remember. To help, consider using a password manager (like the one built into your Chrome browser) to help you create, safeguard and keep track of all your passwords. If that is too difficult, you can even write your passwords down on a piece of paper (but keep it in a safe place!), since hijackers are most likely to be online, rather than physically near you.
3. Keep your software up to date.
To help protect your online activity, make sure you’re always running the latest version of software on all your devices. The Harris Poll results show that, while 79 percent of respondents said they understood the importance of updating their software, one third of people said they still don’t regularly update their applications, or aren’t sure if they do or not.
If you’re using the below operating systems, here’s where you can look to learn how to check & update the software on your devices:
Some software, like Chrome, will automatically update so you never need to worry about doing it yourself. For other services that send notifications when it’s time to update, don’t click “remind me later”— take the time to install the update right away.
4. Go a step further by setting up two-factor authentication.
Setting up two-factor authentication (2FA)—also known as 2-Step Verification—significantly decreases the chance of someone gaining unauthorized access to your account. For the majority of people, Google’s automatic and risk-based sign-in protections are more than enough, but everyone should know that 2FA is an extra option. However, one in three survey respondents (31 percent) said they do not use 2FA, or don’t know if they are using it or not.
2FA requires you to take a second step each time you sign in to your account on top of your username and password. Examples of second verification steps include: an SMS text message, a six-digit code generated by an app, a prompt that you receive on a trusted device or the use of a physical security key.
Set up two-factor authentication for your Google Account by visiting g.co/2sv and clicking “Get Started.”
5. Take the Google Security Checkup.
The Security Checkup gives you personalized and actionable security recommendations that help you strengthen the security of your Google Account, and it only takes two minutes to complete.
Taking the Security Checkup doesn’t just help make you safer while using Google. The Checkup also includes personalized tips to keep you safer across the web, like helping you set up a screen lock on your mobile phone and advising you to remove risky third-party sites and apps that have access to your account.
Find more online security tips like these by visiting our Safety Center; you can also visit your Google Account’s Security section to find all the settings and tools mentioned in this post. Check out this infographic for more insights from our Online Security Survey.
by via The Keyword
Meet the teams keeping our corner of the internet safer
I joined Google a year ago to lead its Trust and Safety organisation and to work with the thousands of people working to protect our users and make our products, from Gmail to Maps, more safe.
Deciding what content is allowed on our platforms, while preserving people’s right to express themselves freely at the colossal scale we operate is a big responsibility. It means developing rules that we can enforce consistently on much-debated lines. It means balancing respect for diverse viewpoints and giving a platform to marginalised voices, while developing thoughtful policies to tackle egregious content. These values can often be in tension and the calls we make can be controversial. We feel the weight of our responsibility here and the impact of our decisions keenly.
Our teams tackle a huge spectrum of online abuse, from petty scams, like the email from a “relative” stranded abroad needing a bank transfer to get home safely, to the utterly abhorrent, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online. We work across products like Search, which connects people to information hosted on the web, as well as across products we host, like Photos. Understanding the different parameters of the products we serve is vital to our work and policy development. Given that breadth, our team is diverse, comprising product specialists, engineers, lawyers, data scientists, ex-law enforcement officials and others. They work hand-in-hand around the world and with a global network of safety and subject matter experts.
Our goal in the Trust and Safety team is to achieve both accuracy and scale in our work. That’s why we have people and technology working together—and we invest heavily in both. More and more, we use smart technology to detect problematic content hosted on our platforms, which is driving progress. Take violent extremism online. Where once we relied heavily on users to flag this content to us, today the majority of terrorist content we remove on Google products is first identified by our machines. We can then send this content to our language and subject matter experts, who swiftly and accurately review and remove content. We’ve also built systems that allow us to work in partnership with NGOs, other tech companies, and government Internet Referral Units, like Europol, to alert us to potentially problematic content.
Other issues, like combating hate speech, require a different approach. I’m proud of the strong progress we’re making to tackle online hate, including through the European Commission’s Code of Conduct on hate speech. We’ve improved our speed and accuracy of review by creating a dedicated team of language specialists in the EU. But there are many distinct challenges here. Standards for what constitutes hate speech vary between countries, as does the language and slang that’s used. Making meaningful progress through automatic detection will take time, but we’re putting our best technology and people to the task.
To give a sense of the scale of our efforts, in 2017, our team pulled down 3.2 billion ads that broke our policies; they also blocked 79 million ads designed to trick you into clicking on malware-laden sites. Between July and September 2018, YouTube removed over 7 million videos that broke its rules and blocked 224 million comments. Across other products like Drive, Photos and Blogger, in the past year, we took down over 38,000 pieces of hate speech and 160,000 pieces of violent extremism content. We also support tools like SafeSearch, which help you avoid explicit Search results.
None of this work can be done in isolation and our partnerships are essential. Nor can our policies be static—we must be responsive to the world around us and take the guidance of experts. That’s why I’m in Brussels this week to share insights from our work in content moderation and to listen and learn from others. The message I’ll bring from Google is that we will be more transparent, accountable and frank about where we can improve. I have no doubt that 2019 will bring more challenges but rest assured that we will dedicate all the resources necessary to do our part. We’ll do all that we can, through technology and people, to meet and overcome the many challenges we face online, and to think beyond our corner of the internet.
Editor’s note: Kristie Canegallo is speaking at CoMo Brussels, a conference about content moderation held at the European Parliament. Kristie’s background is in government, where she worked under Presidents Bush and Obama in a range of national security and domestic policy roles, including as President Obama’s Deputy Chief of Staff.
by via The Keyword
Google Cloud offers global support for academic research
Today’s scientific computing demands lightning-fast speed, vast data storage, and intensive processing power in order to advance discoveries across disciplines, from genomics to climate change. Two new agreements and a range of initiatives in Europe and the United States expand Google’s support for academic researchers globally, enabling them to leverage the benefits of Google Cloud Platform (GCP), our infrastructure as a service platform.
Giving European researchers easy access to GCP through our agreement with GÉANT
With 50 million users at ten thousand institutions across Europe, GÉANT is the leading research and education infrastructure platform in Europe. Google’s new agreement with GÉANT will allow for broader collaboration across that extensive network, offering GÉANT members special educational discounts to access GCP. Together, the scientists, educators, IT leaders, and the 38 National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in GÉANT can now make direct Google connections at reduced cost to put their data to work to discover meaningful insights with the potential for global impact. Andres Steijaert, Project Leader Cloud Services at GÉANT, says that “we are delighted that Google Cloud Platform is joining the GÉANT Cloud Portfolio and can now be used easily via a ready-to-use agreement, through GÉANT. The machine learning and AI features open up a wide range of exciting opportunities for education and research.” Other benefits include data egress waivers, unique pricing for GÉANT member campuses, single sign-on support through SAML2, and a negotiated terms of service.
GCP will be available to GÉANT member institutions through Cloud Technology Solutions (CTS), one of the world’s largest cloud infrastructure experts. To get started, email H.Ed@cloudsolutions.co.uk.
Bringing scientific computing to the cloud through a cooperative agreement with NSF and Internet2
The National Science Foundation (NSF) and Internet2, a computer networking consortium, have partnered with commercial cloud providers, including GCP, to accelerate scientific discoveries and promote collaboration. The first project, Exploring Clouds for Acceleration of Science (E-CAS), invites proposals to investigate the benefits of large-scale computing for scientific workflows—such as leveraging faster processing speeds, machine learning, serverless applications, and real-time analytics. “Our investments in E-CAS, Campus Cyberstructure (CC*), and related efforts aim to enable access to cloud computing services by the broader science and engineering community that NSF supports,” says Manish Parashar, Director of the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure at the NSF. “We see cloud resources as a vehicle to allow the community to leverage innovative technologies and capabilities to significantly accelerate research and education.”
Other exciting new research initiatives include:
- Supporting innovative programs in government agencies like the Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures (DRIVe), established by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to foster entrepreneurial solutions to urgent public health challenges. Using GCP, a research team at Emory University’s School of Medicine built deep learning softwareto predict the onset of sepsis in hospitalized patients. Now DRIVe can help develop and implement that platform to reduce the approximately 270,000 deaths from sepsis in the United States each year.
- Improving infrastructure through programs like Cloud Exchange and Cloud Connect that allow researchers to access GCP’s Dedicated Interconnect network for high-capacity and secure data paths.
- Updating existing funding programs to include cloud resourcing like the NSF’s Campus Cyberstructure (CC*) program which improves the networks and platforms that academics rely on for their data-intensive projects.
- Expanding GCP research credits program, previously available to academic researchers in 30 countries, to include Norway and India as well. All academics from qualified regions are encouraged to apply. Learn more on our website.
Find out how Google Cloud can support your research on our website or apply now for research credits to turn your bold ideas into new discoveries.
by via The Keyword
Monday 4 February 2019
The Google Assistant is coming to Nest Secure
Let’s face it: getting out the door can be hectic sometimes. Between rushing to beat the traffic, making sure you’re dressed for the weather and running through your to-do list, there’s a lot to juggle—and we could all use a little assistance streamlining our routines.
Starting today, we’re adding a feature to Nest Secure to do just that: the Google Assistant will be available on your Nest Guard, so you can ask it questions like, “Hey Google, do I need an umbrella today?” before you set your alarm and leave the house.* Nest Guard is the brains of your Nest Secure; it contains a keypad and all the smarts that power the system. It’s usually placed in a spot with lots of traffic (like the front doorway) making it useful as you come and go.
Here are some of the ways the Google Assistant on Nest Guard can help you plan your day and keep your home safe.
- Get real-time information: Ask for traffic conditions, your flight status and the weather before you leave for the day, so you’re prepared for what’s coming.
- Control smart home devices easily: In addition to arming Nest Secure with your voice, you’ll now be able to initiate a Routine (for example, “Hey Google, I’m home” to turn your lights on and your Nest Thermostat up as you walk in the door), lock your Nest x Yale Lock or announce who’s at the door with Nest Hello ( Familiar Face alerts require a Nest Aware subscription and are not available on Nest Hellos used in Illinois).
- Manage tasks: Set reminders, create calendar appointments (“Hey Google, add a meeting to my calendar”) or add items to your shopping list (“Hey Google, add milk to my shopping list.”)
We’ve built Nest Secure around you and the way you live, so you won’t be able to disarm the system using your voice. With the Google Assistant built in, your security system is now even more helpful.
by via The Keyword
State of the Union 2019: Live on YouTube
Key moments throughout U.S. presidential history have been captured on YouTube, from visiting American troops and celebrating life’s achievements, to taking the oath of office and hosting world leaders. As President Trump begins his third year in office, this tradition continues.
As we have done since 2010, YouTube will live stream the President’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, February 5 at 9 p.m. ET, as well as the response. This year, you can tune in to live streams in both English and Spanish. Here are the channels where you can follow the coverage:
by via The Keyword