The show goes on: Australia’s theaters go digital

Griffin Theatre Company, in Sydney’s bustling King Cross, has  produced new Australian plays and welcomed theater-goers since 1978. In March, like many performing arts organizations in Australia, Griffin had to close its doors—but it was determined to figure out a way for the show to go on. 

With help from Google’s Creative Lab, Griffin Theatre Company created what their Artistic Director Declan Greene calls “theater, but not as you’ve seen it before.” Their piece, “Thirsty!” is an interactive techno-noir detective thriller, streamed on YouTube, which requires the audience to look for clues to assist the actors. We partnered with Declan and his team to develop #Poll, a Chrome Extension that asked viewers to participate and help shape the narrative inside the live comments stream.

Across three nights in May, this “made for digital” performance was streamed live alongside equally experimental works from The Last Great Hunt and Sandpit. The Last Great Hunt’s show refashioned a living room as a live production space—complete with cardboard props and wall-mounted projection, while Sandpit responded directly to audience comments.

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  Griffin Theatre Company's "Thirsty!" asked viewers to help shape the narrative in the comments stream.

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  Behind the scenes of The Last Great Hunt's experimental made-for-digital performance, "Bad Baby Jean".

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  Sandpit's production, "A Highly Filtered Picture of Dorian Gray", responded directly to audience comment. 

In a world where people can no longer always gather in large groups, Griffin Theatre Company is one of several partners that Creative Lab has helped as they adapt theater experiences, explore new kinds of live performance, and use digital tools to get audiences more involved. Working with organizations right across Australia, including Opera Queensland, we’ve developed a first-of-its-kind Performance Guide to support the broader arts community, with guidelines on how organizations can create works for online audiences, including information on live streaming, ticketing, promotion and more. The guide also shows arts organizations how to add donation links to their business profile on Google, letting people know how to help them with their rebuilding efforts. 

In addition to the Performance Guide, we’ve provided general support to cultural organizations to help them stay in touch with audiences around the world. Last month, Google Arts & Culture announced the launch of “Connected to Culture”—a multi-language digital toolkit to help organizations keep their cultural programs going online. We’ve hosted training for organizations like the Australia Counciland Create NSW, walking them through the process of creating ‘made for digital’ work and sharing what we’ve learned so far. 

It’s been a privilege to work with partners like Griffin Theatre Company, and inspiring to see their creativity shine even in adversity. As theater doors slowly open again, we’re looking forward to continuing to work with Australian cultural organizations on new possibilities for their work and their audiences. 

by Louise Richards via The Keyword

Free tools and training to help with economic recovery in Europe, the Middle East and Africa

Through lockdown, many of us found that online tools have been a real lifeline. We’ve used them to find information and stay connected with our communities, support local businesses, teach our children and learn new skills ourselves. The same tools will be vital in helping countries recover more quickly and more sustainably. 

That’s why Google is making a new pledge to help 10 million people and businesses in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) find jobs, digitize and grow over the next 18 months.

Helping people learn new skills and find new jobs

Long before the coronavirus, it was clear the jobs of the future would require a new set of digital skills, so we launched Grow with Google to help people learn new skills. We were blown away by the demand, and by what people went on to achieve, and in five years we’ve trained over 14 million people in EMEA and 70 million around the world.

We’ve seen a tripling of demand for this training during lockdown. To help even more families, communities and businesses recover faster, we’re investing in new, targeted programs. For example, we will be covering the costs for 100,000 people to take the Google IT Support Professional Certificatewhich prepares people for a career in IT. Fifty thousand of these places are reserved for under-served groups who otherwise face real barriers to learning (such as language, caring responsibilities or financial difficulty). Google.org will fund local nonprofits to provide the tailored support these people require to successfully complete the course.

To help people find new job opportunities, we’ll launch our job search tool in more countries in EMEA. We are testing new features for the recovery—such as helping you find jobs that let you work from home. Job search is built in partnership with job boards, local employment agencies and others, like Pôle Emploi in France, Bayt.com in the Middle East and Monster.de in Germany, and it also helps them by finding job seekers with the right skills faster.

We’ve learned over the last five years that we need to do more to reach those whose existing jobs are most at risk of disruption by new technology. Two years ago, we allocated 100m in Google.org grants, to be disbursed over five years to organisations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa that focus on digital skills and economic opportunity. Today, we're announcing that $15m of that funding will go to non-profits that help workers and small business owners who are technologically, financially or socially excluded with critical digital skills and access to jobs.

Helping local businesses get online and find more customers

As we come out of lockdown, and consumer spending picks up, we’re upgrading our tools  to help more local businesses find and connect with customers quickly. Through Google my Business, it’s easier for businesses to share their latest opening hours and information across Google Search and Maps. They can also shift quickly to new services and business models, such as pick-up, delivery and online classes and appointments. 

We are also investing in new programs to help industries hardest hit by the pandemic, including retail and travel. 

For retail businesses, online demand has grown exponentially, so they need to provide a great customer experience to be competitive. The improved version of Grow My Store helps local businesses improve digital shopping, grow customer traffic and optimize online stores. Reaching new audiences by exporting abroad should be an easy option for every business regardless of size. 

Our Market Finder tool now provides export marketing and logistics help in light of COVID-19. To help retailers understand changes in demand, we’re releasing a new interactive tool that shares insights on fast-rising retail categories in Google Search, where in the world searches are growing, and the queries associated with them.

For the travel industry, we’re partnering with experts like the UN World Tourism Organisation to launch training to help tourism officials across Europe, the Middle East and Africa understand and use the range of digital tools to attract travellers. This builds on our efforts to support tourism businesses across the region to help them grow with digital tools, get access to training and digitize heritage. 

Helping businesses work more efficiently and think differently

The crisis has accelerated trends that we’d expected to see over a longer period of time, like the use of AI and automation to help grow sales, reduce costs, and make better decisions. Research suggests that the European companies using AI most extensively are likely to grow three times faster than the average firm over the next 15 years, adding €2.7 trillion, or 19 percent, to European output by 2030.

To make this accessible for every business, we’re launching our AI for business tool to small and medium businesses in Europe. The tool, in English, with more languages to follow this year, provides businesses with a personalised report recommending the most relevant applications of AI and the potential benefits, along with practical suggestions on how to get started. This is part of our commitment to build trust in AI through responsible innovation and thoughtful regulation, so that European citizens can safely enjoy the full social and economic benefits of AI. 

Financial support for local businesses

A digital transition cannot rely on technology alone: businesses need financial resources as well. That’s why we announced grants and ad credits for local businesses a few weeks ago. And we’ve recently launched the ability for businesses in 19 European countries to add support links on Google My Business to give their communities the option to support them with donations and gift cards. We have also added several new partners to enable gift cards, including SumUp, LaFourchette, OptioPay, Rise.ai, and Atento. 

We remain fundamentally optimistic about the future, and about the role technology can play, and we’re working with governments to help people, businesses and communities. Online tools, which have been a lifeline for many of us in lockdown, are now helping people find jobs and learn in-demand skills. If we work together, technology can be a lifeline for everyone as Europe, the Middle East and Africa look ahead to a sustainable recovery for everyone.

To find out more about these tools and programs, visit g.co/grow.

by Matt BrittinGoogle Europe, Middle East and Africa via The Keyword

Four years later, Google’s first Code Next class is graduating

My weekday routine is a balancing act. When I walk to the subway station at six in the morning, it's typically still dark outside. If I'm lucky, I'll snag a seat on the 5 train for the hour-long ride from the Bronx to Manhattan, but most days I'm standing—balancing with one hand on a pole and the other gripping my phone (usually working on something on Google Docs for class at the last minute).

I'm headed to Yale in the fall!

I’m one of the 54 students that make up Google Code Next’s first graduating class. Code Next, which started in 2015, is a free computer science education program that supports the next generation of Black and Latinx Tech leaders. 

For four years after school and on the weekends, my classmates and I participated in a rigorous curriculum focused on computer science, problem solving and leadership—balancing that on top of our schoolwork. Our coaches from Google, who have lots of different backgrounds (from software engineering to youth development), provided hands-on coding instruction, inspiration, and guidance as we navigate our way through the Code Next program. We have developed websites, applications, and hardware models.

I had never coded before participating in Code Next. I didn’t think it was for me, but my mother pushed me to sign up, so I gave it a try. Looking back on the past four years, I admit, I’m lucky that I listened. During my freshman and sophomore years, I was at Code Next every day, working on projects, even before the assignment was due and often just for fun. 

I work really hard on what I’m passionate about and coding became my passion. One time, we were asked to make a digital ping pong game from scratch—we had to write all of the code ourselves. There were awards for certain categories (like display and ease of use), and I won most of them, if not all. I always remember that moment because I was really proud of myself, bringing the awards to the coaches to show them what we had done.

There was another time when I participated in a coding competition hosted on Google’s campus. It wasn’t affiliated with Code Next, but my coaches still showed up to watch and support me from the sidelines. I ended up winning first place by designing a website from scratch. It  was a huge accomplishment for me. I had never coded before Code Next so to win the competition where everyone is really smart, I thought, “Wow, maybe this is something I’m good at and maybe I can turn this into a career for myself in the future.”

I hope to be a software engineer one day. I dream of going to Japan, learning Japanese and maybe even working there. Until then, I’ll be attending Yale University in the fall—I’m the first person in my family to go to college. 

If it weren’t for all my coaches at Code Next I definitely would not be where I'm at today. It was because of Code Next and the way it was taught that I truly found my passion. Here are a few other proud graduates of Google’s first Code Next class. They’ve shared a bit about themselves, their aspirations and dreams for the future. 

• Jose and Jovie

  Left: Jovir Llanes, Code Next Oakland. I have so many dreams. I want to create organizations that will work to keep Oakland culture and fight against gentrification. I want to give folks opportunities that have been exposed to. I want to start my own school where everyone is taught well and is exposed to everything there is. 

  Right: Jose Ceja Romero, Code Next Oakland. I’m proud of graduating high school and I dream to be a mechanical engineer one day. 

• James Dominguez - Sarah George

  Left: James Dominguez, Code Next Oakland. I want to create a better tomorrow with technology. I know one day I want to have a job that I love doing, maybe something like software engineering 

  Right: Sarah George, Code Next NYC. I would describe myself as an artist. I love my creations, whether it be a painting, drawing, or piece of writing for school. It feels good to be able to express myself and to use my art as a form of meditation. I also enjoy taking in and appreciating other people's works, including music. Another thing that makes me who I am is my interest in understanding how other people think and learning about what matters to them. 

• Bianca and Elias

  Left: Bianca Burciaga, Code Next Oakland. I’m very family oriented. I love soccer, and I try to keep an open mind. I just want to be able to repay my parents for everything they have done for me. 

  Right: Elias Cruz, Code Next Oakland. I describe myself as curious and outgoing. I’m proud of graduating because now I can go on to a new chapter in life. My favorite quote is “Invest in assets not liabilities.”

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  Gerardo Arteaga Garcia, Code Next Oakland: I describe myself as a hard working person with lots of ideas. I’m proud of building my own car and making it better. I dream of making it as fast as possible.

  
  

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  Lita Hernandez (top row, third from left), Code Next Oakland: I was born and raised in Oakland. My family is originally from Mexico. I dream of finishing college and one day working at Google or even Code Next. I want to be able to help my family with whatever need they need. Ultimately, I want to be able to help those that are in need. Especially kids who need help in school and hopefully give them the help they need for the future.

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  Salvador Avelar (first from left), Code Next Oakland: I’m an introverted Mexican kid who loves soccer more than anything in the world. I’m proud of winning the 2018 Code Next Hackathon because my group and I made a multi-use website that addressed immigration, a conflict that affects the local community.

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  Tasnim Nahar (first from left), Code Next NYC: I was born and raised in East Harlem. I am Bengali-American. I have an older sister and a younger brother. My favorite color is purple. Some of my passions include journaling/scrapbooking, calligraphy and graphic design. I want to become a UI/UX designer and to create my own font one day. 

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  Jessica Franco (front row, third from left), Code Next Oakland: I dream of having my own business for businesses. I want to make logos, business cards, portfolios, costume clothing, ect. I enjoy painting, drawing, and writing stories in my free time. I also spend time practicing 2D animation for future projects. There are so many things I feel proud of. 

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  Emily Ronquillo-Ruiz (first from right), Code Next Oakland: I’m proud that I graduated high school. It was way harder than it should have been but I did it. 

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  Orlando Jose Molina, Code Next Oakland: Instead of a picture of myself, I included a picture of my parents who have supported me throughout my life. I am proud of accomplishing high school. It is a milestone that took four years and lots of stress to complete. I plan to be a software engineer in the Bay Area.
  

by Cindy Hernandez via The Keyword

Stadia Savepoint: June updates

With June coming to an end, it's time for another update in our Stadia Savepoint series. Here are the updates we’ve made this month to the Stadia platform:

Touch controls on mobile

Access touch controls within any game on your mobile device when a controller is not already connected.

Expanded OnePlus compatibility

Stadia is now compatible with OnePlus 5, OnePlus 6, and OnePlus 7 series mobile devices. More info here. 

Per-device resolution settings

Added the ability to set your preferred resolution on each device that you play Stadia on. 

Experiments tab supports additional mobile devices

Any Android phone that can install the Stadia app can play games using the Experiments tab in the settings menu. 

Wireless Stadia Controller functionality on mobile

We’re rolling out support for wireless play using the Stadia Controller on your mobile device. Just link your Stadia Controller to your phone by following the linking code shown on your screen.

This month, players adventured across the lands of Tamriel in The Elder Scrolls Online and learned how to pull off trick combos on boats in Wave Break, in addition to many other games now available for purchase on the Stadia store. We also announced new games coming to Stadia, including the survival adventure Windbound on August 28 and a chance to enter a world inspired by classic JRPGs with Cris Tales on November 17.

If you sign up for Stadia, you’ll get one free month of Stadia Pro and instant access to eighteen games, including PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS, Zombie Army 4: Dead War, Destiny 2: The Collection, and The Elder Scrolls Online. In addition, if you’ve ever signed up for Stadia Pro, you’ll receive $10 off on your next purchase of any game from the Stadia store. 

Start playing Stadia on your TV for $99.99 with the new Stadia Premiere Edition, complete with a Stadia Controller and Chromecast Ultra. 

Stadia Pro updates

• Get four new games for free with Stadia Pro in July: Crayta, Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, West of Loathing, and SteamWorld Dig.

• 15 existing games still available to add to your Stadia Pro collection: Destiny 2: The Collection, PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS, GRID, SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech, SteamWorld Dig 2, SteamWorld Heist, Zombie Army 4: Dead War, The Turing Test, GYLT, Get Packed, Little Nightmares, Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, SUPERHOT, Panzer Dragoon Remake, and The Elder Scrolls Online (leaves Stadia Pro on July 16).

• Act quickly: Serious Sam Collection, Spitlings, and Stacks On Stacks (On Stacks) leave Stadia Pro on June 30.

• Ongoing discounts for Stadia Pro subscribers: Check out the web or mobile Stadia store for the latest.

Recent content launches on Stadia

• Borderlands 3: Bounty of Blood

• DOOM Eternal: Update 2

• Just Shapes & Beats

• Metro 2033 Redux

• Metro: Last Light Redux

• The Elder Scrolls Online

• Wave Break

New games coming to Stadia

• Cris Tales

• Windbound

That’s it for June—we’ll be back soon to share more updates. As always, stay tuned to the Stadia Community Blog, Facebook, and Twitter for the latest news.

by Andrey Doronichev via The Keyword

One percent of Googlers get to visit a data center, but I did

For years I’ve wondered what it’s like behind the protected walls of a Google data center, and I’m not alone. In my job at Google, I spend my days working with developers. Our data centers are crucial to the work that they do, but most have never actually set foot inside a data center. And until recently, neither had I. I went on a mission to find answers to common questions like: Why are visits so tightly restricted? How secure is a Google data center? How do we meet regulatory requirements? Here's what I found out.

To keep our customers' data safe, we need to make sure the physical structure of the data center is absolutely secure. Each data center is protected with six layers of physical security designed to thwart unauthorized access. Watch the video above to follow my journey through these layers to the core of a data center, and read on to learn even more.

“Least privilege” is the rule to live by

There are two rules strictly enforced at all Google data centers. The “least privilege” protocol is the idea that someone should have only the bare minimum privileges necessary to perform their job. If your least privilege is to enter Layer 2, you won’t have luck moving to Layer 3. Each person’s access permissions are checked at badge readers that exist at every access point in a data center facility. Authorization measures happen everywhere using this protocol. 

Another rule exists that prevents a vehicle or individual closely following another to gain entry into a restricted area without a badge swipe. If the system detects a door open for too long, it immediately alerts security personnel. Any gate or door must close before the next vehicle or person can badge in and gain access.

Two security checks: badge first, then circle lock

You’ve probably seen dual-authentication when you try to sign into an account and a one-time password is sent to your phone. We take a similar approach at the data centers to verify a person’s identity and access. At some layers in the data center, you’re required to swipe your badge, then enter a circle lock, or tubular doorway. You walk into a special "half portal" that checks your badge and scans your eyes to gain access to the next layer of the data center. It prevents tailgating because only one person is allowed in the circle lock at a time.

Shipments are received through a secure loading dock

The facility loading docks are a special section of Layer 3, used to receive and send shipments of materials, such as new hardware. Truck deliveries must be approved for access to Layer 3 to enter the dock. For further security, the loading dock room is physically isolated from the rest of the data center, and guard presence is required when a shipment is received or sent.

All hard drives are meticulously tracked

Hard drive tracking is important to the security of your data because hard drives contain encrypted sensitive information. Google meticulously tracks the location and status of every hard drive within our data centers—from acquisition to destruction—using barcodes and asset tags. These asset tags are scanned throughout a hard drive's lifecycle in a data center from the time it’s installed to the time it's removed from circulation. Tracking hard drives closely ensures they don’t go missing or end up in the wrong hands.

We also make sure hard drives are properly functioning by doing frequent performance tests. If a component fails to pass a performance test, it’s deemed no longer usable. To prevent any sensitive information from living on that disk, we remove it from inventory to be erased and destroyed in Layer 6, Disk Erase. There, the disk erase formatter uses a multi-step process that wipes the disk data and replaces each bit of data with zeros. If the drive can’t be erased for any reason, it’s stored securely until it can be physically destroyed. 

Layered security extends into the tech itself

Our layered security approach isn’t just a physical safeguard for entering our data centers. It’s also how we protect the hardware and software that live in our data centers. At the deepest layer, most of our server boards and networking equipment are custom-designed by Google. For example, we design chips, such as the Titan hardware security chip, to securely identify and authenticate legitimate Google hardware. 

At the storage layer, data is encrypted while it travels in and out of the data center and when it’s stored at the data center. This means whether data is traveling over the internet moving between Google’s facilities, or stored on our servers, it’s protected. Google Cloud customers can even supply their own encryption keys and manage them in a third-party key management system deployed outside Google’s infrastructure. This defense-in-depth approach helps to expand our ability to mitigate potential vulnerabilities at every point. 

To learn more about our global data centers, visit our Data and Security page. We will also be sharing more about our security best practices during the upcoming Google Cloud Next ’20: OnAir event.

by Stephanie Wong via The Keyword

Work profile: the new standard for employee privacy

Employees increasingly demand privacy from the technology they use every day, but employers often see privacy in opposition to enterprise data security. 

Since its debut in Android 5, the work profile has secured company data on personally-owned devices while preserving employee privacy. The separation of work and personal apps means IT gets full control over work apps and data, but has no visibility into personal apps. In Android 11, we’re bringing these privacy protections to company-owned devices as well, while providing IT the additional capabilities needed to manage company assets. 

Employees demand privacy, even on company-owned devices

In a recent survey by ESG research, 71 percent of employees said they expect all personal information to remain private on work devices. This resistance to traditional full device management creates challenges for IT organizations. In fact, employee concern about privacy is the top reason mobile devices remain unmanaged by IT, according to IDC: 

“Many users of corporate-liable devices have privacy concerns about app usage and corporate IT monitoring their activity,” says Phil Hochmuth, program VP, enterprise mobility at IDC. “Due to this concern, more than a third (38 percent) of corporate-owned devices deployed in enterprises go unmanaged.”

Personal data should always stay private

Android is committed to delivering simple, consistent privacy protections to our users. Just as IT shouldn’t put company data at risk to enable mobile productivity, employees shouldn’t be asked to reveal private, personal data to their company. 

That’s why we’ve expanded Android’s commitment to employee privacy in Android 11, by bringing the privacy protections of the work profile to company-owned devices. This means IT can deploy the work profile to help protect employee privacy across their entire fleet, regardless if the device is personally or company-owned.

Always get the right level of management

To make the work profile a great tool for company asset management, we had to bring to it many of the capabilities our customers value in Android’s fully managed devices. These include: 

• Asset management protections, even if devices are lost or stolen

• Personal usage policies such as restricting what apps employees can use, to keep device usage in compliance with corporate policy

• Hardware management, to restrict or prevent configuration of features like Bluetooth, cameras, and removable storage

Extending management beyond the work profile required us to separate the management of data from visibility into that data. For example, IT can block an employee from using social media apps on a company-owned device, but in doing so doesn’t need to know the other apps they use outside of work. Now Android can help preserve employee privacy in the personal profile while enabling IT management of what employees can do with the personal profile.

Whoever owns the device gets to decide how the device can be used. As before, if an employee owns their device IT can only manage core security features, like preventing users from installing apps from unknown sources. But if the company owns the device, IT can now manage how users interact with the whole device. In this way, the work profile adjusts its management capabilities according to who owns the device, while offering the same privacy protections in all scenarios.

Get it first with the Android Management API

We’re pleased to announce that the Android Management API will support these work profile enhancements in July enabling customers and developers to try out these new features on the Android 11 Beta.

Exclusive to the Android Management API, we’re bringing Android 11’s new combination of strong personal privacy protections and robust asset management features to older Android devices, as far back as Android 8. This means customers can deploy a single management solution across most, if not all of their Android fleet, not only for personally- and company-owned devices but across a wide range of Android versions as well. Speak with your enterprise mobility management (EMM) provider to learn how your company can make the most of the work profile.

Prioritizing privacy

Since the beginning, we designed Android Enterprise with employee privacy at the forefront. We are looking forward to expanding that mandate into the world of company-owned devices in a way that ensures both security and privacy for employers and employees. To learn more about the privacy enhancements in the work profile and other enterprise features coming in Android 11, please visit the Android developer site.

by Ian Marsanyi via The Keyword

A new way to save this summer with Nest Thermostat

Warm evenings, backyard barbeques and sticky watermelon fingers mean two things for my family: Summer is finally here and the air conditioning is running. As the days get longer and temperatures rise, so does my energy bill. 

Thankfully, Nest thermostats can help me save energy automatically. As of today, we’re announcing our Seasonal Savings feature will be available for free. Seasonal Savings isn’t the only Nest thermostat tool that works in the background to save energy, and sometimes money. Here are a few ways you can benefit from using the device without having to lift a finger. 

1. Seasonal savings for all 

For the first time, this summer we’re making Seasonal Savings available to all Nest thermostat owners for free. Previously, this feature was only available to customers of utilities with Seasonal Savings programs. It acts like a personal energy monitor, making small schedule tweaks to help you save energy and lower your bill, without you even noticing. 

By adjusting your schedule just a fraction of a degree each day, users save energy while staying comfortable. These little changes can really add up—the average customer sees 3 to 5 percent in energy savings on their home’s heating and cooling systems. Collectively, if everyone participates, that’s millions of dollars saved.

Seasonal Savings is rolling out on all Nest thermostats in the U.S. and Canada (except Quebec) starting this month. If you have a Nest Thermostat, you’ll see a notification on your device and in the Nest app asking if you’d like to opt-in, and from there your thermostat will start helping you save energy.

2. Get rewards for saving

Just like traffic clogs up roads when everyone drives to work at the same time, energy “rush hours” happen when everyone in a certain area turns on their air conditioning at once. When there’s a peak in energy demand, it makes providing energy more expensive, less reliable, and less environmentally friendly for energy companies.  So, many energy companies work with Nest to offer Rush Hour Rewards.  When you sign up, your Nest thermostat will make changes to the temperature in your home on a handful of those peak energy usage afternoons during the summer. This lowers the demand while still keeping you comfortable. The icing on the cake: Energy providers pay users  for signing up.

3. Clearing the air (filter)

Dirty or clogged air filters can affect your heating and cooling system’s efficiency, making your system work harder to move air through your home and using more energy. Personally, air filters aren’t high on my priority list and I often forget to change them. This is why your Nest thermostat can help you remember when it’s time to change the filter with a Filter Reminder, tracking the last time you changed it and showing you reminders on your thermostat when it's time to switch it out. 

4. Leave it to the Leaf 

The Nest Leaf icon appears on your Nest thermostat display or in the Nest app when you choose an energy-saving temperature. The temperatures that earn a Leaf will depend on your temperature preferences, your home and your schedule. When you follow the Leaf, you know you’re saving energy. 

5. Waste not, want not

The Nest thermostat can use its sensors and, if you opt in, your phone’s location, to check if you’ve left the house. It can then automatically adjust the temperature, so you don’t waste energy cooling an empty home. Then when you come back, your thermostat will readjust to your preferred setting.

So sit back, relax and let your Nest thermostat get to work helping you save this summer.

by Krishan GuptaGoogle Nest via The Keyword

Our focus on helpful devices: Google acquires North

Today we're announcing that Google has acquired North, a pioneer in human computer interfaces and smart glasses. They've built a strong technology foundation, and we're excited to have North join us in our broader efforts to build helpful devices and services.

From 10 blue links on a PC, to Maps on your mobile phone, to Google Nest Hub sharing a recipe in the kitchen, Google has always strived to be helpful to people in their daily lives. We’re building towards a future where helpfulness is all around you, where all your devices just work together and technology fades into the background. We call this ambient computing.

North’s technical expertise will help as we continue to invest in our hardware efforts and ambient computing future. They'll join the Google team based in Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada—North’s hometown and an area with impressive tech talent. We're excited to welcome our new colleagues, and committed to the growing global tech community of Kitchener-Waterloo. For more on what this announcement means for North and its community of customers and partners, read this blog post from North’s founders.

by Rick OsterlohDevices & Services via The Keyword

Travel back in time with AR dinosaurs in Search

Dinosaurs may have ruled the Earth millions of years ago, but with augmented reality (AR), you can turn your home into “Jurassic World.” We're partnering with Universal Brand Development, Amblin Entertainment and Ludia to bring 10 dinosaurs from the franchise film, “Jurassic World”, to Google Search. Watch the massive T. Rex stomp in your living room or gaze up at a majestic Brachiosaurus as it towers above a neighborhood tree. 

Search for a dinosaur on Google using a mobile device and tap “View in 3D” to rotate or zoom in and see it up close. You can then bring the dinosaur into your space with AR and adjust its size to understand how big it is in relation to the things around you. On Android devices, turn up your volume to hear the thudding footsteps and roars of each dinosaur. 

“Jurassic World” dinosaurs that are viewable in AR include: Tyrannosaurus Rex, Velociraptor, Triceratops, Spinosaurus, Stegosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Dilophosaurus, Pteranodon, and Parasaurolophus.

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A behind-the-scenes look at how
“Jurassic World” AR dinosaurs are made 

Using technology from Ludia’s “Jurassic World Alive” game, these AR dinosaurs are some of the most realistic models out there. Check out this video to see how an AR Brachiosaurus is made, including 3D modeling, texturing and animation.

“To create the 3D dinosaurs, our concept artists first did preliminary research to discover information about each creature,” says Camilo Sanin, Ludia’s Lead on Character Creations. “Not only did we draw research from various forms of literature, our artists also worked with paleontologists and the ‘Jurassic World’ team to make the assets as accurate and realistic as possible. Even the smallest of details, such as irregularities of skin color and patterns, are important.” 

Unlike some of Google’s AR animals, like a dog or tiger, dinosaurs pose a new technical challenge: their massive size. The new auto-scale feature on Android can now automatically calculate the distance between your phone and a surface in your space and resize the dinosaur so it fits on your phone screen. If you tap “View actual size,” AR tracking technology automatically repositions the dinosaur in your space to make room for it.

New auto-scale feature on Android

How to access and share

On Android, search for “dinosaur” or one of the 10 dinosaurs on the Google app or any Android browser and tap “View in 3D.” You can see 3D content on devices running with Android 7 and above and you can see AR content on ARCore-enabled devices. Easily explore all dinosaurs using the carousel format. 

On iOS, search for “dinosaur” or one of the 10 dinosaurs on the Google app or on Google.com with Chrome or Safari. 3D and AR content is available on devices running iOS 11 and above.

You can also create AR videos—or recreate your favorite scenes from the “Jurassic World” movies—with the recording option. Don’t forget to tag your photos and videos on social with #Google3D and #JurassicWorld. Safe traveling (back in time)!

by Archana Kannan via The Keyword

How sweet it is! This Googler carves fruit into art

During work hours, Leonard Ko collaborates with teams of engineers on Pixel phones. But he’s also known for a unique talent outside of tech: creating intricate sculptures out of fruit. It turns out fruit is just the latest medium for Leonard, who has been creating art for decades—and only recently decided to make his art edible. 

Leonard Ko in his kitchen.

Leonard has always been interested in expressing himself through art, and first worked on traditional Chinese paintings and oil paintings of landscapes. But eventually, his love of art translated into making art out of food. 

At first, his prowess in the kitchen came through baked goods. “I liked to bake cakes and pipe them with buttercream and chocolate, but they are so sweet and unhealthy,” Leonard says. He changed his materials to avoid all the junk food. “I chose the art of fruit, since it’s natural and healthy,” he says.

For the past three years, Leonard has been making his fruit sculptures every two to three weeks and, until COVID-19 led people to stay at home, bringing them to friends’ picnics and parties. He says fruit carvings can be as simple as creating “rabbits” from orange slices by turning the peel into “ears,” and as elaborate as crafting a shark’s head out of a watermelon, then putting other fruits in the shark’s carved-out “mouth.”

• Fruit shark

  A fruit-filled “shark” Leonard carved.

• Fruit bird

  A bird carved from a pineapple added to a summer-themed spread in Leonard’s kitchen.

• Fruit roses

  Leonard made “roses” from blended fruit. 

For the past three years, Leonard has been making his fruit sculptures every two to three weeks and, until COVID-19 led people to stay at home, bringing them to friends’ picnics and parties. He says fruit carvings can be as simple as creating “rabbits” from orange slices by turning the peel into “ears,” and as elaborate as crafting a shark’s head out of a watermelon, then putting other fruits in the shark’s carved-out “mouth.”

Leonard’s daughter and number-one fan.

Usually, it takes around two or three hours for him to complete each fruit sculpture, though his most detailed ones, for parties or special events, take up to seven hours to carve. He once created a fruit sculpture for a team-building event at the office. “My coworkers thought the sculpture came from a professional chef, and couldn’t believe it was my work,” Leonard says. 

The biggest fan of Leonard’s work is surely his daughter, who often looks on with wonder as he creates little animals out of fruit. “She is very interested in what I am doing for the sculpture,” Leonard says. “She will stay with me and ask some questions, like, ‘Daddy, why did you do this? Could you use other fruits?’ After she saw the finished sculptures, she loved them.”

Since like most Googlers he’s working from home these days, Leonard is keeping busy working and taking care of his daughter, which doesn’t leave much time for fruit sculptures. But he’s still staying creative in the kitchen, cooking a decorated meal once a week. Recent dishes have included yogurt topped with a rainbow of fruit and purple sweet potato tarts. The watermelon sharks will have to wait a little longer. 

 Leonard’s cooking from home while working from home.

by Megan FriedmanThe Keyword via The Keyword

Bringing free retail listings to Google Search

When shopping online, it can be daunting to find the right product, the best seller, or the best value. People often have many high quality choices available but aren't always aware of them all or don't have an easy way to access them. For many merchants, connecting with customers in a digital environment is still relatively new territory or a smaller part of their business. However, consumer preference for online shopping has increased dramatically, and it’s crucial that we help people find all the best options available and help merchants more easily connect with consumers online.

Free listings on Google Search

We recently announced that product results on the Google Shopping tab in the U.S. will consist primarily of free listings. This change has already produced a significant increase in user engagement, with both clicks and impressions up substantially for merchants, meaning consumers are finding more of the products they’re looking for from a wider range of options. Sellers of all sizes are benefitting from this incremental traffic, particularly small and medium-sized businesses. And we already see that these changes will help generate billions of dollars in sales for retailers and brands in the U.S., on an annual basis.

Now, we’re bringing free listings to the main Google Search results page in the U.S., helping shoppers choose the products and sellers that will serve them best, from the widest variety of options.

More business for your business 

Free listings in Google Search results makes your offers more accessible to the hundreds of millions of people who shop on Google each day, connecting you to more customers in more places—whether they’re across the country or across the street. Initially, free listings on Google Search will appear in a product knowledge panel that shows buying options for a particular item, like this tea kettle:

Today, the buying options in this panel are all sponsored links. Starting this summer, these listings will be free. We’re rolling this out in the U.S., first on mobile, followed later by desktop. Learn more about listing your products for free across Google surfaces in our help center. 

Finally, Shopping ads continue to be a great tool for merchants to engage with consumers and will appear separately at the top of the page, clearly marked like Google’s other ad units. Merchants can choose how to show up and shoppers can choose where to click.

Another step towards more choice

Free listings on Google Search are a big step forward in democratizing access to digital commerce, benefitting shoppers and merchants with more choices across the board. We’ll have even more updates soon, so stay tuned.

by Bill Ready via The Keyword

Understand how COVID-19 is impacting your community

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting different communities in different ways. As cities and towns across the world respond with local policies and guidelines, the need for timely and authoritative local news and information is paramount. To help people navigate these complexities, we’re working across our news products to highlight the latest local guidance and surfacing more content from local news publishers so users can understand how the virus is affecting their community.

Access the latest guidance in your community with Google News

Finding consolidated and trustworthy COVID-19 guidance can be challenging. To help each community be prepared for what’s next, the Google News app is piloting a new feature in partnership with local news publishers. We will test this in a few geographic areas in the COVID-19 special section of the app, where users can view community reopening timelines, plus updates around business and school openings. They can also see the status of the local healthcare infrastructure, public transportation, events and sections with resources for residents looking for or wanting to help families in need. This feature is available in more than 21 areas, ranging across both small and large newsrooms from The Raleigh News & Observer, NOLA.com, CBS Chicago, Oregon Live and Gothamist. We will also continue to expand our coverage across the U.S. and Canada, and plan to bring this feature to products beyond the Google News app in the future.

Find local information on Search and Google Assistant

We’re also working to ensure that reliable local news and information about the coronavirus is easily discoverable in Google Search and Google Assistant. When people look for coronavirus information in Search, they’ll see the existing top stories carousel of articles, in addition to a new dedicated local news carousel highlighting timely, accurate news about their community. We’ve also expanded a new carousel highlighting tweets from local and health authorities so these important and up-to-date announcements are more easily available. This feature is now available in more than 30 countries.

A new carousel in Search surfaces timely, authoritative local news about COVID-19.

With people increasingly seeking out local news to understand COVID-19 in their community, we’ve seen a significant uptick in people tuning into local radio on Google Assistant. To listen, just ask for your local station by its channel name or frequency on any Assistant-enabled device—say something like “Hey Google, play 1010 WINS” or “Hey Google, play 88.5.” With Google Assistant, we’re now also able to provide answers to requests for local COVID-19 information in many cities across the U.S. Just say, for example, “Hey Google, play news about coronavirus in Boston” on any Assistant-enabled smart speaker or Smart Display like Nest Mini or Nest Hub Max, and a mix of stories relevant to your community will begin playing. 

The past few months have reinforced the critical role that local news plays in keeping communities informed. Google is dedicated to supporting and promoting local journalism both within and outside of our products. Recently, we provided emergency funding for more than 5,300 local news organizations and launched a Support Local News campaign to encourage people and businesses to subscribe, donate and advertise across local news outlets in the U.S. and Canada. Through our efforts, we hope to help people and communities continue to safely move forward with up-to-date and trusted local information.

by Daniel RochaNews via The Keyword

Stories of small business: resilience amid COVID-19

As a former small business owner, I admire the many ways that an idea-turned-business can start: as a side hustle, a plan dreamed up at the kitchen table, or something passed down from generation to generation. But what I admire more is the ingenuity and resilience of small business owners who make it through all manner of crises, especially COVID-19.

Seventy percent of small businesses say digital tools have been useful to them during the COVID crisis. Here are the stories of a few businesses from across the world who have made quick adjustments to keep their businesses running and how their digital presence helped them along the way:

Watch Celsious' story

Corinna and Theresa Williams are sisters who had an ambitious goal: to create a laundromat that made you actually want to do your laundry. Together, they opened Celsious in Brooklyn, New York. Celsious is a light-filled laundromat with soaring ceilings, fast, eco-friendly machines, a barista-attended coffee bar, and places to hang out while you wait for your clothes. They received enthusiastic support from the community, and by all accounts, had more than met their original goal. But when COVID-19 hit and New York’s stay at home order was issued, they quickly switched to a drop-off only business model. Their Business Profile on Google helped customers book appointments online, including priority times the sisters set aside for essential workers. 

Watch Progetto Quid's story

Progetto Quid in Verona, Italy is a sustainable fashion brand that recovers high-quality textiles from larger clothing and textile/fabric manufacturers that would otherwise be wasted and regenerates them into beautiful collections manufactured by people (mostly women) with vulnerable pasts. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, founder and president Anna Fiscale used the textiles to create reusable face masks that she sold online–helping to keep people safe, as well as preserving the jobs of all of her employees. 

Watch Someone Somewhere's story

Fatima Alvarez and her co-founders had a vision: empower indigenous female artisans in Mexico by introducing Mexico’s traditional craftsmanship to the world. They founded Someone Somewhere, a clothing company working with more than 200 artisans in five states in Mexico: Puebla, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Hidalgo and Estado de México. When they were forced to close their retail stores as a result of the pandemic, they shifted their focus to online sales and reached customers in both Mexico and the United States. This allowed them to continue operating and keep their staff employed. They’ve also begun donating 10 percent of their profits to the communities they work with to help with medical supplies and protective equipment.

Watch BoxFit's story

BoxFit from New Delhi, India is a boxing and kickboxing-based fitness club with two locations and 20 employees. When the pandemic forced them to close their doors, founder Rahul Kaul had to quickly figure out how to make sure his instructors could keep paying their bills. He started streaming live interactive workouts on YouTube, allowing BoxFit to keep their instructors, stay connected to their members, and reach new followers.  

To celebrate International Small Business Day, we encourage you to check out more videos of resilient small businesses across the world who are using digital tools to build a stronger online presence, reach more customers, and continue making an impact on their communities. To learn more about resources for small business owners, and ways that individuals can help, check out Google for Small Business. 

by Kim Spalding via The Keyword

Setting the record straight on news

We care about quality journalism because it helps create a more informed world. A strong fourth estate is important for society and democracy. But the truth is the business model for news that worked 40 years ago is facing enormous challenges today. The Internet has changed how we access information, providing new sources for everything from job listings to movie reviews. Given this vast marketplace of information and services, news businesses are having to reinvent themselves. 

As a company with a mission focused on making information universally accessible, we are invested in helping journalism not only survive, but thrive. Alongside other companies, governments and civic society groups, we are playing our part in enabling a better future for news. And in light of some recent inaccurate claims about how Google works with the news industry and our value exchange with publishers, we felt it was important to set the record straight. 

The value of news to Google is not economic—it’s societal. 

Quality journalism is important to providing people access to authoritative information. The value of news to Google is about informing and educating, not economics. Nearly all of our revenue comes not from news queries, but from queries with commercial intent, like someone searching for a new “toaster” and clicking on an ad. Google gets paid for search ads only when someone clicks on one. 

We compensate publishers fairly in a number of different ways.

Sending people to publishers' news sites—not keeping them “walled” up on Google products, as some claim—is a key way we provide value to the news industry. Every month we send Google users to news sites 24 billion times, providing an opportunity for publishers to grow their audiences and show Google’s users ads or offers for subscriptions. Deloitte puts a value of each click for large publishers at roughly between 4-7 U.S. cents. 

We also invest in ad technologies that thousands of news publishers around the world choose to use to grow their digital advertising businesses. We analyzed the revenue data of 100 news publishers globally with the highest programmatic revenue generated in Google Ad Manager. On average, we found news publishers keep over 95 percent of the digital advertising revenue they generate when they use Ad Manager to show ads on their websites.

And in a significant move to help news publishers succeed, we just announceda new licensing programto pay for content for a news product launching later this year. This will include paying for free access to paywalled articles. We’ve signed partnerships with publishers in Germany, Australia and Brazil, and are in discussions to expand to more partnerships and countries in the coming weeks and months. 

Publishers are in the driver’s seat.

There are many ways newspaper publishers find audiences for their content. Search is only one. Publishers have always been able to control if and how they want to appear on Google, and fine-grained settings allow them to optimize the value they get from Search to achieve their business goals. For example, publishers who want snippets in their search results but don’t want to be used as a Featured Snippet at the top of the page can tell Google to keep their snippets short. Publishers who like text snippets but think images don’t help them attract user traffic can tell Google not to use images. 

We respect publishers’ copyright. 

Google Search has evolved since its early beginnings, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the fundamental fair exchange between Google and the web. Google crawls, indexes and links to websites in search results, and each search result includes a short preview of what to expect at the site. Websites gain free traffic from users interested in what they have to offer, and each user visit is an opportunity to build a long-term relationship and monetize through advertising or subscriptions. 

In decisions spanning more than a decade, the courts have recognized that search is a non-infringing fair use under U.S. copyright law (and similar doctrines elsewhere), whether the search includes image thumbnails, snippets or even digitized copies of books. Fair use is an essential engine of U.S. invention and creativity; it allows copyright law to keep pace with “rapid technological change” and, according to court rulings, serves copyright’s fundamental purpose to “promote the Progress of Science and the Useful Arts.” 

We build technology to improve how our products work for users and help the wider web. 

Five years ago it took an average of 19 seconds to load a page on a mobile browser. Most users wouldn’t wait that long and would navigate elsewhere. This hurt publishers who miss out on building a relationship with the user and making money by showing them ads. News publishers asked us to help find a solution. Instead of building a format to work just on Google, we combined forces with publishers and other tech companies to improve the mobile web for everyone. That was how the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project, or AMP, was born. 

AMP was a collaboration from the start, and continued in that spirit as we evolved the framework to address both opportunities and shortcomings and tackle the issues as they arose. 

Following feedback from publishers who wanted to participate in our Top Stories Carousel feature in Google Search without using AMP, we recently announced page performance signals. This change will allow all qualifying web content to be eligible for this feature while keeping a high-quality user experience as a top priority. 

Google AMP Cache and AMP viewers are designed to accelerate delivery of content—not collect data. A publisher’s cached article page is in every way their page. The publishers' ability to collect data is not limited. All the usage data flows to them, and AMP does not diminish their revenue.

While AMP was always an open-source project, in 2018 it launched a new governance model, and recently the project leadership transitioned to the OpenJS Foundation. Find out more about the origins and history of the AMP project in this blog post.   

We hope these facts contribute to a constructive discussion of how the news industry is evolving to meet the challenges and the needs of users in an increasingly digital world. We want to be both part of the conversation and the solution. 

by Richard GingrasNews via The Keyword

Meet features help engage students and moderate classes

This year, as educators conducted class remotely, the equivalent of over 1,300 years of learning took place each day on Google Meet. With more than 140 million educators and students now using G Suite for Education worldwide to create, collaborate and communicate, many more schools and educators are using Meet to stay connected. We’re excited to share some Meet features that will be launching later this year to help educators improve moderation and engagement in remote or hybrid learning environments.

Increasing control of your meetings

As always, our first priority is keeping meetings safe and secure. New moderation features for G Suite for Education and G Suite Enterprise for Education users will give educators more control over how to run their virtual classes. All these features will be rolling out later this year.

First off, we’re making it easier to manage meeting attendees. When someone asks to join a meeting (or “knocks”), they won’t be able to knock again after being ejected from a meeting, and a knock will no longer show up after a moderator rejects it twice. Plus, we’re updating the knocking interface to make knocks less intrusive for educators. Moderators will also be able to end the meeting for all participants, ensuring no students linger after the teacher has left. And we’ll soon block anonymous attendees from joining any Education meetings by default, though schools will be able to opt-in to allow anonymous participants.

To help students and educators feel more comfortable while on video from their homes, we will enable them to blur out their surroundings or replace their background, with presets or uploaded images (with admin controls to disable this functionality).

Mock is subject to change: Replace your background with an image

Later this year, we’ll release additional moderation features to give educators full control of their meetings, such as the ability to mute all participants at the same time, disable in-meeting chat for participants, and restrict who can present. We’ll also provide a setting that requires that the moderator join before the meeting can begin. You'll hear more from us on these new features in the coming months.

Creating engaging virtual classes

As many educators learned this year, it can be hard to meaningfully engage students when classes are conducted remotely. The following Meet features, launching later this year, will give educators more tools to boost interactivity with their students.

For all G Suite for Education and G Suite Enterprise for Education users, we’re releasing a hand raising feature to make meetings flow more smoothly and an integrated collaborative whiteboard to help teachers and students share their ideas more naturally. In addition, a larger tiled view will allow you to display up to 49 participants at once. We’re also launching closed captions in additional languages to make lessons more accessible.

Mock is subject to change: Raise your hand in a class meeting to signal you want to share

Mock is subject to change: Whiteboard from anywhere with Jamboard integration in Meet

For G Suite Enterprise for Education customers, we’re also releasing several premium features: attendance tracking to provide a record of which students joined the class, breakout rooms so educators can split classes into smaller groups, Q&A to provide a way for students to ask questions without disrupting the flow of the class discussion or lesson, and polling to engage students to share their voice. If your school is interested in using these enterprise video capabilities in Meet, you can contact a G Suite Enterprise for Education specialist today.

We're committed to building helpful tools that allow educators and students to keep teaching and learning - no matter where they are. To learn how to share feedback on where we can continue to improve, head over to our Meet Help Center. And stay tuned over the next few months as these features roll out.

by Arpit Guglani via The Keyword