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With so many countries now returning to various forms of lock down, and winter steadily drawing in, many of us are turning to our favorite films and movie moments to find some familiarity in a time of uncertainty.  In other words, we’re embracing nostalgia. And why not? The movies we love are usually steeped in happy memories, attached to dreamy locations or feature music that temporarily transports us out of the present moment. They bring us joy and a sense of change, breaking up some of the monotony of life in lock down. We asked Dr. Wing Yee Cheung, a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Winchester, about this, and learned that films are a great way to relive memories of happier times. “Movies are embedded with sensory memories of when we first watched them and whom we watched them with,” she writes. “Sensory inputs and social interactions are two key triggers of nostalgia. Watching these can be a way to walk down memory lane and reminisce [about] the wa...

2019 was a challenging year for me. It was the year I was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer. As someone who has always been active and healthy, the news came as a complete shock, and it didn't help that doctors couldn't explain why it happened. But I wasn't caught up in the mindset of asking “why me?’” My first thought was, what do I need to do to get better? Over the past year, I've learned a lot about myself emotionally and grown in many ways. (My wife says I'm now an “emotionally woke” husband!) It’s an experience that’s opened up different perspectives for me, especially my understanding of mental health. It’s also given me a new perspective on my work at Google Australia, where I’m a customer engineer, and the importance of a supportive workplace culture.   Staying positive and being kind to myself  During chemotherapy and radiation treatments I started feeling emotions I had never experienced before, like fear and anxiety. I was going through a lot of ...

When my daughter Ruth was born this January, she was a handful. Literally. In the early months of her life, she refused to be put down, fussing and screaming unless we were holding her, walking up and down the hallways of our home. I became a sleep-deprived zombie, shuffling around with one arm free to get some much-needed coffee. And that was on a good day.  I needed all the help I could get. And for me, some of that help came in the form of Google Assistant. Thanks to the Google Nest devices around my house, I was able to get things done a little easier by saying, “Hey Google, turn the temperature down” or “Hey Google, play some soothing music.”   If you’re thinking about the frazzled parents in your life this holiday season, there are a variety of Nest products that might be just right for your gift list. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.  For the parents who are music lovers Whether your kid blisses out to classic rock or gets hyped up to the ...

As a technical solutions consultant at Google, Christian Gijtenbeek enjoys helping others with creative solutions to complex problems. While working from home this year, the Amsterdam-based Googler noticed a dilemma of his own. “It’s more challenging to interact with colleagues and clients without the non-verbal cues many of us are used to,” he says. “How do you effectively read body language in 2D?”  His answer was to add an extra dimension, in the form of a 3D figurine, with a lot of help from his teenage daughter, Janine. "We decided to build a '”mood collector'” shaped like a large Android figurine," Christian says. Christian, his daughter, Janine, and Droid, the light-up figurine they built together. The wooden robot is about four feet (120 centimeters) tall with 640 individually addressable LEDs covering its body. He uses a small microcontroller to  signal each light to display a unique color. To show “moods,” Christian set up a Firebase we...

Welcome to the latest edition of “My Path to Google,” where we talk to Googlers, interns and alumni about how they got to Google, what their roles are like and even some tips on how to prepare for interviews. Today’s post is all about Priyanka Vergadia, who followed her curiosity and stumbled upon a role that combines her technical and artistic skills: creating technical learning content for Google Cloud developers as a Developer Advocate. What’s the best thing about being a Developer Advocate at Google?  This role challenges me with new technologies every day and allows me to think creatively about learning novel concepts and explaining them to a wide range of people. I get to interact with the developer community and create content that can help them learn about Google Cloud. I create tutorials for the Google Cloud Youtube channel , write blogs, codelabs and sample code and speak at conferences.  Currently I’m working on the concept of visual learning. I created the GC...

Since Google launched a new home for Web Stories on Discover , we have seen a diverse group of content creators using the format to tell engaging stories, everything from product reviews to a history of the U.S. postal service . Thanks to new and improved creation tools, it’s easier than ever to create a high-quality and interactive story.  Web Stories are a web-based version of the popular "Stories" format that blend video, audio, images, animation and text to create a whole new way to learn something new. We have seen publishers recut, reuse, or reinvent their brands using Web Stories. If you are new to Web Stories, check out our new YouTube series, Storytime . And if you want to create some yourself, follow these tips to make them as interesting and beautiful as possible. Learn more about how to enable Web Stories . 1. Use video.  Video is a great way to engage users. Optimize your landscape videos by converting them into videos in portrait ratio...

Read this post in English // Blog en inglés aquí. Amo el Día de Acción de Gracias. Es un momento para estar con tus seres queridos, comer comida fabulosa y compartir recuerdos. En mi familia, mi madre siempre hizo del día festivo un momento en el que recibíamos en nuestra casa a personas que no tenían ningún otro lugar adónde ir ese día. Y luego dábamos largas caminatas por la tarde después de nuestra gran cena.   Con las infecciones por COVID-19 aumentando a niveles récord en los Estados Unidos, las familias están cambiando la forma en que celebran el Día de Acción de Gracias este año. Como muchas otras cosas en 2020, tendremos que desarrollar tradiciones nuevas y creativas para reemplazar las que ponen a quienes amamos en riesgo de COVID.  Este año, sigue los consejos de los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades y evita las grandes reuniones familiares. Esta enfermedad es muy contagiosa y reunirse físicamente con la familia extendida ...

I love Thanksgiving. It’s a time to be with those you love, eating fabulous food and sharing memories. In my family, my mother always made the holiday a time when we welcomed people into our home who had nowhere else to go that day. And then we’d take long afternoon walks after our big meal.   With COVID-19 infections rising to record levels across the U.S, families are changing how they celebrate Thanksgiving this year. Like much else in 2020, we’ll need to develop new and creative traditions to replace the ones that put those we love at risk for COVID.  This year, please follow the tips from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and avoid large family gatherings. This disease is highly contagious and getting together physically with extended family is a real risk. Every event that brings people together creates yet another chance for transmission. I’m often asked, “Can’t I just get a COVID test and then see my family?” Unfortunately, the answe...

Behold! the living thrilling lines That course the blood like madd'ning wines, And leap with scintillating spray Across the guards of ecstasy. The flame that lights the lurid spell Springs from the soul's artesian well, Its fairy filament of art Entwines the fragments of a heart. Poetry by Georgia Douglas Johnson When you write the living thrilling lines of a poem, you put yourself into each verse. Whether you’re writing for family, friends or an audience of thousands, each poem carries a part of you. When composing such a poem, each line is carefully crafted, which requires a lot of creative energy. Verse by Verse can help get those creative juices flowing: it's our experiment using AI to augment the creative process of composing a poem. It will offer ideas that you can use, alter, or reject as you see fit. Verse by Verse is a creative helper, an inspiration—not a replacement. Here's how it works. Your muses Using Verse by Verse, you can compose a...

Every Thanksgiving, before I settle into the couch to watch football or load my plate with multiple servings of stuffing, there’s another tradition I have to accomplish first: a turkey trot.  If you don’t already know, a turkey trot is a Thanksgiving Day run. It’s usually a casual way to log a few miles before sitting down for the big meal. There are lots of community-led, organized Turkey Trots, but plenty of people do them casually as well. I’ve done them with running clubs, alongside family and friends and even participated in an official race or two.  Even though I’m practicing social distancing this year, the turkey trot isn’t canceled. Instead, thanks to some help from Google Maps, it will be a semi-solo operation, with the option for friends and family—or really, anyone in the area—to virtually run “along” the route with me. Below, you can follow a few easy steps to create your own turkey trot as well. (These directions are for using Google Maps on desktop.)  ...

Minority or endangered languages are facing a crisis. According to UNESCO, at least 43% of the estimated 6000 languages spoken in the world are endangered . Even though my grandparents spoke an endangered language and language preservation has been my passion for many years, I only recently understood that fonts—the symbols that appear when you type on a keyboard—play a key role in enabling minority language speakers to digitize and preserve their languages on the internet and in print. Until now, many minority languages lacked fonts. From billions of readers to very small language communities, the freely available, open source Noto font family from Google Fonts  supports literacy for hundreds of languages. The Cherokee Nation, with an estimated 20,000 speakers, uses Noto on phones for texting, email and teaching their language in the USA. Noto is used every day for Tibetan, millions of African users, and hundreds of languages of Asia. The government of British Columbia in ...

Danielle Greendeer is the owner of Wampanoag Trading Post and Gallery in Massachusetts, which sells handmade Eastern Woodland art made by Indigenous artists. She is also a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Nation . The Wampanoag are associated with what became known as the “first Thanksgiving.”  “The year 2020 marks the 400th year since the arrival of the Mayflower and the introduction of the Pilgrims to the Wampanoag Nation,” she told our team at Google.org earlier this month. “For the Mashpee Wampanoag people, it is important to tell the history from our perspective and educate the public on the challenges that our Tribe is still trying to overcome. The survival and evolution of our art is an example of how resilient our culture is.” November is also Native American Heritage Month. As an Indigenous person, I see this moment as a reminder for society to reflect on, honor and celebrate the resilience of the people who are the first inhabitants of the United States.  ...

When you’re having a conversation with someone, you might ask multiple questions in a row on the same topic. Wouldn’t it be weird if, in between every question, the person forgot what you were talking about? Well until recently, that’s kind of what would happen on Search. Many Google searches are part of a longer series of queries, but Google didn’t always carry over the context from one query to another. Especially if that next search has multiple interpretations, the results might have felt a little off, leading you to spend more time rewriting your search until you found what you were looking for.  This year, Google Search rolled out new ways to get you to the information you want, using context from your recent activity. Thanks to our newest language understanding capabilities, it’s now easier for you to get to a more specific, on-topic search, navigate a topic you’re interested in and find additional information relevant to that topic. Let’s check out how this improved und...

Thanksgiving is just a few days away, which can only mean the approach of a classic dinner table debate: stuffing or dressing? If your family is busy dishing out their hot food takes, they're hardly alone: Google searches for "stuffing vs dressing" in the U.S. spiked more than 350 percent this past week. But let’s not forget about other Thanksgiving favorites. We took a look at uniquely searched side dishes in each state this year. It seems California is feeling just gravy, while Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky are ready to casse-roll. Check out what’s being searched in your state for some meal prep inspiration. Speaking of prep, taking charge of the Thanksgiving meal, even for small groups this year, is no easy feat. If you’re looking for some insider tips on how to make that perfect stuffing (or dressing!), search for “Thanksgiving” on Google to hear from expert chefs like Mary Ann Esposito   and Jess Pryles . They’ll answer some of your top questions a...

In a galaxy far, far away, the Mandalorian and the Child continue their journey, facing enemies and rallying allies in the tumultuous era after the collapse of the Galactic Empire. But you don’t need a tracking fob to explore the world of the hit STAR WARS streaming series. Google and Lucasfilm have teamed up to bring iconic moments from the first season of “The Mandalorian” to life with “ The Mandalorian” AR Experience (available on the Play Store for 5G Google Pixels and other select 5G Android phones) as fans follow the show’s second season. ( Check your phone to see if it meets app requirements .) From dinosaurs to astronauts , Google has been bringing objects and creatures to life with augmented reality. Now, people using compatible Android 5G devices can interact with heroes from the Mandalorian in their own space. “The Mandalorian” AR Experience puts you in the shoes of a bounty hunter following the trail of Mando himself, Din Djarin and the Child. Explore the wo...

The debate over Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code is part of a bigger conversation about the nature and direction of the internet itself.   The modern internet was designed to empower individuals — as a free, open and democratic system for the exchange of information. From its early origins in the 1960s and 70s to the massive expansion of the world wide web in the 1990s and 2000s, this design made it possible for anyone to improve the net with new ideas and applications. At the same time, it opened up unprecedented access to information and services, with the number of websites globally growing from a few million two decades ago to more than 1.7 billion in 2019. As the internet expanded, these new websites — and the people and businesses that owned them — captured the growth in advertising revenues that came with the digital age.  Google was founded to help users find information in this ocean of webpages. It helps to connect people to millions of businesses,...