This Global Tiger Day, visit tiger.day to help protect these big cats

July 29 is Global Tiger Day, a celebration of the majestic big cats that play a critical role on our planet and serve as cultural and spiritual icons for millions of people. Tigers are influential predators, key to maintaining healthy ecosystems that supply both people and the environment with fresh water, food and health.

Global Tiger Day was founded in 2010, when 13 tiger-range countries (the countries where tigers live in the wild) came together with a goal to double the number of wild tigers in the world — perhaps the most ambitious recovery effort for a single species. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has partnered with Google Registry to launch the .day domains tiger.day and endangeredspecies.day, to drive attention to this urgent cause.

The team at WWF imagines a world where wild tigers are recovering and thriving. So, how do we get there?

• Support the Big Cat Public Safety Act. In the U.S., WWF is calling upon Congress to pass the Big Cat Public Safety Act, legislation that would help monitor and regulate the thousands of captive tigers across the U.S. and help prevent them from ending up in the illegal trade in tiger parts and products. Anyone in the U.S. can show their support by contacting their representatives here.
• Report any suspected illegal wildlife products to theCoalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online. Tiger poaching and the illegal trade of live tigers remains a constant threat to the tiger population. WWF is focusing on efforts that reduce demand for tiger products.
• Become a tiger advocate. Sharing the importance of protecting tigers and their habitats with your community is an easy thing that anyone do. Consider becoming a Panda Ambassador to engage with others who are also committed to saving wildlife and the environment while supporting WWF.

After a century of decline, overall wild tiger numbers in Asia are starting to trend upward, thanks to the passionate work of many advocates. But there’s so much more to be done.

Tiger recovery is possible when governments, communities, conservation organizations and others work together. Visit tiger.day to learn how you can help protect wild tigers. Because protecting wild tigers protects so much more than just this iconic species.

Tigress and cub (Panthera tigris) in Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, India.

© Shutterstock / Bhasmang Mehta / WWF-International

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Today is the .day

.day, the latest top-level domain extension from Google Registry, helps you bring attention to any important day

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NativeNonprofit.day highlights Native-led organizations

The NWF has partnered with Google Registry to launch the domain NativeNonprofit.day to drive awareness for Native-led nonprofits.

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Mothers.day: Highlighting inequality in maternal health

Mothers.day is dedicated to highlighting inequities in maternal health and helping families at different stages of their parenthood journey.

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Supporting fatherhood on fathers.day

This Father’s Day, the Google Registry team is highlighting fathers.day, a fatherhood resource from the experts at Fatherly. Fatherly is using the .day top-level domain …

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by Ginette HemleyWorld Wildlife Fund via The Keyword

These Lionesses have byte - could analytics help them lift the trophy?

On Sunday, England will face Germany in the final act of this summer’s tournament - one that has pitted the top teams from across Europe against one another, and inspired a generation.

It will take grit, determination and a stunning backheel here or there for England to win. But technology plays a part too. The FA’s partnership with Google Cloud has been a vital part of the picture for the lead up to the competition, giving coaches and performance staff access to data and processing muscle that help it select the best squad available at any one time.

The FA’s Player Performance System (PPS) is a central component of Helix – an application and development suite developed by The FA. Helix has been hosted on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for the last five years and is used by the Technical Directorate staff associated with both the England women’s and men’s football teams. It provides them with secure access to databases, processes, functions and compute resources that combine to analyse large volumes of data. It also integrates with visualisation tools to give coaches and performance staff multiple views of data that provides unique insights – customised to end users’ requirements.

This data can include anything from player profiles to scout reports, medical information, club and international fixtures and results. It also brings in research from metrics pulled from wearable devices, which track training volume and intensity, to give coaches a better idea of players’ exposure and to manage their workload. Coaches also have access to players’ sleep, nutrition, recovery and mental health data.

“What it allows our users to do is pull together disparate information that they may not be used to seeing side by side. This helps us to generate new insights, and hopefully give us an edge when it comes to competitions,” said Craig Donald, CIO at The FA.

Helix provides multi-dimensional insight

Helix tracks more than 3,500 professional footballers and stores over 22 million player data points collected from competitive games and training sessions. The platform relies on various GCP tools, glued together by a complex microservice system, which is used to update the data being collected, analysed and stored. Google Cloud Storage is also used to host The FA’s video archives of competitive games. As many as 400 a day make their way into The FA database, each one creating up to a 5GB file size and 600MB of video tracking data.

10:25

This means the FA has faster, more convenient access to data, plus greater insight into player and team performance, which can aid both selection and the England teams’ choice of tactics in any given fixture. The additional power and capacity of the GCP hosting infrastructure helps The FA quickly and cost effectively scale up its analytics capabilities to handle additional data sets during forthcoming competitions.

It often seems in football that everybody has their own idea of the best players to pick and the tactics to adopt. But the combination of granular data metrics and cloud architecture deployed by The FA and Google Cloud might actually give a genuine expert the knowledge to back up those opinions.

But does it mean the Lionesses will win on Sunday? Tune in to find out.

by Helen Kelisky via The Keyword

Why voice AI matters and what’s ahead for Assistant

I’ve been leading the Google Assistant team for over a year now, and I’m inspired every day by the meaningful questions it raises — like how voice can support underserved populations, teach kids new things or help people with impaired speech communicate more easily. This week, as part of VentureBeat’s annual Transform technology conference, I sat down for a virtual fireside chat with Jana Eggers, CEO of Nara Logics, to tackle some of these questions and talk about what’s ahead for Assistant.

As a computer scientist at heart, I had a lot of fun digging into topics like the machine learning (ML) renaissance, the future of conversational artificial intelligence (AI) and the incredible power of voice to transform people’s lives. You can watch the whole fireside chat or check out a few takeaways from our conversation below.

A challenger mindset can push the limits of what’s possible.

Many folks who’ve worked with me know that I like to challenge assumptions. When it comes to building products at Google, that means using technology in new, sometimes uncharted ways to try and solve real-world problems. When I worked on the Google Ads team, for example, I helped create the first ML-driven ads product by challenging existing assumptions about what ML could do. And I’m super excited to use that same challenger spirit to build a world-class, conversational assistant that truly understands you and helps you get things done. I firmly believe we can continue to change people’s lives if we harness new technologies and challenge the boundaries of what’s possible.

Voice is a great democratizer.

There are so many people who are underserved with their information and access needs. We talk about new internet users, or people who can’t read but want to access the world’s information. We now see hundreds of millions of voice queries every day, and that’s continuing to grow among new internet users. In India, for example, nearly 30% of Hindi search queries are spoken. That insight tells us a lot. If you think about reaching these people and making voice a democratizer for access, it’s a compelling area to continue to invest in.

We’re working to create magical conversational experiences for everyone.

The holy grail with Google Assistant is to figure out how a computer can understand humans the way humans understand each other. That’s an audacious, ambitious goal. Human language is ambiguous; we rely on many different cues when we speak to each other that are inherent to us as human beings. So we need to teach computers how humans express themselves and to ask: What are they trying to say? That’s what this product strives to be — a natural and conversational assistant. Every day we ask ourselves: How do we create a magical conversational experience, where the computer truly understands what you’re trying to say and adapts to you?

Pragmatic dreamers can change the world.

This work can’t be done without the right team. Building the best team of people possible is my number one piece of advice. This is hard stuff; it requires a type of individual I call a “pragmatic dreamer.” You want people who can dream big, but you also need people in the trenches figuring out the real, pragmatic engineering challenges standing in the way. I think it’s really important to create space for a team to ideate and explore the boundaries of what’s possible with technology.

Put people first and the rest will follow.

Sometimes we get so enamored by technology that we forget what it's for. I always ask myself: “What are we trying to do for human beings; what are we trying to make better for them?” Sometimes voice can be considered a technology in search of a problem, but I think of it differently. There are real problems people have that this technology can solve. It’s the constant marriage of user problems and what technology can do to solve them. If you keep people as your north star, you can’t go wrong.

by Sissie HsiaoGoogle Assistant via The Keyword

Our 5 Doodle for Google finalists illustrate self-care

Since we opened up submissions for the 14th annual Doodle for Google student contest, tens of thousands of K-12 students across 54 U.S. states and territories illustrated their answers to the prompt: “I care for myself by…” Our judges were moved by the creative ways in which these young artists shared how they were prioritizing their well-being.

After carefully reviewing each submission, we announced our 54 state and territory winners and opened up public voting on our website. Now, the votes are in, the judges have deliberated and we’re ready to announce our five national finalists for the 2022 Doodle for Google contest!

The finalists were assessed on artistic merit, creativity and how well they addressed the prompt in their artwork and written statements. Each one of them brought intentionality, artistry and heart to their Doodles. Meet our finalists (in age group order):

• A drawing of a child lying in bed dreaming about outer space, the ocean, tree houses and buildings.

• A drawing of a family of four in bed together with a quilt that spells out “Google”

• A drawing of a young girl smelling different dishes including Jollof rice, beef stew, plantains and pounded yam. “Google” is spelled out by the smoke plumes coming from the food.

• A drawing of two children outdoors enjoying nature with their pet cat and dog.

• A drawing of a girl tightly hugging her mother in the middle of the word “Google”.

Grades K-3 National Finalist: Edison Lee, Maryland

Title: Dreaming of my bright future

Artist Statement: I care for myself by dreaming of my bright future. In my dreams, I can be anything I want!

Grades 4-5 National Finalist: Anamirel Campos, Delaware

Title: Family will always care for you

Artist Statement: I care for myself by spending time with my family. They taught me many things, but I can't write them all, so I drew them all on a blanket. I love my family!

Grades 6-7 National Finalist: Faridah Ismaila, Pennsylvania

Title: My self love

Artist Statement: I care for myself by making food! I love to make delicious African dishes with my mom. That's why my Doodle shows me smelling all of the delicious African dishes I LOVE!

Grades 8-9 National Finalist: Grace Dai, Missouri

Title: The life-cycle of health

Artist Statement:

I care for myself by being outdoors, especially with family or my sketchbook. My optimism and mental health soars most when I'm outside, because self-care is like nature; they're both beautiful, intricate systems. Like how a bee pollinates a flower, or how the bird hunts the worm, self-care should be as systematic and natural as life itself.

Grades 10-12 National Finalist: Sophie Araque-Liu, Florida

Title: Not alone

Artist Statement: I care for myself by accepting others’ care for me. Often I struggle to shoulder a burden on my own, and forget that I have so many people, like my mom, who care about me and want to help me. Opening up and letting others support me not only relieves my stress — it also lets me tackle things I could never do on my own.

Over the next few weeks, our panel of judges will establish which of our five national finalists will be chosen as the national contest winner. In addition to having their artwork featured on the Google homepage for 24 hours, the winner will receive a $30,000 scholarship and a $50,000 technology package for their school.

Congratulations to our national finalists, and look out for an update on who our 2022 contest winner will be in the next few weeks!

by Selly SallahBrand Studio via The Keyword

New ways to diversify your games revenue

With more than 3 billion people playing games across platforms, the games industry continues to evolve rapidly. Still, one thing remains unchanged: developers need to grow revenue and profitability from their mobile games for long term success. This week, at the Think with Google Gaming Day in China, we shared new ways to help developers like you earn more revenue and attract high-value players.

Strengthen your monetization strategies

The right metrics can make a huge difference to your game’s success by enhancing transparency and clarity in your ads performance. AdMob’s updated Ads Activity report contains new measurement dimensions to help you do just that. Easily analyze earnings including those from third-party ad sources with dimensions like “hour of delivery,” “app version” or “ad source.” Publishers can also better monitor and understand the impact of privacy changes on revenue with report dimensions indicating publisher and user response to the iOS privacy framework.

The Ads Activity report contains new dimensions to help you understand your ads performance

Along with the Ads Activity report, we announced more features to help you diversify and grow your revenue for the long-term:

• Google Mobile Ads Software Developer Kit (GMA SDK): Implement the latest GMA SDK version to stay updated on new feature releases such as the same app key that delivers more relevant and personalized ads for your apps on iOS.
• H5 Games Ads (beta): Grow your earnings by easily showing interstitial and rewarded ads in your HTML5 (H5) games today.
• New bidding partner: Access demand from Pangle, now available on AdMob in addition to more than 200 demand partners competing in real-time for your inventory.

Drive deeper engagement and revenue performance

To drive sustainable growth for your game, you’ll need more than just a strong monetization strategy. It is also important to have the right tools to effectively attract quality players. Now, with the ability to add an audience signal to your Android App campaigns, we’re making this even easier. You’ll be able to use your existing knowledge on the types of players you believe your campaigns would be most successful with to help guide our models to find similar new players who are more likely to convert. This will be available in beta in the coming months.

Add an audience signal to help you find new players who are more likely to convert

As the industry moves away from individual identifiers like device IDs, measuring your campaign performance accurately — along with acting on your conversion data — is critical. That’s why earlier this year, we introduced on-device conversion measurement. With on-device conversion measurement, user interactions with app ads can be matched to app conversions in a way that prevents user-identifying information from leaving a user's device. This helps you to prioritize privacy standards without compromising performance. Explore our developer guide to learn how you can implement this solution for your iOS App campaigns.

We are also releasing other new features to help you grow engagement and performance:

• New audience lists: Re-engage high-value players with automatically generated lists of past purchasers based on your apps’ play data. This feature is now generally available through App campaigns for engagement.
• Creative testing for video: Easily run experiments to understand the impact your video creative has on your App campaign performance. This will be available in beta in the coming months.
• Target return on ad spend (tROAS) for ad revenue: Acquire players who are more likely to engage with ads shown in-app. In the coming months, all developers can send ad revenue from monetization platforms to Google Analytics to improve tROAS bidding in Google Ads.

Scale your reach to third-party app inventory

Lastly, advertisers now have the opportunity to extend their App campaign reach to more users. Advertisers using Google Ads and Display & Video 360 will have the opportunity to participate in real-time bidding integrations with third-party monetization platforms AppLovin (MAX), DT FairBid and Helium by Chartboost.

Also, developers who use third-party platforms will now have easy access to competitive real-time bids from advertisers using Google Ads and Display & Video 360. The program is currently in closed beta and these buying tools will be available as a bidder for approved publishers on these third-party real-time bidding monetization platforms at this time.

Watch the full Ads keynote to hear more about how these solutions can help you drive revenue and profitability for your games business.

by Duke Dukellis via The Keyword

Innovation success in Middle East, Africa and Turkey

Success! The team at the Dubawa Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development, who will automate radio fact-checking.

The GNI Innovation Challenges, part of Google’s $300 million commitment to help journalism thrive in the digital age, have seen news innovators across the world step forward with many exciting initiatives demonstrating new thinking.

The 3rd Middle East, Turkey and Africa Innovation Challenge launched in February 2022, and received 425 applications from 42 countries – a 27% increase in overall applications. After a rigorous review, a round of interviews and a final jury selection process, 34 projects were selected from 17 countries to receive $3.2 million in funding.

This Innovation Challenge saw a significant increase in applications from news organizations undertaking fact checking activities: an increase of 118% when compared to previous Innovation Challenges in the region. Proposed projects which use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) also showed significant growth (92%), reflecting a trend across the news ecosystem to embrace cutting edge new technologies and data.

The call for applications listed five criteria: impact on the news ecosystem; innovation; diversity, equity and inclusion; inspiration; and feasibility – and the chosen projects clearly demonstrated all five. Here’s a selection of the successful recipients (you can find the full list on our website):

• Dubawa, Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development from Nigeria, an online-only publisher, will introduce automated radio fact-checking.
• Majarra from the UAE will apply AI and ML to use readers’ data to better help them navigate their website and be more inclusive to female subscribers.
• The Bridge Across the Abraham Accords project: In an industry-first initiative, Tel Aviv-based Israel Hayom and Abu Dhabi-based Al-Ittihad will collaborate to give readers of both news organizations the ability to share news and comment in the same multilingual environment.
• Minority Africa from Uganda is designing and implementing a web distribution application that will make it easier for newsrooms publishing under a Creative Commons license to have more control of their work.
• Quote This Woman+ from South Africa will build a tool to provide women+ (identified as women, people living with disabilities, LGBTQI+, rural and religious minorities).
  sources to newsrooms and journalists to diversify sources in news coverage.
• Dipnot from Turkey, a TV company, will create COM+: a multi-screen OTT platform for curated news in Turkey.

The successful recipients will be embarking on their projects later this summer and will share their learnings with the wider news ecosystem.

by Ludovic Blecher via The Keyword

What it's like to have a hybrid internship at Google

After three virtual college semesters, I felt like a fish out of water applying for summer internships. My networking and interviewing skills were rusty, and as a first-generation college student without access to career prep resources, I felt totally unprepared for the job application process. I didn't know what role I wanted, where to apply or how to write my resume. So I joined a professional development program for underrepresented talent, where I spent hours in workshops, interview prep sessions and meetings with my career coach.

Inspired by a lecture on battling imposter syndrome and the power of believing in yourself, I built up the confidence to apply to Google. I trusted the process and kept my best foot forward, and before I knew it, I was in my first round of interviews for Google’s communications team. Not long afterward, I was walking through the doors of Google’s New York City campus on my first day as an intern.

This year’s interns are the first to participate in Google’s hybrid work week and the first to go into Google’s offices since early 2020. The hybrid schedule has helped me embrace the best of both worlds — from connecting with my teammates over lunch at the office to focusing on projects in the comfort of my home. Through this hybrid experience, and especially as a member of the communications team, I've learned how important it is to ask questions, stay connected and engage thoughtfully.

A big part of my role at Google is seeking out and sharing stories about our culture, products and people — including my fellow interns. So in celebration of International Intern Day today, I asked a few of them to share more about their hybrid internship experiences and their proudest accomplishments so far. Here’s what I learned.

by Ci'Anee Campbell via The Keyword

Our support for the Economic Opportunity Coalition

A healthy economy exists only when opportunities to participate are open to everyone. Google has long worked to make that possible through efforts such as our Google Career Certificates, the Grow with Google Small Business Fund and our commitment tosupplier diversity. Core to this work is our belief that progress is best achieved when we partner with others to scale these efforts.

Consistent with that approach, today Google is proud to help launch the Economic Opportunity Coalition, a group dedicated to building an equitable economy. Google intends to work alongside others in the public, private and nonprofit sectors to find ways to help close the racial wealth gap in the United States. The Coalition has identified four focus areas: investing in strengthening community finance organizations, supporting entrepreneurship, improving financial health and addressing infrastructure needs, such as affordable housing.

At Google, we have pioneered solutions to these issues and continue to do so. For example, our $100 million Google Career Certificates Fund focuses on Google’s digital skills training program and introduces a new financing model to provide loans and grants to students through Social Finance, a leading national nonprofit in the field of workforce development. Another example is our funding to Opportunity Finance Network to help Community Development Financial Institutions, which provide capital to underserved small businesses.

Our work in this regard contributes to sustainable economic growth, and the efforts of others in the Coalition will amplify our impact. Building a world in which everyone has access to opportunities will help foster more vibrant economic communities, and we look forward to others joining us in the Economic Opportunity Coalition and contributing to this important work.

by Ruth PoratAlphabet and Google via The Keyword

New video editing and productivity features coming to Chromebook

Today we’re announcing new features and apps for Chromebook to take your creativity and productivity to the next level. Whether you’re enjoying your favorite music or movies, creating a vacation highlight reel or powering through work, Chromebook lets you do it all with speed, security and ease — right out of the box.

Over the next few months we’ll roll out new Chromebook features, including video editing tools in the Google Photos app to help you showcase your summer adventures, enhanced app capabilities and features to help you get organized and get things done.

Get in the director’s chair with Google Photos

Share your favorite memories with friends and family and bring your creativity to life with Google Photos’ new movie editor and video editing features — available first on Chromebook this fall.

A peek at Google Photos’ new movie editor coming to Chromebook (UI subject to change)

Creating an end-to-end movie made up of multiple video clips, photos, a title card and music can come with a learning curve and take a lot of time. But Google Photos’ revamped movie creation tools help you make high-quality movies with just a few taps. You’ll be able to create beautiful movies from suggested themes, or put yourself in the director’s seat and start from scratch, right on your Chromebook.

Start by selecting a theme and the people (or pets!) you’d like to feature, and Google Photos will make a movie with both video clips and photos. It even intelligently selects the most meaningful moments from your long videos.

For those who like more creative control, you can also build your own movie from scratch with the Google Photos movie editor. Google Photos’ search capabilities make it easy to select, then arrange photos and clips in the order you’d like.

Whether you start from a theme or a blank slate, you’ll be able to trim video clips, or edit them to adjust the brightness, contrast and more. Or you can apply one of the Real Tone filters we added earlier this year – these filters were made to work well across skin tones, so you can choose from a wide assortment of looks to find one that reflects your style. You can also add finishing touches, like music and a title card, to make your movie shine.

Select a theme, like “Friendship movie”, and choose who you want to include and Google Photos will create a movie with clips and photos (UI subject to change)

Google Photos integrates with Chromebook’s Gallery and Files apps, so if you open a video in the Gallery app, you can continue editing it in Google Photos with a tap. You can also use images and videos saved on your Chromebook in the movies you make on the Google Photos app.

And for professional-grade video editing, the LumaFusion app is also coming to Chromebooks. LumaFusion’s multitrack video editor lets you add graphics, visual effects, transitions and distortions, audio tracks and sound effects, narration, color grading and more.

No matter what kind of movie you want to create, from a summer highlight reel to a short film, Chromebook’s versatile and easy-to-use tools and apps have you covered.

Meet new apps, and get more out of your favorites

Whether you’re diving into forecasting at work or preparing and planning for back-to-school season, Chromebook’s preinstalled apps are ready to help. Here are a few new ones we recommend trying out:

• Gallery app. We’re introducing new PDF editing features to Gallery, Chomebook’s default media app, so you can fill out forms, highlight text, sign documents and add text annotations. No more printing and scanning just to sign a form. You’ll start to see this roll out next week.
• Screencast app. Anyone can now use Screencast to record, view and share transcribed videos and presentations, whether it’s a virtual lesson or a how-to video or demo.
• Cursive app. Capture, edit and organize handwritten notes on stylus-enabled Chromebooks. When it's time to share, you can quickly copy and paste your notes into another app or send as a PDF.

Using the Gallery app you’ll be able to annotate, highlight, edit, and sign PDFs.

And of course, when it’s time to go back to school or catch up on work after a long summer vacation, Google Workspace apps — like Docs, Calendar, Meet and Chat — are already on Chromebook. Whether you’re catching up on emails or collaborating on a group project you paused weeks ago, all of your files will be waiting on Google Drive. And when you want to kick back and relax, entertainment apps are just a tap away. Check the latest trends on YouTube, update your “Summer 2022” playlist on YouTube Music or play a game on Stadia.

For creativity, easy-to-use design tools like Canva, Figma and Adobe Express are made to work easily on Chromebook so you can create everything from beautiful presentations to professional-looking social media posts. Apps like FL Studio help you arrange, record, mix and master quality music, and add instruments like synthesizers, drum kits and more.

For a little more support in and out of class, Evernote helps you keep your life organized with great note-taking, project planning and easy ways to find what you’re looking for. Plus, get expert advice to help you succeed from Outlier.org, which provides world-class online college education from the founders of MasterClass. And you have 1000+ powerful PC games on NVIDIA GeForce NOW and Luna to help you unwind.

Check out special offers on some of these apps and others — perfect for college students heading back to school in the U.S.

Manage your life and make Chromebook your own

Recently we’ve added new ways to help you get things done easily, like the newly redesigned Launcher that lets you find what you need with the press of a button, and additions to cross-device features like Phone Hub and Nearby Share. In the next few months, we’re also rolling out some new organization and productivity features to help you manage your schedule and stay focused, with some new ways to personalize your Chromebook.

• Chromebook screen with a pink background. The new Wallpaper & style app is open, and in it users can select a wallpaper, screensaver, and theme.

  If you’re not the type to plaster your laptop with stickers on the outside, you can now personalize your Chromebook in new ways. Now you can set your wallpaper from one of your Google Photos albums – and even have it automatically change daily. Imagine waking up to see your photos rotate between your friends, parents, pets… you get the idea. You can also see your favorite pictures sway in the breeze or gently float across your screen using one of the new screensaver photo frames.

• A GIF showing a Chromebook screen going from Light theme to Dark theme. The pink background shifts to a darker red, and the shelf also becomes darker.

  We’re introducing light and dark themes. The “light” theme keeps things bright and airy, while “dark” makes for easy reading at night or in low light, and can help conserve power. You can choose to keep your laptop on one theme all the time, or choose “auto” to have your Chromebook automatically transition from light to dark when day turns to night. Bonus: some new wallpapers are made for both themes, so your wallpaper will subtly shift from light to dark, too.

• The GIF starts with several windows open in a desk titled “Research Project”. The user taps on “save for later” and the desk contents condense, and several saved desks show on the screen.

  You might already use virtual desks to keep all your related apps and windows grouped and organized when you’re focusing on a specific project, like one desk for a research project and another for planning a vacation (as you can see, I think a lot about vacations). Soon you’ll be able to save and close an entire desk, including all windows and apps — perfect for when it’s time to shift gears and focus on emailing friends or family. When you’re ready to get back to it, you can open your saved windows and tabs with a tap. And once your project is done (and who doesn’t love that feeling?), you can also close all open windows at once.

• The new monthly calendar view is open on the right side of the screen.

  Last but not least, tap on the date on your Chromebook shelf and a monthly calendar will now pop up on the side of your screen. Select any date to see your Google Calendar events in more detail and check your availability at a glance – no need to open another app or browser tab. Notifications are also getting an upgrade. Notifications from the same sender will be grouped together, plus larger buttons make it easier to join a meeting or respond to a message, right from the notification.

We’re keeping busy through the rest of the summer making Chromebook even more useful and powerful. We’ll be back to share more updates soon.

by Alexander Kuscher via The Keyword

9 ways to make the most of your Chromecast

The year 2013: when we were all snacking on endless fro-yo, discussing season three of “Game of Thrones” with anyone who would listen and laughing out loud to the best clips on Vine. But did you know it was also the year we introduced Chromecast to the world?

Since then, Chromecast continues to be the one of the simplest options for you to see your photos on the big screen, gather round a virtual fireplace on YouTube over the holidays or catch up on your favorite show — all with one device.

So to celebrate nine years of our favorite streamer that's only getting better with age (we're a little biased), we're rounding up nine features to help you to make the most of your Chromecast:

1. See who’s at your door. Today we’re announcing Chromecast with Google TV is rolling out support for live video streaming from Nest Cam (outdoor or indoor, battery), Nest Cam (indoor, wired), Nest Cam with floodlight and Nest Doorbell (battery) – which means all your Nest Cams and Nest doorbells are supported. Now you can quickly see a live view of your cameras from the comfort of your couch – so you can know for sure when your pizza delivery shows up at your front door on movie night.
2. Mirror your Android screen or Chrome tab to the big screen. Looking at a menu with your family before heading out to dinner? Or planning your next vacation destination with your friends? No matter what information you’re sharing, you can easily cast to a TV or other screen.
3. Show off your photos on a TV with Chromecast. When you’re back from that vacation, show off your photos with the Google Photos app. Just select the photo or album you want to cast and display it on your TV. Then you can swipe between photos to change what’s displayed.
4. Cast your meetings to the big screen. With the Google Meet app, you can cast your meeting to the TV while continuing to use your computer's camera, microphone and audio. Perfect for virtual family reunions.
5. The control is yours with Chromecast. Chromecast with Google TV comes with a physical remote, which has been one of our most requested features since Chromecast’s early days. But you can also use your phone, your TV remote or your voice - just say, “Hey Google, play ‘The Umbrella Academy’ on the living room TV” to your Assistant-enabled device.
6. Continue casting even when you leave the room. You don’t need to worry about playback being interrupted if you need to leave the house for a bit, or if you walk outside of your Wi-Fi coverage area. So if you need to run to the store to grab more ice, the party inside can continue.
7. Let your friends and family join in on the party with a shared queue. In the YouTube app, anyone connected to the same Wi-Fi as your Chromecast can tap the Cast icon on a YouTube video and add it to a shared playlist so everyone can contribute to what you’re watching or listening to.
8. Move your media from room to room. Ready to move to another room but don’t want to stop listening to the latest episode of your favorite podcast? You can easily move music, podcasts or radio currently streaming from your Google Nest or Home speaker or display, or Chromecast device to another Nest speaker, speaker group, display, or Chromecast-connected device so you don’t have to worry about missing a thing. You can also move YouTube videos between Google Nest displays and Chromecast devices.
9. Cast with Android, iOS or Chrome on PC and Mac. We wanted to make it easy to cast from as many devices as possible, whether you’re on Android, iOS or on your computer. It’s as simple as tapping Cast from a compatible app, selecting your Chromecast and tapping play.

by Sid ParmarChromecast via The Keyword

Google’s efforts to identify and counter spyware

The following testimony was delivered to the U.S. House Intelligence Committeeby Shane Huntley, Senior Director of Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) on July 27, 2022.

Chairman Schiff, Ranking Member Turner, and esteemed Members of the Committee:

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the Committee to discuss Google’s efforts to protect users from commercial spyware. We appreciate the Committee’s efforts to raise awareness about the commercial spyware industry that is thriving and growing, creating risks to Americans and Internet users across the globe.

Our expert teams

Google has been tracking the activities of commercial spyware vendors for years, and we have been taking critical steps to protect our users. We take the security of our users very seriously, and we have dedicated teams in place to protect against attacks from a wide range of sources. Our Threat Analysis Group, or TAG, is dedicated to protecting users from threats posed by state-sponsored malware attacks and other advanced persistent threats. TAG actively monitors threat actors and the evolution of their tactics and techniques. For example, TAG has been closely tracking and disrupting campaigns targeting individuals and organizations in Ukraine, and frequently publishes reports on Russian threat actors.

We use our research to continuously improve the safety and security of our products and share this intelligence with our industry peers. We also publicly release information about the operations we disrupt, which is available to our government partners and the general public. TAG tracks and proactively counters serious state-sponsored and financially motivated information cyber criminal activities, such as hacking and the use of spyware. And we don’t just plug security holes – we work to eliminate entire classes of threats for consumers and businesses whose work depends on the Internet. We are joined in this effort by many other security teams at Google, including Project Zero, our team of security researchers at Google who study zero-day vulnerabilities in the hardware and software systems that are depended upon by users around the world.

Our ongoing work

Google has a long track record combating commercial surveillance tools targeting our users. In 2017, Android – which is owned by Google – was the first mobile platform to warn users about NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. At the time, our Android team released research about a newly discovered family of spyware related to Pegasus that was used in a targeted attack on a small number of Android devices. We observed fewer than three dozen installs of this spyware. We remediated the compromises for these users and implemented controls to protect all Android users.

NSO Group continues to pose risks across the Internet ecosystem. In 2019, we confronted the risks posed by NSO Group again, relying upon NSO Groups’s marketing information suggesting that they had a 0-day exploit for Android. Google was able to identify the vulnerability in use and fix the exploit quickly. In December 2021, we released research about novel techniques used by NSO Group to compromise iMessage users. iPhone users could be compromised by receiving a malicious iMessage text, without ever needing to click a malicious link. Short of not using a device, there is no way to prevent exploitation by a zero-click exploit; it's a weapon against which there is no defense. Based on our research and findings, we assessed this to be one of the most technically sophisticated exploits we had ever seen, further demonstrating that the capabilities NSO provides rival those previously thought to be accessible to only a handful of nation states.

Although this Committee must be concerned with the exploits of NSO Group, it is not the only entity posing risks to our users. For example, TAG discovered campaigns targeting Armenian users which utilized zero-day vulnerabilities in Chrome and Internet Explorer. We assessed that a surveillance vendor packaged and sold these technologies. Reporting by CitizenLab linked this activity to Candiru, an Israeli spyware vendor. Other reporting from Microsoft has linked this spyware to the compromise of dozens of victims, including political dissidents, human rights activists, journalists, and academics.

Most recently, we reported in May on five zero-day vulnerabilities affecting Chrome and Android which were used to compromise Android users. We assess with high confidence that commercial surveillance company Cytrox packaged these vulnerabilities, and sold the hacking software to at least eight governments. Among other targets, this spyware was used to compromise journalists and opposition politicians. Our reporting is consistent with earlier analysis produced by CitizenLab and Meta.

TAG also recently released information on a segment of attackers we call “hack-for-hire” that focuses on compromising accounts and exfiltrating data as a service. In contrast to commercial surveillance vendors, who we generally observe selling a capability for the end user to operate, hack-for-hire firms conduct attacks themselves. They target a wide range of users and opportunistically take advantage of known security flaws when undertaking their campaigns. In June, we provided examples of the hack-for-hire ecosystem from India, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The growth of commercial spyware vendors and hack-for-hire groups has necessitated growth in TAG to counter these threats. Where once we only needed substreams to focus on threat actors such as China, Russia, and North Korea, TAG now has a dedicated analysis subteam dedicated to commercial vendors and operators.

Risks posed by commercial spyware are increasing

Our findings underscore the extent to which commercial surveillance vendors have proliferated capabilities historically only used by governments. These vendors operate with deep technical expertise to develop and operationalize exploits. We believe its use is growing, fueled by demand from governments.

Seven of the nine zero-day vulnerabilities our Threat Analysis Group discovered in 2021 were originally developed by commercial providers and sold to and used by state-sponsored actors. TAG is actively tracking more than 30 vendors with varying levels of sophistication and public exposure selling exploits or surveillance capabilities to state-sponsored actors.

This industry appears to be thriving. In fact, there was recently a large industry conference in Europe, sponsored by many of the commercial spyware vendors we track. This trend should be concerning to the United States and all citizens. These vendors are enabling the proliferation of dangerous hacking tools, arming nation state actors that would not otherwise be able to develop these capabilities in-house. While use of surveillance technologies may be legal under national or international laws, they are found to be used by some state actors for purposes antithetical to democratic values: targeting dissidents, journalists, human rights workers, and opposition party politicians.

We have also observed proliferation risk from nation state actors attempting to gain access to the exploits of these vendors. Last year, TAG identified an ongoing campaign targeting security researchers working on vulnerability research and development at different companies and organizations. The actors behind this campaign, which we attributed to a government-backed entity based in North Korea, have employed a number of means to target researchers.

In addition to these concerns, there are other reasons why this industry presents a risk more broadly across the Internet. While vulnerability research is an important contributor to online safety when that research is used to improve the security of products, vendors stockpiling zero-day vulnerabilities in secret can pose a severe risk to the Internet when the vendor itself gets compromised. This has happened to multiple spyware vendors over the past ten years, raising the specter that their stockpiles can be released publicly without warning.

The proliferation of commercial hacking tools is a threat to national security, making the Internet less safe and undermining the trust on which a vibrant, inclusive digital society depends. This is why when Google discovers these activities, we not only take steps to protect users, but also disclose that information publicly to raise awareness and help the entire ecosystem, in line with our historical commitment to openness and democratic values.

Google’s work to protect users

Across all Google products, we incorporate industry-leading security features and protections to keep our users safe. On Search, Google’s Safe Browsing is an industry-leading service to identify unsafe websites across the web and notify users and website owners of potential harm. Google Safe Browsing helps protect over four billion devices every day by showing warnings to users when they attempt to navigate to unsafe sites or download harmful files. Safe Browsing also notifies webmasters when their websites are compromised by malicious actors and helps them diagnose and resolve the problem so that their visitors stay safer.

On Gmail, we recommend certain Gmail security precautions to prevent spoofing, phishing, and spam. Spoofers may send forged messages using an organization’s real name or domain to subvert authentication measures. We use email authentication to protect against email spoofing, which is when email content is changed to make the message appear from someone or somewhere other than the actual source. And we offer other advanced phishing and malware protection to administrators to better protect their users. By default, Gmail displays warnings and moves untrustworthy emails to the user’s spam folder. However administrators can also use advanced security settings to enhance their users’ protection against suspicious attachments and scripts from untrusted senders.

For Android, through its entire development lifecycle, we subject the products to a rigorous security program. The Android security process begins early in the development lifecycle, and each major feature of the platform is reviewed by engineering and security resources. We ensure appropriate controls are built into the architecture of the system. During the development stage, Android-created and open source components are subject to vigorous security reviews For users, Android provides safety and control over how apps and third parties can access the data from their devices. For example, users are provided visibility into the permissions requested by each app, and they are able to control those permissions.

We have also built additional tools to prevent successful attacks on devices that run Android once those devices are in users’ hands. For example, Google Play Protect, our built-in malware protection for Android, continuously scans devices for potentially harmful applications.

Although our security precautions are robust, security issues can still occur, which is why we created a comprehensive security response process to respond to incidents. Google manages a vulnerability rewards program (VRP), rewarding researchers millions of dollars for their contributions in securing our devices and platforms. We also provide research grants to security researchers to help fund and support the research community. This is all part of a larger strategy to keep Google products and users, as well as the Internet at large more secure. Project Zero is also a critical component of this strategy, pushing transparency and more timely patching of vulnerabilities.

Finally, we also offer the leading tools to protect important civil society actors such as journalists, human rights workers, opposition party politicians, and campaign organizations – in other words, the users who are frequently targeted by surveillance tools. Google developed Project Shield, a free protection against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, to protect news media and human rights organization websites. We recently expanded eligibility to protect Ukraine government organizations, and we are currently protecting over 200 Ukraine websites today. To protect high risk user accounts, we offer the Advanced Protection Program (APP), which is our highest form of account security. APP has a strong track record protecting users – since the program’s inception, there are no documented cases of an account compromise via phishing.

Whole of Society response necessary to tackle spyware

We believe it is time for government, industry and civil society to come together to change the incentive structure which has allowed these technologies to spread in secret. The first step is to understand the scope of the problem. We appreciate the Committee’s focus on this issue, and recommend the U.S. Intelligence Community prioritize identifying and analyzing threats from foreign commercial spyware providers as being on par with other major advanced threat actors. The U.S. should also consider ways to foster greater transparency in the marketplace, including setting heightened transparency requirements for the domestic surveillance industry. The U.S. could also set an example to other governments by reviewing and disclosing its own historical use of these tools.

We welcome recent steps taken by the government in applying sanctions to the NSO Group and Candiru, and we believe other governments should consider expanding these restrictions. Additionally, the U.S. government should consider a full ban on Federal procurement of commercial spyware technologies and contemplate imposing further sanctions to limit spyware vendors’ ability to operate in the U.S. and receive U.S. investment. The harms from this industry are amply evident by this point, and we believe they outweigh any benefit to continued use.

Finally, we urge the United States to lead a diplomatic effort to work with the governments of the countries who harbor problematic vendors, as well as those who employ these tools, to build support for measures that limit harms caused by this industry. Any one government’s ability to meaningfully impact this market is limited; only through a concerted international effort can this serious risk to online safety be mitigated.

Google is investing heavily as a company and as an industry to counter serious threats to our users. In the modern world, we must be able to trust the devices we use every day and ensure that foreign adversaries do not have access to sophisticated exploits. While we continue to fight these threats on a technical level, the providers of these capabilities operate openly in democratic countries. Google is committed to leading the industry in detecting and disrupting these threats.

I thank the Committee for this attention on this critical issue.

by Shane HuntleyThreat Analysis Group via The Keyword

Our new office is a love letter to Atlanta

Google has been a part of Atlanta for more than 20 years. There are more than 1,000 full-time Google employees in Georgia — in two offices in Atlanta and a data center in Douglas County — helping to build and support our products, and help our partners and customers across the South and nationally.

We recently opened our doors to the newest office space in Midtown Atlanta at the 1105 West Peachtree building. This new Google office encompasses 19 floors spanning 500,000 square feet, and is a part of our broader investment in local communities across the U.S.

Atlanta has a rich civil rights history and is home to top Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and tech talent. Continuing our long-term investment here will help support our Black Googler community in Atlanta, in line with our racial equity commitments.

Inspired by the city’s legacy for social change, our office was designed as an homage to the people of Atlanta, with each floor an ode to Atlanta’s cultural, musical and artistic history. We worked with more than 50 local and diverse companies to design and build the new space, including artwork from more than 20 local artists.

A giant heart outlining the Google Atlanta sign greets you in the lobby. One of the staircases features a rainbow design — in support and celebration of the LGBTQ+ community — inspired by the city’s nearby rainbow crosswalks. The WERD Cafe, our Googler cafeteria, is named for the first Black-owned and programmed U.S. radio station.

• The lobby is decorated with warm vibrant colors and a relaxed sitting area with music memorabilia, a record player and a boombox.

  The ATL office lobby greets you with a mix of fun design and an emphasis on music. From record players to boomboxes, it’s a reflection of Atlanta’s musical history.

• A rainbow internal staircase connects the floors.

  An internal rainbow staircase supports and celebrates the LGBTQ+ community, which is inspired by the city’s nearby crosswalks in Midtown Atlanta.

• An art installation of cassette tapes shaped into a “G”

  This cassette wall was furnished by Atlanta Googlers, and pays homage to Atlanta’s culture, musical and artistic history.

• A coffee bar with espresso machines located inside a cafeteria

  The WERD Cafe & Coffee Bar serves as the breakfast and lunch area for Googlers, and is named after the first black owned and operated radio station in Atlanta.

• A Googler community area, decorated with Georgia peaches, a couch and additional seating

  Throughout the office, Googlers will find communal seating areas to promote collaboration, self-care and community.

Our commitment to Atlanta extends far beyond the walls of our new office. In 2021, Google products helped provide $13.21 billion of economic activity for tens of thousands of Georgia businesses, nonprofits, publishers, creators and developers.

Today, we’re announcing a $1 million commitment to the Urban League of Atlanta to support their work in training underserved communities throughout Georgia. This grant will help jobseekers get digital skills training and place them in high-growth jobs.

On top of this, to bring equitable opportunities to more Georgians, we’re partnering with local community organizations and universities. We’re working with HBCUs like Clark Atlanta University and Spelman College to attract top talent, and partnering with the Technical College System of Georgia to offer Google Career Certificates to 22 colleges across the state at no cost.

Lastly, we are partnering with Mayor Andre Dickens and the Atlanta BeltLine to launch the Atlanta BeltLine Marketplace, an effort to help local Black, Latino and women-owned small businesses reach new customers by retrofitting rail cars into office spaces. We’re providing Wi-Fi for the rail containers, a complete suite of Google Nest products, Chromebooks and free digital skills training.

We look forward to continuing to support and partner with our customers, employees and local communities in Atlanta for years to come.

by Matthew Pritchard via The Keyword