Learn how we fine-tune the Nest doorbell ringtones

When you think of a doorbell, a particular sound probably comes to mind — for me, it’s the classic “ding dong.” When we launched Nest Doorbell (wired) in 2018, formerly known as Nest Hello, we introduced a new take on the quintessential doorbell sound with a single chime. And it got us thinking — what if we created even more options? And ones that would add a bit more magic around the house?

So we started creating doorbell ringtones you can download seasonally through the Google Home app, like a ghost or witch’s voice for Halloween or a beloved carol for Christmas. There are also options available year-round, like everyday chimes and a birthday tune.

Halloween Witch

We feature a handful of ringtones every Halloween, like this witch’s cackle to spook trick-or-treaters.

This year, we’re adding even more to our seasonal collection, with ringtones for Lunar New Year, Diwali and other global celebrations coming soon. A new ringtone for Oktoberfest is up next, which will be available from September 5 to October 5.

But how exactly do you create a doorbell ringtone? As an audio designer on the Google Nest team, it’s my job to figure that out. Today, I’m taking you behind the scenes to show you exactly how I do it — from researching different sounds to composing the final ringtone you download in your Google Home app.

Hit the right note

A lot of teams work together to decide new doorbell ringtone themes for the year. Our goal is always to create themes that are inclusive, meaningful and entertaining to people around the world.

To do that, there are a few factors we need to consider. First off, ringtones need to be pretty short — our rule is no more than 10 seconds — so your visitors don’t get impatient waiting at the door. And to be universally accessible and understandable, they can’t have any speech or lyrics. We can also only use musical pieces that are either original compositions or in the public domain (meaning, they were composed before 1926).

From there, we typically design ringtones in one of two ways. We either base it off a short musical riff, like “Jingle Bells” for Christmas. Or, if there aren’t many musical options for the occasion, we’ll create a version of the “ding-dong” sound with a sound effect. For example, in our Thanksgiving ringtone, you’ll hear the traditional “ding dong” followed by a turkey gobble.

Thanksgiving Gobble

Greet your hungry Thanksgiving guests at the door with a turkey gobble.

Put a ring on it

Once we’ve landed on a moment and overall design, we’re ready to create our ringtone. Let’s take a look at how we made the new one for Oktoberfest.

The first step? Research. I listened to and analyzed the musical arrangements and styles of a variety of traditional polka songs.

My home recording studio, where I do all my composing and audio editing.

Then, I composed a simple, original melody on the piano (at a rather slow tempo), along with separate harmony and bass lines. Using audio production software, I replaced each of the piano tracks with a digital sample of a traditional German accordion, and sped up the tempo so it was doorbell-friendly.

Oktoberfest Accordion Polka

Our new Oktoberfest ringtone, which features a short, original composition arranged for an accordion.

In some cases, like the Oktoberfest ringtone, I can use traditional instruments. Other ringtones require some more… creative solutions. Take the Thanksgiving ringtone. Because many recordings of turkey gobbles aren’t very clear (real turkey sounds are pretty muddy and outdoor sounds mixed in can make them even harder to hear), I recorded them using my own voice. I now know way too much about the intricacies of a turkey gobble.

Once I compose, edit (and edit some more), I share the ringtone with different teams for feedback and test how it sounds on the Nest doorbell speaker. After making any final changes, we name the ringtone and post it so people can easily download it from the Google Home app.

Since we started creating these doorbell ringtones, they’ve been a nice surprise for Nest users and a fun project for our team. There are a lot more ringtones in the works, so keep an eye out for announcements. In the meantime, I hope this new ringtone whisks you away, even just for a moment, to an Oktoberfest celebration somewhere in Germany!

by Benjamin DeckerGoogle Nest via The Keyword

How to find the best deal on your next flight

Ask a Techspert: How does a building become “water positive”?

Our new Bay View campus is on track to be the largest development project in the world to achieve Water Petal certification from the Living Building Challenge, meaning it will meet the definition of being “net water positive.” That important sustainability effort moves us closer to our 2030 company goal of replenishing more water than we consume. But what exactly does “water positive” mean at Bay View? District Systems Water Lead Drew Wenzel dove into that question head first.

Let’s get right to it: What does “water positive” mean?

“Water positive” at Bay View means we will produce more non-potable water than we have demand for at the Bay View site.

Hmm, let’s back up: What’s non-potable water again?

There are a couple of types of water. There is potable water, which is suitable for human contact and consumption, and there is non-potable water, which is not drinking quality but can be used for other water demands like flushing toilets or irrigation.

Typically, buildings use potable water for everything. At Bay View, we have an opportunity to match the right quality of water with the right demand, and only use potable water when it's necessary. And by over-producing non-potable water, we can share such excess with surrounding areas that might otherwise rely on potable water for non-potable needs.

So basically, are we helping the water system save high-quality water?

Right. In California, we’re years into our most recent drought. We're only going to see increasing pressure on water resources. Regional and State water agencies are working hard to secure the potable water supply. We believe we can best support these public-sector efforts and increase potable water supply by using non-potable water where we can.

So how did we get to water positive for Bay View?

This may be surprising, but it actually all starts with the geothermal energy system. Typically, removing heat from a building is done through evaporating a lot of water via cooling towers. At Bay View, instead of doing that, the geothermal system removes almost all heat by transferring it into the soil beneath the building. This system eliminates at least 90% of the water needed for cooling, or about 5 million gallons of water per year.

Ok, we start by reducing water use. What’s next?

After improving the water efficiency as much as we could through the geothermal system and other measures, we looked at the water resources we have on site. By collecting all of our stormwater and wastewater and treating it for reuse, we are able to meet all of our onsite non-potable demands.

How do we treat it?

Stormwater treatment starts with the retention ponds that collect rain. Water from these ponds is slowly drawn down and pumped to a central treatment plant, where it goes through several stages of filtration, treatment and disinfection.

All of the wastewater — from our cafes, restrooms and showers — is collected and sent to the central plant, where it undergoes two stages of filtration and treatment. From there, the water goes out to a field of reeds that naturally pull out nutrients, creating a perennial green landscape that supports local wildlife. Finally, the water is sent back to the plant again for final treatment and disinfection.

The final output from both stormwater and wastewater treatment processes is recycled water that meets State regulations for non-potable use.

What happens if we don’t have enough non-potable water at any given time?

If our recycled water tank doesn’t have enough non-potable water to meet campus needs, it will fill up with potable water. At that point, everything in the tank would be considered non-potable because it has been mixed. Again, this isn’t the best use of high-quality potable water, and it’s something we’ll work to avoid.

If we create extra non-potable water, how can we share it?

This is something we’re thinking through, and there are a few ways we could go about it. The easiest way would be to export it to adjacent properties for irrigation to water something like a baseball field. That would require a relatively minimal effort of adding pipes.

Another way would involve potentially working with a local municipality that has a recycled water system, creating additional redundancy and resiliency within that system.

Aside from sharing extra water, Bay View already helps by treating and reusing its own water instead of adding demands to municipal systems. That leaves capacity on the system for the rest of the community and allows water providers to focus their time and resources on other needs across the water system.

Thinking beyond Bay View, is “water positive” important in places that aren’t in a drought?

Definitely. There are many cities that have combined sewer and stormwater systems that can be overwhelmed by excess water from buildings or large storm events. That can cause back-ups and flooding into the streets. Water positive systems, like the one at Bay View, can help communities and developers avoid placing additional pressure on municipal water systems.

Can any development site be water positive?

While a system like Bay View’s might not make sense for every project, there are different scales and variations of onsite water capture, treatment and reuse that are valuable, even if a building doesn't get to official water positive status. Every little bit is going to help.

Read Article

Bay View is open — the first campus built by Google

Take a look inside Bay View — the first campus we developed that explores workplace design and takes green building up a notch.

Read Article

by Eric Jaffe via The Keyword

Turn curiosity into customers this holiday season

Stadia Savepoint: July updates

It’s time for another round of our Savepoint series, where we recap the new games, features and updates available on Stadia.

10:25

Several new titles launched on the Stadia store in July for players to explore and stream across their favorite devices. Fans of ‘80s action movies and cyberpunk warfare jumped into Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, an open-world adventure set in the distant future. Meanwhile, canine lovers flew to the rescue in DC League of Super-Pets: The Adventures of Krypto & Ace, a new action-adventure game featuring superhero dogs within the DC Universe. Valiant Hearts: The Great War also launched in July, drawing players into a story of friendship, love, sacrifice and tragedy during the First World War.

Active Stadia Pro subscribers could claim seven new games in July from a growing library of more than 50 titles. That included the worldwide launch of Time on Frog Island, a sandbox adventure on a vast island. Subscribers also claimed Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach, Centipede: Recharged, Those Who Remain, Worms W.M.D., Roguebook and Fast and Furious: Spy Racers Rise of SH1FT3R. It’s easy to try out new games like these in the Pro library, especially since creating a new Stadia account includes an offer for a one-month trial of Stadia Pro.

Last month, Stadia also launched an update to make it easier to navigate your TV using the Stadia Controller. Now, you can scroll through content on your Chromecast with Google TV or other compatible Android TV OS devices using your Stadia Controller, even outside the Stadia app.

Stadia Pro updates

• Seven new games were added to the Stadia Pro library in July.
• Today, there are 52 games to explore in Stadia Pro: HITMAN, Darksiders Genesis, Journey to the Savage Planet, PixelJunk Raiders, Terraria, Darkwood, ARK: Survival Evolved, Wave Break, Legend of Keepers: Career of a Dungeon Manager, Cake Bash, Control Ultimate Edition, Saints Row IV: Re-Elected, Hundred Days - Winemaking Simulator, Wavetale, Destroy All Humans!, Wreckfest, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Merek’s Market, PHOGS!, Dawn of the Monsters, Adam Wolfe, Race with Ryan Road Trip Deluxe Edition, World War Z: Aftermath, City Legends: The Curse of the Crimson Shadow Collector’s Edition, Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, Chicken Police - Paint it RED!, OUTRIDERS, Lumote: The Mastermote Chronicles, PAW Patrol The Movie: Adventure City Calls, Kaze and the Wild Masks, Cities: Skylines, Deliver Us the Moon, Lake, DEATHRUN TV, Through The Darkest of Times, Golf With Your Friends, TOHU, Ben 10: Power Trip, Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach, Centipede: Recharged, Those Who Remain, Worms W.M.D., Roguebook, Fast and Furious: Spy Racers Rise of SH1FT3R, Time on Frog Island, Saints Row®: The Third™ - Remastered, Monster Jam Steel Titans 2, Calico, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition, Murder by Numbers, Welcome to Elk.
• There are ongoing discounts for all players — check out the web or mobile Stadia store for the latest.

July content launches on Stadia:

• DC League of Super-Pets: The Adventures of Krypto & Ace
• Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
• Neighbours back From Hell
• The Forgotten City
• Time on Frog Island
• Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Stadia announcements in July:

• Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
• Far Cry 4
• Skull and Bones
• Valiant Hearts: The Great War

As always, we’ll be back next month to share another recap. In the meantime, keep an eye on the Stadia Community Blog, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for the latest on new games, features and updates.

by Stadia Team via The Keyword

TAG Bulletin: Q3 2022

This bulletin includes coordinated influence operation campaigns terminated on our platforms in Q3 2022. It was last updated on August 26, 2022.

April

• We terminated 138 YouTube channels and 2 Ads accounts as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia. The campaign was linked to a Russian consulting firm and was sharing content in Russian that was supportive of Russia’s actions in Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin and critical of NATO, Ukraine, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
• We terminated 44 YouTube channels and 9 Ads accounts as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia. The campaign was linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA) and was sharing content in Russian, French, Arabic, and Chinese that was supportive of Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea and the Wagner Group’s activity in Ukraine and Africa.
• We terminated 6 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia. The campaign was linked to Russian state-sponsored entities and was sharing content in Russian that was supportive of pro-Russian activity in Ukraine and critical of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny.
• We terminated 3 YouTube channels and 1 AdSense account and blocked 1 domain from eligibility to appear on Google News surfaces and Discover as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Slovakia and Germany. The campaign was sharing content in Slovak that was supportive of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s claimed justifications for its invasion of Ukraine. We received leads from Mandiant that supported us in this investigation.
• We terminated 37 YouTube accounts and 1 Ads account and blocked 2 domains from eligibility to appear on Google News surfaces and Discover as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Costa Rica. The campaign was linked to Noelix Media and was sharing content in Spanish that was critical of Costa Rican and Salvadoran politicians and political parties. Our findings are similar to findings reported by Meta.
• We terminated 1,546 YouTube channels as part of our ongoing investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to China. These channels mostly uploaded spammy content in Chinese about music, entertainment, and lifestyle. A very small subset uploaded content in Chinese and English about China and U.S. foreign affairs. These findings are consistent with our previous reports.

May

• We terminated 20 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia. The campaign was linked to a Russian consulting firm and was sharing content in Russian that was supportive of Russia’s actions in Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin and critical of NATO, Ukraine, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
• We terminated 5 YouTube channels, 1 AdSense account, and 1 Blogger blog as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia. The campaign was linked to Russian state-sponsored entities and was sharing content in Russian and Bulgarian that was supportive of separatist movements in the disputed regions of Ukraine and critical of Ukraine and the West.
• We terminated 14 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia. The campaign was linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA) and was sharing content in Russian that was critical of Ukrainian politicians.
• We blocked 1 domain from eligibility to appear on Google News surfaces and Discover as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Iran. The campaign was linked to Endless Mayfly and was sharing content in English about a variety of topics including US and global current events. We received leads from Mandiant that supported us in this investigation.
• We terminated 3 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to China. The campaign was sharing content in English about the origins of COVID-19.
• We terminated 4067 YouTube channels as part of our ongoing investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to China. These channels mostly uploaded spammy content in Chinese about music, entertainment, and lifestyle. A very small subset uploaded content in Chinese and English about China and U.S. foreign affairs. These findings are consistent with our previous reports.

June

• We terminated 4 YouTube channels and 1 AdSense account as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia and Azerbaijan. The campaign was sharing sensational content in Russian about the war in Ukraine. We believe this operation was financially motivated.
• We terminated 1,556 YouTube channels as part of our ongoing investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to China. These channels mostly uploaded spammy content in Chinese about music, entertainment, and lifestyle. A very small subset uploaded content in Chinese and English about China and U.S. foreign affairs. These findings are consistent with our previous reports.

July

• We terminated 7 YouTube channels as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia. The campaign was linked to a Russian consulting firm and was sharing content in Russian that was supportive of Russia and critical of Ukraine and the U.S.
• We terminated 7 YouTube channels and 3 AdSense accounts as part of our investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to China. The campaign was sharing content in English and Chinese that was supportive of the Chinese semiconductor and tech industries and critical of the U.S. semiconductor industry and U.S. sanctions on Chinese tech companies.
• We terminated 2,150 YouTube channels as part of our ongoing investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to China. These channels mostly uploaded spammy content in Chinese about music, entertainment, and lifestyle. A very small subset uploaded content in Chinese and English about China and U.S. foreign affairs. These findings are consistent with our previous reports.

by Shane HuntleyThreat Analysis Group via The Keyword

Why startups are thriving in South East Asia and Pakistan

In the past few years, startups throughout South East Asia and Pakistan have been steadily growing and taking on the regions’ most pressing challenges. From agriculture to healthcare, these startups are building digital solutions to tackle their area of focus.

Recently, the digital audiences in these regions have expanded significantly. In South East Asia alone, 80 million new users have come online since March 2020, boosting activity for startups developing digital products and services across a variety of industries. And we’ve seen that growth as venture funding reached new heights in both South East Asia and Pakistan. In South East Asia, deal activity hit a record US$11.5 billion in the first half of 2021. Meanwhile in Pakistan, startups raised US$350 million in funding in 2021, five times the amount in 2020.

One explanation for this acceleration is that Pakistan and South East Asia both have a thriving youth population. More than half of the population of South East Asia is under 30 years old. In Pakistan too, the median age is only 22. These young people tend to be tech-savvy, have an interest in entrepreneurship, and are more in tune with global trends. With that mindset, they’re often more inclined to use emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and blockchain to solve problems and build digital products.

Government support across the regions has certainly helped as well, as local governments have recognised the critical role of startups in their economies — specifically in digital transformation and creating job opportunities. Government-driven initiatives like Thailand 4.0, Indonesia’s 1000 startups, Singapore’s Startup SG Founders, as well as Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s Youth Program, will continue to help aspiring founders get their startups off the ground.

Google is excited to nurture this next wave of tech startup founders with the Google for Startups Accelerator (South East Asia and Pakistan), particularly those that are focused on e-commerce, finance, healthcare, SME-focused B2B solutions, education, agriculture and logistics.

We’re looking for 10 to 15 startups based in Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand or Vietnam, that are in the seed or Series A stage. The Accelerator will support these startups by providing the best of Google’s resources: Googler mentors, a network of new contacts to help them on their journeys, and the most cutting edge technology.

Interested startups are encouraged to applyby Oct 7, 2022.

by Thye Yeow Bok via The Keyword

How Annabel turned her app idea into a growing business

One day, Annabel Angwenyi was running errands in Nairobi, Kenya when her car refused to start. She called her usual mechanic, but he was busy helping another customer on the opposite side of town. She knew there must be another mechanic close by, but because many local businesses don’t have an online presence, she had trouble finding and contacting someone else. Annabel was frustrated — but she also saw an opportunity to solve a problem.

After a lot of research, hard work and perseverance, she and her co-founder Patrick launched Ziada, an app that connects people across Kenya to local service providers. Today, Ziada has a team of seven people and over 60,000 downloads on Google Play.

Annabel is one of the founders featured in #WeArePlay, which spotlights the people behind Google Play’s apps and games. We chatted with Annabel to learn more about how she got Ziada up and running with no tech experience, and the impact it’s had on the local community.

How did you turn your idea into an app?

Patrick and I didn’t have any tech experience — we’re both business people. So in 2017, we partnered with a software developer who believed in our dream and helped us create the app. After a lot of hard work, we published the first version of Ziada on Google Play that same year. But it didn’t really take off. We weren’t sure if the Kenyan market was ready for something like this, so we took a break.

Then when the pandemic started in 2020, we noticed people wanted to access more things on demand and online, like food delivery and taxi services. So we rebranded the app, including improving the user interface to better reflect how we could help, and launched again. Now, our app has over 60,000 downloads on Google Play and is helping service providers across Kenya find new customers.

What impact has your app had on the community?

Kenya is an entrepreneurial nation, with people just like us wanting to build something for themselves. Having owned small businesses in the past, we knew the app had potential to help others grow their businesses. And it makes us so happy to see this actually happening. I’m also really proud of how we’re helping women — who make up 38% of service providers on Ziada — create their own income. I believe when you empower women, you empower the whole community. It’s something that’s really close to our hearts at Ziada. Most of our team are women, and many of us mentor young girls in the community. In fact, two of our mentees are joining Ziada as software developers.

Any advice for someone starting their own app or game business?

Just jump in. I think that initial leap of faith is the hardest one to make — it definitely was for me. The app or game will never be 100% perfect, and if you wait for that moment, the train may have already left (both in terms of user needs and market share).

If you have a working prototype or early version of your app, get it on Google Play and build hype around it. I was surprised at how patient our users were with Ziada in its early days, even with all its shortcomings. But that’s because they wanted it to work. If you’re providing a good solution to a problem, the adopters will come.

What’s next for Ziada?

We’re always working on new services, like helping contractors rent equipment and tools to complete jobs or providing coaching through our upcoming business advisory service. We also want to keep partnering with growing, local businesses and expand our user base — not just in Kenya, but across the African continent. There’s so much potential here, and we’re only just getting started.

Read more about Annabel and other app and game founders featured in #WeArePlay.

by Patricia CorreaGlobal Developer Marketing via The Keyword

Digital out-of-home ads now in Display & Video 360

Today’s customer journey is rarely a straight line. Consumers are constantly moving between touchpoints and channels, and brands need the right tools to keep up. Digital out-of-home is an increasingly popular option that brings the best of digital technology to a traditional advertising medium. It helps brands engage shoppers at moments when they make key decisions or take certain actions such as walking in a shopping mall or lining up at the grocery store checkout.

Today, we’re making digital out-of-home ads available to all Display & Video 360 users so that they can reach people out in their real-world journey with the efficiency of programmatic technology. This includes screens in public places such as stadiums, airports, bus stops, shopping centers, elevators, taxis and more.

The best of out-of-home and digital combined

With digital out-of-home ads in Display & Video 360, brands can combine the emotional power and captivating formats of traditional out-of-home advertising with the efficiency of other digital channels. With a single plan, they can reach people on screens of all shapes and sizes. And, it can be done rapidly and efficiently. Marketers can activate, pause, and optimize digital out-of-home campaigns in near real time. They can tackle everything from strategy and activation to reporting and optimization all in one place.

Centralizing buys and automating out-of-home campaigns is particularly effective for brands with international footprints. It gives them a chance to reach their global audience using a single tool. Today Display & Video 360 already partners with exchanges Hivestack, Magnite, PlaceExchange, Ströer SSP, VIOOH and Vistar Media. These exchanges give access to large media owners around the world like ClearChannel, Intersection, JCDecaux, Lamar and Ströer. All of this inventory can be secured via programmatic deals.

Another benefit to programmatic digital out-of-home is the flexibility it provides. While traditional buying tactics are usually geared toward one general region, digital out-of-home allows brands to run different versions of their messaging based on location of the screen or time of day.

Effective, contextual ads

Digital out-of-home ads placed through Display & Video 360 are not personalized, and we do not use individual identifiers or any user location data. Instead, advertisers can reach people based on contextual information of the screen location, like a traditional out-of-home ad, but with the flexibility and ease of programmatic. For example, a fast food spot can quickly advertise on a billboard in a bustling business district during the lunch hour for office workers to see. Later that day, the same billboard can promote an upcoming performance at a nearby concert venue.

When measuring ad impact, publishers provide Display & Video 360 with an impression multiplier, which estimates the number of people who may have seen an ad. This estimate, which isn’t based on an individual’s data, helps advertisers properly measure the impact of their digital out-of-home campaigns. Display & Video 360 vets all publishers to ensure they follow measurement methodologies defined by industry-recognized vendors like Geopath. Publishers that self-measure are not supported.

ASOS finds its fit with digital out-of-home in Display & Video 360

ASOS, one of the world’s leading online fashion retailers, wanted to find new and engaging ways to create fame on the high street whilst staying true to its digital roots. ASOS’ marketing team decided to use digital billboards in heavy footfall areas to generate awareness for their brand and drive passersby to visit their online store.

ASOS used Display & Video 360 to quickly select digital billboards with the map UI and arrange relevant Programmatic Guaranteed deals with leading publishers like Intersection in the U.S. and JCDecaux in the U.K. This streamlined approach allowed the brand to lean on a central platform to buy, implement and measure their campaign. As a result, the team fast tracked the process of booking hundreds of digital billboards, generating 22 million viewed impressions across the two countries.

Making our out-of-home inventory available through DSPs such as Display & Video 360 enables marketers to plan and optimize all digital channels in one place. It gives brands like ASOS more control which can improve brand and performance metrics. Dom Kozak
Head of Programmatic, JCDecaux UK

The retailer then conducted a geo experiment with JCDecaux’s measurement partners to evaluate the impact of digital out-of-home ads on brand metrics. They observed a 14% increase in brand awareness and a 22% increase in brand consideration in exposed vs control areas.

Find out more about how to get your message out with digital out-of-home in Display & Video 360.

by Shreya MathurDisplay & Video 360 via The Keyword

3 things to look forward to at the Google Play Indie Games Festival

Indie game developers make fun and creative games on Google Play that millions of people enjoy.

On September 3rd 2022, we’ll be hosting the annual Indie Games Festival from Google Play to celebrate unique games launched this year and showcase the inspiring emerging talent behind these titles. The event will take place online as a virtual event to bring gamers, developers and industry experts together.

The annual Indie Games Festival gives small game developers from South Korea, Japan and select countries in Europe, a platform to connect with indie fans and share their new releases.

Here are three things to look forward to at this year’s event.

Celebrate indie games wherever you are on September 3

No matter where you are in the world, you can attend the Indie Games Festival finals in South Korea, Japan or Europe. All you need to do is sign up for one of the events, and you will be set to explore and meet people from all over the world who also enjoy playing indie games.

Discover top-tier indie games from around the world

Earlier this year, small indie teams and solo-devs submitted their games for a chance to be showcased at the Festival. Dive into our tropical-themed Festival and start exploring the games showcase, a dedicated zone where you can discover the best new games at each booth.

This is your chance to check out the 20 finalist games from each of the three regions and meet the people who made them. You’ll also be the first to hear who the winners are and other big announcements on the main stage.

Be on the lookout for special quests, minigames and fun challenges that you can play solo or with friends.

Help our hosts cheer on the winners

At each event, hosts will guide you through the awards ceremony and keep you entertained. Cheer on the finalists at the main stage with games commentator Inho Jung, who will be the host in South Korea; comedian and Youtuber Kajisak-san, who will present the finals in Japan for the second year running; and games presenter Julia Hardy, who will host the European event and give a few special announcements.

At the European Festival, you’ll also discover which indies will join the 2022 class of the Indie Games Accelerator — a program that helps small game studios take their game to the next level through training and mentorship.

Sign up now to attend the finals in Europe, Japan or South Korea.

Visit here to learn more about Google Play's programs for indie games and follow @GooglePlaybiz.

by Patricia CorreaGlobal Developer Marketing via The Keyword

How a love of computer science led Sumin to Google

Welcome to the latest edition of “My Path to Google,” where we talk to Googlers, interns, apprentices 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 Sumin Chung, an intern in our Student Training in Engineering Program (STEP), which helps first and second-year undergraduate students develop computer science (CS) skills. This summer, Sumin is working on the Android engineering team in Seoul, South Korea.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m currently studying biotechnology in Seoul. I first became interested in computer science while studying data science, and I recently started focusing on my programming skills. Outside of school and work, I enjoy baking sweet desserts, going to exhibitions (especially ones about history and civilization) and traveling to museums around the world.

What do you work on at Google?
This summer, I’m working on the Android engineering team. My main project is to improve the user interface for a platform that lets people manage their Android device through a web browser.

Why did you apply to Google?

After informally studying computer science for a few months, I worried that I wouldn’t be able to learn more without officially majoring in it. So I started looking for internships that would help me build my CS skills in the professional world. Luckily, I heard that Google was hosting an intern recruiting event, and that’s where I learned about the STEP internship program. It was exactly what I was looking for, so I took a chance and applied.

How did your interview process go?

The entire process — from the first conversation with my recruiter to meetings with my potential managers — made me feel special because of how personalized it was. I felt encouraged to express my opinions, and my interviewers welcomed my curiosities. It was a good environment for me because I was full of questions, not only about Google but about the interviewers themselves. My mom, who was in the next room while I did my virtual interview from home, even said it seemed like I was the interviewer, not the interviewee!

How did you prepare for your interviews?

I mainly focused on studying algorithms. And because English isn’t my first language, I practiced expressing my thoughts in English. Once the interview schedule was confirmed, I tried hard to relax and be confident. I knew everyone applying to Google was good at algorithms, so my biggest hurdle was believing in myself.

Any advice for aspiring Google interns?

No matter what other people think (or even what you think of yourself), challenge those assumptions. It’s important not to be afraid of failure, and if you’re eager to learn and grow, you need the courage to take an opportunity when it comes along. In my case, I’m quite self-critical and tend to limit myself, especially when it comes to my abilities. To overcome this bad habit, I took on the challenge of the STEP internship program. Throughout the application and interview process, I kept repeating to myself that I have nothing to lose, and that I can even learn from the process itself.

by Jason Rowland via The Keyword

Join us in the AI Test Kitchen

As AI technologies continue to advance, they have the potential to unlock new experiences that support more natural human-computer interactions. We see a future where you can find the information you’re looking for in the same conversational way you speak to friends and family. While there’s still lots of work to be done before this type of human-computer interaction is possible, recent research breakthroughs in generative language models — inspired by the natural conversations of people — are accelerating our progress. One of our most promising models is called LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications), and as we move ahead with development, we feel a great responsibility to get this right.

That’s why we introduced an app called AI Test Kitchen at Google I/O earlier this year. It provides a new way for people to learn about, experience, and give feedback on emerging AI technology, like LaMDA. Starting today, you can register your interest for the AI Test Kitchen as it begins to gradually roll out to small groups of users in the US.

Our goal is to learn, improve and innovate responsibly on AI together.

Similar to a real test kitchen, AI Test Kitchen will serve a rotating set of experimental demos. These aren’t finished products, but they’re designed to give you a taste of what’s becoming possible with AI in a responsible way. Our first set of demos explore the capabilities of our latest version of LaMDA, which has undergone key safety improvements. The first demo, “Imagine It,” lets you name a place and offers paths to explore your imagination. With the “List It” demo, you can share a goal or topic, and LaMDA will break it down into a list of helpful subtasks. And in the “Talk About It (Dogs Edition)” demo, you can have a fun, open-ended conversation about dogs and only dogs, which explores LaMDA’s ability to stay on topic even if you try to veer off-topic.

Evaluating LaMDA’s potential and its risks

As you try each demo, you’ll see LaMDA’s ability to generate creative responses on the fly. This is one of the model’s strengths, but it can also pose challenges since some responses can be inaccurate or inappropriate. We’ve been testing LaMDA internally over the last year, which has produced significant quality improvements. More recently, we’ve run dedicated rounds of adversarial testing to find additional flaws in the model. We enlisted expert red teaming members — product experts who intentionally stress test a system with an adversarial mindset — who have uncovered additional harmful, yet subtle, outputs. For example, the model can misunderstand the intent behind identity terms and sometimes fails to produce a response when they’re used because it has difficulty differentiating between benign and adversarial prompts. It can also produce harmful or toxic responses based on biases in its training data, generating responses that stereotype and misrepresent people based on their gender or cultural background. These areas and more continue to be under active research.

In response to these challenges, we’ve added multiple layers of protection to the AI Test Kitchen. This work has minimized the risk, but not eliminated it. We’ve designed our systems to automatically detect and filter out words or phrases that violate our policies, which prohibit users from knowingly generating content that is sexually explicit; hateful or offensive; violent, dangerous, or illegal; or divulges personal information. In addition to these safety filters, we made improvements to LaMDA around quality, safety, and groundedness — each of which are carefully measured. We have also developed techniques to keep conversations on topic, acting as guardrails for a technology that can generate endless, free-flowing dialogue. As you’re using each demo, we hope you see LaMDA’s potential, but also keep these challenges in mind.

Responsible progress, together

In accordance with our AI Principles, we believe responsible progress doesn’t happen in isolation. We’re at a point where external feedback is the next, most helpful step to improve LaMDA. When you rate each LaMDA reply as nice, offensive, off topic, or untrue, we’ll use this data — which is not linked to your Google account — to improve and develop our future products. We intend for AI Test Kitchen to be safe, fun, and educational, and we look forward to innovating in a responsible and transparent way together.

by Tris Warkentin via The Keyword

Ukrainian startups are building for the future

In March, we announced the $5 million Google for Startups Ukraine Support Fund. Operated by Huge Thing, the Ukraine Support Fund backs Ukrainian-founded tech companies so they can continue to strengthen their community and build a foundation for post-war economic recovery. Throughout 2022, recipient startups receive up to $100,000 of equity-free financial investment, as well as Google Cloud credits and hands-on Google product and technical support.

We announced our first batch of 17 recipients in May. Now, we’ve selected 16 more startups to join the Google for Startups Ukraine Support Fund:

• AcademyOcean - Helps businesses automate training for employees, customers, and partners.
• Agrolabs - Uses data to help farmers avoid crop failure, increase yield and save time.
• Awesomic - Matches design tasks with professional designers within 24 hours.
• Cardiolyse - Remotely monitors heart health using AI to provide personalized reports, detection and a data-based prognosis.
• Choizy - A video-based career guidance app for students and people looking to make a career change.
• ComeBack Mobility - Aids in recovery and rehabilitation for crutch-users following lower limb injuries.
• EducateMe - An all-in-one platform for real-time remote teaching and building courses within minutes.
• Esper Bionics - Builds human enhancement devices, such as a self-learning prosthetic hand.
• GIOS - A tutoring marketplace for math students and teachers.
• Liki24 - Makes pharmaceutical products more affordable and accessible for customers, pharmacies, producers and insurers.
• Masthead Data - Digital tool to help catch and correct data errors in real time.
• Plai - Helps teams deliver better results through performance management.
• Precoro - Empowers businesses by connecting requesters, approvers, procurement managers and accounting in one manageable space.
• Promin Aerospace - Democratizing space by building self-burning rockets to deliver payloads into orbit faster than anyone else.
• Twiso - A collaboration hub that makes meeting recordings discoverable, searchable and accessible to the whole team.
• Zeely - Drives more revenue for small businesses with easy-to-use marketing tools.

The thousands of applications we’ve received reflect both the high caliber of Ukrainian startups and the community’s strong entrepreneurial spirit.

Ukraine-based startups can still apply for the Google for Startups Ukraine Support Fund until September 20. Later in the year, we will announce the final cohort of recipients.

What the startups are saying

To learn more about how Ukrainian founders are using these resources to grow and scale, we asked a few of the previous recipients of the Ukraine Support Fund for their feedback:

Read Article

Spotlight: The first Google for Startups Ukraine Support Fund recipients

Meet the first batch of the Google for Startups Ukraine Support Fund recipients.

Read Article

Read Article

Extending our support to Ukrainian startups

A $5 million Google for Startups Ukraine Support Fund will allocate equity-free cash awards to Ukraine-based tech companies.

Read Article

by Magdalena PrzelaskowskaGoogle for Startups via The Keyword

Fitbit’s fall lineup: helping you live your healthiest life

Fitbit has always been focused on helping make everyone in the world healthier. Millions of people around the globe use Fitbit every day — from checking how well they slept to doing a workout or mindfulness session in our app. Today, I’m excited to share the next generation of Fitbit wearables that combine Fitbit’s health and wellness tools with the smarts of Google — Inspire 3, Versa 4 and Sense 2. These devices are even thinner and more comfortable, so you can wear them all day and night, and you don’t have to charge them every day.

Whether you're focused on improving your mental health, gearing up to run a marathon, or starting a new health and wellness routine, you have a range of easy-to-use devices to choose from. By giving you information about your body that otherwise wouldn’t be top of mind — like your resting heart rate, oxygen saturation (SpO2), sleep trends and body’s responses to stressors — you can better understand how to manage your holistic health. Here’s a look at how each device can fit your needs:

• Inspire 3 is a fun, easy-to-use tracker that helps you stay on top of your health with 10 days of battery life. It’s a great entry-level device with a rich color display that can track important metrics at our most accessible price point.
• Versa 4 is a fitness-focused smartwatch that offers over 40 exercise modes, real-time stats, built-in GPS and Active Zone Minutes, plus Premium features like Daily Readiness Score to help you reach your activity goals – all with 6 days of battery life in a thinner and lighter design.
• Sense 2 is our most advanced health-focused smartwatch with more than six days of battery life that helps you manage stress and track your heart health with sensors that can detect signs of atrial fibrillation through our ECG app and PPG algorithm (both FDA cleared and CE marked), heart rate variability, skin temperature and more. It also includes our new Body Response sensor, which measures cEDA for all-day stress management.

Getting the most out of your Fitbit experience

Our newest offerings are just the start of how we can help you uncover information to improve your overall health and wellness. With the Fitbit app, you can stay motivated and on track with weekly and longitudinal stats about your activity, heart health, sleep and stress. Plus you can log your hydration, menstrual health, mood, nutrition and glucose levels all in one place. Seeing all of your metrics together can help you better understand how the actions you take each day can impact your well-being and make better decisions for your daily life.

You’ll also access important health features, including Irregular Heart Rhythm Notifications, which uses our photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor to assess your heart rhythm for signs of atrial fibrillation or AFib, for users 22 years or older with no known history of irregular heart rhythm. This feature has both FDA clearance and CE marking, and it’s compatible with a range of our heart-rate enabled devices.

Fitbit Premium, which is included with all new device purchases for six months, takes your experience even further with additions like Daily Readiness Score and Sleep Profile to dive deeper into your stats and progress, and over 1,000 workout and mindfulness sessions to keep your mind and body active.

The Fitbit app and Fitbit Premium give you essential insights, tools and motivation to help you reach your goals. The free Fitbit app brings together the stats on your wrist with tools for sleep tracking, stress management and more, to give a more complete picture of how it all fits together. With Fitbit Premium, you can take your Fitbit experience even further with features like Daily Readiness Score and Sleep Profile, more personalized insights, advanced analytics, and more than 1,000 workout and mindfulness sessions.

Experience Fitbit for yourself

Whether you’re just starting out or love to dig into health stats, we have a device to fit your needs. Don’t know which device is best for you? Take our quiz to find out. We’re confident you’ll find something that makes it easier than ever for you to put your health and wellness first and empower you to be your best self along the way.

by TJ VargheseProduct Management via The Keyword

Kick-start your fitness routine with Fitbit Inspire 3

Health and fitness is personal – your goals, commitment and approaches change over time. For some, carving out time for yourself (let alone your fitness) can be a struggle, especially as routines change. Today, we’re introducing Fitbit Inspire 3, a tracker that can help you live healthier, find your energy, do what you love and feel your best.

Inspire 3 is the next generation of our entry-level health and fitness tracker, helping you work on your best self without breaking the bank. It’s an easy way to track key metrics 24/7 like activity, heart rate, sleep, stress and more. Plus, it comes in a thin, lightweight design with a vibrant color touchscreen and long battery life that can last up to 10 days (based on usage).

Fitbit Inspire 3 gives you 24/7 tracking of your activity (steps, calories burned, distance, hourly activity), exercise (active zone minutes and weekly goal progress), heart rate, heart health, and sleep quality (blood oxygen (SpO2), duration, score). You can also start an exercise, set timers, a stopwatch or alarms to wake you during the optimal sleep stage, and even turn off notifications and disable the screen display for a disturbance-free night – all from your wrist.

Motivating you to move

Living an active lifestyle doesn’t mean you need to be a health enthusiast. Whether you’re walking to work, trying the latest viral dance craze or just grabbing lunch with friends, Inspire 3 can capture all your movement, automatically tracking Active Zone Minutes, calories burned, distance, heart rate and steps. It’ll also gently remind you to move throughout the day, which can help your overall metabolism. Then, when doing a workout, you can watch your heart rate to see when you’re in fat burn, cardio or peak zones so you know how hard you’re working.

Sleep better and stress less

Being active is only part of your health — getting sleep and managing your mental health have a direct impact on your overall wellbeing, too. With Inspire 3, we make it easy to track all your stats in one place so you can see how your activity and sleep impact your stress level, and vice versa. Wearing your device to sleep, you’ll get insights into your sleep quality with Sleep Stages and Sleep Score, and can then try things like setting a bedtime reminder, a SmartWake alarm or guided breathing on your wrist to help improve your sleep over time.

To help you relax before bed, try mindfulness exercises in the Fitbit app to help you relax before bed, start a meditation practice, and track if your body is showing physical signs of stress with Stress Management Score. Then, see how your activity, sleep and stress impacts your body in the Health Metrics Dashboard. Here you can keep an eye on how your breathing rate, heart rate variability, skin temperature, oxygen saturation (SpO2) and resting heart rate respond to different situations, like alcohol, altitude, caffeine or a cold, so you can take actions to feel your best.

• Group of friends dancing on a rooftop in colorful outlets while wearing Inspire 3.

  Get ready to regain your energy with Fitbit Inspire 3. The tracker features an updated, thinner design that is lightweight and easy-to-use, allowing you to move around freely with your friends and track your activity along the way. Whether you’re playing sports or just grabbing lunch with friends, Inspire 3 empowers you to build a healthy routine while doing what you love.

• A photograph of an older woman in a leather jacket and a beanie sitting on a bench smiling while wearing Inspire 3.

  Get ready to regain your energy with Fitbit Inspire 3. The tracker features an updated, thinner design that is lightweight and easy-to-use, allowing you to move around freely with your friends and track your activity along the way. Whether you’re playing sports or just grabbing lunch with friends, Inspire 3 empowers you to build a healthy routine while doing what you love.

• A photograph of an older man smelling followers while wearing Inspire 3 on his wrist.

  Get ready to regain your energy with Fitbit Inspire 3. The tracker features an updated, thinner design that is lightweight and easy-to-use, allowing you to move around freely with your friends and track your activity along the way. Whether you’re playing sports or just grabbing lunch with friends, Inspire 3 empowers you to build a healthy routine while doing what you love.

• A photograph of a young, smiling woman wearing a striped shirt and flowy pants while skateboarding on a sidewalk and wearing Inspire 3 on her wrist.

  Get ready to regain your energy with Fitbit Inspire 3. The tracker features an updated, thinner design that is lightweight and easy-to-use, allowing you to move around freely with your friends and track your activity along the way. Whether you’re playing sports or just grabbing lunch with friends, Inspire 3 empowers you to build a healthy routine while doing what you love.

• A photograph of a young man wearing athleisure clothing and playing soccer with Inspire 3 on his wrist.

  Get ready to regain your energy with Fitbit Inspire 3. The tracker features an updated, thinner design that is lightweight and easy-to-use, allowing you to move around freely with your friends and track your activity along the way. Whether you’re playing sports or just grabbing lunch with friends, Inspire 3 empowers you to build a healthy routine while doing what you love.

Be inspired by your progress and potential

Inspire 3 gives you insights into your body and provides guidance to reach your wellness goals with access to introductory fitness and wellness sessions, guidance and challenges in the Fitbit app. You can boost your progress by using the app to log your blood glucose, hydration, menstrual cycle and nutrition information for a 360-degree view of your health, and stay motivated by connecting with and challenging friends and family.

With Fitbit Premium, you’ll get access to tools like Daily Readiness Score to gauge your body’s readiness for exercise, Sleep Score breakdown and Sleep Profile to better understand and improve sleep quality, and Stress Management Score details to track your body’s physical signs of stress. You can also access more than 1,000 workouts and mindfulness sessions, a complete wellness report, and more – all in one place with the Fitbit app.

Inspire 3 has a thin, lightweight design and comes in a colorful assortment of classic, translucent, stainless steel mesh bands and our popular clip to match the vibe you’re feeling on any given day.

Designed for longevity, comfort and convenience

The lightweight pebble of Inspire 3 is thin, water resistant up to 50 meters, fits naturally on your wrist and has Fitbit’s longest battery life for comfortable 24/7 wear. It also comes in a range of fun colors to brighten your mood and fit your style. Plus, you can easily change up your look with accessories like translucent and stainless steel mesh bands and a clip, sold separately.

Adding even more color to your day, the bright display lets you quickly see your stats, pick a colorful clock face to fit your style and use the new always-on display function (3+ days with default settings). Whether you’re going for a run or headed to class, you can also stay connected to what matters to you with customizable on-wrist notifications from your phone.

Inspire 3 is available for $99.95 (USD), including a six-month Premium membership for new and returning customers. Beginning today, pre-order Inspire 3 online at Fitbit.com and select global retailers, with worldwide availability in September.

by Fitbit Team via The Keyword