What do you do when your 4 year-old-daughter-proclaims this? Start a passion project, collaborate with your peers, and publish a children’s picture book to bust that bias.
I wrote “Ara the Star Engineer” to inspire young kids to explore the magic of STEM. And it took a village to do it. Along with many other Googlers who shared my determination, we came up with an inspiring, inclusive and whimsical way to learn about computers and technology from real-life Google trailblazers of diverse backgrounds: Diane Tang, Marian Croak, Parisa Tabriz and Kripa Krishnan.
“Ara the Star Engineer” will be released on October 11, in celebration of the International Day of the Girl Child, and book’s sales proceeds will be donated to STEM nonprofits. You can preorder the book at www.arastarengineer.com.
Everyone can benefit from hands-free support when using technology, but for the 62 million people in the U.S. with motor and mobility impairments, it can be a vital requirement. For Stefanie Putnam, a quadriplegic and a para-equestrian driver, tasks like taking photos, sending texts and composing emails could be daunting.
Stefanie was one of several people the Google Accessibility team worked with to test early prototypes of a feature which allowed people to control their Android device using voice-only commands. Her feedback—and that of other testers—was instructional in shaping a new product we’ve just released called Voice Access.
“After using this product for probably about 10 seconds, I think I’m falling in love with it,” said Stefanie. “You use your voice and you’re able to access the world. It has become a huge staple in my life.”
Stefanie Putnam testing Voice Access
Voice Access provides a hands-free experience for Android, letting people navigate through apps, compose and edit text, and talk to the Google Assistant. It provides more fine-grained controls than other voice commands you might use on your phone—for example, letting you use your voice to "click" buttons and controls within apps, or scroll and navigate app screens. And while there are great benefits for individuals with Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, spinal cord injury and more, Voice Access can also provide value to people who don’t have a disability—people juggling with groceries or in the middle of cooking.
Screenshots of voice commands used by Voice Access
When using Voice Access, you can compose and edit a text message hands free by saying “Ok Google,” and open your favorite app with the “open” command. Then, select the text field by speaking the number Voice Access displays next to it. After saying your message out loud, like “would you like to meet for lunch tomorrow?” you can edit the text using phrases like “replace tomorrow with Saturday” to change the day you want to meet. Speaking commands such as “delete the line” or “undo” will start over and when you’ve finished, you can say “stop listening.” There are many more examples of available commands on oursupport page.
Screenshot of an Android homepage using Voice Access
Feedback like Stefanie’s consistently shapes the future of Google’s products. You can help our Central Accessibility team build even more accessible products by signing up to participate in future user studies.
I went to university to study art and media and wound up falling in love with computer science. I took an Introduction to Computer Programming course, and in the first class, we wrote a program that outputted the text, “Hello world.” After one class, I declared computer science as my second major.
I had no idea what to expect, but representations in the media made me believe that computer science was incomprehensible and involved heavy machinery. In reality, it gave me the tools to be creative and build websites and applications. I created music videos out of cat GIFs, made animal noises for kids games, and visualized video game music.
Although I loved it, studying computer science was not easy. When I first started out, there were many times when my classmates completely disregarded what I had to say, or laughed at me for not understanding specific programming terminology. The field is homogeneous, so I wasn't surrounded by a lot of other women who were going through the same experience that I was. And since I was usually one of the only woman in the room, I felt like I was under a microscope and that my performance in class was being scrutinized. It made me realize that the biggest barrier for young women in tech is the feeling that we don’t belong in the field.
The first time I felt like I truly belonged was when I joined my university’s Women in Computing Club, which provided a support network that allowed me to explore the connection between computer science and my other interests. I love to do illustrations, and I learned to create web applications based on things I had sketched on paper. My favorite project I built was an application for keeping track of groceries. It included hand-drawn illustrations (by me) of the various things someone could input such as cereal, yogurt, etc.
When I joined Google I got involved with Made With Code, a program that shows young women who feel like they don’t belong that they have a place in this field. I wanted to give other women the same sense of belonging I felt in my Women in Computing Club, and show them the creative and problem-solving potential of technology.
Made With Code recently partnered with Rookie, an online magazine for teenagers, to host an event for 60 young women to learn more about technology. Although Rookie founder Tavi Gevinson and I have had very different career paths, we both used technology to find our voice. Using Made With Code’s new Collage Kit, the girls played around with a visual programming editor to take objects, like rainbows and suns, and create animated collages. They also were able to use what they learned during the day to create paper zines with artist Kati Yewell.
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Panel discussion between Tavi Gevinson (Founder of Rookie), Googler Neeka Farhad and me.
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Our guests getting crafty during the zine-making workshop.
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A Googler answers a guest's question.
I hope that this event shows young women that they shouldn’t discount their interests because of other people’s perceptions. It took a long time for me to realize that my love for computer science could exist alongside my other passions, and that there could be an entire community of people like me. I love rom-coms, I love to read, and draw and dance (even though I have no rhythm) and I also love to code and create programs that help others. Finding communities helped me and gave me the comfort to pursue all of the things I love to do.
Two years ago, Shoniqua Kemp was unemployed, homeless and living in a broken car with her 12-year-old daughter. It would have been easy to give in to despair, but Shoniqua had a conversation that would change the trajectory of her life. A friend told her about a nonprofit that was empowering people like her to escape poverty. Shoniqua was skeptical; it didn’t sound like the other assistance programs she knew. Nonetheless, she decided to attend the next meeting of the Family Independence Initiative (FII). She wanted a better life for her daughter.
FII was founded in 2001 on the belief that low-income families can decide for themselves the best solutions to improve their lives, especially when guided by their own data. We believe in this approach, too, which is why Google.org is continuing our commitment to FII with over $2 million in new grants, and a team of full-time Google engineers who are lending their technical expertise.
The fundamental components of FII’s approach are monthly group meetings and detailed journaling. For two years, each family keeps track of their goals, financial information and what academics would call “social capital exchange,” which are behaviors like helping one another with childcare or letting a neighbor borrow a car for a job interview. Families share this information on FII’s web platform called Uptogether.
Each family sets its own economic and social mobility goals, which might be buying a home or continuing a child’s education. By filling out journals, attending group meetings to share solutions, and receiving a $100/month stipend for doing both, they create a virtuous circle, reinforcing the habits of success. Over the two year life that families participate, they can earn up to $3,200.
“I already had a circle of friends and, growing up, I kept a diary,” Shoniqua told us. “I wasn’t sure how the program was going to help.” But then she started getting the FII reports, which turned her monthly data into graphic charts, visual proof of progress. “There, in black and white, I could see all the positive things I was doing. It changed how I saw myself.”
In 2015, we helped FII in California expand from 100 to 1,000 families. After two years, the families increased their income by 22 percent, their savings quadrupled and they decreased their reliance on government subsidies, such as food stamps, by 55 percent.
We want to keep the momentum going. Last week, we announced a $2 million grant to bring FII to Chicago, and today, along with the St. David’s Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and the Harold Simmons Family Foundation, we’re helping expand FII to Austin, with a total commitment of $1.3 million.
Google.org and City of Chicago at an announcement event for the Family Independence Initiative last week. From left to right: Jesús Gerena, CEO, Family Independence Initiative; Samantha Hennessey, Manager, Google.org; Patricia Belden, Preservation of Affordable Housing Communities, President; Rob Biederman, Head of Government Relations & Public Affairs, Midwest, Google; Lisa Morrison Butler, Commissioner - City of Chicago Department of Family and Support Services; Maab Ibrahim, Manager, Google.org; Ebony Scott, Chicago Site Director, Family Independence Initiative
In addition, for six months full-time, a group of six Googlers will build a tool that uses natural language processing to analyze the journal entries uploaded on UpTogether, looking for trends or patterns. With this new information, FII will gain a much deeper understanding of what leads to family success.
Today, Shoniqua is no longer homeless, her income has quadrupled, and she was able to repair her car. But something else gives her the most pride. Last year, a middle-class woman told Shoniqua how she paid for college with a savings bond her parents had given her as a child. Shoniqua didn’t know savings bonds still existed. “It’s hard to talk about this without getting emotional,” she said, her voice catching. “But this year, I set aside enough money to buy a $200 savings bond in my daughter’s name.” She paused a moment, and then smiled. “My daughter is going to have generational wealth, just like that woman got from her parents.”
Shoniqua is living proof that FII's approach can not only help families escape poverty, but thrive in a new life that they create for themselves. We're grateful to be part of a community of funders helping FII to reach 2,000 more families.
Google turned the big 2-0 this past month. While the date is contested (who really wants to keep track of their age that closely anyway?), Google’s helped people across the world accomplish quite a bit over the past two decades. Here’s a snapshot. Or you can give yourself a tour of the original garage!
In the G Suite world, we kicked off Next Tokyo this month and launched new G Suite features as a part of it. We announced the beta version of Work Insights—a way for you to gain a deeper understanding of how employees use G Suite to collaborate in your organization. We also made the security investigation tool available to G Suite users to help businesses stay on top of security controls.
Did you know there is a Chrome extension that lets you search for Drive files from within your Google Search bar? It’s awesome. You can download the Chrome extension here.
→ Smart Compose is available in G Suite now. Type on.
→ If you’ve ever wished you could comment on a Microsoft file like you do in Google Docs (because it’s awesome), now you can if you save the file in Drive. Check out this demo to see how to comment on Word, Excel or PowerPoint files.
→ We’ve beefed up our conference capabilities with third-parties in Google Calendar. Now you can join meetings natively in Calendar through add-ons from Cisco, Dialpad, LogMeIn, RingCentral and Vonage instead of downloading a separate Chrome extension. One less step. (Or you can always use Hangouts Meet. ;)).
→ Speaking of Hangouts Meet, now up to 100,000 people can livestream meetings—great for global company-wide meetings or executive presentations.
→ The Google Sheets add-on for Salesforce is ready for use. It can help you import data and reports from Salesforce into Sheets, and push updates back to Salesforce. Read more.
→ We’re testing out a new feature for businesses in Google Drive called Priority Workspaces. It uses machine learning to help people find information quicker in Drive. Admins can apply for the beta here.
→ By popular demand, now you can edit jams from the web on Jamboard. We also added a new “view only” option.
Check out the full recap of product updates in September. Cheerio!
Blue: the color of ocean waves, the bright sky, sapphires and now … our latest Google Home Mini. Well, we’re actually calling it Aqua, and this new color is the first one we’ve added since we launched Google Home Mini last year.
It’s made from the same fabric as the Mini’s original colors—chalk, charcoal and coral—with the same aesthetic goal, to easily blend into your home. Aqua Mini does all the great things you expect from your Google Assistant and Google Home, like:
If you’ve ever been stuck in a hot, crowded subway tunnel or caught in gridlocked traffic wishing that you could magically transport yourself to work, you know that commuting can be hard.
Why are commutes so stressful? They’re unpredictable and long. Commute data in 25 North American cities tells us daily commute times during rush hour traffic can be up to 60 percent longer than what you expect when you start your drive—resulting in a lot of stress, missed meetings, and skipped breakfasts. According to historical Google Maps data, people in North America spend a full day per month commuting—which almost adds up to a two-week vacation each year. Plus, a bad commute can negatively impact the rest of your day, long after the actual commute is over.
Today, we’re rolling out new features on Google Maps to help you take control of your daily commute— enabling you to plan ahead, prepare for the inevitable disruptions, and possibly avoid them altogether. Oh, and we’ll also help you have a bit of fun along the way. 👍
1houraday
2weekvacation
60%longer
Know before you go
Google Maps now features a commute tab that provides one-tap access to live traffic and transit information tailored to your commute. We’ll tell you if your commute is going to be a normal one or if you’ll need to budget extra time due to things like an accident or heavy traffic. In the case of a delay, we’ll tell you about alternative routes to help you get to work faster. On Android, you’ll also receive notifications about delays and disruptions on your route as they happen, so you can know about an incident before you get caught up in the delay.
Drive 🚗, walk 🚶🏽 and ride 🚌 : support for mixed-mode commutes
There’s a new feature for people whose commutes involve both driving and public transit. You can see helpful information about when to leave, and for each leg of your trip: you’ll know if there’s traffic on your drive, when the next train departs, and how long it’ll take to walk from the train station to the office. We do the work for you and automatically factor this into your ETA so you can anticipate exactly when you’ll get to work.
Stop the guessing game
Sprinting to the subway station only to find that your train is delayed is our least favorite way to start the day. Now, transit riders in 80 regions worldwide will be able to see exactly where their bus or train is in real time on the map. This will help you plan your day more efficiently—you’ll know if you can spend an extra few minutes grabbing coffee, or if you really do need to make a run for it to catch your bus. And in Sydney, we’ve partnered with Transport New South Wales to show how full you next bus or train is - so you’ll know whether or not you’ll get a seat. This feature will be coming to more cities around the globe soon.
Get your motor running, head out on the highway 🎸
If you have to sit in traffic, you may as well do it while listening to good music. We're making Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play Music available within Google Maps so that you can control your tunes and podcasts right from Google Maps navigation. With Spotify on Android you can also choose your favorite content by browsing through songs, albums, podcasts, and playlists with the new, easy to use navigation. Say goodbye to toggling between apps, and rock out knowing that you can keep your eyes where they should be—on the road.
Get started
Our new commute features start rolling out globally on Android and iOS this week. To get started, update your app from the Play Store or App Store. To learn how to set up your commute, visit our Help Center.
Today kicks off the 11th annual 4-H National Youth Science Day--the start of a month-long celebration to challenge kids and educators excited about computer science (CS) through hands-on projects—and for the first time, Google.org is supporting the effort.
I’ve been involved in 4-H since I was nine. I joined because I wanted to show horses (just like my big sister), which I did as an Iowa 4-H member for 10 years. Now I use some of my time at Google to support 4-H students around the country. Alongside other Googlers, I was on the NYSD activity design team with National 4-H Council, West Virginia University and MIT Scratch to create a series of activities to help students learn about core concepts of CS while having fun. In a free online activity from CS First called Animate a Name, kids can choose any name they want and make the letters change colors, spin or even dance to a favorite tune.
Last week I caught up with Fiona Reyes, a 4-H teen leader from Santa Clara, CA and the star of the CS First Animate a Name videos. We chatted about NYSD, her involvement this year and more generally, what computer science means to her.
Curtis: Tell me a little bit about your participation in 4-H over the years.
Fiona: I’ve been a member of 4-H since I was five years old. While I can’t remember everything about the first projects that I did (baking and flower arranging), I do remember feeling very welcomed by the youth leaders of my 4-H club. I’ve done projects like poultry (chickens), sewing, cavies (guinea pigs), which have helped me learn important life skills like public speaking and organization. Last year was also the beginning of my involvement with computer science in 4-H. As a part of the California Computer Science Pathway Team, I lead a computer science project for youth in Santa Clara County.
Fiona: "Here I am on the 'runway' modeling the outfit that I had embellished for County Fashion Revue, a 4-H sewing/fashion competition event."
Curtis: Can you explain what computer science is, in your own words? Why should kids learn computer science?
Fiona:CS is a part of so many things. Yes, computer scientists code, but what they’re doing is creating new programs or improving existing innovations to make daily life easier. This means CS is part of fashion, agriculture, art, music and more. It’s important that youth are taught this at an early age so that they’ll consider pursuing a career where they can incorporate technology and CS into their passions.
Fiona and Curtis. Fiona says: “On my 4-H hat, there are yearly completion pins, and star ranking patches, and my most recent addition: a computer science pin!”
Curtis: You’re the first non-Googler to be featured in a CS First video—you’re basically a celebrity now. What did you think of that process?
Fiona:I was a little nervous about filming the video, but as soon as I got to the production room, everyone was welcoming and kind. That was my first experience being professionally filmed and using a teleprompter, but it was very fun. The final product turned out amazing. It’s weird to think kids all over the nation will be watching it as they do the Animate a Name activity!
Fiona’s CS First Animate a Name project. She says: “‘Homesteaders’ is the name of my 4-H Club and included sprites like hats and apples to represent the four Hs: head, heart, hands and health.”
We’re always excited to support organizations like 4-H to make sure students around the country have the opportunity to build their creative and technical skills with computer science. Join in on the NYSD fun by animating a name and posting it to social media with #csfirst #nysd today.
At the end of 2017, the Google Primer team contacted Google's Central Accessibility team. They wanted feedback on the accessibility of their app—but also input on whether it was useful for people with disabilities. This kicked off a larger conversation. The Primer app is used by business owners, startups and marketers to learn new business and marketing skills. As the two teams discussed, they wondered, “What if we don’t just improve the accessibility of our own app, but also create brand new lessons in Primer to teach businesses and app developers how to build their websites and apps with accessibility in mind?” Building products that don’t consider a diverse range of needs could mean missing a substantial group of potential users and customers. For business owners particularly, it’s not just the right thing to do, it’s also good for business.
Fast forward to this May, when Google Primer introduced a new version of the app, designed to be more accessible and usable for people with disabilities. At the same time, they launched new accessibility lessons to help others do the same. These lessons have been used by business owners, developers, and marketers around the world to learn how to better serve their customers with disabilities.
The Central Accessibility Team spans many roles: software engineers, product and program managers, user experience designers and researchers, testers and others. Like many teams across Google, we have team members with and without disabilities. Our work covers a diverse set of areas including:
Providing guidance:We offer advice and training to all Google product teams on how to incorporate accessibility into how we design, build, and test our products.
Incorporating accessibility:We include accessibility into software development platforms and guidelines, such as our Android Accessibility Developer Docs.
Building better products:We build automated testing and analysis tools that Google product teams (and external developers!) can use to check for common accessibility issues, and we also build products directly for end users with disabilities. As part of this we hope to empower Google's teams to be champions of accessibility (as with Primer), and even potentially inspire third parties.
Listening to our community:We invite people to participate in user research in order to develop a deeper understanding on how usable our products are and ways to improve them. We also partner with organizations outside of Google to collaborate on joint initiatives and user training.
Screenshot of automatic captions on a YouTube video
More recently, we’ve announced Lookout, an app to help people who are blind learn about their surroundings. Voice Access is a new accessibility service for Android that lets you use your Android device without touching the screen. We’ve also introduced a dedicated Disability Support team available to help answer questions about assistive features and functionalities within Google products.
Screenshots of the Lookout app’s features and object identification
Accessibility is a wider field than you might think—it’s not just for people with permanent disabilities. We also need to consider people who have a temporary impairment, for example, a broken leg and have difficulty getting around, or people who are doing everyday things like driving a car or holding groceries in both hands and need to perform a task.
And let’s not forget that products created for accessibility have the potential to become useful for everyone. Inventions like the typewriter, books on tape, closed captions, voice-enabled TV and voice controls were all initially meant to focus on people with a disability, and found a much broader use case. This goes to show that the accessibility problems of today can lead to the technology breakthroughs of tomorrow.
The Central Accessibility team is passionate about Google's products and driven by the thought of a world made for everyone, without limits or barriers. But at Google, accessibility is everyone’s responsibility. And to see how we’re living up to that responsibility, stay tuned for more insights and news over the coming month.
Streaming media has transformed the way we consume music and video, making it easy to instantly access your favorite content. It’s a technically complex process that has come a long way in a few short years, but the next technical frontier for streaming will be much more demanding than video.
We’ve been working on Project Stream, a technical test to solve some of the biggest challenges of streaming. For this test, we’re going to push the limits with one of the most demanding applications for streaming—a blockbuster video game.
We’ve partnered with one of the most innovative and successful video game publishers, Ubisoft, to stream their soon-to-be released Assassin’s Creed Odyssey® to your Chrome browser on a laptop or desktop. Starting on October 5, a limited number of participants will get to play the latest in this best-selling franchise at no charge for the duration of the Project Stream test.
The idea of streaming such graphically-rich content that requires near-instant interaction between the game controller and the graphics on the screen poses a number of challenges. When streaming TV or movies, consumers are comfortable with a few seconds of buffering at the start, but streaming high-quality games requires latency measured in milliseconds, with no graphic degradation.
The technology and creativity behind these AAA video games is extraordinary—from incredible detail and life-like movement of the characters’ skin, clothing, and hair, to the massive scale of the world in which the game unfolds, down to every last blade of grass. Every pixel is powered by an array of real-time rendering technology, artistry, visual effects, animation, simulation, physics and dynamics. We’re inspired by the game creators who spend years crafting these amazing worlds, adventures and experiences, and we’re building technology that we hope will support and empower that creativity.
There are limited spaces available for Project Stream, but if you’re interested in participating, you can apply on our website. Project Stream is geared toward home internet connections capable of 25 megabits per second, and you must be 17 years or older and live in the U.S. to participate (other requirements can be found on the help center).
We’re looking forward to what the future of streaming holds, and feedback from those participating in Project Stream. Thank you for helping us bring streaming to the next level.
Ubisoft and Assassin's Creed Odyssey are trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries.
Virtualahan, a company based in the Philippines, provides a platform that helps disadvantaged people overcome employment barriers. By using Google Classroom and other tools, Virtualahan delivers digital skills training to people with medical, physical and psycho-social disabilities in developing countries and connects them to meaningful employment online.
GBG Stories Search 2018 is now kicking off and we’re looking for entries about the extraordinary things entrepreneurs have done using Google products and technologies. Three winners will have the opportunity to visit Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, CA in 2019, where they’ll also meet with other tech thinkers, innovators, and business leaders.
To share your story and participate in GBG Stories Search 2018, please submit your entry and visit our information page by October 31, 2018.
The heightened role of video throughout today’s consumer journey is an exciting opportunity for marketers to build connections that drive better business outcomes. At Advertising Week New York, we’re announcing new ways for marketers to become more effective full-funnel storytellers using the combined power of YouTube’s creative canvas with Google’s machine learning and measurement solutions.
Help viewers take action with extensions
Soon you’ll be able to make your video ads more actionable with a greater variety of ad extensions. Similar to extensions on Search ads, extensions on YouTube enhance your video ad with additional useful information—giving consumers more reasons to take action. You can already add location and form extensions (currently in beta) to your TrueView in-stream ads. Now we’re exploring additional use cases that encourage viewers to complete lower-funnel actions like finding the next movie showtime, downloading an app or booking a trip.
Brands like Vodafone, Chili’s, 20th Century Fox, Headspace and Maybelline are already using extensions for video ads to bring more relevance to their mobile ads and drive impact on the metrics that matter most. Using extensions, Vodafone drove a 2.3x incremental lift in Ad Recall and a 3.5 percent CTR—a 785 percent increase over their regional benchmark.
Measure the full impact of your video campaign
Video storytelling isn’t just about driving short-term campaign wins—it’s also about driving measurable results at every stage of the consumer journey. We know this is easier said than done, which is why we’re evolving our Brand Liftsolution and partnering with IRI to make it simpler for advertisers to measure and act upon upper- and lower-funnel metrics.
Based on your feedback, soon you’ll be able to set up Brand Lift studies directly in Google Ads or Display & Video 360 and conveniently view reporting alongside your other ad metrics. We’ve also started sending Brand Lift surveys continuously throughout the duration of your campaign so you can understand how your video ads are influencing viewer perceptions in near real time. Additionally, we’ve introduced two new metrics: lifted users, the number of people who were influenced by your ad, and cost-per-lifted-user to make it easier for you to optimize your campaign’s effectiveness and cost-efficiency. To get the most out of these new measurement tools, we recommend using Maximize Lift bidding.
We're also ramping up our investments in Google Measurement Partners to ensure our advertisers can measure YouTube media with measurement solutions that meet rigorous, verified standards. We work closely with partners to ensure their solutions respect user privacy. In addition to Nielsen Catalina Solutions (NCS) and Oracle Data Cloud, soon CPG advertisers will have the option to measure their YouTube media using IRI. These offerings complement geo experiments with Nielsen MPA, giving advertisers a variety of options for seeing the offline impact of their video ads. Last week we also announced expanded integrations for brand suitability and reach reporting, continuing our commitment to providing both quality and choice when it comes to helping marketers better understand their media investments.
We’re excited about how these capabilities can help take your campaigns to the next level, driving real business impact all along the customer journey.
Riveting testimony on Capitol Hill, a new name for a favorite chain, and a snack that slaps back (and surprises an unsuspecting kayaker). Here are a few of the week’s most searched trends, with data from the Google News Lab.
All eyes on the Senate
On Thursday, Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh testified alongside Christine Blasey Ford in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill. As the testimony began yesterday morning, searches for the Senate Judiciary Committee spiked by 4,900 percent in the U.S., propelling search interest in the committee to its all-time high since 2004.
Hold the donuts
Dunkin’ Donuts dropped the “Donuts” and announced a rebrand to what most of us already call it: “Dunkin’.” Most related searches came from New England states Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maine, which comes as no surprise since the company was founded in Quincy, MA. And while Weight Watchers also rebranded this week (to “WW”), search interest for “Dunkin donuts name” was 150 percent higher than “weight watchers name.” Munchkins, anyone?
Voting 101
Tuesday was National Voter Registration Day and above all, the U.S. wanted to know how. Trending questions included, “How to register to vote?” “How to register to vote online?” “How do I check my voter registration?” and “How do you know if you are registered to vote?” For all of you who helped “how to register” spike by more than 3,600 percent, Search can help. If you search “how to register to vote,” a tool at the top of the results page will help you find information about the voter registration requirements and processes in your state.
LMGTFY
Someone had a birthday this week... and we’re here to answer some of the top trending questions: “Is today Google’s birthday?” “How old is Google?” and “When was Google born?” We celebrated our big 2-0 on September 27 (although the exact date is up for debate), giving us the perfect excuse for a #ThrowbackThursday. Check out 20years.withgoogle.com, where you can dig into historical trends, like how we searched for candy in 1999 more than any other year, or how we have always searched for dogs more than any other animal (sorry, cat people).
Seal vs. Octopus vs. Kayaker
While testing a new GoPro camera, a kayaker in New Zealand was slapped in the face with an octopus by a seal (yes, you read that right). While the kayaker clearly took a hit, it’s been a close fight between the two sea dwellers in Search. ”Seal slap” started trending earlier than “octopus slap,” but the latter has been more popular over time, spiking 4,900 percent in the U.S. It turns out the seal was probably trying to pull off a tentacle as a snack, so maybe we call this one a tie.
P.S. Your humble High Five contributor was so, um, struckby this tale that she wrote a little something in haiku format. You're welcome:
Paddlin’ a kayak Got slapped with an octopus A tasty seal meal
Over 151,000 kilometres of track, 7,000 stations, 1.3 million employees and 160 years of history. Indian Railways is one of the most celebrated railway networks in the world. A few months ago, we celebrated the 400th Indian train station connecting to the internet with Google Station, our public Wi-Fi program. Today, we’re bringing Indian Railways’ heritage and sights to the entire world. The most gorgeous architecture, iconic trains and charismatic personalities of Indian Railways can now be found on Google Arts & Culture.
The first rail journey in India, a 14-coach train from Bombay to Thane in 1853 ushered in a new era of an India connected by track, rendering previously remote villages accessible. A century and a half later, just as trains once opened passages across the subcontinent, Google Arts & Culture’s new project “The Railways — Lifeline of a Nation” is making these passages accessible for the world to experience.
Anyone can now explore India’s railways in unprecedented detail with over 100 exhibitions that bring together more than 3,000 images, 150 videosand 150 iconic locationsacross India. Zoom into ultra-high resolution images made with our Art Camera, like maps of the East Indian Railwaysthat the British used to connect Calcutta with the North West Provinces; get a 360 degree look around the workshops of cardboard rail model enthusiasts; or take a behind the scenes peek at Darjeeling loco shed.
All aboard The Fairy Queen- the locomotive inaugurated by the East Indian Railways in 1855 and among the oldest functioning steam engines in the world.
ganey-indianrailway
Go behind the scenes and find out how Indian Railways employees, like veteran technician Ganey Khawas keep the trains running.
We invite everyone to take an online journey with us to see the breathtaking sights of India’s railways on Google Arts & Culture’sonline platform and the free Google Arts & Culture mobile app on Android and iOS.
There are so many travel resources out there it can feel like you spend hours researching flights, hotels and sites before you feel prepared to book your trip. In fact, 46 percent of leisure travelers globally think travel planning takes too long, according to our recent research with Phocuswright. To make trip planning faster and effortless, we’re working on new ways to help bring your existing travel plans together—and even plan your next trip.
Pick up travel planning where you left off
When you look for top travel destinations worldwide—even if you haven’t booked anything yet—we’ll help jump-start your trip planning with relevant suggestions right in Google Search. We’ll show you things to do, day plans or travel articles. As you start booking and receive your flight or hotel email confirmations in Gmail, these travel recommendations will be further customized in organic search results on Google. For example, if you’re searching “Austin” and already booked your hotel, you’ll see things like flight prices, weather and events for your dates of travel, and even restaurants near where you're staying.
In addition to helping you fill in the gaps with your existing trips, in October we’ll launch new features in Your Trips that will make it easier to organize travel plans still in the works, and resume planning where you last left off. For example, if you’ve recently started looking at traveling to Milan, we’ll show you potential trip information in Your Trips like flight prices you’re tracking (if you have any), destination-specific flight and hotel searches, and places you’ve saved. That way, you can easily pick up your travel research when you come back to Google. To see Your Trips, search for “my trips” on Google, or tap on the Your Trips tab from Google Flights or Hotels on your phone.
If you don’t want to see private results, you can opt out by adjusting your Private results and Web & app activity settings. See more information in Google Settings.
New Year’s in NYC? See if flight fares are higher or lower than usual
Wondering whether you've found a decent price for a flight can be the most stressful part of planning a trip. On Google Flights, we’re expanding the same tip you already see for Thanksgiving—which tells you whether a flight price is higher or lower than usual—to include December holidays like Christmas and New Year’s. This tip will appear worldwide over the coming weeks when you search for flights on your phone over the December holidays. We’ll also notify you if prices are not going to drop or if they’re likely to rise in the next five days.
For more information on holiday travel, flight price trends and cities with great hotel deals, check out this infographic.
Find the right hotel for you based on location, location, location
Not sure where to stay? Try the new hotel location score which summarizes the hotel’s neighborhood based on information from Google Maps. You can see if the hotel is close to things like bars, landmarks or public transportation. For example, you’ll see if a specific hotel is near boutique shops to fill your fashion fix or within walking distance from the Milan Duomo. You’ll also get information on getting to and from airports.
We’ll continue to work on making trip planning across Google effortless. Use these new features to help make planning your next trip easier—and more fun!
As part of a collaboration between Google, photo industry consortium CEPIC, and IPTC, the global technical standards body for the news media, you can now access rights-related image metadata in Google Images.
It’s traditionally been difficult to know the creator of images on the web, as well as who might own the rights. This information is often part of image metadata, and is key to protecting image copyright and licensing information.
Starting today, we’ve added Creator and Credit metadata whenever present to images on Google Images. To see this information on Google Images, you can click on the “Image Credits” link to view the metadata fields. Over the coming weeks, we will also add Copyright Notice metadata.
Also in partnership with CEPIC and IPTC, we hope to create better usage guidance for photographers, photo agencies and publishers to include copyright and attribution information in image metadata. For more on how to best implement IPTC metadata, refer to the IPTC Guidelines.
Andrew Fingerman, CEO of PhotoShelter, a provider of digital asset management tools for photographers and brands, describes why this is a big step for Google Images: “Employing IPTC metadata standards in Google Images results will help ensure proper attribution of credit and support photographers’ copyright, while also boosting the discoverability of content and creators. This is a win for the professional photo community.”
If you have questions, feedback or suggestions, please let us know through the Webmaster Tools Help Forum.
When a devastating flood hit Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 2008, Pierson’s Flower Shop & Greenhouses—which has been a part of the community since 1928—found itself under eight feet of water. The store was closed for five months and business fell 40 percent, while many other small businesses in the area never recovered. When shop owner Allan Pierson was on the brink of giving up, he revamped his online presence and turned to tools like Google Ads to reach customers, and email to run the business remotely.
When disaster strikes, small business owners like Allan shouldn’t have to worry about their businesses on top of everything else. To commemorate National Preparedness Month, we’ve just released a new resource with tips on how digital tools can help your business prepare for a disaster, like backing up critical documents in the Cloud and creating a Google Group to easily keep in touch with all of your employees. Preparation is particularly important for small businesses: according to FEMA, roughly 40 to 60 percent of small businesses never reopen after a disaster.
Though we hope you never need to enable your emergency plan, by using digital tools we hope that you can minimize the long term impact on your business.
Twenty years ago, Google started with an ambitious goal to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. At the heart, we want to build technology that helps as many people as possible, regardless of who you are or where you are in the world. As we celebrate our birthday this month, we’re reflecting on some of the progress we’ve made toward that end. The work is never done, but here are 20 highlights from the past two decades:
Finding answers … and making connections
1. Billions of people have used Google Search to find answers to (literally) trillions of questions every year—from “how to help my community” to “how to find home” to all the many small questions in between. With job search, we’ve helped connect 100 million people to job opportunities in 92 countries.
2. Google Maps has helped people find their way with driving directions in 240+ countries and territories, spanning 40 million miles of road—that’s 83+ trips to the moon and back. And by connecting people to 150 million places around the world, Maps helps communities and businesses grow. Most moving are the times when Maps has helped people find a sense of place in the world—from Rio’s favelas to one’s own memories.
Saroo Brierley: Homeward Bound
Saroo Brierley searched for his family for years before finding his way back home with the help of Google Earth.
3. People can now talk to their Google Assistant in more than 20 languages, and in some cases it can even keep up if you’re bilingual. You can ask about everything from fantasy football advice to help finding a parking spot, and do everything from meditate to order a coffee. In the car, the Assistant has helped people reach their destination on tens of millions of commutes, and has sent tens of millions of messages, helping people stay in touch while keeping their eyes on the road.
4. Translate helps over half a billion people ask for help, make new friends, and say "thank you" across 100+ languages. More than 143 billion words are translated every day—that’s more than 161,000 times the number of the complete works of Shakespeare.
From Syria to Canada
Emad and his family left Syria for a safer life in Canada. There, they had to grow accustomed to a new home, country—and language.
Saving valuable time (and space!)
5. More than 500 million people use Google Photos every month, backing up more than 1.2 billion photos and videos per day. Photos has also freed up over 410 petabytes worth of space—that’s like more than 25 million 16GB devices—plus peace of mind knowing you'll always have room to capture more memories.
6. With the typing time reduced by Autocomplete in Search, we estimate people worldwide collectively save over 200 years of typing time per day!
7. Gmail’s Smart Compose, a new machine learning-powered experience that helps you write email faster, saves people from typing over 1 billion characters a week (to put that in perspective, that’s the equivalent of nearly 4 million tweets).
Helping you stay safe online
8. One billion people visit the Google Account each year to access settings to safeguard their data and privacy.
9. Safe Browsing protects more than 3 billion devices from malware and phishing schemes, helping you browse the web with confidence.
10. And Gmail blocks nearly 10 million spam and malicious emails every minute, helping you keep your email and data safe.
Giving people tools and platforms to grow
11. Each year for the past five years, our search and advertising tools have helped provide more than $100 billion in economic activity to businesses, publishers and nonprofits across the United States. And we’re inspired by the stories of local and small businesses, from John’s Crazy Socks to American Hats, who are using the web to grow.
12. Google Play has helped developers grow app businesses and reach users in 190+ countries and across more than 2 billion Android devices. From an app that helps blind people see to a game that creates art, these creators are doing amazing things on our open platforms.
Sara always had a passion for technology. With a Developer Scholarship from Google, she's pursuing her dream of becoming a web developer.
Expanding access to learning opportunities
14. More than 25 million students worldwide are using Chromebooks in schools to share ideas, create projects, go on virtual field trips, and learn from each other and their teachers.
15. Art lovers and history buffs have marveled at artifacts from 1,500+ museums across 70 countries in Google Arts & Culture. From Abramovic to Zhengming, that’s thousands of artworks and 6 million photos, videos, manuscripts and other documents at your fingertips. And people have met more than 78 million selfie matches from 650+ institutions with Art Selfie.
16. People can access local versions of YouTube in 91 countries around the world across 80 languages—covering 95 percent of all internet traffic. And every day, people watch learning-related content over a billion times on YouTube.
An Eye Fit for Liberty
When his daughter needed a prosthetic eye, a father refused to settle for less.
Making an impact on a global scale
17. To help people in times of need, we’ve activated SOS Alerts to provide better access to emergency information in more than 200 crisis situations, and people have viewed Public Alerts—for things like storm warnings or hurricane evacuations—more than 1.5 billion times.
When Abu was 15, he discovered the potential of machine learning. Now what he’s building could help doctors and patients all over the world.
Google’s name is based on a number—a one with 100 zeroes after it. When we went public in 2004, the offering contained a math joke about the irrational number "e." Oh, and we call our campus headquarters the “Googleplex,” which, if it were spelled differently, would be a one followed by a googol of zeroes. You could say we’re numbers people.
But these numbers are different. They represent something incredibly meaningful—the billions of people who have posed a question, sent an email, opened a new tab, dragged a pin on a map, asked a big question. Billions of people who have found answers, gotten things done or started on a new adventure. Billions of people whose lives have gotten, just possibly, a little bit better or brighter thanks to something that we built.
Everything we’ve done for the past 20 years has been built with you in mind, and we’re incredibly grateful for the opportunity you’ve given us to be a part of your lives. And two decades in, we’re even more dedicated to building products and services that make a difference for you.
You may remember 1998 as a glorious year filled with endless games of Snake on your brick phone (you couldn’t go through the walls yet) and listening to “Baby One More Time” at max volume on your discman. Meanwhile, in Susan Wojcicki’s disused garage in California, two university students, Larry and Sergey, decided they were going to organize the world’s information and make it accessible to everyone.
To celebrate Google’s 20th birthday, today we invite you to travel back in time and take a virtual stroll through the original Google Garage in Street View—(almost) just like it was 20 years ago.
The original blue side door to the Google Garage on Santa Margarita, Menlo Park
As you chase cables that scramble haphazardly down the hallway, you’ll find a bedroom (ahem, “main office”) with a whiteboard that reads “Google’s Worldwide Headquarters” in black text. On another whiteboard, you’ll see a cheeky homage to Google’s logo update back in 1998. Doesn’t the delightful wallpaper remind you of tea at your grandparents' place?
On Google’s 20th birthday, Thursday is not just for throwbacks. It’s also for thank yous.
Google wouldn’t be what it is today if it weren’t for you: a curious crowd that comes to Search with all of life’s questions. Today’s birthday Doodle is dedicated to you, and the 20 years of searches that represent the inquisitiveness of people everywhere.
In today’s Doodle and hidden in Search for a limited time, you’ll be thrown back to (and flashed forward from) the days when “what is Y2K?” was your most burning tech question, Pluto was still a planet, and clip art was a critical part of visual communication.
The days when the music format du jour was the MP3 file and it was cutting-edge to watch a DVD. When you had to choose a screen name before hopping into a chat room.
You can also peer back into the last two decades through the lens of trends by visiting 20years.withgoogle.com and seeing many of the people, pop culture and pizza (yes, pizza) that inspired your searches from 1998 to now.
We hope this jaunt down memory lane reminds you of your own magical moments when you found just what you were looking for with Google. For the next 20 years and beyond: Search on.
