Google Cloud Platform News

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  Unlock your team’s creativity: running great hackathons
  google cloud working at google • • sorangutan  

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  Creative, talented employees have awesome ideas, but chances are they rarely have enough time to actually try them out and find out which ones are worth pursuing. To allow their imagination to run free and spur creative innovation, companies need to create space and opportunities for employees to try out crazy new proposals. That’s why every so often, we regularly set aside some time to build a small, ad-hoc team around an idea, brainstorm, design, hack and share what we discovered.

  
  

  A hackathon shifts the routine, gets people out of their comfort zone, and allows decisions to be made quickly. It creates new leadership opportunities, a chance to experiment, and an invitation to innovate. For our teams it’s also resulted in new products, new applications of emerging technologies, and important new cross-team collaborations. While not every hackathon will result in new products or features, we always find value in the learning and exploring that occurs.

  
  

  Here are our tips for setting up a successful hackathon at your workplace:

  
  

  Get support from your management and executive leadership.

  A hackathon requires asking people to set aside their normal work for a few days (or a whole week) and that will impact the short-term ability to progress toward quarterly or annual goals. Make sure your leadership actively support the hackathon and its goals, so the team isn’t getting mixed messages about the trade-offs involved.

  
  

  Your leaders also need to set the scene for the hackathon itself: what’s our goal for this hackathon, and what is expected from participants? This is a perfect time to emphasize the opportunity for risk-taking, crazy ideas, new technology experiments and creativity. A hackathon gives leaders the opportunity to empower the team to make decisions, tackle problems in new ways, and fail spectacularly.

  
  

  Some of those failures can teach you more about your own process, infrastructure and tooling than successful efforts might—allowing the entire organization to become more efficient and productive. In other words, hackathons may only result in learning, not fantastic new product ideas; it’s a gamble, but a good one to take.

  
  

  Get the right people in the room.

  The magic of a hackathon is it encourages your teams to mix and work with new people, so they aren’t just coding with the folks they work with every day. Gather experts in a variety of relevant subject areas (machine learning, privacy, cloud storage, mobile development, etc.) to act as advisors and technology problem solvers, so teams don’t burn time trying to learn new technology from scratch.

  
  

  Organize, organize, organize.

  Organizing and running the hackathon takes its own big chunk of work. We set aside one or two large spaces for presentations and team formation. We set up an internal website to gather information and publicize, and get fun swag items that encourage participation and act as mementos or trophies. In the end we evaluate projects by voting, and award prizes to the top teams.

  
  

  Real collaboration happens best face to face, and everyone being in the same room allows for free-flowing conversation. We’ve usually coordinate simultaneous hackathons at multiple different office sites, to minimize travel time and open up participation to folks on the greater team, regardless of their location.

  
  

  Prepare your hackers by giving prompts in advance.

  We’ve found a variety of prompts and brainstorming exercises to help leading up to the hackathon, so people can hit the ground running when the week starts. For example, you can ask people to finish the sentences:
  
  

  • I wish I could …

  • How might we …

  • If only I could take time to fix …

  • It’s such a pain that …

  • Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if …

  
  

  These prompts can help push people to think outside their normal scope of work. They might experiment with changes to commonly used processes or tools, or try to solve an existing business problem in a totally novel way. We sometimes see teams organize around work that removes a cumbersome task they have to do but don’t want to, or something they can’t do but wish they could.

  
  

  You may want to schedule tech talks in the week or two before the hackathon, to get people thinking or inspire new ideas. These can cover new technologies you want to explore (augmented reality, deep learning, new wireless protocols), unsolved problems that need attention, or basics of a platform or piece of infrastructure that’s likely to be used by many teams.

  
  

  Next up

  I’ll be back with part two next week, covering advice for forming groups, sharing ideas and showcasing the results of your time hacking.

  
  
  https://www.blog.google/inside-google/working-google/unlock-your-teams-creativity-running-great-hackathons/
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  Protecting your home with the Google Assistant
  • sorangutan  

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  Empty homes are more vulnerable to being burglarized, and it’s important to have a system in place that can monitor, alter and deter crime while you’re away. That’s where the Google Assistant can step in and help you keep an eye on everything at home.
  
  We worked some of the most trusted home security brands to launch new devices that work with the Assistant.
  

  Monitor your home 24/7. There are many security cameras and lights out there that work with the Assistant to help you keep an eye on your home while you’re away. With the new Arlo Security Lights, you can get instant alerts when motion is detected or pair the lights with Arlo security cameras. There are also several cameras, such as the  Nest Cam, for the interior and exterior of your home that stream 24/7 and can be checked by simply asking the Google Assistant on the app. And with any Nest Cam model, you can also ask Assistant to stream live feeds onto Chromecast-enabled televisions. If there’s an intruder, talk and listen through the camera to scare them off.
  
  Lock from anywhere.Smart locks allow you to lock and unlock your door from anywhere in the world, making it easy for you to monitor your doorstep while you’re away. Beginning tomorrow we’ll launch a new integration with the Nest x Yale Lock.You can use the Assistant to check the status of your lock, remotely lock it, and even include it in a Routine. For example you can lock the door automatically before going to bed by saying “Hey Google, goodnight.” Additionally, with the recent integrations of the Assistant with the August Smart Lock, Schlage® Sense Smart Deadbolt, and Sesame Lock by Candy House, you can share access with trusted friends and family and lock the door with your voice. You’ll also get an alert whenever someone locks or unlocks the door.
  
  Keep your home secure. Security systems aren’t new but “smart” security systems are. ADT Pulse, Honeywell’s new Smart Home Security solution and Nest Secure alarm system will let you know what’s happening at your home while you’re gone. If the alarm goes off, you’ll get an alert on your phone with information about what triggered the alarm. Silence the alarm through the apps and alert the police.
  
  With these new security devices, your now have an easy way to protect your home with the Google Assistant. 

  
  
  https://www.blog.google/products/assistant/protecting-your-home-google-assistant/
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  Google for India: Building services for every Indian, in their language
  google in asia next billion users • • sorangutan  

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  India has the second largest population of internet users in the world—and it’s only getting bigger. Around 40 million new users come online in India every year, and not just from metropolitan centers, but increasingly from rural areas as well. And they’re no longer predominantly men: in the next three years, we expect 45 percent of internet users in India to be women. This rush of new users online has greatly transformed the Indian economy and culture, from the rise of local startups to the growing use of e-commerce, digital payments, ride sharing, and online video by people from Jammu to Thiruvananthapuram.

  
  

  Sometimes technology can help in extraordinary circumstances. India has gone online to rally behind the victims of the Kerala and Karnataka floods. Our Crisis Response team turned on SOS alerts on Google Search in English and Malayalam, and activated Person Finder to help people search for family and friends. Locations of flood relief resources like shelters are being shared on Google Maps. Outside of the tech support, Google.org and Googlers are contributing over $1 million to support relief and recovery efforts. And others can also donate to Kerala flood relief on Tez.

  
  

  Technology is a key tool in crises, but it’s also critical for supporting India’s ongoing national momentum. In this spirit, we made announcements at this year’s Google for India event, towards three goals: making the internet work for more Indians, making our products more relevant to Indians, and taking the best of India to the rest of the world.

  
  

  Making the internet work for more Indians

  The first internet users in India consumed English-language content on their PCs, and later, their high-end smartphones. Today, however, there is a generation of internet users with completely different needs—where their first and only internet experience is via a touchscreen and not a keyboard. We have a responsibility to make sure that our products work well for every one of these users.

  
  

  The first step is to provide more high-quality internet access. Google Station is partnering Andhra Pradesh State FiberNet Limited to cover over 12,000 villages, towns and cities in the state of Andhra Pradesh, potentially reaching 10 million people. This will provide high-quality internet access to areas that have never been connected before, from hospitals to villages.

  
  

  The second is to help improve the smartphone experience in India. Our Indian hardware partners on Android such as Micromax, Lava, Nokia and Transsion are creating Android (Go edition) phones at prices within reach of more Indians. Early next month Samsung will continue that momentum with the launch of its first ever Android (Go edition) device, the J2 Core.

  
  

  Many of India’s new internet users favor listening and speaking over reading text. That’s why we’re launching a new feature in Google Go that lets you listen to webpages. Powered by natural language processing and speech synthesis AI, this technology can read billions of webpages smoothly in a natural sounding voice. It supports 28 languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Marathi and Tamil—even on 2G connections.

  
  

  Making our products more relevant to Indians

  The majority of internet users in India today are Indian language users, and this number is expected to reach 500 million in the next two years. Smartphones are not useful unless they work in people’s primary language and provide access to great content in their native tongues.

  
  

  To that goal, we are working with Indian language publishers to bring more relevant content online. Right now, the amount of online content in Indian languages is only 1 percent of what's available in English. So we’ve started a project called Navlekhā, a word derived from Sanskrit meaning “a new way to write.” This project comprises a tool that uses AI to render any PDF containing Indian language content into editable text, making it easy for print publishers to create mobile-friendly web content. It also provides Indian language publishers with free web hosting with AdSense support, so they can immediately start monetizing their content. Publishers will also receive training and support, and a branded .page domain for the first three years. Navlekhā has already started onboarding publishers from Delhi, and we aim to welcome many more from other regions in September. Sign up for the program at g.co/navlekha.

  
  

  We’re also expanding the number of languages supported in our existing apps and services. The Search feed will now display your favourite news from both English and Hindi sources, using AI that learns which types of stories you like best. On the Google Assistant, we’re adding Marathi (with seven more Indian languages coming soon) and even more Indian apps—like Where Is My Train, Airtel, and Hello English—making them available through the convenience of voice control.

  
  

  We’re creating more locally relevant experiences for Indians as well. Google Maps Go now brings turn-by-turn navigation functionality, while incorporating a brand new home screen with handy shortcuts. Google Maps will now also deliver better guidance to public transport riders, informing them of upcoming stops and sending alerts when it’s time to get off. And thanks to our new partnership with RedBus—India's largest inter-city bus ticketing service—more than 20,000 inter-city bus routes in 1,500 cities will be added to Google Maps.

  
  

  Taking the best of India to the rest of the world

  Since launching our India-first payments app Tez last September, over 22 million people and businesses have used Tez to make over 750 million transactions that are collectively worth over $30 billion annually. We believe that many of the innovations and features we have pioneered with Tez will work in other countries. To take Tez beyond India, we will be unifying all of Google’s payment offerings globally. As a first step, Tez will now be called Google Pay.

  
  

  Other than the name, the app is staying the same with all the great features and functions you enjoy. Sending a gift with a Happy Birthday spark, or paying a merchant directly from your bank account with no fees is as quick and easy as ever. In the coming weeks, we’ll be making Google Pay even more useful by increasing the number of places you can use it in, expanding services for merchants, and working with banks to provide instant loans to Google Pay users.

  
  

  These are just a few things we’re working on to make sure that Indians have a great experience online, no matter what phone they’re on or what language they speak. We thank all the Indians who watch and upload videos on YouTube, navigate on Google Maps, use Google Pay, and Search for the information they need. By working hard to make your experience better, we’re also building better products for the world.

  
  

  
  
  https://www.blog.google/technology/next-billion-users/google-for-india-2018/
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  Make Google read it
  • sorangutan  

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  We launched Google Go last year as a lightweight, faster way to search the web on devices which may have less space or less reliable internet connections. Today, millions of people around the world use Google Go to learn, stay informed, and explore the web more easily than ever before.

  Despite the rapid growth of audio and video content online, the web is still predominantly made up of lengthy, text-based pages which aren’t always easy to read on the go. So it's not surprising we’ve received consistent requests for Google Go to make it more convenient to access web content.

  Today, we’re launching a new feature which will let everyone using Google Go’s browser listen to webpages out loud. Powered by natural language processing and speech synthesis AI, this technology can read aloud billions of webpages in 28 languages smoothly, and in a natural sounding voice, even on 2G connections. It also uses minimal cellular data. This technology relies on AI to determine which parts of a page to read, and which to leave out, so you only listen to what is important.

  

  Using this technology, consuming long-form text becomes as easy as watching TV or listening to the radio. It’s also helpful for multitasking, like following a recipe while cooking a meal, listening to articles while exercising, or catching up on news on your commute.

  People using Google Go come from many different backgrounds, and some might want extra tools to help read and pronounce new words—for example those with visual or reading impairments, people studying a foreign language, or those less comfortable reading long text. Today’s update makes it easier for anyone to access the richness of the web. For those learning new languages, each word is highlighted as it is read, allowing you to follow along and helping accelerate your learning.

  In the future, we’d like to bring the ability to listen to webpages to more Google products. Long term, we hope this is just one way we can use AI to make accessing the web easier for everyone.

  
  
  https://www.blog.google/technology/next-billion-users/make-google-read-it/
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  Helping veterans make their next move in civilian life
  • sorangutan  

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  For seven years, I served in the Air Force as a civil engineer. My job was to make sure our bases, like the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan where I did three tours of duty, were technologically and logistically prepared for my fellow servicemen and women to do their duty in defense of our country.

  When I transitioned out of the military in 2014, I asked myself a question that many service members know too well: “What am I going to do next?” For seven years, I had counted on the clear role and security net the military provided. Civilian life, to me, was unknown. Navigating job applications was new, and I remember feeling overwhelmed as I went to job fairs.

  I’m fortunate to now work at Google where I’m a program manager for Google Cloud. Since working here, I’ve sought out ways to give back to the veteran community, and today, I’m proud to be part of a team that worked on a series of new tools and resources for transitioning military personnel, their spouses, and veterans.

  Through Grow with Google, our initiative to help create opportunities for all Americans, we hope to use our technology to help veterans understand the full range of opportunities open to them across many different fields. Right now those opportunities are getting lost in translation. There isn’t a common language that helps recruiters match a veteran’s experience with the need for their skills and leadership in civilian jobs. As a result, 1 in 3 veterans—of the roughly 250,000 service members who transition out of the military each year—end up taking jobs well below their skill level.

  Starting today, service members can search 'jobs for veterans' on Google and then enter their specific military job codes (MOS, AFSC, NEC, etc.) to see relevant civilian jobs that require similar skills to those used in their military roles. We’re also making this capability available to any employer or job board to use on their own property through our Cloud Talent Solution. As of today, service members can enter their military job codes on any career site using Talent Solution, including FedEx Careers, Encompass Health Careers, Siemens Careers, CareerBuilder and Getting Hired.

  Rather than applying for a job at an existing company, some veterans might want to start their own—in fact, veteran-owned businesses make up almost 9 percent of all businesses in the U.S. To ensure these businesses are able to find customers who want to support veterans, we’re offering a new attribute through Google My Business, on Google Maps and Search mobile listings, for businesses to identify as veteran-owned or led.

  

  Service Brewing Co. is a vet-led small business in Savannah, GA

  Learning digital skills is a big part of Grow with Google, so for transitioning military personnel, military spouses, and veterans who want to develop a new skill, Google.org is giving a grant to the USO (United Service Organizations) to provide training and career guidance in IT support. The $2.5 million grant will enable USO to incorporate the Google IT Support Professional Certificate into their programming.

  

  USO Pathfinder Scout with a transitioning military service member

  I’m proud that my fellow veteran Googlers and I had the chance to provide input on these tools to make sure we’re best serving those who so dutifully served our country. Google is committed to creating opportunities for everyone, and with today’s announcements, we hope our technology can help make transitioning to civilian life a little bit easier.

  
  
  https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/grow-with-google/veteran-job-search/
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  Making it easier to identify veteran-led businesses on Google
  • sorangutan  

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  Since leaving the service in 2007, I’ve felt a strong pull to support my fellow veterans. I honor the  camaraderie and sense of community we share, and continue to be inspired by the new missions veterans find once we leave the service.  I've found my passion in data science, but for many veterans, starting a business is their new calling. More than 2.5 million businesses in the U.S. are majority-owned by veterans, and one way that I stay connected to the veteran community is by supporting those veteran-owned businesses. It's something I can do all throughout my day, whether I'm grabbing a coffee or recommending a local restaurant to a friend.

  Now, as part of a broader effort to use technology to help the veteran community, Google is making it easier to identify your local business as veteran-led on Google Search and Maps. If your business is owned, led, or founded by a veteran, you can enable this "Veteran-Led” attribute through Google My Business, and it will appear on your Google listing alongside other details like “Has Wifi” or “Outdoor Seating.” You can add the Veteran-Led attribute to your  listing by following these steps.

  

  There's no limit to the ways that veteran-led small businesses can impact their communities. Take Kevin Ryan, for example. Kevin is a West Point graduate and former Army commander who began brewing beer with the help of YouTube tutorials. Less than two years later, he and his partner Meredith Sutton, founded Service Brewing Company. In addition to creating a successful craft brewery, their mission is to give back to veterans and their community. In their first three years of business they’ve helped raise more than $70,000 for organizations that assist veterans and first responders, and about half of their 12 employees are veterans.

  

  This is just one of a set of new resources and initiatives we announced today to support veterans through technology. Learn more about what we're doing via Grow with Google, including a new ability to search for jobs with an MOS code, at g.co/grow/veterans.

  
  
  https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/small-business/veteran-small-business/
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  Create more effective ads for today’s consumer
  google ads search ads app ads display ads • • sorangutan  

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  Consumers are more curious and more demanding than ever before. They expect to get things done faster–engaging with ads that are uniquely relevant to them. In fact, 91% of mobile users bought or plan to buy something after seeing an ad they described as relevant.¹ That means it’s critical for marketers to create a wider variety of ads that are diverse.

  By creating more diverse ads and utilizing Google’s machine learning, your ads will be more helpful, more personalized, and relevant to more people. This means your ads can show more often, reaching potential customers when they're looking for what you have to offer. We know this kind of optimization works: on average, advertisers that combine Google’s machine learning with multiple creatives see up to 15% more clicks.²
  

  Creating relevant ads at scale can be a challenge, and products like responsive search ads, responsive display ads, and Universal App campaigns can help. That’s why we’re introducing new insights to make it easy for you to create the ad experiences your customers expect.
  

  Get more out of your responsive search ads

  Responsive search ads combine your creativity with the power of Google’s machine learning to help you deliver relevant, valuable ads.
  

  • To make it easier for you to create more effective responsive search ads, you’ll now be able to preview ad combinations as you build them. This shows you what your ads might look like, and you can even browse through them to double-check your work.
    
  • You can also view reporting for headlines, descriptions, and top combinations to help you see what’s showing up most often on the search results page.
    

  

  New best practices for Search ad groups

  Apartments.com is a leading online resource for home and apartment rentals. Using responsive search ads, the brand was able to create ads that were more relevant to people at key moments in the rental process. As a result, Apartments.com saw a 10% lift in clicks. ForRent.com, another brand in the Apartments.com network of sites, saw a 16% lift in clicks with a similar strategy.

  Measure the strength of your ads

  Innovations like responsive search ads can help you create relevant, personalized ads at scale. However, it can be a challenge to know when these ads have the right amount of information. That’s why we’re introducing ad strength.
  

  You’ll see ad strength both when you write a responsive search ad and as a column in Google Ads. Ranging from “Poor” to “Excellent,” this metric measures the relevance, quantity, and diversity of your ad copy. Combined with actionable feedback, ad strength makes it easy for you to improve the effectiveness of your ads.
  

  

  Use ad strength to create more effective responsive search ads

  Ad strength will be available as a column starting in early September, and in the responsive search ad creation interface over the next several weeks. Support for responsive display ads will follow in the coming months.

  To get started with ad strength, we recommend providing as many distinct headlines, descriptions, and other assets as possible. This will help Google's machine learning generate a larger number of relevant, effective ad combinations.
  

  • For a responsive search ad, provide as many headlines and descriptions as makes sense for your business. If you’re having trouble getting started, we recommend focusing on creating at least 5 headlines.
    
  • For a responsive display ad, provide up to 15 images and 5 logos, headlines, and descriptions per ad.
    

  Promote your app at scale

  App marketers are also making the shift to more diverse creative. With Universal App campaigns, Google’s machine learning automatically combines your creative assets with content from your app store page to create personalized, relevant ads at scale.
  

  We recommend providing at least 4 to 5 text, video, and image assets in varying lengths and sizes. If you’re looking for more guidance, we have an online course to help you design and optimize your creative for a Universal App campaign. If you want to learn more about promoting your mobile app in Google Ads, you can view the other courses here.
  

  
  

  
  

  1. Google / Purchased, April 2017

  2. Google internal data

  
  
  https://www.blog.google/products/ads/create-effective-ads/
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  ‘Tis the season for planning holiday travel
  • sorangutan  

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  While it may seem early, many people have already started planning trips for the upcoming holiday season. To help you save money and confidently book holiday travel, we’re sharing holiday price trends, tips and a few new tools from Google Flights and Hotel Search.

  With the help of the Google News Lab and Polygraph, we created a handy tool that shows how prices change—based on when you book and where you’re traveling—for flights to popular holiday destinations. It’ll even help you find hotel deals for Thanksgiving, December holidays and New Years.

  If saving money is your goal, take a day or two off at the start of the week after Thanksgiving; many routes have lower than average prices with a return on Tuesday, November 27th or Wednesday, November 28th.
  

  If you’re planning to go on vacation, we’ll also show you what destinations have unusually low hotel prices during these holidays. As you browse hotel destinations, we’ll show you some of the most popular things to do when you get to your destination, based on the activities that others have saved in Google Search and Maps. 

  • Winter holiday flight price trends infographic
  • Winter holiday hotel deals infographic
  • Winter holiday things to do infographic

  See how your Thanksgiving flight price stacks up  

  For Thanksgiving this year, we’re showing a new tip when you search in Google Flights on your phone. It shows you whether the price you’re seeing for a given flight is a “good” price—that is, is it unusually low, is it typical, or is it high—based on historical prices and prices available so far this year.

  

  Find good flight deals in the Explore Map  

  We’ve also added new ways to find great deals in the Explore Map in Google Flights. If you’re flexible on your travel location or dates for an end-of-year getaway, you can search for destinations like “Southern Europe,” then choose either specific or flexible dates. Google Flights searches through thousands of possible destinations, analyzes their historical flight prices and then highlights cities with good deals in green.
  

  
  

  

  Check hotel price trends and comparisons

  Hotel room rates can also fluctuate, especially when rooms are selling out fast for holidays like New Year’s Eve. We’re adding Price Insights for Hotels, which lets you see how prices evolve over time for the dates of your trip.

  
  

  Say you’re looking to stay at a hotel in San Diego on Christmas. You can now explore that hotel’s historical prices, if it’s lower or higher than usual, and compare that price to other hotels in the same destination within a similar price range--and of the same star rating-- during the same time period.

  
  

  

  It may be August, but if you  start booking your holiday travel plans by mid-September, you’ll be giving yourself the best holiday gift of all—a little extra cash.
  

  
  
  https://www.blog.google/products/travel/2018-holiday-travel-insights/
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  Helping boost diversity in local newsrooms
  • sorangutan  

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  Local journalism is among the most trusted sources in the U.S. But in order to report on and reflect the issues that matter to local communities, journalists and editors working in those newsrooms need to be reflective of the places and people they serve. The data is not encouraging—according to the Newsroom Employment Diversity Survey, in 2017, minority journalists comprised only 16.6 percent of the workforce in U.S. newsrooms—only a half- percentage point improvement from the previous year.

  To help the local news industry with this diversity challenge, the Google News Initiative is partnering with the Local Media Association (LMA) to offer 50 scholarships to the Media Transformation 2018 conference taking place in Kansas City September 25-27. These scholarships will be awarded to a diverse mix of under-represented candidates on a first-come first-serve basis. The conference will educate attendees on sustainable business models, innovation, and media transformation for local news companies—and provide scholarship attendees an opportunity to grow their own careers and skills while bringing best practices back to the organizations they serve.

  We’re also supporting the Women in Local Media Summit during the conference to advance women’s presence in the industry. The GNI will provide training, research and content to the LMA to enable a transparent discussion about increasing diversity of staff and news coverage during this session.

  The Google News Initiative was formed to build a stronger future for journalism, in collaboration with the industry. Diversity in local journalism is core to that mission and we’ll continue to look for opportunities to help drive diversity and inclusion.

  
  
  https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/google-news-initiative/helping-boost-diversity-local-newsrooms/
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  Animal crackers in my trends (and other searches out of the box this week)
  trends high five • • sorangutan  

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  Packing some animal crackers in your brand new lunch box? You might notice something different—read on for more about your favorite non-cookie, and for some of the week’s top Google searches (with data from the Google News Lab).

  Animal crackers get a wild new look

  This week, Nabisco announced that the animals on its famous packaging will no longer be depicted behind bars after PETA recommended that the company think ... outside the box. So we’ve agreed that the animals should roam free, but now for the ultimate head-scratcher (searched by many people this week): “Why aren’t animal crackers called cookies?” Political animals must love animal crackers because D.C. was the region with the most searches for animal crackers this week.

  Any excuse for a new backpack

  The kids are headed back to school, and their curious minds are searching for “How to sneak candy into school.” Clearly, everything’s going great so far. Calculators, backpacks and pens were the most-searched school supplies, and when it comes to prepping for school, the kids are wondering about “backpacks for school,” “outfits for school,” and “hairstyles for school.” I feel you—where can I get some advice on hairstyles for work?

  Rounding the bases

  The Little League World Series is underway, and the winner will be crowned (helmet-ed?) on Sunday. Search interest for certain teams shot up like a fly ball: searches for “Panama Little League World Series” were up 2,000 percent, ditto for “Little League World Series Japan vs. South Korea” (up 2,500 percent). From up in the nosebleeds, people less familiar with the Series wondered, “How many innings in Little League baseball?”

  Hurricane Lane

  The category two storm is getting closer to the Hawaiian Islands, causing excessive amounts of rainfall on the Big Island and a 3,500 percent increase in search interest for “Hurricane warning Hawaii.” To get ready for the storm, people are looking to the past: One of the top searched questions in Hawaii this week was “What category was Hurricane Iniki?” (one of the biggest hurricanes to hit Hawaii back in 1992).

  My stars!

  This week, a NASA intern took some profanity-laced language to the Twitter universe. It resulted in the loss of her internship—but there was a 3,350 percent spike in search interest for “NASA internship” so sounds like other people are interested in the job. Elsewhere in the search stratosphere, some are questioning the agency’s merch: “Why are NASA shirts popular?” was another one of this week’s trending questions about NASA.

  
  

  
  
  https://www.blog.google/high-five/animal-crackers-my-trends-and-other-searches-out-box-week/
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  Elections roadshow: supporting journalists’ midterm reporting
  • sorangutan  

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  Journalists play a key role in making sure everyone has access to accurate information. From the spread of misinformation that can sway public opinion to digital attacks that take news websites offline, threats to quality journalism make it difficult for journalists to do their jobs.

  As a part of our commitment to help people engage with democratic processes, the Google News Initiative is working across the world to support journalists in the lead-up to major elections.

  Ahead of the midterm elections in the U.S., the Google News Initiative partnered with the Society of Professional Journalists Training Program to lead workshops in ten states and Washington D.C between now and November 6th.

  Host cities will include:

  • Indianapolis, Indiana
    
  • Dallas, Texas 
    
  • Austin, Texas 
    
  • Las Vegas, Nevada  
    
  • Phoenix, Arizona
    
  • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    
  • Columbus, Ohio
    
  • Milwaukee, Wisconsin 
    
  • Madison, Wisconsin
    
  • Morgantown, West Virginia
    
  • Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
    
  • Miami, Florida 
    
  • Washington D.C
    

  In each city, the trainings will cover a wide range of Google tools and best practices for journalists covering elections including:

  Safety and Security
  This is especially important for journalists in the field conducting sensitive, difficult, and sometimes dangerous reporting. According to a recent study of more than 2,700 newsroom managers and journalists from 130 countries, at least half of those surveyed don’t use any tools or methods to protect their data and information online. During the training, you’ll learn how to protect yourself and your news organization from hacking, phishing, malware, censorship and other digital attacks.

  Verification and Fact Checking
  With content developed in collaboration with First Draft News, we’ll cover time-saving methods to verify the authenticity and accuracy of images, videos and reports that you find in social media and elsewhere online.

  Data Journalism
  Data journalism helps to tell deep, insightful stories. We’ll cover how to find, analyze, interpret and visualize data in compelling new ways—and help your audience gain a deeper understanding of election data and campaigns.

  In addition to Google tools, the Society of Professional Journalists will be providing training on ethics and elections. You can learn more and sign up to these free training events at https://www.spj.org/election18.asp.   

  If you can’t join a session, we’ve also provided free training materials for educators on these topics, as a part of membership to the Google News Initiative University Network. You can learn more about these modules and the University Network here.

  To learn more about other Google tools for elections and beyond, and to review self paced training visit g.co/newstraining. We look forward to seeing you later this year in a city near you!

  
  
  
  https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/google-news-initiative/elections-roadshow-supporting-journalists-midterm-reporting/
• 

  Dog days, always: the most fetching trends for National Dog Day
  search trends • • sorangutan  

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  For someone like me who barely asks permission to pet puppers passing by on the street, every day is a day to celebrate doggos. But then there are days like National Dog Day, where our favorite floofers get a little extra attention.

  
  

  In honor of this most important day of puppreciation this Sunday, Dogust 26, we took at look at Google Trends to sniff out what people search for when it comes to canines.

  
  

  If you’re like me, you probably have your own unique dog needs. Are you on the hunt for a hound dog pic? Do you feel like your bowwow-logical clock is ticking, and you’re hankering to bring a new BFF home with you from the shelter? Does your next weekend project involve turning your kitchen into a barkery for churning out homemade biscuits? No matter what you’re looking for, Search has it all.

  Have a sploot, and let’s dig into some of the top queries and questions people in the U.S. have asked about dogs in the past 12 months.

  
  

  Bowwow why?

  Of all the canine curiosities that might cause your head to tilt, these are the top dog-related questions:
  
  

  1. How to draw a dog
     
  2. Why do dogs eat grass?
     
  3. How long are dogs pregnant for?
     
  4. Why do dogs eat poop?
     
  5. Why do dogs lick?

  
  

  Decoding Doggos

  Let’s admit it: we all talk to dogs, and I, for one, am convinced they understand us. But sometimes it’s clear we’re not speaking the same language. Here are the top “what does it mean” dog related searches we’ve seen:
  
  

  1. What does it mean when a dog licks you?
     
  2. What does it mean when a dog howls?
     
  3. What does it mean when a dog eats grass?
     
  4. What does it mean when a dog’s nose is dry?
     
  5. What does it mean when a dog shakes?

  Teacher’s Pet

  We all love to teach our dogs new tricks. Here are the top “how to teach my dog to” related searches:
  
  

  1. How to teach my dog to speak
     
  2. How to teach my dog to fetch
     
  3. How to teach my dog to roll over
     
  4. How to teach my dog to play dead
     
  5. How to teach my dog to shake
     
  6. How to teach my dog to come when called
     
  7. How to teach my dog to heel
     
  8. How to teach my dog to smile
     
  9. How to teach my dog to find things
     
  10. How to teach my dog to stay
      

  
  

  Canine Cookin’
  Especially on National Dog Day, all the good boys (and girls) out there deserve a treat. If you’re a DIY-inclined dog parent (or neighbor, or stranger who just loves dogs), give one of these top searched dog recipes a try:
  
  

  1. Dog treat recipes
     
  2. Dog food recipes
     
  3. Dog cake recipe
     
  4. Dog birthday cake recipe
     
  5. Dog biscuit recipe
     
  6. Dog ice cream recipe
     
  7. Dog cookie recipe
     
  8. Dog cupcake recipe
     
  9. Peanut butter dog treats recipe
     
  10. Dog shampoo recipe
      

  
  

  Pupper Pics

  Our furry friends come in all shapes, sizes and varieties of softness and fluff. Of all the perfect pooches out there, here are the breeds that saw the most Google Images searches:
  
  

  1. Siberian Husky
     
  2. Bulldog
     
  3. Pit bull
     
  4. German Shepherd
     
  5. Labrador Retriever
     
  6. Golden Retriever
     
  7. Pug
     
  8. Chihuahua
     
  9. Yorkshire Terrier
     
  10. Pembroke Welsh Corgi
      

  Parting GIFs

  If you’re having a ruff time expressing your love of labradoodles, leonbergers and lhasa apsos, nothing gets the message across like a GIF. Check out the top puppers on our GIF search engine, Tenor, so you can say “I love you” or “I need a belly rub” with the adorable canine of your choice.

  • Smile Dog

    Smile Dog

  • Passing Out

    Passing Out

  • blankie

    Blankie

  • Disappointment Dog

    Disappointment Dog

    https://tenor.com/view/disappointment-dog-really-gif-5350844

  • Embarassed Dog

    Embarrassed

  
  
  https://www.blog.google/products/search/dog-day-search-trends-2018/
• 

  An update on state-sponsored activity
  • sorangutan  

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  We’ve invested in robust systems to detect phishing and hacking attempts, identify influence operations launched by foreign governments, and protect political campaigns from digital attacks through our Protect Your Election program.

  Our Threat Analysis Group, working with our partners at Jigsaw and Google’s Trust & Safety team, identifies bad actors, disables their accounts, warns our users about them, and shares intelligence with other companies and law enforcement officials.

  This week, there has been a lot of news about attempted state-sponsored hacking and influence campaigns. We wanted to provide an update on some of our ongoing work in this area:

  • State-sponsored phishing attacks 
    
  • Technical attribution of a recently-reported influence campaign from Iran 
    
  • Detection and termination of activity on Google properties

  State-sponsored phishing attacks

  Phishing—attempts to trick users into providing a password that an attacker can use to sign into an account—remains a threat to all email users. Our ​improving ​technology has enabled ​us to ​significantly ​decrease ​the ​volume of ​phishing ​emails that ​get ​through to our users. ​Automated ​protections, ​account ​security ​(like ​security ​keys), ​and specialized ​warnings give ​Gmail users industry-leading ​security. As part of our security efforts, for the past eight years, we’ve displayed prominent warnings to Gmail users who are at risk of phishing by potentially state-sponsored actors (even though in most cases the specific phishing attempt never reaches the user’s inbox).

  In recent months, we’ve detected and blocked attempts by state-sponsored actors in various countries to target political campaigns, journalists, activists, and academics located around the world. When we’ve seen these types of attacks, we’ve notified users as well as law enforcement.

  On Monday morning, we issued our most recent series of notifications to Gmail users who were subject to suspicious emails from a wide range of countries. We posted about these sorts of warnings here—if you received this type of warning, please read the blog post and take action immediately.

  Iran and FireEye

  To complement the work of our internal teams, we engage FireEye, a leading cybersecurity group, and other top security consultants, to provide us with intelligence. For the last two months, Google and Jigsaw have worked closely with FireEye on the influence operation linked to Iran that FireEye identified this week. We’re grateful to FireEye for identifying some suspicious Google accounts (three email accounts, three YouTube channels, and three Google+ accounts), which we swiftly disabled. FireEye’s full report has just been published today. It’s worth reading.

  In addition to the intelligence we received from FireEye, our teams have investigated a broader range of suspicious actors linked to Iran who have engaged in this effort. We’ve updated U.S. lawmakers and law enforcement about the results of our investigation, including its relation to political content in the United States. We wanted to provide a summary of what we told them.

  Connections to IRIB: forensic evidence

  Our technical research has identified evidence that these actors are associated with the IRIB, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.

  We can’t go into all the technical details without giving away information that would be helpful to others seeking to abuse our platforms, but we have observed the following:

  • Technical data associated with these actors is strongly linked to the official IRIB IP address space.
    
  • Domain ownership information about these actors is strongly linked to IRIB account information.
    
  • Account metadata and subscriber information associated with these actors is strongly linked to the corresponding information associated with the IRIB, indicating common ownership and control.

  These facts, taken together with other technical signals and analysis, indicate that this effort was carried out as part of the overall operations of the IRIB organization, since at least January 2017. This finding is consistent with internet activity we’ve warned about in recent years from Iran.

  • We’ve regularly sent warnings to Gmail users about phishing attempts coming from Iran (including on Monday).
    
  • We detected and warned users about a covert man-in-the-middle security attack in Iran in 2011.
    
  • We uncovered and warned users about politically-motivated phishing in Iran in 2013.
    

  Detecting and terminating activity on Google properties

  Actors engaged in this type of influence operation violate our policies, and we swiftly remove such content from our services and terminate these actors’ accounts. Additionally, we use a number of robust methods, including IP blocking, to prevent individuals or entities in Iran from opening advertising accounts.

  We identified and terminated a number of accounts linked to the IRIB organization that disguised their connection to this effort, including while sharing English-language political content in the U.S.:
  

  • 39 YouTube channels that had 13,466 total US views on relevant videos; 
    
  • 6 blogs on Blogger
    
  • 13 Google+ accounts

  Our investigations on these topics are ongoing and we will continue to share our findings with law enforcement and other relevant government entities in the U.S. and elsewhere, as well as with others in the industry.

  The state-sponsored phishing attacks, and the actors associated with the IRIB that we’ve described above, are clearly not the only state-sponsored actors at work on the Internet. For example, last year we disclosed information about actors linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA). Since then, we have continued to monitor our systems, and broadened the range of IRA-related actors against whom we’ve taken action. Specifically, we’ve detected and removed 42 YouTube channels, which had 58 English-language political videos (these videos had a total of fewer than 1,800 U.S. views). We’ve also identified and terminated the account associated with one blog on Blogger.

  We continue to actively monitor our systems, take prompt action, share intelligence, and remain vigilant about these and other threats.

  
  
  https://www.blog.google/technology/safety-security/update-state-sponsored-activity/
• 

  Fifteen grants to support computing research for undergraduate women
  • sorangutan  

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  Ayanna Howard, Professor and Chair of the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, wouldn’t be where she is today without her undergraduate research experiences at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Growing up, Ayanna seemed to have a knack for math, puzzles, computers and gaming. By the time she started college, she had figured out her passion for robotics, and became a summer intern at JPL. The hands-on research experiences, the formation of a strong network of peers and advisers while at JPL helped motivate Ayanna to pursue her PhD and eventually a career in academia.
  

  Studies show that undergraduate exposure to hands-on research experiences can profoundly influence a student’s academic and career path. This is particularly true for women who are underrepresented in computing and who may see research careers as “not for them” because of the lack of support when pursuing research careers and pathways to computing.
  

  To get more women involved in research and computing, we’re providing 15 exploreCSR (Computer Science Research) grants to support universities running CS research-focused workshops for undergraduate women. These workshops, modeled on, and inspired by Carnegie Mellon University's, OurCS, will help undergraduate women to enhance their research skills, create a sense of community with peers and faculty, instill confidence to problem solve beyond the classroom, and inspire and motivate them toward careers in research.
  

  Here are the recipients (including Ayanna Howard!) who collectively plan to reach ~1,200 undergraduate women in 2018-2019:
  

  Georgia Institute of Technology
  Ayanna Howard, Professor and Chair
  Improving the Academic Matriculation of Undergraduate Women in Graduate Computing (I.AM.GradComputing) Workshop

  Howard University
  Latifa Jackson, Assistant Professor
  Broadening Participation in Data Mining (BPDM) Workshop

  Indiana University - Bloomington
  Suzanne Menzel, Senior Lecturer
  OurCS: Opportunities for Undergraduate Research in Computer Science

  Louisiana Tech University
  Benjamin Drozdenko, Assistant Professor
  Cyber Research for Empowering Women Experimenters (CREWE)

  Michigan Technological University
  Jean Mayo, Associate Professor
  Exploring Computer Science Research

  The University of Texas at El Paso
  Martine Ceberio, Associate Professor
  Building Pathways to Graduate School as a Way of Recruiting and Retaining Undergraduate Female Students in Computing

  University of Maine, Orono
  Penny Rheingans, Director, School of Computing and Information Science
  ResearchME: Maine Research Focused Workshops and Mentor Networks

  University of Maryland, Baltimore County
  Danyelle Ireland, Associate Director, Center for Women in Technology
  The CS-Impact Workshop Series: Exploring Opportunities for Undergraduate Computer Science Research & Graduate study

  University of Michigan
  Rada Mihalcea, Professor and Co-Director Girls Encoded
  Building a Diverse Research Community: Introducing Women to Computer Science Research

  University of Minnesota Twin Cities
  Maria Gini, Professor
  Exposing students to undergraduate research opportunities, while guiding and mentoring them through the process

  University of New Mexico
  Lydia Tapia, Associate Professor
  Becoming a Robot Guru Workshop

  University of Pennsylvania
  Chris Callison-Burch, Associate Professor
  SPUR WOMEN: Support and Promote Undergraduate Research for Women

  University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez
  Nayda G. Santiago, Associate Professor
  Increasing Hispanic Women participation in Undergraduate Computing Research

  University of Washington
  Richard Ladner, Professor Emeritus
  OurCS@UW + AccessComputing

  The selected group of grantees represent a diverse mosaic of faculty and institutions that brings a clear focus on cultivating and retaining a “critical mass” of women in computing, and a commitment to exposing undergraduate women in computing to foundational research training. As the workshops take flight in the new school year, we hope to share updates on each workshops’ progress and results.

  
  
  https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/fifteen-grants-support-computing-research-undergraduate-women/
• 

  Don’t run out of data: Two new ways Datally can help
  • sorangutan  

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  Everyone runs out of data sometimes. These moments sting—which is why we built Datally to help. And today, we’re releasing two new features to help you tame your data.

  Emergency bank

  Emergency bank saves some of your data so you have it protected for later—just in case you need it. Enter your balance and how much data you’d like to save for emergencies, and Datally will automatically block your apps from using data once you reach your emergency data allowance. You decide when and how to use your emergency bank data—for example, to send that urgent message or schedule a ride home.

  Bedtime mode

  Check your data balance before bed, then check again when you wake up. It should be the same, shouldn’t it? Too often, apps drain your data overnight. Bedtime mode turns off all of your phone’s data usage at night. Choose your bedtime and wake up time, and Datally makes sure your data isn’t draining while you’re dozing.

  Datally’s mission is to help you never run out of data. You can use Emergency bank and Bedtime mode starting today.

  
  
  https://www.blog.google/technology/next-billion-users/datally-emergency-bank-bedtime-mode/
• 

  VR Labs Open Doors of Opportunity for STEM Students
  education google ar and vr • • sorangutan  

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  For students pursuing STEM degrees like biology, hands-on time in a lab can be as essential as time spent in the lecture hall or library. In fact, for many science-based degrees, it’s required. But getting access to a lab isn’t always easy. Many students don't live close enough to a lab facility or a university that offers their degree of choice. Others find it hard to get enough lab time because student demand is too high or their school can't afford to provide unlimited access.

  Through its ability to take people anywhere, virtual reality can be a powerful resource for students who otherwise would not have access to the lab time they need to complete their degrees.  We partnered with science education company Labster to create more than 30 virtual labs on the Daydream platform, where students can do their lab work in VR without having to walk, drive, or fly to a campus.  These VR labs can be particularly useful to students and faculty at the rapidly-growing number of schools that offer online science degrees. 

  Earlier this month, students in Arizona State University’s online B.S. in Biological Sciences program began working in these virtual labs for full course credit. Soon students at the University of Texas at San Antonio, McMaster University, and other institutions across North America and Europe will be able to do their lab work in VR as well.  

  Through its ability to take people anywhere, virtual reality can be a powerful resource for students who otherwise would not have access to the lab time they need to complete their degrees.

  

  UsingDaydream View or the Lenovo Mirage Solo with Daydream, students can do things that previously necessitated a physical presence in a lab, like examining organisms under a microscope and sequencing DNA. They can also do things that wouldn’t be possible in the physical world, like seeing and manipulating DNA at the molecular level and visiting Astakos IV, a newly discovered exoplanet being explored as a potential habitat for human beings.

  Because there’s no time limit, students can review theories, concepts, and techniques as many times as they want. In addition, students receive personalized feedback in the app to help them understand which concepts they need to review, and which techniques need more practice.

  

  We’re hoping to make the virtual lab experience available to more students worldwide, including undergraduates, graduate students, and even high schoolers.

  If you’d like to bring the virtual lab experience to your school, you can learn more at labster.com/vr.

  
  

  
  
  https://www.blog.google/products/google-ar-vr/vr-labs-open-doors-opportunity-stem-students/
• 

  Easier Search Console access for Analytics owners
  search analytics • • sorangutan  

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  Verifying websites in Search Console can be useful for site owners, giving you access to information about how your site is performing in Google Search. You can also get notified of issues, such as accidental blocking of Googlebot or getting hacked. Over the next few months, if you're a verified owner of a Google Analytics property, we'll now automatically verify you for that same website in Search Console.

  Quicker verification, with no extra steps

  Now that we're launching auto-verification, you don't have to manually configure Search Console and Analytics. To be eligible for auto-verification, you still need to follow the existing requirements for Search Console ownership. If you don't want to be verified for Search Console, simply delete the property in Search Console.

  See how your site is performing on Google Search

  Search Console is a free tool that provides website owners with information which can be critical to performance in Google Search. Once verified, Search Console compiles reports on the website's performance in Search, including search queries, the website's rankings, and the number of clicks and impressions. Additionally, there's information about a site's indexing, the status of various implemented features on the website, as well as reports and notifications of critical issues.

  
  We hope this change makes it easier for you to get access to data in Search Console, to be able to discover issues quicker, as well as to learn about opportunities for your website in Google Search. If you have any questions, visit the Webmaster Help Forum.
  
  https://www.blog.google/products/marketingplatform/analytics/easier-search-console-access-analytics-owners/
• 

  New Analytics Academy course: Google Analytics for Power Users
  • sorangutan  

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  Today, we're introducing a new course in Analytics Academy: Google Analytics for Power Users.

  

  In this course with instructor Krista Seiden, you will have the opportunity to practice advanced Analytics techniques to  improve website content, optimize your checkout flow, and focus your marketing strategy.

  By participating in the course, you’ll learn how to:
  

  • Analyze converting and non-converting audiences

  • Determine the traffic sources that drive the most value

  • Customize channels for increased actionability

  • Identify top performing content on your site

  • Improve ecommerce performance

  Sign up for Google Analytics for Power Users to start learning today.

  
  
  https://www.blog.google/products/marketingplatform/analytics/new-analytics-academy-course-google-analytics-power-users/
• 

  Five insights on voice technology
  • sorangutan  

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  Over the last couple years something interesting happened—millions of people began having conversations with their speakers, cars, computers and phones. Voice technology is fundamentally changing the way we use we our devices, often in ways we didn’t expect. 

  We’ve learned a lot about how we can better serve people’s needs with voice, helping them save time and get things done. Here are a few things we’ve learned since we introduced the Google Assistant nearly two years ago.

  Voice is about action.

  When people talk to their Google Assistant, they’re usually trying to get something done. Assistant queries are 40 times more likely to be action-oriented than Search, with people asking for things like “send a text message,” “turn off the lights,” or “turn on airplane mode.”

  
  

  Why do we think this is happening? For many tasks, particularly while you’re on the go, it can be much easier to get things done through voice. I can say “turn on the lights and play some music,” without having to worry about which app I need to open. Even for basic things like creating a calendar invite, I don’t have to look down at my phone or interrupt what I’m doing, I can just say “create an appointment for noon on Saturday.” These seem like small things, and they are. But they illustrate what makes voice so unique—the technology allows me to complete a task in a way that feels natural. The more we can build these types of experiences, the closer we get to an ideal Assistant.

  People expect conversations.

  When people start using voice assistants, we often see very simple commands. But very quickly, expectations go up in terms of complex dialogue. We might see “weather Chicago” typed in Search, whereas with the Assistant we see much longer and more conversational queries like “what’s the weather today in Chicago at 3pm.” On average, Assistant queries are 200 times more conversational than Search.

  We’ve seen that even simple commands can take all forms. For example, people ask the Google Assistant to set an alarm in more than 5,000 different ways, which means that we have to build the Assistant to understand this conversational complexity.  

  

  Screens change everything.

  The world hasn’t completely shifted to voice, nor do we expect it to. Screens bring a completely new canvas for conversational AI, where we can bring together voice and touch in an intelligent way. So when you ask for a pasta dough recipe, you can get visuals of what the dough should look like while the Assistant reads you the steps along the way.  

  With the launch of Smart Displays and our new visual experience for phones, we’ve evolved the Google Assistant to become much more dynamic, spanning voice, screens, tapping and typing. And we’re seeing people respond—in fact, nearly half of interactions with Assistant today include both voice and touch input.

  Daily routines matter.

  You can access the Assistant almost anywhere you are throughout the day—on the phone, in the car, or on a speaker in the living room. So it makes sense that when people use the Assistant, it’s largely driven by their environment and what they’re trying to accomplish in their daily routines.

  Let’s take a look at some of the most popular ways we use the Google Assistant in our daily routines. In the morning, we’ll use our smart speakers to ask for the weather or listen to the news. During lunch and on the commute home, we’ll text and call our friends, or look for local restaurants. When we get home, we want to listen to music. And at the end of the day, we get ready for tomorrow with tasks like “set an alarm,” “set a reminder,” or “ask the Assistant to tell me about tomorrow’s meetings.” Where and how we use our Assistant varies throughout the day, but the consistency of the experience should stay the same.

  

  Voice is universal.

  One of the most exciting things to witness about digital assistants is that even though the Assistant is a  new technology, it’s incredibly easy to adopt. There’s no user manual needed, and people of all ages, across all types of devices, and in many different geographies can use the Assistant. Because of this, we’re finding that Google Assistant users defy the early adopter stereotype—there’s a huge uptick in seniors and families, and women are the fastest growing user segment for the Assistant.

  Voice is also universal on a global scale. Over the past year, we've brought the Assistant to more countries and languages. In places where people are coming online for the first time—like India, where Google Assistant usage has tripled in India since the beginning of the year—voice is taking the forefront as the primary way they interact with their devices. For example, Google Assistant usage has tripled in India since the beginning of the year.

  Of course voice technology is still relatively new and evolving. We’re just figuring out what works in this space. But it’s exciting to see how voice technology is making it easier for people to get things done, and we’re all learning together.

  
  

  
  
  https://www.blog.google/perspectives/scott-huffman/five-insights-voice-technology/
• 

  Selling inventory is easier with Google Ad Manager
  • sorangutan  

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  The digital landscape is evolving, and savvy publishers are evolving with it. There are more opportunities than ever for advertisers to reach their desired audience, no matter what platform, channel, or device consumers are using.

  
  That’s why we launched Google Ad Manager—to help you grow revenue wherever people are watching TV, playing mobile games, noodling around on their desktops, or engaging on social media. Here are a few ways you can use Ad Manager to get the most out of your ad inventory.
  

  Tailor your inventory to meet advertisers’ goals

  Start by taking control of your inventory. Ad Manager lets you segment inventory in multiple ways, so you can meet demand for ads that reach specific audiences. For example:
  

  Key-values: You can get even more granular by using key-values, such as a specific search keyword, to provide the exact audiences advertisers want to reach.

  • Audience: Organize according to users’ behavior on your sites or apps (first-party segments) or integrate data from outside vendors (third-party segments).
    
  • Devices and browsers: Organize inventory according to device type, browser, or operating system. You can even use browser language. Want to reach only Spanish-speaking Safari users? No hay problema.
    
  • Geography: Segment your inventory based on countries, regions, U.S. metro areas, U.K. TV regions, cities, and postal codes. You can also specify places to exclude. Think globally, advertise locally.
    
  • Delivery: Use Ad Manager’s delivery tools to see which ads in your inventory delivered on your page and why, then manage delivery speed, frequency caps, and day and time segmenting (dayparting) to maximize their ROI. Be surgical and precise.
    

  

  Five ways to sell your inventory on Ad Manager

  Regardless of how you work with buyers and advertisers, Ad Manager can help you get the most out of your inventory. So once you’ve optimized your inventory, Ad Manager can help you sell it in a variety of different ways:
  

  1. Direct sales. Your in-house team can directly negotiate high-priority ads, such as sponsorships, full-page takeovers, and custom creative integrations. Or, you can create valuable “share-of-voice” ads that give advertisers a certain share of the page views on your site.
     
  2. Programmatic Guaranteed. Ad Manager’s programmatic features allow you to automate negotiation and sales of your inventory, simplifying the process and reducing the potential for human error. Programmatic Guaranteed campaigns allow you and the buyer to agree on a price and terms for premium inventory ensuring you reserve your best inventory for your highest value advertisers. By offering advanced capabilities for buyers, including global frequency management and the ability to use their own audience lists, Programmatic Guaranteed brings new value to your direct sales business.
     
  3. Exchange Bidding. Invite trusted third-party exchanges to engage in a unified real-time auction. By allowing multiple exchanges to compete with each other, publishers can make more money for their inventory, while maintaining some control over ad quality.
     
  4. Open Auction. Let Ad Manager automatically select the highest paying ads that match your business rules from all advertisers bidding in the Open Auction.  In other words, Ad Manager will help you find ads in the open auction, that can help you earn the most revenue.
     
  5. Private marketplaces. These include both Private Auctions and Preferred Deals. A Private Auction gives a select group of buyers access to inventory before it becomes available in the open auction. Preferred Deals bypass auctions completely, with the publisher cutting a deal at a fixed price with one specific buyer. Both options give high-value remarketing buyers access to more inventory.
     

  Integrate your ad management to capture revenue across all buyers

  No matter how you sell your inventory, Ad Manager’s rules-based management system automatically synchronizes advertiser blocks across all your deals and inventory, artfully steering clear of any conflicts. It’s a comprehensive ad sales platform that helps organize your inventory and optimize your connections to customers. By allowing you to connect all your inventory to all your advertising partners in one place, you can earn more and grow your business.

  
  
  https://www.blog.google/products/admanager/selling-inventory-easier-google-ad-manager/