Articles about Google

Google is launching a series of Internet Citizens workshops as part of its YouTube Creators for Change program. Aimed at 13- to 18-year-olds, the workshops have been designed to teach teenagers how to spot fake news, how to stay safe online, and how to "make negativity bounce."

Taking in topics such as comment moderation, dealing with online abuse, and how to respond to offensive content and echo chambers, the workshops launch today in the UK, starting in Liverpool, and will spread around the country over the coming weeks. But is the program just stoking the idea of generation snowflake?

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It's news that -- on the face of it -- makes very little sense; the Wall Street Journal reports that Google is going to include an ad-blocking feature in its Chrome web browser. For a company that makes so much money from advertising this seems like something of a strange move, but in the light of recent ad controversy, it could be sensible business.

Just last month a large number of big companies started to pull advertising from Google and YouTube after finding that their ads were appearing on sites hosting extremist material. This, coupled with the fact that there is a general backlash against advertising from consumers (hence Adblock Plus pushing its Acceptable Ads program), could explain why Google is keen to be seen to be doing something that will give uses a better ad experience with greater control.

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We live in a dichotomous age in which we are more concerned about privacy than ever, while simultaneously handing over more and more personal information to the likes of Facebook and Google. With its Your Timeline feature, Google Maps provides us with a great way to keep track of the places we've visited, but it also means sharing a lot of very revealing data with Google.

You may well like the idea of being able to check to see which coffee shop you visited a year ago, or check how far you walked last Wednesday, but you may also like the idea of maintaining some grasp of your privacy. Here's how to disable Your Timeline in Google Maps and how to delete any records that have been saved already.

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Back in February, Google opened up YouTube live streaming to channels with 10,000 or more subscribers. Just two months later, the company has slashed this requirement to just 1,000 subscribers.

But while the bar may have been lowered in terms of subscriber numbers, there are still a few hoops that would-be live streamers have to jump through. It does mean, however, that many more YouTubers will be able to stream their content live, so there will be a greater selection of content to consume.

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It's something that Android users have been able to do for a little while now -- using the Timeline function of Google Maps to check back over their travel history. Now the feature is coming to iOS, meaning iPhone users can now look back over their day and where it has taken them.

Google suggests that it's a great way to rediscover places you have visited in the past, but it also provides a means of tracking how far you have traveled over the course of the day. Users are given a good level of control over what's included in their timeline, allowing for complete personalization.

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Two of the biggest electronic payment systems currently available to consumers are teaming up. Android Pay and PayPal have extended their strategic partnership making it possible to use PayPal as a payment method in Android Pay.

This means that anyone whose bank is not supported by Android Pay now has a new option available to them, bringing additional users to Google's payment system.

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If you're someone who enjoys watching YouTube at night -- perhaps on your phone in bed -- you'll be all too aware that the site's light color palette can be rather harsh on the eyes. With a little tinkering, you can unlock a hidden Dark Mode which will save your delicate peepers and make nocturnal viewing all the more enjoyable.

At the moment the hack only works in Chrome, but it's likely that Google will bring it to everyone when word spreads. Here's what you need to do.

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You'd be forgiven for thinking that Google is entirely pre-occupied with fake news and the fact-checking thereof these days, but there are still rather more interesting changes and additions being made to search. The latest new feature is "style ideas" which makes its way to the web and Android today.

Google says that the aim of the feature is to help "boost your search style IQ" -- because, after all, "when it comes to fashion, it’s hard to know where to start." What this means in practice is that when Image Search is used to track down a particular product, such as shoes or a bag, Google will show off images with those items paired with different products or displayed in different situations.

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Google has announced that it is to retire the Octane JavaScript benchmark. The company says that while the benchmark was useful when it was introduced back in 2012, "over-optimization" by developers means that it is far less meaningful.

Google goes as far as saying that developers were essentially cheating the system. It says that compiler optimizations needed to achieve high benchmark scores have become common and, in the real world, these optimizations translate into only very small improvements in webpage performance.

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Machine learning has been put to lots of powerful uses, but Google has a new way to make use of the technology. AutoDraw is the company's "fast drawing" tool for everyone, and it works much like autocomplete on your phone.

AutoDraw is a web-based drawing tool that uses the same technology as Google's Quick, Draw! AI experiment and it helps you to quickly create an image by "guessing" what it is you’re trying to draw. If this all sounds a bit mad, that's because, well, it is really. But it's also unique enough to make it well worth checking out.

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Google Chrome is a great web browser for many reasons. Like Firefox, it is a cross-platform program based on (mostly) open source technologies, but compared to Mozilla's offering, its development moves at a much faster pace. Google is constantly pushing the envelope, creating a largely positive web browsing experience.

Today, Google introduces a new Chrome web browser feature that highlights the search giant's forward-thinking. Called "scroll anchoring," it literally "anchors" the web page, preventing the page from scrolling to the top in certain circumstances. In other words, if the user is reading text on a page, it will prevent the page from shifting and interrupting the consumption. The brilliance of this feature is its overall impact -- this annoyance has probably been experienced by most, if not all, web surfers.

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The Android landscape is changing, albeit at a really, really slow pace. That explains why, in early-April, Google reports that Nougat is found on 4.9 percent of Android devices, while the older Marshmallow powers nearly a third -- 31.2 percent -- of the smartphones and tablets that run the most-popular mobile operating system.

Things couldn't be more different if we look at the iOS space, where iOS 10 currently holds a 79 percent share. Meanwhile, its predecessor, iOS 9, can be found on just 16 percent of the iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices in use. Google released Nougat in mid-August, last year, while Apple introduced iOS 10 the following month, in September.

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YouTube is more than just a source of cat videos and hilariously painful-looking accidents caught on camera: for many people it is a source of extra income, or even a living. But the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) through which advertisements can be used to generate money is also open to abuse.

The Google-owned site has a plagiarism problem whereby popular content is stolen and re-uploaded to a different channel to generate money for a third party. In a bid to stop this practice, YouTube is banning channels from displaying ads until they have managed to hit 10,000 views.

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Having introduced various tools to fight fake news, the next weapon in Facebook's arsenal is education. Over the next few days a large "Tips for spotting fake news" banner will appear at the top of news feeds in 14 countries, but the approach it is taking is unlikely to have much impact on those most influenced by, and most likely to share, fake news.

Like Google, Facebook is taking steps to tackle fake news. The social network has already announced a raft of measures aimed at stamping out the problem, but now it is trying to not only educate people about how to spot fake news, but also to stem the spread of fake news, and to disincentivize the practice.

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The spread of fake news has become something of an epidemic in recent years, and there has been pressure on the likes of Google, Facebook and Twitter to do more to stem its flow. Google's Fact Check feature is not new, but today the search giant is rolling out the feature around the world.

A global rollout is important if such a tool is to have any real impact. It's all well and good to have reports fact-checked on one side of the world, but it's of little use if the same fake stories remain unquestioned and untested elsewhere. Google is doing its part by making the Fact Check label available in Google News everywhere, and spreading it into search results in all languages as well.

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