Articles about Google

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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It has been a while since Google announced its plans for YouTube Go, a streamlined version of its mobile app with a focus on sharing and minimizing data usage. Now the company has released the first beta on Google Play.

Designed for use in countries with less-than-reliable internet connection, such as India, YouTube Go also allows for the downloading of videos for offline viewing without buffering. The app includes a number of options to help you "maximize your fun without burning up your data," including the ability to preview videos and see the amount of data required to download different quality versions of the same file.

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Parenting can be hard -- I get it. It can be a real hassle to monitor what a child is doing 24 hours per day. Nowadays, with the internet and many connected devices, your child could be online when you aren't aware. Luckily, there are tools to help you track their activity -- up all night surfing the web? Busted!

Today, the Google Wifi router gets a new tool to help owners better manage internet access. Called "Scheduled Pause," it literally lets you pause the internet for selected devices. In other words, it could make a tablet or other device inoperable during a certain time frame -- like a bedtime. Here's the problem. What if there is an emergency, like say, a home invasion, and the child wants to use the tablet to get help? If the tragedy occurs while the internet is paused, it could be catastrophic.

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Earlier this week, Donald Trump signed an executive order that effectively killed Obama-era environmental policies. Expressing his love of "clean coal" -- despite such a substance not actually existing --  Trump wiped out Obama orders that aimed to reduce carbon production and signalled an "end to the war on coal."

The signing of the executive order was met with astonishment around the world, and many voices have spoken out against the wisdom of the move. Among those are technology companies, many of whom have said that they will stick to promises they have made to tackling climate change -- something Google is aiming to do by switching to 100 percent renewable energy this year.

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Following UK home secretary Amber Rudd's suggestion that encrypted messaging service WhatsApp was 'a secret place to hide' for terrorists, four major technology companies met with the minister to discuss the removal of extremist material from websites and social media.

Microsoft, Google, Twitter and Facebook met with Rudd amid calls from civil liberties groups for greater transparency. Following the meeting, senior executives from each company signed a statement indicating that they are ready to work with the government to tackle the problem. The matter of backdoors into encrypted apps and services, however, remained off the table.

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