Google Cloud Platform News

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  A lawsuit that ignores choice on Android and Google Play
  • sorangutan  

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  We built Android to create more choices in mobile technology. Today, anyone, including our competitors, can customize and build devices with the Android operating system — for free. 

  We also built an app store, Google Play, that helps people download apps on their devices. If you don’t find the app you’re looking for in Google Play, you can choose to download the app from a rival app store or directly from a developer’s website. We don’t impose the same restrictions as other mobile operating systems do.

  So it’s strange that a group of state attorneys general chose to file a lawsuit attacking a system that provides more openness and choice than others. This complaint mimics a similarly meritless lawsuit filed by the large app developer Epic Games, which has benefitted from Android’s openness by distributing its Fortnite app outside of Google Play.

  Here’s more detail on how this lawsuit gets it wrong:

  Google Play competes vigorously and fairly

  The complaint limits its definition of the app marketplace to Android devices only. This completely ignores the competition we face from other platforms such as Apple's incredibly successful app store, which accounts for the majority of mobile app store revenues according to third-party estimates. We compete for both developers and consumers, and if we’re not providing them with the best experience on Google Play, they have other alternatives to choose from.

  Android increases competition and choice

  This complaint alleges that consumers and developers have no option other than to use Google Play. But that’s not correct. Choice has always been a core tenet of Android. Device makers and carriers can preload competing app stores alongside Google Play on their devices. In fact, most Android devices ship with two or more app stores preloaded. And popular Android devices such as the Amazon Fire tablet come preloaded with a competitive app store and no Google Play Store.

  

  
  

  Consumers can also “sideload” apps, meaning they can download them from a developer’s website directly without going through Google Play at all. People sideload successful apps like Fortnite, as well as entire app stores like the Amazon Appstore, neither of which are distributed through Google Play.

  Contributing to this openness and choice, we also give developers more ways to interact with their customers compared to other operating systems. For example, Google Play allows developers to communicate with their customers outside the app about subscription offers or a lower-cost offering on a rival app store or the developer’s website.
  

  Google Play helps developers succeed

  The complaint suggests that Google Play somehow inhibits developers’ ability to grow. Even though developers have a range of distribution options on Android, we’re proud that, as of February 2020, developers had earned over $80 billion through Google Play. And in 2020, the Android app economy, including Google Play, helped create nearly 2 million American jobs. 

  

  We provide resources to help developers build great apps, lower their costs and grow their businesses. This includes tools that help developers reduce testing burdens, run beta tests and monitor their app at scale. We also invest significantly in security. Google Play Protect, our security service, now scans more than 100 billion apps every day; in 2019, it prevented 1.9 billion malware installs.

  The economic model of Play and Android benefits developers

  The complaint is peppered with inflammatory language designed to distract from the fact that our rules on Android and Google Play benefit consumers. We stand behind apps distributed on Google Play, so we do have some rules to keep the store secure, protect privacy and prevent fraud. For example, we have rules around spam, app reviews and inappropriate content. These rules don't harm consumers; they help protect their safety and security. People want and expect this when using their phones. 

  Under our Google Play billing policy, the 3% of developers who actually sell digital products or content use Google Play’s billing system and are subject to a progressive service fee: 15% on the first $1 million earned (99% of developers who pay any fee earn less than a million dollars), and then 30% for earnings above $1 million. Some large app developers, like Epic, want preferential rates and want to use their own payment processing system, but that would harm the ecosystem as a whole.

  

  • First, our current business model benefits the overwhelming majority of developers. About 97% of developers today don’t sell digital content on Google Play and therefore aren't subject to a service fee. Less than 0.1% of developers — who are the largest and most profitable on Google Play — are subject to a 30% service fee on some transactions. This lawsuit is essentially on behalf of that 0.1% of developers. Moreover, the complaint conspicuously fails to mention that our fee is comparable to other rival digital stores, including the Samsung Galaxy Store, Amazon Appstore, Microsoft Xbox, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and Apple App Store. 

  

  • Second, a centralized billing system protects consumers from fraud and gives consumers an easy way to track purchases in one place. It also enables us to provide robust parental and safety controls and subscription management tools that are critical to consumer trust.

  Even with these rules, it’s worth reiterating: Developers who don’t like our policies can still distribute their apps to Android users directly or through rival app stores without using our billing system or paying us a cent — and many do. 

  A meritless lawsuit that ignores Android’s openness

  We understand that scrutiny is appropriate, and we’re committed to engaging with regulators. But Android and Google Play provide openness and choice that other platforms simply don’t. This lawsuit isn’t about helping the little guy or protecting consumers. It’s about boosting a handful of major app developers who want the benefits of Google Play without paying for it. Doing so risks raising costs for small developers, impeding their ability to innovate and compete, and making apps across the Android ecosystem less secure for consumers. 

  For more information on Google Play, please visit our Android developer blog. 

  
  
  https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/public-policy/lawsuit-ignores-choice-android-and-google-play/
• 

  A new generation of Korean startups
  • sorangutan  

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  In Korea today, a new generation of startup founders are making their mark — continuing Korea’s long tradition of forward-thinking in technology, building a more diverse Korean economy and contributing to the recovery from COVID-19. 

  
  

  Supporting these founders is a priority for Google in Korea, part of our mission to help improve Koreans’ lives and give Korean businesses a platform to grow. In 2015, we established a Google for Startups Campus in Seoul — our first in the Asia-Pacific region — to support founders and create a sense of community among startups. And in 2019,  we launched ChangGoo, a training and mentorship program for startups with high potential and ambitions to expand internationally. So far, startups that have graduated from the program have seen their revenue increase by more than 50%, while more than 40% have taken their first steps overseas. In 2020, ChangGoo became an official partnership with the South Korean government, and we recently finalized the group of startups that will take part in 2021.  

  
  

  The startups we work with through ChangGoo are confronting issues and solving problems that affect millions of Koreans —  and many more people around the world. To get a sense of what drives them, we asked for perspectives from the founders of Mfort, creator of a platform to help working mothers access childcare, and Ringle, which is using technology to help people with difficulties learning new languages.  

  
  

  Jeeyea Chung 정지예], Mom Sitter

  

  My colleague suddenly left the meeting room where we were preparing the final presentation for an important project. I took a short break and heard her on the phone in the restroom on my way back. She was brilliant and considered a role model among her peers, but she sounded tearful when talking on the phone. Her child had a fever and she was begging her mom to go collect them from school, because she couldn’t leave work — and neither could her husband. 

  
  

  That happened in 2012, when I was 26, and it came as a big shock. I aspired to build my career at the same consultancy, have a family like hers and raise beautiful children while doing a great job at work. 

  
  

  My married friends were thinking seriously about whether they had to quit work when they had a baby, even before they were pregnant. My co-workers with children had depression, or became anxious that there was no quota at a daycare center. They felt weary trying to balance doing a good job with taking good care of their children as a working mom. At the national level, it all added up: Korea’s female activity rate is very low compared to other OECD countries, affecting productivity despite significant investments in education.  

  
  

  I realized I wanted to find a way to address this challenge, and that awakening led me to create Mom Sitter: a platform that connects parents with babysitters.  After working hard to grow user numbers to 850,000, and becoming the leading platform in the nation, we wanted to expand further with a mobile app. The ChangGoo program gave us support with technology development, access to educational seminars and help with app and YouTube marketing — enabling us to increase awareness of our brand. It was a proud moment when we were selected as a top service in the first year of Changoo, and earned the top ranking in the Play Store’s childcare category for Korea. 

  
  

  I’ve realized that childcare issues concern not only working women but also all those who raise children, including dads and grandparents.. If they have strong backup , they can finish the childcare marathon, just as Mom Sitter has gained energy from Google’s support in the competitive startup environment. 

  
  

  Seunghoon Lee 이승훈], Ringle

  

  I believe many of us living and working in non-English speaking countries must have the same frustration —  that if only we spoke better English, we might enjoy a whole new world of opportunities. At school, I didn’t spend much time learning English with a native speaker – perhaps 10 hours spread over 12 years of learning. At college, I couldn’t find a good language learning service to close the gap with more fluent English-speakers who’d spent time overseas. 

  
  

  My frustration peaked in my mid-30s. While doing an MBA at Stanford and seeing others experience the same challenges, I worked with a buddy I met on campus to create a product that could help improve English communication skills through one-on-one lessons with student tutors. 

  
  

  We had early success and attracted our first investors, but increasing users was a unique challenge. To expand quickly, we had to market Ringle to people who might want to use the service while simultaneously adding helpful new features. Google helped us with search engine optimization and marketing support — then we were awarded a grant of KRW 23 million ($220,000) under the ChangGoo program, helping us expand even faster.

  
  

  Ringle has grown three-fold every year for the past five years. We recently closed a funding round that valued us at $180 million and opened a US headquarters in Silicon Valley. We’re looking forward to continuing to strengthen our bond with Google as we seek to become the platform of choice for English learners in non-English-speaking countries. 

  
  
  https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-asia/korean-startups/
• 

  How to keep content coming
  • sorangutan  

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  As writers, photographers, and artists, we have so much to do, but limited time to get it all done. With people online around the world and around the clock, there is pressure to turn out content frequently and across a growing number of platforms. So how can you keep up? Four creators we spoke to share their tips for optimizing the time you spend creating content so you can keep it coming — and keep it fun — while staying efficient and organized.
  
  

  Block time on your calendar

  It can be difficult to find the time every day to write a posts and promote them across channels. One strategy is to pick a routine time to create content and stick with it. Musician, entertainer, and lifestyle blogger Rigel Gemini recommends producing content on a weekly basis for at least one channel and keeping it fun. “If content becomes a chore or becomes too much work, you will start to dread it. So just figure out something that you can write about or photograph or talk about every week and dive in,” Rigel says.

  

  Rigel Gemini is a musician and fashion fanatic who writes about art and culture for his blog.

  Play to your strengths

  Mata Leiataua writes about faith, fashion and decoration on The Mata Mix. “The truth is,” she says, “despite how it may look scrolling through your feed, no one feels inspired to create content 24/7.” Her advice is identifying your strengths and the “pillars you want to uphold fundamentally throughout your content.” She recommends asking yourself, “is your content in the moment or stylized? Do you prioritize your aesthetic or copywriting?” Once you understand your style, it becomes easier to know where to allot your time.

  

  Mata Leiataua is a fashion expert who shares her favorite luxury, budget and thrifted finds.

  Create in batches

  You don’t bake one cookie at a time. Why would you take only one photo? Tiffany Williams writes about glitz and glam, beauty and wellness, and life off the runway and behind the scenes. “Batch create if you can,” she says. “Creating in real time can be a lot, so creating a ton of content ahead of time helps. That way you always have something new to post,” even when you don’t have the time. 

  

  Tiffany Williams is the San Diego-based model behind the fashion and lifestyle blog, Glitz and Glam by Tiff.

  Reduce, Rework and Repurpose your content
  

  It’s important to “respect the attention span of your audience on all platforms,” says professional gardener, blogger, YouTuber and podcaster Kevin Espiritu. “The same person, on different platforms, is in a different state of mind and requires different presentation of the same content.” So make the most of your content by adapting it for different forms. A blog post can become a video,a video can become a Web Story and images can be reused on your blog.   
  

  

  Former professional poker player, Kevin Espiritu, now spends his time online sharing gardening tips and tools.

  Prioritize value over quality

  According to Rigel, one of the tallest hurdles before beginning is the fear of failure. “Don't make it hard on yourself by overthinking it or setting such a high standard that you don't get started. Your content will get better over time,” he says, “That’s the only way.” Kevin Espiritu adds, “Focus on the value you offer your readers. People will read a post that has an eye-catching image, but more importantly, people will return to your knowledge and expertise.

  
  
  https://blog.google/web-creators/how-keep-content-coming/
• 

  Ask a Techspert: What’s a neural network?
  • sorangutan  

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  Back in the day, there was a surefire way to tell humans and computers apart: You’d present a picture of a four-legged friend and ask if it was a cat or dog. A computer couldn’t identify felines from canines, but we humans could answer with doggone confidence. 

  That all changed about a decade ago thanks to leaps in computer vision and machine learning – specifically,  major advancements in neural networks, which can train computers to learn in a way similar to humans. Today, if you give a computer enough images of cats and dogs and label which is which, it can learn to tell them apart purr-fectly. 

  But how exactly do neural networks help computers do this? And what else can — or can’t — they do? To answer these questions and more, I sat down with Google Research’s Maithra Raghu, a research scientist who spends her days helping computer scientists better understand neural networks. Her research helped the Google Health team discover new ways to apply deep learning to assist doctors and their patients.

  So, the big question: What’s a neural network?

  To understand neural networks, we need to first go back to the basics and understand how they fit into the bigger picture of artificial intelligence (AI). Imagine a Russian nesting doll, Maithra explains. AI would be the largest doll, then within that, there’s machine learning (ML), and within that, neural networks (... and within that, deep neural networks, but we’ll get there soon!).

  If you think of AI as the science of making things smart, ML is the subfield of AI focused on making computers smarter by teaching them to learn, instead of hard-coding them. Within that, neural networks are an advanced technique for ML, where you teach computers to learn with algorithms that take inspiration from the human brain.

  Your brain fires off groups of neurons that communicate with each other. In an artificial neural network, (the computer type), a “neuron” (which you can think of as a computational unit) is grouped with a bunch of other “neurons” into a layer, and those layers  stack on top of each other. Between each of those layers are connections. The more layers  a neural network has, the “deeper” it is. That’s where the idea of “deep learning” comes from. “Neural networks depart from neuroscience because you have a mathematical element to it,” Maithra explains, “Connections between neurons are numerical values represented by matrices, and training the neural network uses gradient-based algorithms.” 

  This might seem complex, but you probably interact with neural networks fairly often — like when you’re scrolling through personalized movie recommendations or chatting with a customer service bot.

  So once you’ve set up a neural network, is it ready to go?

  Not quite. The next step is training. That’s where the model becomes much more sophisticated. Similar to people, neural networks learn from feedback. If you go back to the cat and dog example, your neural network would look at pictures and start by randomly guessing. You’d label the training data (for example, telling the computer if each picture features a cat or dog), and those labels would provide feedback, telling the neural network when it’s right or wrong. Throughout this process, the neural network’s parameters adjust, and the neural network transitions from not knowing to learning how to identify between cats and dogs.

  Why don’t we use neural networks all the time?

  “Though neural networks are based on our brains, the way they learn is actually very different from humans,” Maithra says. “Neural networks are usually quite specialized and narrow. This can be useful because, for example, it means a neural network might be able to process medical scans much quicker than a doctor, or spot patterns  a trained expert might not even notice.” 

  But because neural networks learn differently from people, there's still a lot that computer scientists don’t know about how they work. Let’s go back to cats versus dogs: If your neural network gives you all the right answers, you might think it’s behaving as intended. But Maithra cautions that neural networks can work in mysterious ways.

  “Perhaps your neural network isn’t able to identify between cats and dogs at all – maybe it’s only able to identify between sofas and grass, and all of your pictures of cats happen to be on couches, and all your pictures of dogs are in parks,” she says. “Then, it might seem like it knows the difference when it actually doesn’t.”

  That’s why Maithra and other researchers are diving into the internals of neural networks, going deep into their layers and connections, to better understand them – and come up with ways to make them more helpful.

  “Neural networks have been transformative for so many industries,” Maithra says, “and I’m excited that we’re going to realize even more profound applications for them moving forward.”

  
  
  https://blog.google/technology/ai/ask-a-techspert-whats-a-neural-network/
• 

  3 ways automation can help publishers succeed
  • sorangutan  

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  For publishers, constantly adapting to change is just part of the job. In a relatively short timespan, we’ve seen the industry make huge strides in building efficiencies and transforming the way it drives revenue. But even in an environment where change is the norm, some years bring more challenges than others. The pandemic has brought fundamental disruptions to publishers’ businesses, not to mention new regulations and a move to remote collaboration. 

  
  In other words, publishers are changing the way they work — and to do it, they’re increasingly looking for insights into their ads business. From May 2020 to May 2021, we've seen a 48% increase in reports created in Data Studio for Google Ad Manager. That’s why we’ve been working on new ways to help our partners solve complex problems with machine learning, and help them save precious time and resources. As you navigate your own process, here are three ways Ad Manager can help you create value with automation.

  1. Earn more with less effort

  To help you uncover more value from your existing inventory, Ad Manager puts machine learning to work and automatically surfaces new opportunities to maximize revenue. Then our solutions let you quickly implement or easily run an experiment to test before you commit to the change. 

  For example, the Opportunities & Experiments feature estimates the opportunity created if you were to change a certain pricing rule or setting, then helps you run an experiment to validate the estimate, and finally activate the opportunity — all in one place. As a result, you’ll better understand the effect it has on your business, and can run a real-time experiment to verify it.

  2. Identify issues and opportunities

  Today, it’s harder than ever to monitor performance and identify issues and opportunities in your ad business operations. To help, Ad Manager both automatically surfaces opportunities for you as well as provides the tools to access the data to power your own insights and learning.

  

  Ad Manager Home dashboard user interface

  The Ad Manager Home dashboards show proactive insights into your network’s revenue, performance and delivery, highlighting  which of your strategies have been the most effective and recommending additional opportunities for you to maximize revenue. We’re also working on new features that will allow you to customize the homepage into a personalized dashboard with the data and insights that are most relevant for you and your role.

  Ad Manager also provides access to your historical insights via APIs and Reporting, to help you build automation solutions or even create custom dashboards via Data Studio. Features such as Bids Insights Card and Bid Data in Reporting can help you get a stronger understanding of the bid distribution for your inventory, along with data about how unified floors are affecting your revenue. The benefit? You can confidently make informed decisions about your pricing strategy.

  3. Streamline workflows

  With employees working from home, a streamlined workflow can help you manage your business more efficiently. Ad Manager automation can help by providing access to different demand sources more effectively and offering troubleshooting tools that make it easy to solve ads-related issues in your account. 

  Ad Manager API, for instance, helps you unlock the power of automation for your Live Events workflow. You can schedule, create or pause Live Streaming events all through the API — without ever having to navigate through the Ad Manager user interface — and integrate with your existing internal workflow processes. This also makes it easier to scale as you increase the number of Live Events and schedule them in the future.

  This is just a preview of what we’re working on. To learn more, read our new automation guide and get the entire picture of where we are. For years to come, the efficiency gains made possible by machine learning will continue to offer some of the greatest engines for online advertising success. We’re devoted to helping you make the most of your inventory so you can keep adapting to our ever-changing world. Understanding what technology can do today is the best way to anticipate what it will be able to do tomorrow.

  
  
  https://blog.google/products/admanager/3-ways-automation-can-help-publishers-succeed/
• 

  Stadia Savepoint: June updates
  • sorangutan  

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  It’s time for another update to our Stadia Savepoint series, recapping the new games, features and updates on Stadia.

  In June, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege launched with instant access to 5v5 PVP action in the latest North Star season, including support for cross-play and cross-progression with PC and Luna. Players also competed within Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: The Official Video Game, which supports Crowd Play Beta. June also gave players the chance to experiment with building new creations in Hello Engineer First on Stadia in Early Access, which includes support for State Share.

  

  In addition, Stadia Pro subscribers enjoyed new games like the action-platformer Blue Fire or jumped into titles like The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, Chronos: Before the Ashes and MotoGP™20. Claiming these titles within the growing Pro library of 20+ games makes them easy to play instantly, as long as you’re a Pro subscriber. Plus, Stadia Pro offered free play weekends in PGA TOUR 2K21 and Borderlands 3, the latter of which now supports cross-play so you can party up and fight your way across Pandora.

  Last month, the Ubisoft+ beta expanded to six new countries. Subscribers in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland gained access to a growing library of Ubisoft titles playable on Stadia ($14.99 USD/€14.99 EUR per month, cancel anytime.) At the same time, Stadia revealed nine crowd-favorite games coming soon from the biggest Ubisoft series including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rayman.

  A new promotion with AT&T gives US players six free months of Stadia Pro when they pick up a qualifying AT&T Fiber plan or 5G smartphone on an eligible AT&T unlimited wireless plan. For a limited time, AT&T customers who redeem this offer can purchase a Stadia Premiere Edition for 80% off at only $19.99 USD, while supplies last. More details here.

  

  On June 23, we launched the first version of Stadia on Chromecast with Google TV and other officially supported Android TV OS devices. For all other Android TV OS devices, players can opt into experimental support to play Stadia. (See more details on our support page.)

  

  
  

  Stadia on iOS
  

  Stadia has left the experimental stage on iOS and now features the ability to optimize and adjust resolution within the Progressive Web App.

  Stadia support for Chrome on Android
  

  Play games on Stadia using Chrome on Android, with access to your profiles, gameplay captures and the Stadia store.

  Sign in with multiple profiles for multiplayer gameplay
  

  Sign-in with up to four Stadia profiles for gameplay on a single screen with support for local multiplayer. Currently supported in Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: The Official Video Game.

  
  

  Stadia Pro updates
  

  • Four new games were added to the Stadia Pro library in June: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, MotoGP™20, Chronos: Before the Ashes and Blue Fire.
  • An entire library of games are currently available to play instantly with Stadia Pro, including PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS, Crayta: Premium Edition, Orcs Must Die! 3, Gunsport, HITMAN, Human Fall Flat, République, Journey to the Savage Planet: Employee of the Month Edition, Little Nightmares II, PixelJunk Raiders, AVICII Invector, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA, Trine 4 - The Nightmare Prince, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, MotoGP™20, Chronos: Before the Ashes, Blue Fire, Moonlighter, Street Power Football, Terraria and The Darkside Detective.
  • There are ongoing discounts for Stadia Pro subscribers and special savings for all players — check out the web or mobile Stadia store for the latest.

  
  

  June content launches on Stadia:
  

  • Blue Fire
    
  • Hello Engineer Early Access
    
  • Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: The Official Video Game
    
  • Rainbow Six Siege
    
  • The Elder Scrolls Online: Blackwood

  
  

  New games coming to Stadia announced in June:
  

  • Assassin’s Creed Black Flag
    
  • Assassin’s Creed Rogue
    
  • Assassin’s Creed III Remastered
    
  • Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
    
  • Child of Light
    
  • Far Cry 4
    
  • Far Cry Primal
    
  • Far Cry Blood Dragon
    
  • Just Dance 2022
    
  • Life is Strange
    
  • Life is Strange: Before the Storm
    
  • Madden NFL 22
    
  • Moonlighter
    
  • Rainbow Six Extraction
    
  • Rainbow Six Siege
    
  • Rayman Legends
    
  • Riders Republic

  
  

  That’s all for now — we’ll be back next month to share more updates. As always, stay tuned to the Stadia Community Blog, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for the latest news.

  
  

  
  

  
  
  https://blog.google/products/stadia/savepoint-june-2021-updates/
• 

  How competing unlocked this intern's coding passion
  • sorangutan  

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  Welcome to the latest edition of “My Path to Google,” where we talk to Googlers, interns and alumni about how they got to Google, what their roles are like and even some tips on how to prepare for interviews.

  Today we spoke with Livia Seibert, a software engineer intern working virtually in Pennsylvania. Find out how a fun coding competition with her dad led her to becoming an intern at Google.

  What do you do at Google?

  I’m a software engineering intern. I’m working on a command line tool that automates the creation of experiments to make it safer, easier and faster for engineers to try out new changes. I like my project because I’m able to have a positive impact on other engineers by helping to speed up their workflow.

  What made you decide to apply to Google?

  At the beginning of my sophomore year of college, I decided to apply to software engineering internships for the first time. I had taken classes the summer before, but I did not have any internship experience at that point. Many internships I saw listed at other companies only took junior-year interns or were unlikely to consider applicants without experience, so I was really excited when Google talked about the STEP internship during a recruiting visit on campus, and I decided to apply for it.

  How would you describe your path to Google?

  I was first introduced to computer science when I was 13 because my dad had seen a YouTube video about the importance of coding and the lack of computer science education in schools across the U.S. I was pretty resistant to learning how to code at the time, since I went to a small all-girls school where coding wasn't a super popular course of study. My dad ended up challenging me to see which of us could finish an online Python class fastest, and after a week he had given up on it and I ended up being super interested in the material. I taught myself how to code using online resources throughout middle school, and when I got to high school I was able to take CS classes. Since then, I’ve always known that I want to go into software engineering.

  How did the application and interview process go for you?

  I applied to Google directly. I was very nervous about the technical interview process because it was completely new to me, but it ended up being a much less stressful experience than I had anticipated. The engineers who conducted my interviews were incredibly kind and supportive, and each interview felt more like a conversation than the interrogation I was expecting.

  What’s one thing you wish you could go back and tell yourself before applying?

  One thing I wish I could go back and tell myself before applying is to have more confidence. I think that it’s easy to get intimidated by the large number of very talented people that apply to Google every year, and to experience imposter syndrome even once you’ve gotten the job. Instead, it’s important to focus on your own accomplishments and avoid comparing yourself to others.

  Complete the following: “I [choose one: code/create/design/build] for…”

  Inclusivity. As a woman in tech, I value making sure that underrepresented groups are able to have their voices heard in order to create tech that works for everyone.

  

  Livia Seibert

  
  
  https://blog.google/inside-google/life-at-google/how-competing-unlocked-interns-coding-passion/
• 

  Watch With Me on Google TV: Laverne Cox’s watchlist
  • sorangutan  

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  Movies and TV can make us laugh, cry and even shape who we are. Our watchlists can be surprisingly revealing. We’re teaming up with entertainers, artists and cultural icons on a new Watch With Me series on Google TV to share their top picks and give you a behind-the-scenes look at the TV and movies that inspired them.

  
  

  Laverne Cox is an Emmy-nominated actress and LGBTQ+ advocate. Despite spending plenty of time on camera, she’s also a fan of being in the audience. “I love movies, I love television,” she says. “I still watch television and film as a way to learn, to escape, to be moved, to laugh, to cry.”

  
  

  We recently had a chance to sit down with Laverne to learn more about what she likes to watch — and what her own Google TV watchlist looks like. “My watchlist is all of who I am and everything that has shaped me or helped me understand myself better,” she says. “Understand humanity better. Understand the craft of acting and filmmaking better. And, it makes me smile.”

  

  To get you in the show-binge mood, we asked Laverne a few questions on how she likes to settle in for her watchlist.

  
  

  What’s your go-to movie snack?

  Laverne Cox: Definitely popcorn, but I also love a good tortilla chip.

  
  

  What’s your favorite genre?

  Laverne Cox: Suspense.

  
  

  Do you watch movies alone or with other people?

  Laverne Cox: It depends. I love watching films alone… but with the man I’m seeing now, it’s fun to watch stuff together and remotely when we’re apart. 

  
  

  Who is your favorite person to talk to about movies and shows?

  Laverne Cox: My brother! We have very different tastes, but when it collides, we have the best conversations about film. He is brilliant.

  
  

  Who is your celebrity crush?

  Laverne Cox: I crush on specific actors in a certain role - like James Spader in Pretty in Pink! I’ve also had a thing for Johnny Depp in 21 Jump Street. My celebrity crushes are entirely character based.

  
  

  How should we watch your watchlist?

  Laverne Cox: The best way to watch my watchlist is on the couch, in a black terry cloth robe that makes you feel all nice and snuggly. Make sure you’ve got some chips and cheesy dip and either warm tea or a cocktail.

  
  Dive into Laverne’s watchlist and uncover the story behind her top picks on Google TV's For You tab, rolling out over the next few days.  We hope you enjoy Laverne’s watchlist as much as she did sharing her favorites with us. Be sure to join in on the fun and share your favorites using #WatchWithMe.
  
  https://blog.google/products/google-tv/watchwithme-lavernecox/
• 

  How local news in Argentina is using News Showcase
  • sorangutan  

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  Editor’s note: This is the first in a series we’re doing featuring local publishers using Google News Showcase. Thanks to the three Argentinian publishers who shared their thoughts and insight on the impact that News Showcase is providing for their coverage. In the coming months we’ll have more from local News Showcase news partners around the globe. 

  ADIRA, The Asociación de Diarios del Interior de la República Argentina, is a regional press association that brings together newspaper publishers throughout Argentina. Many of our partner publications have worked with Google over the years, through Google News Initiative, trainings and now nearly 50 of them are a part of Google News Showcase. Google's efforts have been important in helping our journalism reach and develop stronger relationships with readers and diversify our revenue.

  The transition from print to digital for newspapers outside the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires is slow and difficult, where smaller papers can’t generally afford to hire the necessary tech professionals to make digital changes needed to reach readers. But it has been easy for smaller publications to use News Showcase, helping them reach new audiences. 

  News Showcase, alongside Google’s other product efforts and programming from the Google News Initiative, has great potential to grow and deepen reader relationships for newsrooms in Argentina through new ways to highlight stories, greater control over showcasing our brand and additional tools for paywalled content.

  Here is how three local ADIRA publications — El Litoral, La Opinión de Rafaela and La Gaceta — are using News Showcase to expand their digital strategies and build relationships with readers. 

  El Litoral

  Magalí Suarez, Content Coordinator at El Litoral, Santa Fe, Argentina

  Founded in 1918, El Litoral is a regional newspaper in Santa Fe, Argentina, producing several supplements, specialized magazines, a second provincial newspaper, a TV channel and more. 

  News Showcase came at a critical time for all media, especially for those of us who are strongly betting on digital growth. Even in the middle of an unprecedented health and economic crisis, we’ve continued to produce quality content for our readers. News Showcase allows us to "package" our journalists’ content, provide context to the information and offer readers more tools so they can inform themselves around stories responsibly. 

  Overall News Showcase has allowed us to improve engagement by including related news, create panels that better position our stories/content for our target audience, highlight the journalism that distinguishes us from other news organizations and give our readers a way to get information and context in an easy, organized way.

  We think News Showcase has helped us to solve complex challenges such as how to better engage with readers in a crowded news environment. This is a very good start in laying the foundations for sustainability in the future. 

  

  An example of how News Showcase panels look for El Litoral in Argentina. 

  La Opinión

  Nestor Fenoglio, Newsroom manager, Rafaela, Argentina

  At La Opinión we work to cover the stories that the people of Rafaela, a city of 100,000 people in Argentina, rely on. We’re constantly striving to find ways to bring our storytelling closer to readers alongside developing new strategies to relay what is relevant to our region. At the same time, we also want to find ways to bring our work from smaller communities closer to larger audiences in the cities.

  Having financial support with programs like Google News Showcase allows us to continue betting on newsroom structures that guarantee quality journalism, the kind of journalism our town deserves.

  We are continuing to test out the product to find new ways to highlight our content and offer additional context to readers. So far, the content that has worked best has in general been related to the COVID-19 pandemic: news about restrictions, the evolution of the virus, life stories of people impacted by it and how the pandemic evolved in different parts of the country.

  
  

  La Gaceta 

  Daniel Dessein, President of La Gaceta.

  La Gacetais a leading journalistic company in the North of Argentina that publishes a regional newspaper with the largest circulation in the country, is involved in television production, and runs an online edition with four million unique monthly users and more than 20,000 digital subscribers.

  The News Showcase feature called extended access lets our readers read select paywalled content, opening the way for us to give our thoughtful and in-depth journalism a greater audience than it might have had and hopefully turn them into eventual subscribers. This feature has substantially reduced user friction to access these kinds of stories in La Gaceta, and significantly increased the daily number of new readers who have signed in. This has helped diversify our revenue and provided access to potential new subscribers we didn’t have before.

  

  An example of how extended access looks on a News Showcase panel by La Gaceta in Argentina.  

  A reader survey we carried out provided positive feedback about News Showcase. The majority of people told us they like having a flexible, well-selected menu of news stories, with the necessary context to decide which they want to read. And overall, the content that worked best for us was related to the pandemic, but sports articles have also performed well in the last month. We look forward to continuing to use and test the product. 

  
  
  https://blog.google/products/news/local-news-argentina-news-showcase/
• 

  Mentorship inspires Deyrel Diaz and future researchers
  • sorangutan  

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  During his undergrad, Deyrel Diaz attended a VR hackathon where he tried out an aircraft training demo. While Deyrel, a computer science (CS) student, had experience with 3D modeling and coding, seeing the results in action was all new. “This was the first time I’d seen the two mediums interact on such an immersive level,” he says. “Seeing how this simulation was used for real world training and research...I wanted to be a part of that.” Today, Deyrel is a PhD student studying Human-Centered Computing at Clemson University with a focus on mixed reality (AR/VR) research. He’s also a graduate of the most recent class of the CS Research Mentorship Program (CSRMP), one initiative by Google Research to support students from historically marginalized groups (HMGs) in computing research pathways. 

  Recognizing that the work CS Researchers are doing has broad implications for billions of people across the globe, CSRMP aims to ensure that the community of researchers represents the experiences, perspectives, concerns and creative enthusiasm of all the people of the world, by supporting the pursuit of computing research for undergraduate and graduate students from HMGs through mentorship, peer networking and career exploration.

  In June, CSRMP graduated a class of 281 students from 110 universities across the United States and Canada. We spoke with Deyrel to learn more about his experience and plans for his journey in computing research. Here’s what he had to say:

  What motivated you to participate in CSRMP?

  Through programs and conferences, I learned just how important it is to have representation in the development and design of technology. When I read about CSRMP, I saw the opportunity to not only help expand that community by connecting with other professionals in the field, but to also learn alongside some of the best and brightest students from around the world.

  How has CSRMP influenced your research journey?

  The pod meetings influenced my journey the most. I was able to build relationships with other phenomenal student researchers and my CSRMP mentor. We discussed the challenges we face while conducting computing research, and we shared lots of helpful tools and resources. These meetings were also a place to find inspiration and motivation, and helped me learn about other career fields, which I might incorporate into my future research.

  What are you proudest of?

  I’m proudest of winning two national fellowships that will fully fund my PhD studies. The support system my mentors created for me really helped guide me in the right direction, so it’s thanks to this strong mentorship I was able to accomplish this. Plus, having these fellowships gave me the time to take part in programs where I can mentor other up-and-coming underrepresented students and expose them to not only computing research, but graduate school in general.

  What advice do you have for students like you who are curious about starting their journeys as researchers in computing?

  The field of computer science touches anything and everything, and if there’s something it hasn’t, you could be the person who makes it happen. That said, there’s no reason for you to pursue something you don’t love, so seek out professors, hack-a-thons, demos or certificate programs to learn more about different fields and how you can use them in personal projects. Don’t wait for someone to tell you what to do, just start tinkering and create something you’d have fun using.

  
  

  Congratulations to all of the students who graduated from the CS Research Mentorship Program in the first half of 2021! We look forward to supporting future students who are taking computing research by storm like Deyrel Diaz. Applications are now open for the September 2021 mentorship cycle – apply by July 28, 2021.

  
  

  
  
  https://blog.google/technology/research/mentorship-inspires-deyrel-diaz-and-future-researchers/
• 

  An exploration of art, nature and technology
  • sorangutan  

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  Caroline Rothwell is a Sydney-based visual artist whose work tackles important conversations about human interactions with nature throughout history — and their lasting effects. In her latest body of work, she hopes to bring attention to the plants around us we so often take for granted.
  

  She wanted to see if technology could help her use botanical data from historical archives to educate people about the natural world. So with the help of Google Creative Lab Sydney, she began exploring how machine learning could interpret archives and datasets to create new art. Together, we built Infinite Herbarium, a web application as well as a participatory art installation, in which users can explore an infinite number of machine-learning-generated plants, creating their own artwork while learning more about the plants in their own backyard.

  

  The installation invites participants to photograph two plants from the world around them. Then, using machine learning, the application classifies the plants and uses them to build a multi-dimensional artwork. The machine learning model is trained on a vast database of botanical illustrations. After learning what the illustrations look like, it starts to generate a “new” hybrid image.

  Rothwell exhibited the artwork at The National 2021: New Australian Art exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, where she featured a series of large-scale projections of plant morphs that were created using the Infinite Herbarium web application. At the same time, the work was shown at The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, where visitors were given the chance to create their own plant morphs —  using the rich and varied plant specimens available in the gardens as inspiration.

  

  Caroline’s aim for Infinite Herbarium is to “create a connection to and consideration for our threatened natural world.” For artists like her, Infinite Herbarium demonstrates how machine learning can be a powerful new tool for creativity.

  For the Creative Lab team, collaborating with Caroline was a singular opportunity to think about how technology can help bring art to life, capturing people’s attention and imagination. It’s an area rich in potential, and one that we hope to continue exploring with artists across multiple disciplines.

  
  
  https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-asia/infinite-herbarium/
• 

  Working together to transform journalism training
  • sorangutan  

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  Ignoring vowels, removing connecting letters and recording up to 150 words a minute. It’s not the latest algorithmic advance, but instead something many U.K. journalists will recognise as Teeline: a shorthand transcribing skill which forms part of a formal journalism qualification.

  
  

  Two decades ago, as a journalism student in London, I was taught the importance of law, ethics and editorial values, as well as the technical skills required to be a journalist. While the fundamentals of journalism may not have altered since, it’s clear technology has radically changed how journalists work, not to mention the changing habits of their audiences.

  
  

  Alongside the shifting landscape, we’re announcing our support for the  Journalism Skills Academy (JSA): an e-learning platform from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). This will help digitally transform the way they provide assessments, qualifications and workshops, while also helping how they overhaul their approach to learning and education. 

  NCTJ’s CEO, Joanne Butcher, says the new platform means distance learners no longer need to receive materials in the post, but instead can access them with a few mouse clicks. “It’s the latest move to ensure our work remains compelling, relevant and innovative,” she says. The organisation plans to develop a range of new courses and resources over the next 18 months. 

  
  

  

  The Journalism Skills Academy website

  
  

  In addition, for the fifth consecutive year, we’re also supporting the Journalism Diversity Fund to help the next generation of journalists. As lead sponsor of the fund, we join 20 associations, broadcasters and publishers to provide bursaries to people from underrepresented backgrounds who need help funding their NCTJ journalism training. 

  
  

  Joanne says the NCTJ is “absolutely delighted that we will be able to strengthen further the relationship between our organisations in the years ahead, as we grow these key areas of the NCTJ’s work.”
  
  

  

  Recipients of the Journalism Diversity Fund attending an event in London.

  
  

  Training never stops when you become a qualified journalist. For a second year, the Google News Initiative is supporting the University of Central Lancashire to deliver the Journalism Innovation & Leadership Programme to provide postgraduate training opportunities for mid-career journalists from the U.K. and abroad.

  
  

  Academics will select experienced journalists who apply to take part in an intensive 30-week course seeking to develop leadership, operational and product thinking skills, helping to connect people and build lasting relationships across the industry. The curriculum is grounded in industry insights tracking emerging trends and relevant themes. 

  
  

  “It's perhaps never been more critical for those committed to the sustainability of journalism to take time out of the newsroom to think and learn from others as they assess new opportunities and ways of working,” says Dr François Gilson from UCLan. 

  
  At the Google News Lab, we provide online resources on a range of digital tools, and in recent years we’ve trained 14,000 U.K. journalists and journalism students. We’re continuing to work with partners around the world, to find new ways to support personal development, both for staff journalists and freelancers.
  
  
  https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/united-kingdom/working-together-transform-journalism-training/
• 

  It’s a hot one: How heat waves have trended over time
  • sorangutan  

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  I live in the Pacific Northwest, a part of North America known for cooler weather and notoriously gray skies. So imagine my surprise when temperatures hit 116 degrees Fahrenheit over the past few days. And did I mention that, like many other PNWers, I don’t have air conditioning? Every morning lately, my Google Assistant delivers the slightly worrying news that the temperature is ticking up.

  The heat wave is all anyone here — and in other affected areas — can talk about. U.S. searches about heat waves and sunscreen reached all time record highs this month, and “air conditioner installation service” spiked more than 2,150% over the same period of time. (To little surprise, search interest in air conditioning peaks every summer — but you can see that they’ve been rising every year.) 

  

  Since many of us are searching for this kind of information, I decided to take a trip down Ngrams lane to see how exactly we’ve talked about (er, I suppose “written about”) extreme summer weather over time. As a quick refresher, Ngrams was launched in 2009 by the Google Books team. The tool shows how books and other pieces of writing have used certain words or phrases over time, so you can see how popular (or unpopular) they’ve been throughout the years. 

  I started with the classic “heat wave,” which has steadily risen over time. I also tried “a hot one,” and given how that phrase could apply to so many different use cases (outdoor temperatures but also meals, items, etc.), it’s been relatively steady. 

  

  I decided to try “scorcher” and the more specific “summer scorcher.” 

  

  The semi-consistent dips in “summer scorcher” suggest that the phrase was likely only used much...in the summer. But what about that huge peak in just plain “scorcher” in 1896? Below the graph, there’s an option to choose the time period from 1892 to 1897 and see how the word was used in books that have been uploaded to Google Books vast digital library. To my surprise, “scorcher” at this point in time didn’t refer to a tortuously hot day: In many cases, it was used to talk about someone who raced bicycles. 

  

  So now when you hear someone say “today’s going to be a scorcher,” I hope you’ll also tell them about the word’s past life. As for me, I’m heading back to the search bar to learn more about another trending search that really hits home: “how to stay cool without ac.”

  
  
  https://blog.google/products/search/man-its-a-hot-one/
• 

  An update on our progress in responsible AI innovation
  • sorangutan  

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  Over the past year, responsibly developed AI has transformed health screenings, supportedfact-checking to battle misinformation and save lives, predicted Covid-19 cases to support public health, and protected wildlife after bushfires. Developing AI in a way that gets it right for everyone requires openness, transparency, and a clear focus on understanding the societal implications. That is why we were among the first companies to develop and publish AI Principles and why, each year, we share updates on our progress.

  Building on previous AI Principles updates in 2018,  2019, and 2020, today we’re providing our latest overview of what we’ve learned, and how we’re applying these learnings.

  
  

  Internal Education

  In the last year, to ensure our teams have clarity from day one, we’ve added an introduction to our AI Principles for engineers and incoming hires in technical roles. The course presents each of the Principles as well as the applications we will not pursue.

  Integrating our Principles into the work we do with enterprise customers is key, so we’ve continued to make our AI Principles in Practice training mandatory for customer-facing Cloud employees. A version of this training is available to all Googlers.

  There is no single way to apply the AI Principles to specific features and product development. Training must consider not only the technology and data, but also where and how AI is used. To offer a more comprehensive approach to implementing the AI Principles, we’ve been developing opportunities for Googlers to share their points of view on the responsible development of future technologies, such as the AI Principles Ethics Fellowship for Google’s Employee Resource Groups. Fellows receive AI Principles training and craft hypothetical case studies to inform how Google prioritizes socially beneficial applications. This inaugural year, 27 fellows selected from 191 applicants from around the world wrote and presented case studies on topics such as genome datasets and a Covid-19 content moderation workflow.

  Other programs include a bi-weekly Responsible AI Tech Talk Series featuring external experts, such as the Brookings Institution’s Dr. Nicol Turner Lee presenting on detecting and mitigating algorithmic bias.

  
  

  Tools and Research

  To bring together multiple teams working on technical tools and research, this year we formed the Responsible AI and Human-Centered Technology organization. The basic and applied researchers in the organization are devoted to developing technology and best practices for the technical realization of the AI Principles guidance.

  As discussed in our December 2020 End-of-Year report, we regularly release these tools to the public. Currently, researchers are developing Know Your Data (in beta) to help developers understand datasets with the goal of improving data quality, helping to mitigate fairness and bias issues.

  

  Know Your Data, a Responsible AI tool in beta

  Product teams use these tools to evaluate their work’s alignment with the AI Principles. For example, the Portrait Light feature available in both Pixel’s Camera and Google Photos uses multiple machine learning components to instantly add realistic synthetic lighting to portraits. Using computational methods to achieve this effect, however, raised several responsible innovation challenges, including potentially reinforcing unfair bias (AI Principle #2) despite the goal of building a feature that works for all users. So the Portrait Light team generated a training dataset containing millions of photos based on an original set of photos of different people in a diversity of lighting environments, with their explicit consent. The engineering team used various Google Responsible AI tools to test proactively whether the ML models used in Portrait Light performed equitably across different audiences.

  Our ongoing technical research related to responsible innovation in AI in the last 12 months has led to more than 200 research papers and articles that address AI Principles-related topics. These include exploring and mitigating data cascades; creating the first model-agnostic framework for partially local federated learning suitable for training and inference at scale; and analyzing the energy- and carbon-costs of training six recent ML models to reduce the carbon footprint of training an ML system by up to 99.9%.

  
  

  Operationalizing the Principles

  To help our teams put the AI Principles into practice, we deploy our decision-making process for reviewing new custom AI projects in development — from chatbots to newer fields such as affective technologies. These reviews are led by a multidisciplinary Responsible Innovation team, which draws on expertise in disciplines including trust and safety, human rights, public policy, law, sustainability, and product management. The team also advises product areas, on specific issues related to serving enterprise customers. Any Googler, at any level, is encouraged to apply for an AI Principles review of a project or planned product or service.

  Teams can also request other Responsible Innovation services, such as informal consultations or product fairness testing with the Product Fairness (ProFair) team. ProFair tests products from the user perspective to investigate known issues and find new ones, similar to how an academic researcher would go about identifying fairness issues.

  Our Google Cloud, Image Search, Next Billion Users and YouTube product teams have engaged with ProFair to test potential new projects for fairness. Consultations include collaborative testing scenarios, focus groups, and adversarial testing of ML models to address improving equity in data labels, fairness in language models, and bias in predictive text, among other issues. Recently, the ProFair team spent nine months consulting with Google researchers on creating an object recognition dataset for physical landmarks (such as buildings), developing criteria for how to choose which classes to recognize and how to determine the amount of training data per class in ways that would assign a fairer relevance score to each class.

  Reviewers weigh the nature of the social benefit involved and whether it substantially exceeds potential challenges. For example, in the past year, reviewers decided not to publicly release ML models that can create photo-realistic synthetic faces made with generative adversarial networks (GANs), because of the risk of potential misuse by malicious actors to create “deepfakes” for misinformation purposes.

  As another example, a research team requested a review of a new ML training dataset for computer vision fairness techniques that offered more specific attributes about people, such as perceived gender and age-range. The team worked with Open Images, an open data project containing ~9 million images spanning thousands of object categories and bounding box annotations for 600 classes. Reviewers weighed the risk of labeling the data with the sensitive labels of perceived gender presentation and age-range, and the societal benefit of these labels for fairness analysis and bias mitigation. Given these risks, reviewers required creation of a data card explaining the details and limitations of the project. We released the MIAP (More Inclusive Annotations for People) dataset in the Open Images Extended collection. The collection contains more complete bounding box annotations for the person class hierarchy in 100K images containing people. Each annotation is also labeled with fairness-related attributes. MIAP was accepted and presented at the 2021 Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and Society conference.

  
  

  External Engagement

  We remain committed to contributing to emerging international principles for responsible AI innovation. For example, we submitted a response to the European Commission consultation on the inception impact assessment on ethical and legal requirements for AI and feedback on NITI Aayog’s working document on Responsible Use of AI to guide national principles for India. We also supported the Singaporean government’s Guide to Job Redesign in the Age of AI, which outlines opportunities to optimize AI benefits by redesigning jobs and reskilling employees.

  Our efforts to engage global audiences, from students to policymakers, center on educational programs and discussions to offer helpful and practical ML education, including:

  • A workshop on Federated Learning and Analytics, making all research talks and a TensorFlow Federated tutorial publicly available.
  • Machine Learning for Policy Leaders (ML4PL), a 2-hour virtual workshop on the basics of ML. To date, we’ve expanded this globally, reaching more than 350 policymakers across the EU, LatAm, APAC, and US.
    
  • A workshop co-hosted with the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on the Responsible Use of AI for Social Empowerment, exploring the potential of AI adoption in the government to address COVID-19, agricultural and environmental crises.

  To support these workshops and events with actionable and equitable programming designed for long-term collaboration, over the past year we’ve helped launch:

  • AI for Social Good workshops, bringing together NGOs applying AI to tough challenges in their communities with academic experts and Google researchers to encourage collaborative AI solutions. So far we’ve supported more than 30 projects in Asia Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa with expertise, funding and Cloud Credits.
    
  • Two collaborations with the U.S. National Science Foundation: one to support the National AI Research Institute for Human-AI Interaction and Collaboration with $5 million in funding, along with AI expertise, research collaborations and Cloud support; another to join other industry partners and federal agencies as part of a combined $40 million investment in academic research for Resilient and Intelligent Next-Generation (NextG) Systems, in which Google will offer expertise, research collaborations, infrastructure and in-kind support to researchers.
    
  • Quarterly Equitable AI Research Roundtables (EARR), focused on the potential downstream harms of AI with experts from the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, PolicyLink, and Emory University School of Law.
    
  • MLCommons, a non-profit, which will administer MLPerf, a suite of benchmarks for Google and industry peers.
    

  
  

  Committed to sharing tools and discoveries

  In the three years since Google released our AI Principles, we’ve worked to integrate this ethical charter across our work — from the development of advanced technologies to business processes. As we learn and engage with people and organizations across society we’re committed to sharing tools, processes and discoveries with the global community. You’ll find many of these in our recently updated People + AI Research Guidebook and on the Google AI responsibilities site, which we update quarterly with case studies and other resources. 

  
  
  https://blog.google/technology/ai/update-our-progress-responsible-ai-innovation/
• 

  Why this Google engineer is teaching students to code
  • sorangutan  

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  San Francisco-based Googler Ernest Holmes first started coding when he was in high school. “From then on, I was hooked and knew I wanted to become an engineer,” he says. By the time he was a freshman at Morehouse College, Ernest was participating in the Google in Residence program (GIR). That program introduced him to the Google internship program which he took part in for three consecutive summers before joining us as a full-time engineer.

  Early exposure to coding helped set Ernest up for success, but some of his classmates weren’t as lucky. During his first computer science course in college, he realized many of the students were only then getting their first coding experience.

  “There were some students who, like me, had their interest piqued early on, while others had never coded before in their lives, and they just wanted to take a computer science class to figure it out,” Ernest says. “For that second group, it was like they were starting at a disadvantage because they’d never been exposed to the concepts, and they were entering into college life at the same time. That can be overwhelming.”

  Ernest started tutoring sessions for his classmates and quickly learned that if they’d been exposed even just a few years earlier, it could have changed their paths. Inspired by this idea, in 2019 — at the same time Ernest began his career as a full-time engineer at Google — he founded the nonprofit CodeHouse to fulfill his personal goal of bringing the joy of coding to the next generation.

  “CodeHouse is a nonprofit that partners with schools across the U.S. to introduce students to careers in tech through exposure to large tech companies, hands-on training and financial assistance,” Ernest says.

  

  The Codehouse team.

  CodeHouse brings software engineers, product managers and designers from Google and other tech companies, as well as representatives from colleges and universities around the U.S., to meet with students and share their career stories.

  “Throughout the year, we host Tech Exposure Days to make learning about careers and opportunities in tech a fun and engaging experience,” Ernest says. “We want students to leave with more knowledge about what’s out there in the tech industry as well as connect with role models who look like them in careers they hadn’t even considered.”

  To date, CodeHouse has worked with more than 2,500 students through its events. With support from fellow Googlers Michelle Asamoah and William Bell, the CodeHouse team continues to grow and so does its mission.

  “We started CodeHouse by hosting events to help expose students to tech while they’re in high school, but we want to be a long-term partner for them on their journey through college and into their professional careers,” Ernest says. “To do this, we kicked off our CodeHouse Scholar initiative last year where we’re offering $20,000 scholarships, mentorship, and a technical skills training session for incoming freshmen going to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and majoring in computer science.”

  10:25

  In the first cohort of scholars, CodeHouse identified 30 students from across the U.S. to be sponsored and receive scholarships. These students will participate in a technical skills workshop that includes an introduction to basic coding languages like Python and they’ll learn about different careers in computer science. Ernest and the CodeHouse team hope to scale this program to additional career fields in tech so students can get even more exposure and skills training before college.

  “I fell in love with computer science,” Ernest says. “As an engineer at Google, I know that I can create anything that I can imagine. I want to introduce as many people to that feeling and this field as possible.”

  To learn more about CodeHouse, visit thecodehouse.org. You can also follow them on Twitter, Instagram or their Facebook page.

  
  
  https://blog.google/inside-google/googlers/why-google-engineer-teaching-students-code/
• 

  Nakisha Wynn helps other moms build profitable blogs
  • sorangutan  

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  Nakisha Wynn was working at a financial services firm when life took an unexpected turn. She thought about starting a blog aimed at other moms, particularly single mothers. “I didn’t see anybody who looked like me doing the blogging thing,” Nakisha notes. “It was either these fabulous girls showing off their fashions or huge bloggers I couldn’t relate to, so I birthed my blog from that.”
  
  In 2016, Nakisha launchednakishawynn.com, where she blogs about single parenting, personal finance, working at home, family travel, frugal living and self-care.

  

  Today, her following extends to social media, including YouTube, Instagram andFacebook. She has developed brand partnerships, participates in affiliate programs and offers her professional services as a content creator, coach and speaker. 

  Nakisha describes how “hard work, persistence and dedication” led to her entrepreneurial success as a web creator, blogger and YouTuber. 

  How would you start a blog from scratch?

  The very first thing I would do is connect with current bloggers that I look up to. Comment on their videos or blog posts and follow them on Instagram and put yourself into that person's community. Study them to see what they're doing and how they're doing, and then just go for it! I would do as much as I can and then I would get mentorship to take me to the next level.

  

  Nakisha draws on her finance background to help other moms become successful bloggers

  Could you break down your website sections?

  My ”Mom Life” section is where my roots are. That's what really caught the attention of everyone, because I was sharing a very unique story of being a single mom who decided to jump up and leave her corporate job and get out here and just wing it. Motherhood is the foundation of my business. I am passionate about moms pursuing their real-life dreams and going for it. 

  I have “Family Finances” because my background is banking. And I have overcome some financial obstacles in my life, dealing with credit issues and learning how to budget and manage finances by myself being single. So I share things around saving money and how to budget and making money on the side, side hustles. One of the biggest things that I learned, which helped me to truly get out here and work for myself, is multiple streams of income is huge.

  

  Mom Life is a core topic on Nakisha’s website and blog.

  How do you come up with ideas for your blog? 

  I'm often live on YouTube or Instagram, and I use what my audience is asking me. I think it's one of the most amazing ways to come up with content ideas. Because if you are having that ongoing conversation with your audience, they will tell you exactly what they want to see. 

  

  Nakisha vlogs about blogging on her YouTube channel.

  Do you keep an editorial calendar? 

  
  

  For sure! There’s no way I could stay on task and create as much content as I do without one. I posted a video on How to Create a Content Calendar. It's essential — especially if you have other businesses or if you're working other jobs — to stay on task to make sure you're staying up on trends. 

  Is blogging still worth it?

  Absolutely! I think it's important for people to have a place to go to, to see what you're all about. People will watch you for months before they even reach out. If I only have your social media to go to, I don't really know what your story is. I want to go to your blog. I want to see your website’s “About” section. You need a home and a place to house your information, and to [show] who you are about so that when people are ready to pay you, they can have somewhere to come and knock on the door to give you the check.

  You put out so much content. Are you a one-woman show?

  This is a one-woman show! Listen, it can be done. It takes hard work, persistence and dedication. You got to really want this, and I really want this. For me, it is such an absolute pleasure and privilege to be able to do something I absolutely love every single day. 

  
  
  https://blog.google/web-creators/nakisha-wynn-helps-other-moms-build-profitable-blogs/
• 

  Navigating uncertainty with Google Marketing Platform
  • sorangutan  

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  When we introduced Google Marketing Platform in July 2018, the world was a different place. A royal wedding, the World Cup and Hurricane Florence were among the top news stories. A global pandemic was not the first thing on everyone's minds.

  Much has changed over the past three years. We've all learned how to unmute ourselves on video chats and attend meetings in our sweatpants. But one thing that hasn't changed is Google Marketing Platform’s commitment to helping marketers navigate periods of change.

  It's not just the pandemic. With an intensified focus on privacy, driven in part by shifting consumer expectations, new regulations, and technology platform changes, brands need to find new ways to connect with their customers and measure marketing performance. And as we move into the recovery, Google Marketing Platform is here to help marketers adjust to the new normal.

  Addressing rapid change, with help from first-party data

  In our research, we’ve seen that using first-party data helps brands build stronger relationships with customers, create additional value, and boost ad performance. Brands using first-party data for key marketing functions have lifted revenueup to 2.9 times and decreased costs by 1.5 times, compared to companies that failed to fully integrate first-party data. And the most successful have invested more heavily in technology and organizational enablers, such as a unified advertising and analytics platform like Google Marketing Platform.

  One business that used Google Marketing Platform and first-party data to successfully navigate the pandemic is Deckers Brands, makers of active lifestyle footwear featuring brands like UGG, Teva and HOKA.

  10:25

  Google Marketing Platform: Deckers Brands Case Study

  Founded in 1973, Deckers Brands grew rapidly over the years, but eventually growth began to slow. The company's channel-oriented strategy – which featured separate marketing teams for search, display, video and other channels – created silos.

  The company knew it needed to become more customer-centric and to connect customer data across multiple touch points. To achieve that goal, Deckers Brands partnered with digital marketing specialists Jellyfish and adopted Google Marketing Platform as its integrated advertising and analytics solution. Jellyfish helped Deckers Brands use tools within Google Marketing Platform to apply machine learning to its first-party data, then activate the insights obtained from that data.

  When countries around the world implemented stay at home orders in early 2020, Decker Brands’ found that its new strategy was essential to helping them quickly spot and react to customer trends. In the United States for example, the company exported data from its Analytics 360 account into BigQuery, a data warehouse solution part of Google Cloud, to better understand customer buying behavior. They found an increase in the sale of UGG slippers, which helped them quickly learn that people were interested in more comfortable footwear for the home. When people began venturing outside, Deckers Brands saw that trend very early through increased interest in HOKA running shoes and Teva hiking sandals and was able to quickly respond.

  Related Article

  How marketers can meet the data challenge to drive growth

  In our solution guide for Google Marketing Platform & Google Cloud, learn how brands succeed by using machine learning.

  Read Article

  
  
  https://blog.google/products/marketingplatform/360/navigating-uncertainty-google-marketing-platform/
• 

  Season 3 of the ‘Founded’ podcast is here
  • sorangutan  

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  In October 2020, Women Techmakers, in collaboration with Google for Startups, launched Founded, a podcast highlighting women entrepreneurs from all over the world. This week, the series returns with six new episodes, sharing advice and experiences from women who’ve lived the entrepreneurial journey. Ahead of the new season, we took time to chat with one of our podcast interviewees, Lateesha Thomas.

  

  Lateesha Thomas, Founder of Onramp

  What were you doing before launching Onramp?

  I spent several years working in the coding bootcamp industry, where I saw thousands of graduates complete intensive programs with the promise of a new career at the end of that journey. But I learned that even if candidates managed to acquire a baseline set of technical skills that should give them a competitive edge in the job market, they still faced significant bias due to hiring practices in the industry. Companies have spent years scaling traditional hiring methods like industry and university recruiting, and those processes filter out a lot of capable candidates from non-traditional backgrounds. And  it's within these non-traditional pipelines where more diverse candidates can be found. 

  I realized that if we wanted to make meaningful inroads on this problem, we needed to build the bridge backward from the company to the candidates and encourage businesses to invest in workforce development and candidate upskilling. My co-founder and I saw a gap in the market, so we decided to fill it.

  
  

  Tell us more about Onramp.

  Onramp is a workforce development platform connecting companies, candidates and employees and education providers more holistically. We grow talent pools and onboard candidates for companies while also increasing the racial and gender diversity of those talent pools by helping underrepresented candidates be more competitive in the recruiting process. We're not the first to say this, but the diversity pipeline problem truly is a myth. We've seen the depth of diverse talent, and we know access to opportunities grows when there’s a willingness to maximize the potential of these candidates. So the solution isn't as simple as "let's find more Black, Latinx, Women, Non-Binary, etc., candidates and teach them to code," it's fixing broken hiring processes that lock the door to candidates who have the skills. 

  
  

  How can we elevate the voices of women founders? 

  Storytelling is a great way to introduce new ideas to people. Sharing my story on the Founded podcast will hopefully show other women who are thinking of launching products or businesses that it can be done. I don't have the pedigree of most successful founders. I didn't learn to code at an early age and hack and tinker for fun. I didn't study computer science in college. I didn't go to Harvard or Stanford business school. My resume isn't stacked with name-brand tech companies or startups to give me credibility. I worked hard to carve a niche for myself in an industry that spoke to my personal experience and built something to solve a problem I personally experienced. And now I run a venture-backed company. I think it's important for aspiring entrepreneurs to know that there's no one right way to start this journey and that there's a path for them if they're willing to do the work to pave it.

  
  

  What more needs to be done to level the playing field for women founders? 

  Funding. Only2.3% of venture capital (VC) funding went to women-founded companies in 2020, a decrease from the previous year. Things are getting worse, not better. Black founders receive around 1% of VC funding, and as you can imagine being at the intersection of those two groups, things are abysmal. I think everyone wants to talk about progress, and don't get me wrong, there are definitely exciting things happening for Black and women founders. But we're still pushing a boulder up a mountain, and it's exhausting.

  
  

  What advice do you have for founders?

  I think the sooner you can tap into a community to support you on your journey, the easier it will be for you. Whether that's a social network like Elpha or Hello Alice or an accelerator program (we did the Bridge to Success program with Juvo Ventures last winter, another Black/women-led VC), you need somewhere to go for advice, resources, mentorship and commiseration. 

  
  You can hear more from Lateesha in the latest series of Founded on Google Podcasts or wherever you listen.
  
  https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/entrepreneurs/season-3-of-the-founded-podcast-is-here/
• 

  The history of the Pride flag
  • sorangutan  

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  On June 4th 2021, a piece of LGBTQIA+ history that we thought was long lost resurfaced: the original rainbow pride flag that was first raised on June 25, 1978 in San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza. The Gilbert Baker Foundation uncovered this priceless artifact in 2019 and donated it to the GLBT Historical Society of San Francisco to make it accessible to all.  Today, 43 years after the flag was first raised, we are partnering with Google Arts & Culture - along with 12 other cultural institutions - to make stories about this iconic rainbow flag available to anyone, anywhere in the world. 

  
  

  As part of the “Beyond the Rainbow'' hub, everyone can dive back into the history of the LGBTQIA+ movement through the colors of the iconic Pride flag whose design and many iterations led it to become a symbol that would represent the full spectrum of the LGBTQIA+ community and carry the memory of the fights for LGBTQIA+ rights and a better representation of all the LGBTQIA+ identities around the world, until today. 

  
  

  You will learn how, created in 1978 by Gilbert Baker with a team of artists under the impulsion ofHarvey Milk’s iconic speech, the original flag displayed 8 colors and for each, a specific meaning. For example Red represents Life, Orange means Healing, and Pink represents Sex.

  
  

  Queer British writer, Jake Hall, author of "The Art of Drag," will further explain each detail you need to know about thedifferent Pride flags and the communities they represent - including the Bisexual Pride flag and Trans Pride flag,  while the artist Rigel Gemini’ shares his reflection about what it means to be a non-binary mixed artist in the music industry.

  
  

  We at the GLBT Historical Society hope that these online resources will help everyone in the world better understand the historical significance of the rainbow flag and feel welcome to see it in real life within our walls in San Francisco!

  
  

  • A person arranging a colorful flag hanging from a pole

    Volunteers hoist one of the two original rainbow flags created for San Francisco Gay

  • A rainbow with words associated to each color

    Graphic with the flag's symbolism

  • A group of people marching along a street carrying a colorful flag over their heads

    Gilbert Baker wearing a white sequined dress (right)

  • A person dressed in red standing under 2 colorful flags that flow in the wind

    The two original eight-color rainbow flags flying at United Nations Plaza during San Francisco Gay Freedom Day 1978

  • An eight-color segment handing in a warehouse

    Segment of one of the original eight-color rainbow flags.

    
    

  • Bird perspective on a New York City street through which people are marching with a sevel-block long pride flag

    The mile-long rainbow flag being carried down First Avenue in New York City

  Want to learn more? Visit g.co/beyondtherainbow, or download Google Arts & Culture’s Android or iOS app. Happy Pride to everyone!

  
  
  https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/arts-culture/history-pride-flag/
• 

  Further measures to help fight financial fraud in the UK
  • sorangutan  

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  As part of ongoing cross-industry efforts to help tackle the issue of financial fraud, we recently announced that we were the first major technology firm to join Stop Scams UK. We also pledged $5 million in advertising credits to support public awareness campaigns in the UK, helping to ensure that consumers are better informed about how to spot the tactics of scammers both online and offline.

  Today, we are announcing a significant additional measure to protect users and legitimate advertisers, and help prevent scammers exploiting our platforms. The Google Ads Financial Products and Services policy will be updated from 30th August to introduce new certification requirements for financial services advertisers targeting the UK.
  

  Financial services advertisers will be required to demonstrate that they are authorised by the UK Financial Conduct Authority or qualify for one of the limited exemptions described in the UK Financial Services verification page. This new update builds on significant work in partnership with the FCA over the last 18 months to help tackle this issue.

  Today’s announcement reflects significant progress in delivering a safer experience for users, publishers and advertisers. While we understand that this policy update will impact a range of advertisers in the financial services space, our utmost priority is to keep users safe on our platforms — particularly in an area so disproportionately targeted by fraudsters.

  Here’s what you need to know about the policy update:

  • The policy will be updated on August 30, 2021, and enforcement will begin seven days later, on September 6, 2021.
  • Advertisers must successfully complete the updated verification process by the time enforcement begins in order to show financial services ads to UK users. This will include showing ads to UK users who appear to be seeking financial services.
  • As part of the verification process, advertisers must demonstrate that they are authorised by the UK Financial Conduct Authority or qualify for one of the limited exemptions described in the UK Financial Services verification page. 
  • This requirement covers financial services products both regulated by and not regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority.

  This new policy update is only the latest step in our commitment to tackling online financial crime in the UK. Our teams continue to use a mixture of machine learning and human review to analyse user experiences and take action. 

  For the last 18 months, we have worked with the FCA to receive notifications when additions are made to the FCA warning list. Based on feedback from the FCA, we have also updated policies, such as our unreliable claims policy. This update restricted the rates of return a firm can advertise and banned the use of terms that make unrealistic promises of large financial return with minimal risk, effort or investment.

  Globally, we have also introduced new advertiser identity verification which requires advertisers to submit personal legal identification, business incorporation documents or other information that proves who they are and the country in which they operate. 

  We are committed to adapting and collaborating with industry and government organisations to lead on necessary changes to help fight evolving tactics by scammers.

  
  

  
  
  https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/united-kingdom/further-measures-help-fight-financial-fraud-uk/