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The accessibility team helping make our products work for everyone
design diversity and inclusion accessibility googlers • • sorangutan

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At the end of 2017, the Google Primer team contacted Google's Central Accessibility team. They wanted feedback on the accessibility of their app—but also input on whether it was useful for people with disabilities. This kicked off a larger conversation. The Primer app is used by business owners, startups and marketers to learn new business and marketing skills. As the two teams discussed, they wondered, “What if we don’t just improve the accessibility of our own app, but also create brand new lessons in Primer to teach businesses and app developers how to build their websites and apps with accessibility in mind?” Building products that don’t consider a diverse range of needs could mean missing a substantial group of potential users and customers. For business owners particularly, it’s not just the right thing to do, it’s also good for business.

Fast forward to this May, when Google Primer introduced a new version of the app, designed to be more accessible and usable for people with disabilities. At the same time, they launched new accessibility lessons to help others do the same. These lessons have been used by business owners, developers, and marketers around the world to learn how to better serve their customers with disabilities.

This kind of partnership is at the heart of the work the Central Accessibility Team does to make Google’s products more accessible to the more than 1 billion people in the world living with a disability. Making accessibility a core consideration from the earliest stage of product design results in better outcomes that improve lives. And as we mark Disability Awareness Month we’re shining a spotlight on this team and other accessibility efforts across Google.
The Central Accessibility Team spans many roles: software engineers, product and program managers, user experience designers and researchers, testers and others. Like many teams across Google, we have team members with and without disabilities. Our work covers a diverse set of areas including:
- Providing guidance:We offer advice and training to all Google product teams on how to incorporate accessibility into how we design, build, and test our products.
- Incorporating accessibility:We include accessibility into software development platforms and guidelines, such as our Android Accessibility Developer Docs.
- Building better products:We build automated testing and analysis tools that Google product teams (and external developers!) can use to check for common accessibility issues, and we also build products directly for end users with disabilities. As part of this we hope to empower Google's teams to be champions of accessibility (as with Primer), and even potentially inspire third parties.
- Listening to our community:We invite people to participate in user research in order to develop a deeper understanding on how usable our products are and ways to improve them. We also partner with organizations outside of Google to collaborate on joint initiatives and user training.
Some examples of our work across the company include captioning over 1 billion YouTube videos, building an out-of-the-box screen reader for Chrome (ChromeVox), developing a suite of accessibility tools for Android and many more.
Screenshot of automatic captions on a YouTube video
More recently, we’ve announced Lookout, an app to help people who are blind learn about their surroundings. Voice Access is a new accessibility service for Android that lets you use your Android device without touching the screen. We’ve also introduced a dedicated Disability Support team available to help answer questions about assistive features and functionalities within Google products.
Screenshots of the Lookout app’s features and object identification
Accessibility is a wider field than you might think—it’s not just for people with permanent disabilities. We also need to consider people who have a temporary impairment, for example, a broken leg and have difficulty getting around, or people who are doing everyday things like driving a car or holding groceries in both hands and need to perform a task.
And let’s not forget that products created for accessibility have the potential to become useful for everyone. Inventions like the typewriter, books on tape, closed captions, voice-enabled TV and voice controls were all initially meant to focus on people with a disability, and found a much broader use case. This goes to show that the accessibility problems of today can lead to the technology breakthroughs of tomorrow.
The Central Accessibility team is passionate about Google's products and driven by the thought of a world made for everyone, without limits or barriers. But at Google, accessibility is everyone’s responsibility. And to see how we’re living up to that responsibility, stay tuned for more insights and news over the coming month.

https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/accessibility/accessibility-team-helping-make-our-products-work-everyone/
Pushing the limits of streaming technology
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Streaming media has transformed the way we consume music and video, making it easy to instantly access your favorite content. It’s a technically complex process that has come a long way in a few short years, but the next technical frontier for streaming will be much more demanding than video.
We’ve been working on Project Stream, a technical test to solve some of the biggest challenges of streaming. For this test, we’re going to push the limits with one of the most demanding applications for streaming—a blockbuster video game.
We’ve partnered with one of the most innovative and successful video game publishers, Ubisoft, to stream their soon-to-be released Assassin’s Creed Odyssey® to your Chrome browser on a laptop or desktop. Starting on October 5, a limited number of participants will get to play the latest in this best-selling franchise at no charge for the duration of the Project Stream test.
The idea of streaming such graphically-rich content that requires near-instant interaction between the game controller and the graphics on the screen poses a number of challenges. When streaming TV or movies, consumers are comfortable with a few seconds of buffering at the start, but streaming high-quality games requires latency measured in milliseconds, with no graphic degradation.
The technology and creativity behind these AAA video games is extraordinary—from incredible detail and life-like movement of the characters’ skin, clothing, and hair, to the massive scale of the world in which the game unfolds, down to every last blade of grass. Every pixel is powered by an array of real-time rendering technology, artistry, visual effects, animation, simulation, physics and dynamics. We’re inspired by the game creators who spend years crafting these amazing worlds, adventures and experiences, and we’re building technology that we hope will support and empower that creativity.
There are limited spaces available for Project Stream, but if you’re interested in participating, you can apply on our website. Project Stream is geared toward home internet connections capable of 25 megabits per second, and you must be 17 years or older and live in the U.S. to participate (other requirements can be found on the help center).
We’re looking forward to what the future of streaming holds, and feedback from those participating in Project Stream. Thank you for helping us bring streaming to the next level.
_{Ubisoft and Assassin's Creed Odyssey are trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries.}

https://www.blog.google/technology/developers/pushing-limits-streaming-technology/
Seeking inspirational entrepreneur stories for the 2018 GBG Stories Search
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Virtualahan, a company based in the Philippines, provides a platform that helps disadvantaged people overcome employment barriers. By using Google Classroom and other tools, Virtualahan delivers digital skills training to people with medical, physical and psycho-social disabilities in developing countries and connects them to meaningful employment online.
Virtualahan is also a 2017 winner of our Google Business Groups (GBG) Stories Search, which aims to spotlight the stories of inspirational entrepreneurs from around the world.
GBG Stories Search 2018 is now kicking off and we’re looking for entries about the extraordinary things entrepreneurs have done using Google products and technologies. Three winners will have the opportunity to visit Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, CA in 2019, where they’ll also meet with other tech thinkers, innovators, and business leaders.
To share your story and participate in GBG Stories Search 2018, please submit your entry and visit our information page by October 31, 2018.

https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/entrepreneurs/seeking-inspirational-entrepreneur-stories-2018-gbg-stories-search/
From discovery to click, new YouTube ads capabilities for more effective video storytelling
google ads video ads • • sorangutan

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The heightened role of video throughout today’s consumer journey is an exciting opportunity for marketers to build connections that drive better business outcomes. At Advertising Week New York, we’re announcing new ways for marketers to become more effective full-funnel storytellers using the combined power of YouTube’s creative canvas with Google’s machine learning and measurement solutions.
Help viewers take action with extensions
Soon you’ll be able to make your video ads more actionable with a greater variety of ad extensions. Similar to extensions on Search ads, extensions on YouTube enhance your video ad with additional useful information—giving consumers more reasons to take action. You can already add location and form extensions (currently in beta) to your TrueView in-stream ads. Now we’re exploring additional use cases that encourage viewers to complete lower-funnel actions like finding the next movie showtime, downloading an app or booking a trip.
Brands like Vodafone, Chili’s, 20th Century Fox, Headspace and Maybelline are already using extensions for video ads to bring more relevance to their mobile ads and drive impact on the metrics that matter most. Using extensions, Vodafone drove a 2.3x incremental lift in Ad Recall and a 3.5 percent CTR—a 785 percent increase over their regional benchmark.
Measure the full impact of your video campaign
Video storytelling isn’t just about driving short-term campaign wins—it’s also about driving measurable results at every stage of the consumer journey. We know this is easier said than done, which is why we’re evolving our Brand Liftsolution and partnering with IRI to make it simpler for advertisers to measure and act upon upper- and lower-funnel metrics.
Based on your feedback, soon you’ll be able to set up Brand Lift studies directly in Google Ads or Display & Video 360 and conveniently view reporting alongside your other ad metrics. We’ve also started sending Brand Lift surveys continuously throughout the duration of your campaign so you can understand how your video ads are influencing viewer perceptions in near real time. Additionally, we’ve introduced two new metrics: lifted users, the number of people who were influenced by your ad, and cost-per-lifted-user to make it easier for you to optimize your campaign’s effectiveness and cost-efficiency. To get the most out of these new measurement tools, we recommend using Maximize Lift bidding.
We're also ramping up our investments in Google Measurement Partners to ensure our advertisers can measure YouTube media with measurement solutions that meet rigorous, verified standards. We work closely with partners to ensure their solutions respect user privacy. In addition to Nielsen Catalina Solutions (NCS) and Oracle Data Cloud, soon CPG advertisers will have the option to measure their YouTube media using IRI. These offerings complement geo experiments with Nielsen MPA, giving advertisers a variety of options for seeing the offline impact of their video ads. Last week we also announced expanded integrations for brand suitability and reach reporting, continuing our commitment to providing both quality and choice when it comes to helping marketers better understand their media investments.
We’re excited about how these capabilities can help take your campaigns to the next level, driving real business impact all along the customer journey.

https://www.blog.google/products/ads/youtube-adweek-2018/
High… Eight? The octopus slap heard ‘round the world and other searches this week
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Riveting testimony on Capitol Hill, a new name for a favorite chain, and a snack that slaps back (and surprises an unsuspecting kayaker). Here are a few of the week’s most searched trends, with data from the Google News Lab.
All eyes on the Senate
On Thursday, Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh testified alongside Christine Blasey Ford in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill. As the testimony began yesterday morning, searches for the Senate Judiciary Committee spiked by 4,900 percent in the U.S., propelling search interest in the committee to its all-time high since 2004.
Hold the donuts
Dunkin’ Donuts dropped the “Donuts” and announced a rebrand to what most of us already call it: “Dunkin’.” Most related searches came from New England states Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maine, which comes as no surprise since the company was founded in Quincy, MA. And while Weight Watchers also rebranded this week (to “WW”), search interest for “Dunkin donuts name” was 150 percent higher than “weight watchers name.” Munchkins, anyone?
Voting 101
Tuesday was National Voter Registration Day and above all, the U.S. wanted to know how. Trending questions included, “How to register to vote?” “How to register to vote online?” “How do I check my voter registration?” and “How do you know if you are registered to vote?” For all of you who helped “how to register” spike by more than 3,600 percent, Search can help. If you search “how to register to vote,” a tool at the top of the results page will help you find information about the voter registration requirements and processes in your state.
LMGTFY
Someone had a birthday this week... and we’re here to answer some of the top trending questions: “Is today Google’s birthday?” “How old is Google?” and “When was Google born?” We celebrated our big 2-0 on September 27 (although the exact date is up for debate), giving us the perfect excuse for a #ThrowbackThursday. Check out 20years.withgoogle.com, where you can dig into historical trends, like how we searched for candy in 1999 more than any other year, or how we have always searched for dogs more than any other animal (sorry, cat people).
Seal vs. Octopus vs. Kayaker
While testing a new GoPro camera, a kayaker in New Zealand was slapped in the face with an octopus by a seal (yes, you read that right). While the kayaker clearly took a hit, it’s been a close fight between the two sea dwellers in Search. ”Seal slap” started trending earlier than “octopus slap,” but the latter has been more popular over time, spiking 4,900 percent in the U.S. It turns out the seal was probably trying to pull off a tentacle as a snack, so maybe we call this one a tie.
P.S. Your humble High Five contributor was so, um, struckby this tale that she wrote a little something in haiku format. You're welcome:
Paddlin’ a kayak
Got slapped with an octopus
A tasty seal meal

https://www.blog.google/high-five/high-eight-octopus-slap-heard-round-world-and-other-searches-week/
Next Junction: Explore Indian Railways with Google Arts & Culture
google in asia arts and culture india • • sorangutan

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Over 151,000 kilometres of track, 7,000 stations, 1.3 million employees and 160 years of history. Indian Railways is one of the most celebrated railway networks in the world. A few months ago, we celebrated the 400th Indian train station connecting to the internet with Google Station, our public Wi-Fi program. Today, we’re bringing Indian Railways’ heritage and sights to the entire world. The most gorgeous architecture, iconic trains and charismatic personalities of Indian Railways can now be found on Google Arts & Culture.

The first rail journey in India, a 14-coach train from Bombay to Thane in 1853 ushered in a new era of an India connected by track, rendering previously remote villages accessible. A century and a half later, just as trains once opened passages across the subcontinent, Google Arts & Culture’s new project “The Railways — Lifeline of a Nation” is making these passages accessible for the world to experience.

Anyone can now explore India’s railways in unprecedented detail with over 100 exhibitions that bring together more than 3,000 images, 150 videosand 150 iconic locationsacross India. Zoom into ultra-high resolution images made with our Art Camera, like maps of the East Indian Railwaysthat the British used to connect Calcutta with the North West Provinces; get a 360 degree look around the workshops of cardboard rail model enthusiasts; or take a behind the scenes peek at Darjeeling loco shed.
- chivpatri
  Discover the architecture of India’s most iconic train stations, including this Victorian Gothic stunner—the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in Mumbai.
- bollywoodrailway
  Watch how a railway inspired the making of a hit Bollywood movie.
- fairyqueen-indianrailways
  All aboard The Fairy Queen- the locomotive inaugurated by the East Indian Railways in 1855 and among the oldest functioning steam engines in the world.
- ganey-indianrailway
  Go behind the scenes and find out how Indian Railways employees, like veteran technician Ganey Khawas keep the trains running.
We invite everyone to take an online journey with us to see the breathtaking sights of India’s railways on Google Arts & Culture’sonline platform and the free Google Arts & Culture mobile app on Android and iOS.

https://www.blog.google/around-the-globe/google-asia/indian-railways/
Stitching your trip plans together across Google
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There are so many travel resources out there it can feel like you spend hours researching flights, hotels and sites before you feel prepared to book your trip. In fact, 46 percent of leisure travelers globally think travel planning takes too long, according to our recent research with Phocuswright. To make trip planning faster and effortless, we’re working on new ways to help bring your existing travel plans together—and even plan your next trip.
Pick up travel planning where you left off
When you look for top travel destinations worldwide—even if you haven’t booked anything yet—we’ll help jump-start your trip planning with relevant suggestions right in Google Search. We’ll show you things to do, day plans or travel articles. As you start booking and receive your flight or hotel email confirmations in Gmail, these travel recommendations will be further customized in organic search results on Google. For example, if you’re searching “Austin” and already booked your hotel, you’ll see things like flight prices, weather and events for your dates of travel, and even restaurants near where you're staying.
In addition to helping you fill in the gaps with your existing trips, in October we’ll launch new features in Your Trips that will make it easier to organize travel plans still in the works, and resume planning where you last left off. For example, if you’ve recently started looking at traveling to Milan, we’ll show you potential trip information in Your Trips like flight prices you’re tracking (if you have any), destination-specific flight and hotel searches, and places you’ve saved. That way, you can easily pick up your travel research when you come back to Google. To see Your Trips, search for “my trips” on Google, or tap on the Your Trips tab from Google Flights or Hotels on your phone.
If you don’t want to see private results, you can opt out by adjusting your Private results and Web & app activity settings. See more information in Google Settings.
New Year’s in NYC? See if flight fares are higher or lower than usual
Wondering whether you've found a decent price for a flight can be the most stressful part of planning a trip. On Google Flights, we’re expanding the same tip you already see for Thanksgiving—which tells you whether a flight price is higher or lower than usual—to include December holidays like Christmas and New Year’s. This tip will appear worldwide over the coming weeks when you search for flights on your phone over the December holidays. We’ll also notify you if prices are not going to drop or if they’re likely to rise in the next five days.
For more information on holiday travel, flight price trends and cities with great hotel deals, check out this infographic.
Find the right hotel for you based on location, location, location
Not sure where to stay? Try the new hotel location score which summarizes the hotel’s neighborhood based on information from Google Maps. You can see if the hotel is close to things like bars, landmarks or public transportation. For example, you’ll see if a specific hotel is near boutique shops to fill your fashion fix or within walking distance from the Milan Duomo. You’ll also get information on getting to and from airports.
We’ll continue to work on making trip planning across Google effortless. Use these new features to help make planning your next trip easier—and more fun!

https://www.blog.google/products/flights-hotels/stitching-your-trip-plans-together-across-google/
Image rights metadata in Google Images
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As part of a collaboration between Google, photo industry consortium CEPIC, and IPTC, the global technical standards body for the news media, you can now access rights-related image metadata in Google Images.
It’s traditionally been difficult to know the creator of images on the web, as well as who might own the rights. This information is often part of image metadata, and is key to protecting image copyright and licensing information.
Starting today, we’ve added Creator and Credit metadata whenever present to images on Google Images. To see this information on Google Images, you can click on the “Image Credits” link to view the metadata fields. Over the coming weeks, we will also add Copyright Notice metadata.
Also in partnership with CEPIC and IPTC, we hope to create better usage guidance for photographers, photo agencies and publishers to include copyright and attribution information in image metadata. For more on how to best implement IPTC metadata, refer to the IPTC Guidelines.
Andrew Fingerman, CEO of PhotoShelter, a provider of digital asset management tools for photographers and brands, describes why this is a big step for Google Images: “Employing IPTC metadata standards in Google Images results will help ensure proper attribution of credit and support photographers’ copyright, while also boosting the discoverability of content and creators. This is a win for the professional photo community.”
If you have questions, feedback or suggestions, please let us know through the Webmaster Tools Help Forum.

https://www.blog.google/products/search/image-rights-metadata-google-images/
Google tools to help your business prepare for natural disasters
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When a devastating flood hit Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 2008, Pierson’s Flower Shop & Greenhouses—which has been a part of the community since 1928—found itself under eight feet of water. The store was closed for five months and business fell 40 percent, while many other small businesses in the area never recovered. When shop owner Allan Pierson was on the brink of giving up, he revamped his online presence and turned to tools like Google Ads to reach customers, and email to run the business remotely.

When disaster strikes, small business owners like Allan shouldn’t have to worry about their businesses on top of everything else. To commemorate National Preparedness Month, we’ve just released a new resource with tips on how digital tools can help your business prepare for a disaster, like backing up critical documents in the Cloud and creating a Google Group to easily keep in touch with all of your employees. Preparation is particularly important for small businesses: according to FEMA, roughly 40 to 60 percent of small businesses never reopen after a disaster.
Though we hope you never need to enable your emergency plan, by using digital tools we hope that you can minimize the long term impact on your business.

https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/small-business/google-tools-help-your-business-prepare-natural-disasters/
Twenty years of building for everyone
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Twenty years ago, Google started with an ambitious goal to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. At the heart, we want to build technology that helps as many people as possible, regardless of who you are or where you are in the world. As we celebrate our birthday this month, we’re reflecting on some of the progress we’ve made toward that end. The work is never done, but here are 20 highlights from the past two decades:
Finding answers … and making connections
1. Billions of people have used Google Search to find answers to (literally) trillions of questions every year—from “how to help my community” to “how to find home” to all the many small questions in between. With job search, we’ve helped connect 100 million people to job opportunities in 92 countries.
2. Google Maps has helped people find their way with driving directions in 240+ countries and territories, spanning 40 million miles of road—that’s 83+ trips to the moon and back. And by connecting people to 150 million places around the world, Maps helps communities and businesses grow. Most moving are the times when Maps has helped people find a sense of place in the world—from Rio’s favelas to one’s own memories.
Saroo Brierley: Homeward Bound
Saroo Brierley searched for his family for years before finding his way back home with the help of Google Earth.
3. People can now talk to their Google Assistant in more than 20 languages, and in some cases it can even keep up if you’re bilingual. You can ask about everything from fantasy football advice to help finding a parking spot, and do everything from meditate to order a coffee. In the car, the Assistant has helped people reach their destination on tens of millions of commutes, and has sent tens of millions of messages, helping people stay in touch while keeping their eyes on the road.
4. Translate helps over half a billion people ask for help, make new friends, and say "thank you" across 100+ languages. More than 143 billion words are translated every day—that’s more than 161,000 times the number of the complete works of Shakespeare.
From Syria to Canada
Emad and his family left Syria for a safer life in Canada. There, they had to grow accustomed to a new home, country—and language.
Saving valuable time (and space!)
5. More than 500 million people use Google Photos every month, backing up more than 1.2 billion photos and videos per day. Photos has also freed up over 410 petabytes worth of space—that’s like more than 25 million 16GB devices—plus peace of mind knowing you'll always have room to capture more memories.

6. With the typing time reduced by Autocomplete in Search, we estimate people worldwide collectively save over 200 years of typing time per day!

7. Gmail’s Smart Compose, a new machine learning-powered experience that helps you write email faster, saves people from typing over 1 billion characters a week (to put that in perspective, that’s the equivalent of nearly 4 million tweets).

Helping you stay safe online
8. One billion people visit the Google Account each year to access settings to safeguard their data and privacy.

9. Safe Browsing protects more than 3 billion devices from malware and phishing schemes, helping you browse the web with confidence.

10. And Gmail blocks nearly 10 million spam and malicious emails every minute, helping you keep your email and data safe.

Giving people tools and platforms to grow
11. Each year for the past five years, our search and advertising tools have helped provide more than $100 billion in economic activity to businesses, publishers and nonprofits across the United States. And we’re inspired by the stories of local and small businesses, from John’s Crazy Socks to American Hats, who are using the web to grow.

12. Google Play has helped developers grow app businesses and reach users in 190+ countries and across more than 2 billion Android devices. From an app that helps blind people see to a game that creates art, these creators are doing amazing things on our open platforms.

13. Since the start of 2017, we’ve trained more than 30 million people around the world in a range of digital skills, helping them start and grow businesses, learn to code, and find new careers.
Sara Blevins: Learning to code
Sara always had a passion for technology. With a Developer Scholarship from Google, she's pursuing her dream of becoming a web developer.
Expanding access to learning opportunities
14. More than 25 million students worldwide are using Chromebooks in schools to share ideas, create projects, go on virtual field trips, and learn from each other and their teachers.

15. Art lovers and history buffs have marveled at artifacts from 1,500+ museums across 70 countries in Google Arts & Culture. From Abramovic to Zhengming, that’s thousands of artworks and 6 million photos, videos, manuscripts and other documents at your fingertips. And people have met more than 78 million selfie matches from 650+ institutions with Art Selfie.
16. People can access local versions of YouTube in 91 countries around the world across 80 languages—covering 95 percent of all internet traffic. And every day, people watch learning-related content over a billion times on YouTube.
An Eye Fit for Liberty
When his daughter needed a prosthetic eye, a father refused to settle for less.
Making an impact on a global scale
17. To help people in times of need, we’ve activated SOS Alerts to provide better access to emergency information in more than 200 crisis situations, and people have viewed Public Alerts—for things like storm warnings or hurricane evacuations—more than 1.5 billion times.

18. Since 2005, we’ve donated more than $1.5 billion to organizations working to help refugees and disaster victims, fight for equal justice, provide teachers with classroom equipment, and teach people new skills. And over the past four years Googlers have logged over a million hours (that’s 114 years’ worth!) volunteering in the communities where we live and work.

19. People have used Nest thermostats to save 25 billion kWh of energy—roughly enough to power Ireland for a year.

20. Thousands of developers have used TensorFlow, our open source tool for deep learning, to make farming more efficient in Japan and the Netherlands, predict wildfires and prevent deforestation, track whale migration and identify birdsong—and even detect cancer.
Abu's Story
When Abu was 15, he discovered the potential of machine learning. Now what he’s building could help doctors and patients all over the world.
Google’s name is based on a number—a one with 100 zeroes after it. When we went public in 2004, the offering contained a math joke about the irrational number "e." Oh, and we call our campus headquarters the “Googleplex,” which, if it were spelled differently, would be a one followed by a googol of zeroes. You could say we’re numbers people.
But these numbers are different. They represent something incredibly meaningful—the billions of people who have posed a question, sent an email, opened a new tab, dragged a pin on a map, asked a big question. Billions of people who have found answers, gotten things done or started on a new adventure. Billions of people whose lives have gotten, just possibly, a little bit better or brighter thanks to something that we built.
Everything we’ve done for the past 20 years has been built with you in mind, and we’re incredibly grateful for the opportunity you’ve given us to be a part of your lives. And two decades in, we’re even more dedicated to building products and services that make a difference for you.

https://www.blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/twenty-years-building-everyone/
Inside Google’s original garage, 1998-style
maps working at google • • sorangutan

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You may remember 1998 as a glorious year filled with endless games of Snake on your brick phone (you couldn’t go through the walls yet) and listening to “Baby One More Time” at max volume on your discman. Meanwhile, in Susan Wojcicki’s disused garage in California, two university students, Larry and Sergey, decided they were going to organize the world’s information and make it accessible to everyone.
To celebrate Google’s 20th birthday, today we invite you to travel back in time and take a virtual stroll through the original Google Garage in Street View—(almost) just like it was 20 years ago.
The original blue side door to the Google Garage on Santa Margarita, Menlo Park
As you walk through the garage’s side door, you’ll note a familiar Search box on an old “CRT” computer monitor held up by a wooden workhorse table with yellow legs. Larry and Sergey were particularly thrilled that use of the washing machine and dryer was included in their rent.
As you chase cables that scramble haphazardly down the hallway, you’ll find a bedroom (ahem, “main office”) with a whiteboard that reads “Google’s Worldwide Headquarters” in black text. On another whiteboard, you’ll see a cheeky homage to Google’s logo update back in 1998. Doesn’t the delightful wallpaper remind you of tea at your grandparents' place?
As the team grew to six people, they expanded their workspaces into the three small bedrooms on the ground floor. Hunt around and you’ll find a collapsible mini rainbow sphere, a surf-frog terrarium, a dinosaur, a ping pong table, and a piano keyboard for music breaks.
If you want to see exactly how the same space looked back in 1998, check out this archival video clip captured by Harry, Google’s sixth employee.
For a peek through Google history, just find the secret trapdoor and turn on the neon light—a secret easter egg world awaits you. 😉

https://www.blog.google/products/maps/inside-googles-original-garage-1998-style/
Throwbacks and thank yous on our 20th birthday
search doodles • • sorangutan

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On Google’s 20th birthday, Thursday is not just for throwbacks. It’s also for thank yous.
Google wouldn’t be what it is today if it weren’t for you: a curious crowd that comes to Search with all of life’s questions. Today’s birthday Doodle is dedicated to you, and the 20 years of searches that represent the inquisitiveness of people everywhere.
In today’s Doodle and hidden in Search for a limited time, you’ll be thrown back to (and flashed forward from) the days when “what is Y2K?” was your most burning tech question, Pluto was still a planet, and clip art was a critical part of visual communication.
The days when the music format du jour was the MP3 file and it was cutting-edge to watch a DVD. When you had to choose a screen name before hopping into a chat room.
All the kids had to have a digital pet, and girls were rocking the latest butterfly clip styles in their hair. Everyone was keepin' it real and gettin' jiggy wit it on the dance floor. And googol was just a really big number.
You can also peer back into the last two decades through the lens of trends by visiting 20years.withgoogle.com and seeing many of the people, pop culture and pizza (yes, pizza) that inspired your searches from 1998 to now.
We hope this jaunt down memory lane reminds you of your own magical moments when you found just what you were looking for with Google. For the next 20 years and beyond: Search on.

https://www.blog.google/products/search/throwbacks-and-thank-yous-our-20th-birthday/
How insights from user research help us build for the next billion users
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Sitting in her apartment in Mumbai a few years ago, Radha wondered if there were activities nearby for her two-year old son. She had recently moved to the city from a small town about 300 km away in search of better education for her children. Since then, she’d slowly built up a network of acquaintances, mostly from chance meetings traveling up and down the lift. But there was something missing. Back in her hometown, it was easy to ask Shanti Aunty across the way about local dressmakers. And—along with the keys to the family cupboard—she had inherited many business relationships from her mother-in-law; the local baker, the nearby mobile repair shop. But in such a big city, finding answers to simple local questions was more difficult.
A kernel of an insight
This kernel of an insight, gathered by Jeannie Foulsham while studying local search in India in 2014, led to the development of a product we call Neighbourly. Neighbourly is a mobile application that provides people with an easy interface to ask and find answers to neighborhood questions and is available in seven cities in India so far. And we built it in direct response to conversations with users like Radha.
This is just one example of how user experience (UX) research can build an understanding of people’s context, behavior, and comprehension to inform the design of products or services. There are hundreds of researchers across Google who gather insights to inform all of our product offerings. This research is especially key to how we approach products for the next billion users—people coming online for the first time, usually on mobile. To ensure we're living up to Google's mission of universally accessible information, we must deeply understand the similarities and differences in how these people look for and use information in their day to day lives.
Diving deeper to understand the role of technology
In the early days of developing Neighbourly, Muzayun Mukhtar, a UX researcher based in our Bangalore office, would spend hours walking the streets of Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur and many other smaller cities conducting intercept interviews, stopping people for a conversation to get a glimpse into their lives, their impressions and their relationships. She spent time in small communities called societies, where she learned about the social dynamic between neighbors. For a deeper look at how they lived, Muzayun worked through locals to meet people in their homes for contextual inquiries to see how they solve day-to-day problems. She met people from different stages and walks of life: mothers, homemakers, those new to the community as well as neighborhood lifers. She would then take these insights back to our product teams for incorporation into the product roadmap.
We visited many communities in cities around India during the design and development of Neighbourly, including this society in Mumbai.
Discovering a core user value
As the team iterated on ideas in late 2016, Muzayun met Divya, a mother of two, for an interview at a children’s park in Borivali. Divya told her, "I’ve been struggling to find a good physiotherapist in this area for six months. People in my locality are isolated—so busy. Other than a hi or hello once in a while, we don't reach out. But that wasn't how things were when I was growing up. We used to know each other. We used to help each other.”
Divya’s remarks reinforced some key themes that the team had heard before, and helped crystallize the need that Neighbourly could address. First, people prefer trusted word of mouth to answer local questions. And second, for many people, neighborhoods feel broken; you no longer know your neighbors so word of mouth is less of an option. The team’s challenge was now clear: How can we encourage communities to respond in a caring, helpful way when people have questions? How might we help people find trusted, neighborhood answers?
Delivering thoughtful, usable design
UX research doesn’t stop as products are designed and developed. In the case of Neighbourly, we conducted multiple rounds of iterative usability tests where we showed product designs to participants and gleaned their feedback. This gave designers on the team some key insights that they built into the product. For example, we added a mic button to quickly transcribe questions in the user’s local language, making it easier for people to ask questions as effortlessly as if they were asking a friend. We also added a quick swipe to advance question cards to make the product more fun and lightweight.
Getting feedback on our designs directly from people helped us make changes to meet their needs and increase usability
Learning through immersion
Product team members routinely join UX researchers in the field to ensure they fully internalizes the needs and context of the people they’re building for, and ground product decisions in real user insights. As Ben Fohner, a product manager on the Neighbourly team, says: “There’s no substitute for sitting down with somebody in their living room and watching them use (or try to use!) the product you’ve built. It’s a combination of incredibly exhilarating when you see an ah-ha moment—and incredibly humbling when something just doesn’t work. Spending time face-to-face with our users was essential in building Neighbourly, and a great source of motivation for the whole team, too.”
Product teams join in for research, building intuition and grounding decisions in real insights.
Putting it all together
Neighbourly is one product among many, developed to address a specific need. However, we’ve often found instances where addressing local needs can grow to have global impact. For example, Files Go, an app that helps you free up space on your phone, was built from insights gathered primarily in India and Brazil, but it’s resonated with audiences globally.
Google aims to build products that improve the lives of as many people as possible. And from the initial insight to the finishing pixel, UX research helps product teams stay connected to the pulse of the user. By staying focused on the needs, behaviors and concerns of the people for whom we’re developing our products, we can more effectively build for everyone.

https://www.blog.google/technology/next-billion-users/how-insights-user-research-help-us-build-next-billion-users/
We made it to #GHC18! Here’s what Googlers are looking forward to.
diversity and inclusion googlers • • sorangutan

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Today, technologists from around the globe are landing in Houston for this year’s Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC). It’s the ultimate meeting of the minds—over 20,000 women and allies from different backgrounds get together to learn, share ideas, and most importantly, get to know each other. The sense of community at Grace Hopper is one of the reasons women come back every year, including many Googlers who will be in Houston this week to participate in talks, panels, workshops and hanging out at our booths at the Career Fair and Technology Showcase.
There's a lot happening at GHC and large conferences can feel a bit overwhelming at times, so we spoke to a few Googlers (and experienced Grace Hopper-goers) to find out their tips and tricks for getting the most out of GHC:
Reena Lee (right) at #GHC16
Get inspired
I always look forward to that awesome energy the first time I enter the keynote room and find myself surrounded by thousands of amazing women in technology from all over the world. - Alejandra Estanislao, Software Engineer
There’s inspiration everywhere at GHC. Check out the “Beyond ‘Be Confident’” panel or the “Pivot or Die” panel to learn from the career journeys of inspiring women, including Googlers Karen Ng, Group Product Manager and Sara Khoury, User Experience Design Director.
Pick up new skills
I'm looking forward to helping attendees create their first Actions on Google action that will be published so the world can try it with the Google Assistant right after the conference! - Reena Lee, Product Manager
Take advantage of hands-on learning experiences like the “Getting Started with Actions on Google” workshop led by Mandy Chan, Developer Community Manager, and the “Nail Your Promotion” workshop with Catherine Courage, VP, Design.
Meet new people
I'm pretty sure everyone says this but my favorite part is always meeting some pretty baller women! I can't tell you the number of times I've just been blown away by what pretty much everyone has accomplished and I have yet to meet anyone at the conference that didn't have an interesting story to tell. - Arathi Mani, Software Engineer
Look for opportunities to strike up a chat with your fellow conference-goers. We’ve got plenty of conversation-starting experiences at our booth at the Career Fair, the technology showcase, and our Google on the Green activation at Discovery Green before and after conference hours.
Arathi Mani (second left) with Alan Eustace (second right) and other Googlers at #GHC15
Connect with your community
I served as a Google Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI) Site Lead in Cambridge, MA this past summer. We taught 30 under-represented rising college freshmen the basics of HTML, CSS, Javascript, Python, and App Engine over the course of 3 weeks. I'm really looking forward to seeing my former CSSIers, who are now scattered throughout the US and Canada for college! - Gloria Li, Associate Financial Analyst
Catch the “Effective Networking” panel to hear from Michelle Duffy, Engineering Director, Site Reliability Engineering and other technologists about building community across organizations. Learn how conversations at events like GHC can turn into lasting relationships!
Words of wisdom jotted down by Soujanya Aithal at #GHC14
Get a different perspective
This year my aim is to understand the challenges faced by women in tech from different backgrounds, benefits and challenges posed by societal norms and cultures, and understand the technical projects attendees are working on. - Soujanya Aithal, Software Engineer
Seek out opportunities to get a new view on things, such as the Machine Learning for Everyone workshop, where software engineers and research scientists discuss creating inclusive machine learning algorithms.
Take time to recharge
Incorporate the downtime you need into your schedule. Also don't give in to FOMO—it's OK to miss some things in order to have a good experience at other sessions. - Tod Hilton, Technical Writer
This is important. There are many exciting things to do at GHC, so make sure you prioritize the events that matter most to you and make time for rest.
Join the online conversation
If you can’t make it to Houston for #GHC18, no worries, we’ve got you covered. Follow the @LifeatGoogle and @GoogleStudents social media channels, where we’ll be sharing event highlights and behind-the-scenes content all week long.

https://www.blog.google/inside-google/googlers/we-made-it-ghc18-heres-what-googlers-are-looking-forward/
All together now: group planning on Google Maps
• sorangutan

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This may sound familiar: you and your friends are trying to pick a place for dinner, but no one wants to make the decision and you don't know where to go. How do you decide on a place that your BBQ aficionado bestie, quinoa-loving sister, and wannabe foodie friend can all enjoy without scrolling through a ton of links in group text messages?

Starting today, you can use Google Maps to easily plan where to go as a group. Simply long press on any place to add it to a shortlist - the small floating bubble on the side of your screen. Once you've added places, you can quickly share the list with your friends on any messaging platform, add or remove additional places, and vote together in Google Maps.
- rally long press
  Add places to a shortlist
- rally share
  Share the shortlist with friends
- rally vote
  Every member of the group can add or delete places, and vote on a place together
The group planning feature starts rolling out on Android and iOS this week. To get started, download the Google Maps app or update it from the Play Store or App Store.

https://www.blog.google/products/maps/all-together-now-group-planning-google-maps/
How Gboard is helping European languages in the digital age
• sorangutan

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Today is European Day of Languages, celebrating the many languages that are spoken every day across Europe, with events ranging from language-learning crash courses to multilingual concerts. And Europe's rich linguistic diversity is increasingly reflected online. For example, regional languages like Welsh and Frisian are more and more commonly used on social media.
We're committed to making technology work in the languages people want to use it in, for as many people across the world as possible. Our focus on bringing technology to as many languages as we can is borne out across many of our products. One example is our keyboard app Gboard, which offers smart keyboards for Android in more than 60 European language varieties, with machine learning smarts like auto-correction and predictive text. In many languages, Gboard also lets you type by voice using speech recognition.
Beyond the 24 official languages of the European Union, Gboard supports many other languages, like Welsh, Corsican, Luxembourgish, Sicilian, Scottish Gaelic, Upper Sorbian, Northern Sami, Manx, and more (see the full list on our help center). And for multilingual users, Gboard supports using multiple languages without changing keyboards, making it easy to use the right language at the right time.
Supporting such a rich array of languages poses its own technological challenges. For example, in some languages, nouns and verbs can have lots of inflectional forms. Learning the nuances of such a rich vocabulary required us to come up with a new approach to language modeling in our machine learning systems. As another example, some European language varieties, like Romansh and Austro-Bavarian, pose challenges to machine learning systems due to their relatively large degree of internal variation, with differences in the way the language is spoken from one valley to the next. For such languages, Gboard's on-device personalization can help you learn exactly your typing style.
Of course, lots of other Google products are available across many European languages. For example, Google Translate can help you break down language barriers across more than 30 languages of Europe. And the Google Assistant is available in 10 European languages, with more on the way. Wherever you are, and whatever language you speak, we wish you a happy European Day of Languages!

https://www.blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/how-gboard-helping-european-languages-digital-age/
Searching for Tuva: Before the internet and now
• sorangutan

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“So you think you know every country in the world?” my late friend and drumming partner Richard Feynman said with a twinkle in his eye, back in 1977.“Well, then, whatever happened to Tannu Tuva?”
I replied, “Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman—there is no such country!”
But there was: Feynman remembered Tuva as a purple splotch on the map just outside of Outer Mongolia. In the 1930s Tuva issued dozens of marvelous triangular- and diamond-shaped stamps that he collected as a boy. Then the country mysteriously disappeared.
His question turned into a quest—to learn everything we could about Tuva, and to get there ourselves. On the occasion of Google's 20th anniversary this month, I've been thinking about how different our search was then compared to today.
Back then our main source of information was libraries—local, university, even the Library of Congress. Much of the information was in Russian (Tuva had been absorbed into Stalin’s Soviet Union during World War II), so we recruited a linguistic wizard named Glen Cowan to help. (Today you can use Google Translate.) We scoured card catalogs, microfilm reels, cross-library listings—and books that literally needed the dust blown off—in hopes of finding a useful nugget of information. Each nugget, rare and unexpected, delivered a small delight of discovery, and kept our quest alive.
Search for “Tuva” today on Google and you’ll be showered with so many nuggets that you can’t possibly treasure them all.
Back then it took us months to find a single grainy black-and-white photograph of Tuva; search for “images Tuva” on Google today and you’ll find a hundred color photographs in a second.
Back then it took us a year to find a single hand-drawn map of Tuva’s exotically spelled capital; today, you can instantly see a detailed street map of Kyzyl based on satellite imagery, with current traffic conditions.
Because information about Tuva was so difficult to find in the pre-Internet era, our quest was full of twists—much like a Feynman diagram (go ahead, search!). One twist took us to Moscow, where Cowan and I discovered and then brought the largest archaeological and ethnographic exposition ever from the Soviet Union to the United States. It included spectacular items from Tuva, of course. We thought the Nomads exhibition would provide us the key to finally setting foot in Kyzyl; it actually was the key for a dozen Soviet academicians to visit the mysterious Disneyland. No matter: we learned the meaning of the Taoist saying, “The reward is in the journey.”
Undaunted, we spread our enthusiasm by sending out Xeroxed newsletters to our friends, encouraging them to pass them on and send back SASEs (self-addressed stamped envelopes) for future newsletters. We also set up a “Friends of Tuva hotline” (221-TUVA) to spread the latest information about the singing cowboys from Tuva riding in the 1993 Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade. Each Tuvan cowboy could sing two notes simultaneously, something we could scarcely imagine when we read about it in books; today, YouTube has dozens of “Tuvan throatsinging” music videos, and the “Friends of Tuva” newsletters are online.
Sadly, Feynman died in 1988, just weeks before receiving the coveted formal invitation that would allow us to set foot in Tuva at last. But his memory lives on, here and in the land of his dreams. Today, you can find an article online about “Feynman Rock” in Tuva, carved to commemorate the centenary of Feynman’s birth in May this year. At a related event in Kyzyl, Cowan gave a talk in Russian about the work that won Feynman the Nobel Prize, while a simultaneous commemoration live-streamed into Kyzyl from Caltech.
The view from Feynman Rock in Tuva
Today I embark on dozens of quirky diversions every week, usually ending up happily lost in the world of Wikipedia (to which I contribute a dollar a day for my habit). But these easy jaunts seem more like sugar highs than the satisfying meal that Tuva provided, so in an effort to recapture that spirit of adventure, I’ve begun to frequent my local library and read good old-fashioned books again.
Nevertheless, I'm thankful for the embarrassment of riches and fools gold that is today’s Internet. And on Google's 20th anniversary, I offer up a fervent hope: let us never stop pursuing the mysteries that surround us—wondrous mysteries that await sustained, serendipitous, and joyful investigation. Quests can still begin with an intriguing question; adventures still await the curious mind.
Find your Tuva.

https://www.blog.google/products/search/searching-tuva-internet-and-now/
Oh, The Things You’ll Find
• sorangutan

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Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to great pages!
You're off and away!
You have brains in your head.
and fingers on your hands.
You can search for whatever
and see where it lands.
You're on your own. With an empty white box.
Roll a dice, flip a coin, if you’re feeling lucky (or not).
You'll spin around pages. “Do a barrel roll” with care!
About anagram you’ll say: "did you mean” isn't right there...
With your head full of brains and your hands full of fingers,
You're too smart to tap any Super Mario box figures.
And if you do not find links
That you want to click on.
You'll go back to the start,
Type again and #SearchOn.
But searchers, beware!
We've hidden more things
in the wide open air ;)
In Search, things can happen,
sometimes go askew,
Atari breakouts, Zerg rushes,
Blink <html> blink blinks too.
And when you have questions,
about lonely numbers or unicorn horns.
Or the answer to life the universe
and everything … again, #SearchOn
OH!
THE THINGS YOU’LL FIND!
Because, once in a blue moon,
Bletchley Park will be scrambled
sending PAC-MAN and snakes
on a big fullscreen amble.
Hooting owls will hoot hoot,
Mooing cows will moo moo,
Google in 1998 will send you back
20 years or so too.
And if that means you need balance,
Why not play solitaire?
Take a moment to spin a dreidel
and catch your breath there.
Reset your bubble levels,
Turn your metronome back on,
(sqrt(cos(x))*cos(500*x)
+sqrt(abs(x))-0.4)*(3-x*x)^0.1
And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)
KID, YOU’LL FIND ANSWERS!
So…
Whether you’re Aussie or Kenyan or mostly Hungarian
Or an Indo-Peruvian-Czech vegetarian.
You're off to great pages!
Today is your day!
Your search page is waiting.
So...get on your way!

https://www.blog.google/products/search/oh-things-youll-find/
New ways to measure from impression to impact in Display & Video 360
• sorangutan

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Today’s consumers are accessing media from a broader variety of devices and in more moments than ever before. To be successful, marketers need to know whether ads had a chance to be seen, how many people saw them, and if they changed perception or behavior along the consumer journey.

That’s why we’re announcing new capabilities in Display & Video 360 for measuring viewability, reach, and brand lift across media sources and properties.
Enabling custom metrics with Active View
Research has consistently shown that ads need an opportunity to be seen to drive impact. We support the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Media Rating Council (MRC) definition of viewability as the minimum threshold across all display and video ads to help make advertising measurement simpler and more effective. And we’ve completed third-party accreditation by the MRC for viewable impressions in Display & Video 360, as measured by Active View. But we know that many advertisers and agencies have different definitions of viewability based on their unique business requirements.

That’s why we recently launched custom metrics in Display & Video 360, measured by Active View. With these new controls, advertisers can select custom criteria such as the percentage of the ad that must be on screen and the amount of time an ad must be visible to count as an impression. Once set up, these metrics are reported for all video campaigns, within hours. Custom metrics are in addition to the MRC accredited reporting based on MRC viewable impressions, as well as advanced audibility and visibility metrics that are already available in Display & Video 360.
- Display & Video 360 custom metrics
- Display & Video 360 Active View product animation
- Display & Video 360 custom metrics
Bringing Unique Reach reporting to Display & Video 360
Reach and frequency remain hallmark metrics to plan and measure the scale of advertising campaigns today. But, you also need to be thoughtful about how often you connect with a single user to avoid overloading them.

This week, we launched Unique Reach reporting for all your display and video ads, no matter where they run. With Unique Reach in Display & Video 360, you can measure the number of unique users and average impressions-per-user you get from display and video ads. Metrics are de-duplicated across devices, campaigns, inventory, and formats so you can see how many people you reached and how often you reach them. You’ll also have an expanded lookback window of up to 3 months, and the ability to report at both the campaign and site level, so you know which campaigns and sites are driving the greatest reach.

Extending Brand Lift measurement to all of your video buys
Reach and frequency metrics tell you how many people you reach and how often, but you also need to understand the effectiveness of your video ads in changing perception — across all the places they’re viewed.

That’s why we’re expanding the brand perception insights that you get from Brand Lift beyond YouTube to all of your video advertising, across media properties. With Brand Lift in Display & Video 360, you can easily measure the impact of your video ads on metrics like brand awareness, ad recall, and consideration. You can also see how your video ads impact the number of searches for your brand on Google Search and YouTube, so you can assess their effect on brand interest. You can even segment reporting by audiences, creatives, and publishers to better understand what’s working. These insights enable you to optimize your campaign mid-flight to drive greater impact.

While Brand Lift studies in Display & Video 360 are currently available by working with your Google account team, in the coming months you’ll be able to set up Brand Lift studies self-service, and view Brand Lift reporting right in Display & Video 360 alongside metrics for all of your display and video ads.
“Brand Lift in Display & Video 360 helps us see the impact of all of our video ads, including YouTube, in one place. With these insights, we can optimize performance to drive ad recall and awareness, and plan future video campaigns in a smart and data-driven way relevant to our target audience and the viewing environment.”
— Steven Pollack, Head of Media & Communications, Nestlé
With more intelligent metrics covering viewability, reach, and brand perception change across campaigns, marketers have the information they need to create more relevant, useful, and impactful experiences for consumers.

https://www.blog.google/products/marketingplatform/360/brands-measure-impression-impact-display-video-360/
New MRC accreditations and partners for Google and YouTube ads measurement
google ads google marketing platform video ads google ad manager display ads • • sorangutan

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Is my marketing working? It sounds like a simple question, but in today's complex environment, answering it correctly is a challenge. To help advance advertising measurement, we’ve invested in third-party accreditations through the Media Rating Council (MRC), and partnerships with leading measurement technology providers. Together, these efforts help ensure that the metrics our advertising solutions deliver are trusted, align with industry standards, and can be compared across providers.
Today, we’re announcing new MRC accreditations across Google advertising products, including Google Ads, Google Marketing Platform (specifically Display & Video 360 and Campaign Manager), and Google Ad Manager.¹
We’ve also made progress with Google Measurement Partners for viewability, brand safety, and reach reporting on YouTube.
Trusted metrics across Google’s advertising solutions
Advertisers consistently tell us that they struggle with comparing media placements to determine where to invest their limited marketing resources. It’s a problem that’s made even worse when media providers use different definitions of commonly accepted metrics like clicks, impressions, and viewable impressions.
By endorsing the MRC standards and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) guidelines for media measurement, we stand on the side of marketers, who deserve transparency and fairness in their media buys.
Below, you’ll see the comprehensive list of MRC accreditations we currently maintain across search, display, and video ads on the web and in apps. Accredited metrics include various aspects of our clicks, served impressions, viewable impressions, and invalid traffic detection and filtration.
With today’s announcements, YouTube video ad impressions and viewability metrics for desktop, mobile web, and mobile in-app are now fully MRC accredited in Google Ads, Display & Video 360, and Campaign Manager. And we’ve begun the audit process for MRC accreditation of recently added metrics, including brand safety and Unique Reach reporting on YouTube in Google Ads.
“Google has consistently demonstrated a commitment to helping advertisers and publishers achieve transparency and quality in measurement through its work with the MRC. In addition to submitting products for initial consideration for MRC accreditation, Google also has expanded on the scope of what’s being submitted for existing accredited products. This progress is emblematic of what we at MRC consider to be our core industry mission: to help lift the bar for quality in measurement consistently upward.”
—George Ivie, CEO and Executive Director, Media Rating Council
“Google’s efforts to create transparency and choice through MRC accreditation demonstrates their commitment to delivering a better, more responsible advertising ecosystem. The ultimate goal is to ensure transparency at every step in the complex advertising supply chain, and Google’s efforts are helping us achieve that objective."
—Bob Liodice, CEO, ANA
More transparent YouTube measurement with trusted partners
To help advertisers measure YouTube media in a verified, privacy-safe way with the measurement solution of their choice, we've also made progress with Google Measurement Partners for viewability, brand safety, and reach reporting.
First, the YouTube data feed for video viewability reporting by third-parties is currently under audit by the MRC. Our ultimate goal is to achieve MRC accreditation for our integrations with DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science (IAS), so advertisers can be confident that YouTube metrics have been third-party verified, no matter where they choose to measure.
In addition, brand safety verification on YouTube by both DoubleVerify and IAS is now in expanded beta. In beta tests with DoubleVerify and IAS, we’re seeing 99 percent success rates on brand safety across both auction and reserve, including Google Preferred.²
We’re also expanding our partnerships for reach measurement, which now include Nielsen, comScore, Kantar, and soon, Meetrics. This month, YouTube’s integration with Nielsen for mobile in-app measurement has expanded to Australia and Italy. This is in addition to the U.S., Canada, Japan, U.K., Germany, and France which are already available.
To know if their marketing is working, advertisers need access to accurate, timely metrics they can trust, regardless of which measurement provider they choose. Looking to the future, we’ll continue investing in measurement solutions and partnerships that help advertisers understand and compare the impact of their investments using commonly accepted metrics and standards.

1. New MRC accreditations achieved since our blog post in February 2017 include:
- Google Ads:
- Google Marketing Platform:
- Google Ad Manager:
2. DoubleVerify and IAS Testing, Global, June 2018

https://www.blog.google/products/ads/transparency-choice-ads-measurement/