Google Introduces "Pinterest Look" In Its Gmail Promotions Tab

Gmail is going to enable its users to view the Promotions tab as an imagery look like Pinterest. The feature enables Gmail users to determine if e-mails from sources which contains sales, deals and other offers which may interest them. Users can receive emails like this only if the Promotions tab is enabled.

Image Credit : Google 

Google's product manager Aaron Rothman stated that “Promotional mail has a lot of images, from pictures of snazzy new shoes to photos of that rock-climbing gym you’ve been wanting to try. But right now, those images are buried inside your messages—and with only subject lines to go on, it can be a challenge to quickly pick out the deals and offers that interest you most. To help you find what you’re looking for faster, you can now sign up for a new field trial for Gmail that lets you view the Promotions tab in a more visual way.”

Users can experience the trial and can take advantage of unlimited scrolling to make it easy to quickly find messages of interest. It is easy to toggle between the new visual grid view and the standard list view with just the click of a button at the top of the tab.

Rothman added that “We’re just experimenting for now, but we hope this view will make it a little bit easier for you to get things done. Sign up at g.co/gmailfieldtrial and if you’re selected, we’ll follow up for your feedback.”

People who use promotional e-mails could see Gmail Developers site to give their readers a better experience using the Gmail imagery promotional tab feature.

Google Launches Android Wear

Google’s blog announced that they are going to extend the Android support-ability to the wearables. As of now they mentioned as watches which will feature Android abilities. They will release few apps for watches.

Sundar Pichai, senior vice-president of Android, Chrome and Apps stated that “Today we’re announcing Android Wear, a project that extends Android to wearables. And we’re starting with the most familiar wearable — watches. Going well beyond the mere act of just telling you the time, a range of new devices along with an expansive catalogue of apps will give you” the following features :

1. Useful information when you need it most.
2. Straight answers to spoken questions.
3. The ability to better monitor your health and fitness.
4. Your key to a multiscreen world.

It is also found that all the users will get everything from notifications from social networks to chat access to fitness apps. The watches will be equipped with Android capabilities and it will work in a similar fashion as a Smartphone does.

If you are an Android developer then we recommend you to visit Android Wear site for further information. Developers can now download a preview to modify their app notifications for watches powered by Android Wear.

Pichai also added that “Because Android for wearables works with Android’s rich notification system, many apps will already work well. Look out for more developer resources and APIs coming soon. We’re also already working with several consumer electronics manufacturers, including Asus, HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung; chip makers Broadcom, Imagination, Intel, Mediatek and Qualcomm; and fashion brands like the Fossil Group to bring you watches powered by Android Wear later this year.”

Google, Viacom Announced The Settlement Of YouTube Copyright Litigation

Its been seven years Google is fighting with Viacom regarding copyright litigation. Finally it came to an end. Both companies agreed on terms of the deal and also the companies released a brief statement of the agreement.

The organization announced “Google and Viacom today jointly announced the resolution of the Viacom vs. YouTube copyright litigation. This settlement reflects the growing collaborative dialogue between our two companies on important opportunities, and we look forward to working more closely together.”

The battle started in 2007 when Viacom sued Google for YouTube for $1 billion. Viacom accused YouTube regarding posts for copyrighted material. Viacom reported that YouTube was hosting more than 160,000 unauthorized videos containing Viacom content as YouTube videos.

YouTube reported that it was in compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices. The court, in 2010, agreed that the video posting site had indeed been compliant in removing copyright-protected content posted by YouTube users. Google even accused Viacom of furtively uploading its content to YouTube itself.

Google Slashed Cloud Storage Prices

Google has slashed the cost of its cloud monthly storage plans to keep its service and offerings the best available online.

Google Drive director of product management Scott Johnston wrote in a blog post saying that “Whether it’s all the footage of your kids’ baseball games, the novel you’re working on, or even just your grocery list for the week, we all have files that are too important to lose. Today, thanks to a number of recent infrastructure improvements, we’re able to make it more affordable for you to keep everything safe and easy to reach on any device, from anywhere.”

Google's 100GB plan has dropped to $1.99 a month from $4.99, while the 15GB plan remains free. The cost for the one 1TB has been slashed $30 — from $49.99 to $9.99. The 10TB plan will cost $99.99 while 20TB will cost $199.99 and 30 TB $299.99 a month.

Google says about terabyte as “enough storage for you to take a selfie twice a day for the next 200 years and still have room left over for… shall we say… less important things.”

Google's chief competitors Dropbox and Box have already made a huge numbers of users and the services offered by these two companies are very much appreciable also. Dropbox offers only 2GB of free space and 100GB for $9.99 a month. The most popular plan for business is the unlimited storage for $15 per month per user with five or more users where as Box offers 10GB of free storage,100GB for $5 a month, 1,000GB for $15 and unlimited for $35.

Johnston also added that the users who already pay for storage will automatically be moved to a better plan at no additional cost. You can visit Google’s website for more detailed info regarding plans.

Google Glass App To Read People’s Facial Expressions

Emotient which is a facial expression recognition and analysis start-up introduced a Google Glass app which can read facial expressions. Emotient announced a private beta of its Google Glass app and has secured $6 million in financing to extend the use of the technology as of now.

Image Credit : Emotient

This new app enables Glass wearers to distinguish and then process facial expressions of the people they are looking at. It does not store video or images. The app reads facial expressions and provides a comprehensive emotional read-out on positive, negative or neutral or primary emotions such as joy, surprise, sadness, fear or anger; and advanced emotions like frustration and confusion.

Emotient CEO Ken Denman said “Emotient’s Sentiment Analysis Glassware demonstrates our goal to emotion-enable any manner of device and build the next layer of automatic sensors. It’s a breakthrough technology that allows companies to aggregate customer sentiment by processing facial expressions anonymously. We believe there is broad applicability for this service to improve the customer experience, particularly in retail.”

Emotient said that this app can be used by retailers to “improve the understanding of aggregate customer sentiment, which may be particularly useful in measuring store performance, and therefore managing product and advertising/promotions, as well as customer satisfaction.” 

Roku Challenges Google's Chromecast With New Streaming Stick

Roku is now taking on Google’s Chromecast with a new modified Streaming Stick that works with all TVs and the communication is established via Wi-Fi.

You have already seen that Google Chromecast plugs directly into the television’s HDMI port and work accordingly. Likewise the Streaming Stick “packs the complete Roku streaming experience,” says  Jim Funk, senior vice-president of product management.

Image Credit : Google

He also added that “That means access to 1,200+ channels of movies, TV episodes, music, news, sports, kids’ shows and free programming streamed in up to 1080p HD video, plus a TV user interface featuring the beloved Roku Search. Roku is all about the easiest way to enjoy the best selection of streaming entertainment on TV. That’s why in addition to the included WiFi remote control for the entire household’s use, there are the free Roku apps for Android and iOS devices for those who desire a mobile experience to browse and select content to stream.”

Additionally users can also stream Netflix, YouTube and personal media from their devices to their TVs. Some new mobile features such as the ability to cast content from a computer to the TV are on the development space.

The new dongle by Roku, will offer a wider range of content than Chromecast has. But the only negative factor here is that it is more expensive. Chromecast retails for $35 and Roku $50. Here a $15 less price tag matters.

As of now, users can pre-order in the U.S. from Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, Target.com, Wal-Mart.comand Roku.com and will ship to customers and arrive in retails stores in April 2014.

Some news regarding the price tags are on the air like Canadians can get the new Roku Streaming Stick for $60 while U.K. and Republic of Ireland users will have at £50.

Google Search Updates Menus Of Popular Restaurants

Google updated its search tool. Its time to trow challenge to Yelp and Foursquare with its new feature that enables searchers to access the menu of most popular restaurants. This update is available only for the U.S. users as of now.

Image Credit : Google

Google+ post stated that “Next time you’re planning a brunch or a date night, check to make sure the menu has something to satisfy everyone in your group, without having to browse through several restaurants’ websites. Just search Google to show you the menu for the eatery you’re considering and you can see it right on the top of your search page — complete with tabs for different parts of the menu (like appetizers, brunch or dinner) and, often, prices — before you make your reservation. Next time you’re planning a brunch or a date night, check to make sure the menu has something to satisfy everyone in your group, without having to browse through several restaurants’ websites.”

If you type or say that “what’s on the menu at ABC restaurant?” or ask Google to “show me the menu at restaurant”, it will show up all the available restaurants.

It is also found that Google has worked with an external data provider to provide the menu data. The partner name is not unveiled yet.

Google Launched Google Now

Google has finally launched its Launcher - Google Now. As expected since few months, Google made the Google Now Launcher available on the Play Store. In the last year, this launcher was released for the Nexus 5 and Google unveiled their concept of making the launcher available for other devices.

Image Credit : Google Play

This Android application package links the device’s operating system to the Google Search app. The package installs Google Now Launcher. The launcher supports transparent system bars and creates a new home screen that will become the Google Now interface for the device. Google Now has bigger icons which brought much appreciations and criticism too. There is another feature - deleting any home screen that is no longer used. This feature may interest to some users and may annoy some users too. It basically means users who only have apps on two home screens will only have those two; so the same interface will be there on the Google Now screen. 

Along with these features, a simple right swipe brings up Google Now which then enables users to see their weather, traffic, news and whatever else they’ve added to their Google Now interface.

Say “OK Google” at the home screen. Yes this is the most talked feature which enables this device to launch a voice search. So you don't have to touch the phone or tablet for anything.

Basically it will replace a phone’s built-in home screen and app drawer. But most of the users don’t alter a phone’s settings menu or notification drawer. 

With all the amazing features, this launcher can provide some better experience to its users in exploring opportunities for mobile devices.

Google Updates Google Maps - Faster And Inretactive

Google has launched its new Maps after 10 months beta release, with updates that allow users to plan trips, check live traffic conditions and discover new places and overall experience will be very much user friendly, interactive and faster.

Google Maps vice-president Brian McClendon in a blog post stated that “Over the coming weeks, the new Google Maps will make its way onto desktops around the world. Many of you have been previewing it since its debut last May, and thanks to your helpful feedback we’re ready to make the new Maps even more widely available.”

The new Maps is refreshed with new and helpful information that can help its users make more informed decisions in a very easy way.

If any user wants to search for ‘chocolate’ in his areas or localities then the search result with related information will appear right on the map. If the user then clicks on a "chocolate", the map will suggest related results with options and direction to go there.

Google's new Maps can now find the most efficient route without anyone’s mode of transportation and providing the best options appearing on the map. It will display the time and distance for each route also.

McClendon said that “With the new real-time traffic reports and Street View previews, you’ll become a commuting ninja,”

Google Maps also displays detailed images of landmarks with 3D views, and offers users a lot of options to choose they might be interested. The best part of it is that the ‘carousel’ at the bottom of the map makes offers one-click access to images of interest. Lets experience the new Google maps' features.

Google Lets You Know How Future Is Awesome

Google says "The future is awesome" for its latest project, Tango. Let us know how the statement is accurate based on what this new project offers.

Project lead Johnny Lee wrote on the project’s site saying “Our current prototype is a five-inch phone containing customized hardware and software designed to track the full 3D motion of the device, while simultaneously creating a map of the environment. These sensors allow the phone to make over a quarter million 3D measurements every second, updating its position and orientation in real-time, combining that data into a single 3D model of the space around you.”

The idea behind the project is that the human beings see the world and live in a 3D environment that ends when it comes to our electronic devices. this project will give an option where we could record our environments in a 3D capacity.

Google’s promotion says it all and it has the potential to be useful features. Google explains the potential uses for Tango:

“What if you could capture the dimensions of your home simply by walking around with your phone before you went furniture shopping? What if directions to a new location didn’t stop at the street address? What if you never again found yourself lost in a new building? What if the visually-impaired could navigate unassisted in unfamiliar indoor places? What if you could search for a product and see where the exact shelf is located in a super-store?

“Imagine playing hide-and-seek in your house with your favorite game character, or transforming the hallways into a tree-lined path. Imagine competing against a friend for control over territories in your home with your own miniature army, or hiding secret virtual treasures in physical places around the world?”

Lets find out the below video how it works.

Looks pretty cool. isn't it? Lets wait for the project to complete and launch the device so that we could have hands on experience for it.

Google Updates Page Layout Algorithm

Google recently made some changes in its page layout algorithm and therefore people might have noticed some changes in organic search traffic or rankings and also it might have impacted the websites which are having high ratio of ads to content at the top of the web pages. If you have such page layout in your websites then your site could be affected by this update of the Google page layout algorithm.

Google's Matt Cutts tweeted saying that a refresh of the algorithm occurred on February 6 but he didn't reveal how much does this change impact on the web pages or any other information to this. Last time Google added the page layout algorithm in January 2012, which they updated in October 2012.

Which websites might get affected?

This new update targets websites that are light on content and heavy on ads "above the fold". It says about the location where the part of the page visible to a user before scrolling. 

Cutts mentioned earlier also in his keynote that they were working on the next generation of the page layout algorithm, and specifically targeting sites that have large ads above the fold. He suggested that webmasters should make changes before the new algorithm impacted their sites.

"If you look at the top part of your page and the very first thing you see front and center, top above the fold is ads right there, then you might want to ask yourself, 'do I have the best user experience?' Because we are working on an algorithm in the next iteration of that algorithm to try and catch some of that." Cutts said in October.

The important thing is that it would have a bigger impact other languages (e.g., Russian or Arabic) more than it will English. People had a miss conception that it might affect websites that has endless scrolling technique, and often with a lot of white space and larger than normal font size but the trend has been moving to regular websites.

How to check whether your site is affected or not?

It is very important to find out whether your site has been impacted by the algorithmic refresh or not. You can check your analytics data to see if there’s any change occurring on or after February 6. As per Cutts, it's likely to be understood that major impact will be for webmasters with sites that aren't in English.

Hope this change brings some good results for the sites having quality content with proper page layout defined.

How Google Has Changed Research For Grad Students [Infographic]

Google has been dominating each and every industries with its various products and services. Even it has changed the research for graduation students also. In a survey it is found that 94 percentage of U.S. students who equate research with using Google, or other search engines. 75 percentage of students who use Wikipedia and online encyclopedias. 87 the percentage of all US adults using the Internet who also use search engines.

Most of the users according to the age group use Google search for different purposes. But in the search engines battle, Google has been always kept its position as No. 1 with its products and service offerings. Here is an infographic which states how Google has changed research for graduation students.

Source: Visually.

Google Teams Up With Foxconn To Accelerate Robotics

Google and Foxconn teams up to initiate some excitement new robotics projects. Foxconn is the world’s biggest electronics manufacturer. Google’s robotics expert Andy Rubin and Foxconn’s chairman Terry Gou have been discussing with their new robotics projects since last year. Foxconn has been a longtime supplier of parts for Apple’s iPhones and iPads according to the report on Wall Street Journal.

The Taiwanese company which is also known as Hon Hai Precision is providing Google with direction on robotics development. Google is helping Foxconn to accelerate its development of manufacturing robotics.

As per the source, Rubin talked to Gou in Taipei about new robotic technologies and its future projects. Gou was excited by the new automation technologies demonstrated by Rubin. Rubin asked for Gou’s support in developing latest robotics technology. It is quite obvious that this move will be good for both the companies.

“Foxconn needs Google’s help to step up automation at its factories as the company has the lowest sales per employee among the contract makers, given its large workforce. Using robots to replace human workers would be the next big thing in the technology industry. Not just Google, other major technology companies such as Microsoft and Amazon also have been developing robotics technology to capture the future growth opportunities.” stated by CIMB Securities analyst Wanli Wang.

Lets hope for some new products from Google in future ahead. Google has been offering some amazing products since a year and with this integrated effort, it will definitely come up with innovative products.

A Visual History of Google Algorithm Changes [Infographic]

Google has been dominating the world of search engines since decades. In the year 2000 and till 2003, search engines were like keyword-matching and link-counting machines and there was simple 2 concepts to rank high in SERPs. Either stuff your keyword phrase into your blog/website as much as possible or get a lot of inbound links to your blog/website. Things have changed with times and Google also keeps changing its algorithm for which a lot of SEO experts who find comfort in dealing with SEO practices face challenges to rethink in a different way.

Quality content and backlinks have always been the major factors for a website's ranking. Google has always focused mainly on these two factors and introduced several other factors too. Lets see in the below infographic when and why Google changed its algorithm.

Source : HubSpot

Google Introduces Chromebox For Video Conference Meetings

Google launches Chromebox for meetings which simplifies the video conferencing system. Chromebox includes Google+ Hangouts and Google Apps running on a PC with Google’s Web-based Chrome operating system. The Chromebox plugs into a Google cloud service that then enables its users to have high-definition video meetings via computer or laptops as well as tablets and Smartphones or other display.

 

Vice-president of product management, Caesar Sengupta in a blog post stated that “The best meetings are face-to-face—we can brainstorm openly, collaborate closely and make faster decisions. But these days, we often connect with each other from far-flung locations, coordinating time zones and dialing into conference calls from our phones. Meetings need to catch up with the way we work—they need to be face-to-face, easier to join, and available from anywhere and any device. Starting today, they can be: Any company can upgrade their meeting rooms with a new Chromebox, built on the Chrome principles of speed, simplicity and security.”

"Chromebox for meetings"  is basically a merged service of Google+ Hangouts and Google Apps in an easy-to-manage system. It will offer companies to conduct a service for high-definition video meetings. Highlights are mentioned below : 

• Instant meeting room. 
• Simpler and faster meetings.
• Meetings with anyone, anywhere.

"Chromebox for meetings" includes an Intel Core i7-based Chromebox, a high-definition camera, a combined microphone and speaker unit and a remote control. It allows the user to manage all meeting rooms from a Web-based management console. A display is required to arrange the same.

If you want to start a meeting, you have to click the remote once — no dial-in codes or PINs are necessary to enter.

Sengupta added that “Share your laptop screen wirelessly, no need for any cords and adaptors. Integration with Google Apps makes it easy to invite others and add rooms to video meetings, directly from Google Calendar.”

Up to 15 persons can participate in the video conferences. If someone doesn't have a Chromebox, he/she can also join the meeting with the help of Gmail account. This system can also connect with traditional video conferencing systems via a new tool from Vidyo. UberConference is also available for people who wants to join via phones.

Google Announces Susan Wojcicki As YouTube CEO

Susan Wojcicki has been working since years in Google. After taking serious steps towards eliminating "fake" views on YouTube, Google has move forward and announced Susan as its new YouTube CEO.

Susan was the senior vice-president in charge of product management and engineering of advertising and commerce at Google. Salar Kamangar is the CEO of YouTube now and Susan will be replacing him. Salar will be moving to new role in Google.

Google CEO Larry Page said in a statement that “Salar and the whole YouTube team have built something amazing. YouTube is a billion person global community curating videos for every possibility. Anyone uploading their creative content can reach the whole world and even make money. Like Salar, Susan has a healthy disregard for the impossible and is excited about improving YouTube in ways that people will love.”

Susan Wojcicki also announced about her new role via Twitter. She tweeted “I look forward to watching a lot more videos during work”.

Sridhar Ramaswamy will be taking the lead and will be in charge of the product management and engineering of advertising and commerce at Google, which was previously run by Susan.

Google To Reduce Fake YouTube Views

Google has recently noticed huge number of fake views for videos shared on YouTube. Google referred it as "fraudulent" views and warned several users also. As per Google reports, there are various tools available online for people to redirect or buy views. It is also found that there are a number of third-party marketing firms that do sell fake YouTube view to content creators for considerable amount per work.

Google didn't reveal that how many "fake" views YouTube videos have been tracked. They think that fake views are putting a negative impact on what YouTube is all about, and Google will ensure that it will reduce this fraudulent online activities. Google software engineer Philipp Pfeiffenberger explained in a blog post:

"When some bad actors try to game the system by artificially inflating view counts, they're not just misleading fans about the popularity of a video, they're undermining one of YouTube's most important and unique qualities.

As part of our long-standing effort to keep YouTube authentic and full of meaningful interactions, we've begun periodically auditing the views a video has received. While in the past we would scan views for spam immediately after they occurred, starting today we will periodically validate the video's view count, removing fraudulent views as new evidence comes to light. We don't expect this approach to affect more than a minuscule fraction of videos on YouTube, but we believe it's crucial to improving the accuracy of view counts and maintaining the trust of our fans and creators."

So this is the effort by which Google is trying to ensure that advertisers won't gather to other social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Lets see how Google can authentic YouTube views.

Yahoo Acquires Incredible Labs And May Challenge Google

Marissa Mayer may be the busiest person in the last week. Yahoo’s CEO has acquired yet another start-up this week. Yahoo purchased Incredible Labs to make the search engine firm the go-to site for mobile users. Incredible Labs is the maker of popular personal-assistant app Donna. Now it seems that Yahoo is going to develop a tool which will compete Google Now.

Yahoo clarifies about Donna as a “pretty amazing” app which keeps its users punctual while giving them the information at the time when required. In short, Yahoo states that Donna is “the ultimate daily habit.”

Yahoo also added that “When we met with the team from Incredible Labs, it was an immediate fit. As we look to the future, our visions are aligned in that we think technology should be smart enough to think for us.”

Incredible Labs stated in a blog post that they are “looking forward to the possibilities that will come from bringing the Donna vision—letting technology take care of you—to Yahoo. Upon closing, our team will be joining Yahoo and working with some incredibly talented people, or in the case of some of us, returning to a company we know and love.”

Donna will not be available in app store and discontinued as a service once the entire acquisition process is over. There is a seven person team in Incredible Labs and out of which five will join Yahoo, including CEO Kevin Cheng, a former Yahoo employee.

Newly hired people would be involved into communication team as “where they will work on Yahoo Mail.” Lets see how Yahoo brings changes and compete with Google.

Google Acquires Artificial Intelligence Company DeepMind

Google has recently purchased a London-based artificial intelligence company called DeepMind for $400 million. Google didn't reveal any more details on this but it seems that DeepMind's team will work with Google's search team, some sources on internet revealed. 

“Knowledge” group of Google is not there just to find keywords on Web pages instead experiments broader concepts. "Knowledge is led by Google SVP Alan Eustace, but DeepMind will work closely with a team led by Jeff Dean, a near 15-year Google veteran, best known for his work on distributed systems." stated by Recode.

Demis Hassabis, co-founder of DeepMind, expressed his feelings about the acquisition as he thinks that it would make Google search and DeepMind together to bring up new concept.

He added that "We're really excited to be joining Google. This partnership will allow us to turbo-charge our mission to harness the power of machine learning tools to tackle some of society's toughest problems, and help make our everyday lives more productive and enjoyable. We've built a world-leading team here in the UK and we're looking forward to accelerating the impact of our technology with Google."

"DeepMind is a cutting edge artificial intelligence company. We combine the best techniques from machine learning and systems neuroscience to build powerful general-purpose learning algorithms. The company is based in London and supported by some of the most iconic technology entrepreneurs and investors of the past decade. Our first commercial applications are in simulations, e-commerce and games." state by the company.

Lets hope for the best result to come up with new technology implemented, modified search engine by the search giant, which will include artificial intelligent system incorporated with search.

Google Sells Motorola To Lenovo For $2.91 Billion

Google has declared in its official blog that they have sold out their mobility unit Motorola to Chinese computer maker Lenovo for $2.91bn (£1.8bn). Google paid $12.5bn at the time when it bought the company around two years ago.

The search giant will keep the majority of Motorola's lucrative patents  for Android software.

Google's official blog post said the smartphone market was "super competitive" and that Motorola would "be better served by Lenovo". 

After this purchase, Lenovo will become the world's third-largest smartphone maker after Samsung and Apple. Strategy Analytics, a company on market research,  said in a blog post that Lenovo had made "a good move" and would benefit from economies of scale from smartphones.

It also added that "The Chinese vendor gets access to the valuable US smartphone market and the fast-growing Latin America region. This complements its existing global PC business. For Motorola, it gains access to an ambitious sugar daddy that has a strong presence in the huge China market. For Google, it divests a loss-making hardware division,"