Author Archives: Aaron Canada

It’s our biggest unboxing ever! Introducing Google Canada’s new engineering HQ

Back in 2005, a handful of Googlers opened a small office in Kitchener - our first foothold in what is now one of the most exciting tech ecosystems in North America.

Today we opened the doors to our brand new space in the beautifully restored Breithaupt Block building in the heart of Kitchener-Waterloo. Over the years we have steadily expanded our investment in the region, and the ranks of Googlers in our Kitchener-Waterloo office have grown rapidly. Our new 185,000 sq feet headquarters will be home to over 350 engineers who work on products used by billions of people around the globe.

Google’s new office in Kitchener-Waterloo.

We were honoured to have Prime Minister Justin Trudeau join us to officially open the new office. Prime Minister Trudeau was taught how to create a “3D selfie” from a group of K-W’s passionate junior engineers who participate in Codemakers, a partnership between Google Canada and Actua that creates compelling and fun STEM learning modules for kids.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau conducts a quick VR tour of Parliament Hill as part of a Codemakers workshop at Google, alongside Jennifer Flanagan, Actua CEO.

And what would the opening of a Google office be without at least a one-confetti-cannon salute?!

Prime Minister Trudeau officially opens the new Google office with a bang.

Our Kitchener-Waterloo engineers play a critical role in many of Google’s core tools and products, including GMail, Google Fiber, the Chrome browser and Google Ads. Additionally, the team led a significant portion of the software development for the new OnHub router.

Google engineers based in Kitchener-Waterloo work on products that are used by billions of people around the world.

Over the past decade Google Canada has been an important contributor to the sustained growth of the Kitchener-Waterloo tech community and our investment in the dramatic transformation of the Breithaupt Block reflects our long-term commitment to growth in this region. The University of Waterloo is one of Google’s top schools for recruitment worldwide, and Kitchener-Waterloo is a major source of entrepreneurial computer science talent. Kitchener-Waterloo was recently named one of the 10 cities that will be part of Google’s North America Tech Hub Network, along with Montreal. The network provides financial support and the best of Google’s resources to startup communities that equip and nurture young and developing entrepreneurs..

We took a thoughtful approach to the design of our new office, considering sustainability not only in design but also with products and decor. In fact, we have applied for LEED V4 Gold certification for this office, which would make it the first building in Canada to receive LEED V4 status. Our design team has also incorporated features to promote both environmentally friendly and healthy choices, such as a bike locker to encourage Googlers to ride to work, a group fitness space and a rock climbing wall. And of course we’ve also included the fun stuff that everyone has come to expect from Google offices, including a meditation room, a Maker’s Lab, a games room and a Ping Pong table.

Our team has some of the brightest minds in Canadian science and technology working on a whole host of exciting projects here in Kitchener-Waterloo. We can’t wait to show you what we’re going to do next!

Steven Woods, Senior Engineering Director, Google Canada

We read the news today, oh boy: It’s The Beatles, on Google Play Music


No need for fussing or fighting, my friend. Now you can live on a Yellow Submarine, march in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Band or go to Strawberry Fields Forever. 

Starting on December 24, all 13 of The Beatles’ iconic original albums, plus four essential Beatles collections, will be available to stream on Google Play Music—enough music to fill up eight days a week.
The best-selling band in history, with 20 number one Billboard Hot 100 hits, The Beatles continue to be one of the world’s most beloved bands decades after their last original album. So, what lyrics take a sad song and make it better? What albums get you through a hard day’s night? Come together, right now, to take a look at some of the top Beatles searches, according to Google Trends.

Most searched Beatles album
1. Abbey Road
2. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
3. Help!
4. Let It Be
5. Magical Mystery Tour
Most searched Beatles song lyrics
1. Hey Jude
2. Yesterday
3. Come Together
4. Help!
5. Let It Be
Bonus: If you open up the Google app on your Android phone and say “Ok Google, play the Beatles,” There will be an answer. Let it stream.
In the words of Ed Sullivan: “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Beatles!”


Posted by Gwen Shen, Music Partnerships, Google Play

Endless fun for this holiday season

Whether you’re cozied up at home or on the road, Chromecast has a bunch of new goodies for you and the family. Just in time for the holidays, we’re adding more Chromecast-enabled games for both Android and iOS to the list.

Now casting is Rovio’s Angry Birds Friends, featuring everyone’s favourite red bird, where you can compete in weekly tournaments.  Also available is Ubisoft’s Driver Speedboat Paradise, where you race your boat through beautiful canals and waterways around the globe.  
Angry Birds Friends.png
Angry Birds Friends, by Rovio


We’re also introducing several new family-friendly Hasbro games which have been remastered for the big screen experience, including Monopoly Here & Now, Yahtzee Blitz, The Game of Life, and Scrabble Blitz 2.0. These are perfect companions for the downtime before that ball drops this New Year’s Eve.  And lastly, we’re excited to introduce a new way to play Risk -- on Chromecast. Now you can compete for world domination with friends and family anywhere.


With Chromecast, you can get a great split-screen experience for your mobile games. For example, if you are playing Monopoly Here & Now, only you can see your cards on your phone while the moves you decide to make get displayed on the big screen. It unlocks fun multiplayer experiences, and the ability for you to use your phone or tablet as the controller while gameplay takes place on the TV.


Screen Shot 2015-12-08 at 4.33.07 PM.png
Monopoly Here & Now Big Screen, by Hasbro


Many games now work with Chromecast, and many more will continue to be made available.
So whether you’re playing with friends or by yourself, you can now play mobile games on the biggest screen in the house. Check out these great games and more on Chromecast.com/apps.

Wendi Zhang, Chromecast Business Development Games Lead and Ultimate Bird Caster

Your YouTube "How To" Guide to the Holidays


The holidays should be a festive time of year, not frenzied. But there’s no need to panic: our community of YouTube gurus is here to keep calm this holiday season with more than 135 million how-to videos.

From figuring out what to do with your leftovers, pleasing your vegan guests, or keeping your kids occupied with holiday-themed activities, these Canadian YouTube Creators have the answers to all your holiday questions.

How to get the party started
Whether it's throwing a formal dinner party or entertaining last-minute guests, you're likely to host guests at least once over the holiday season. To impress your guests when they arrive, The Domestic Geek, has tons of easy-to-make crowd pleasers, including the classic cheeseboard, herbed popcorn, sweet rosemary bar nuts and 3 delicious party dips.
How to rock a holiday look under $100
The holiday season means parties galore. Although you want to look your best at all times, you also don’t want to break the bank. Canada’s beauty guru, RachhLoves, shows you how to put together an entire holiday look (outfit, shoes, jewelry, makeup) for under $100.
How to clean your space post-holidays: Cleaning up your holiday decor or cleaning once your guests have left can sometimes be the worst part about the holidays. Not to fear, Melissa Maker of Clean My Space has all sorts of tips for how to clean up post-holiday, including how to clean up after a party, holiday meal cleanup tips, and holiday decor cleanup.
We hope these YouTubers' tutorials can help you impress your guests and loved ones this holiday season. Have a safe and happy holiday!

Posted by Jenn Kaiser, Communications Manager, YouTube Canada

2015: Canada’s #YearInSearch

A brand new Prime Minister, the Blue Jays epic playoff run, the introduction of Caitlyn Jenner and turmoil in Europe. Our 15th annual Year in Search showcases the Canadians, newsmakers and defining moments that captured our attention this year, as fans, as engaged voters and as global citizens.
Here’s a look back at 2015, through the lens of Google search.
The Year in Search is Google’s annual analysis of trillions of searches performed globally throughout the year. The results include everything from top trending Canadians, sports, music, politics, news, and more.


Top Trending Canadian Searches of 2015:
  1. Blue Jays
  2. Justin Trudeau
  3. Federal Election
  4. Pan Am Games
  5. Paris Shooting
  6. Agario
  7. Chris Hyndman
  8. Charlie Hebdo
  9. Lamar Odom
  10. Caitlyn Jenner

Fandemonium
It’s no surprise that the Toronto Blue Jays landed the top spot in 2015’s Year in Search rankings, dominating Canadian search queries like they did the AL East this past season. From bat flips to “walk the parrot”, the playoff run of 2015 gave us endless opportunities to #comeTOgether. Stricken with baseball fever, Canadians took to Google to find out how they could catch the boys in blue, with questions such as ‘What is the score of the Blue Jays game?’  and ‘How to watch Blue Jays online’ also topping the charts as Canadians celebrated the Blue Jays first playoff berth since 1993.
YIS-2015-bluejays.png
#Elxn42
Canada’s election dominated news searches this year, with Federal Election, Justin Trudeau and “How to vote” landing in top positions. Our new PM knocked Stephen Harper off the #1 spot of most-searched politicians, and the list of the Top Trending Canadians included not one, not two, but three Trudeaus: Justin, Pierre and Margaret. For the second year in a row, “How to vote” ranked as the top trending ‘How to’ search in Canada.  #elxn42 had the highest voter turnout since 1993, and with such a large and growing number of voters relying on the Internet for their election-related information, the web has become a vital tool for engaging and informing Canada’s electorate.
YIS-2015-howto.png
Global Citizens
The horrific attacks in Paris on November 13th generated significant search interest for “Paris shooting” as Canadians sought details and deeper understanding of what had happened in the French capital.
Paris was also the site of the targeted attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo earlier in the year. Charlie Hebdo was was a top-trending topic in 2015, and had Canadians asking “What is Je Suis Charlie?” as the popular hashtag circulated the globe with messages of support.


Who knew that a petri dish could make an ideal setting for an addictive online game? Developed in April 2015 by 19-year old Brazilian developer Matheus Valadares, Agar.io became a rapidly trending search topic due in large part to fan videos uploaded to YouTube that captured the weirdly compelling world of petri dish competition. The game also found itself part of the Turkish elections that took place this summer. Agar.io is particularly popular in Turkey, and several political parties referenced the game’s imagery in their posters.


The Google Doodle that featured the Penny Black Stamp on May 1st piqued Canadians’ curiosity, and landed “What is a penny black stamp?” at the top of the “What is...” list, which also included questions about major news topics such as ISIS, fentanyl, police carding and MERS.


What we search tells us... a lot about us. And the Year in Search offers a unique reflection of who we were as Canadians in 2015. So before heading into a fresh new year, take a moment to look back and reflect on the year that was at google.ca/2015.

Search on Canada!

Post Content Posted by Aaron Brindle, Public Affairs, Google Canada

Wield your lightsaber to escape The First Order

You don’t need to be a Jedi to master a lightsaber — just go to g.co/lightsaber on your phone or desktop to wield your very own lightsaber in our latest Chrome Experiment, “Lightsaber Escape,” built for your phone and computer.

Inspired by Star Wars: The Force Awakens, “Lightsaber Escape” immerses you in a galaxy far, far away, bringing the film to life through modern web technologies. Your adventure begins in a Star Destroyer, where you’ll need to use your phone as a lightsaber to escape the First Order.
The experience was developed in collaboration with Disney, Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic. The rich 3D graphics were built with WebGL, enabling beautiful, high fidelity 3D renders within the browser. We’re also using WebRTC and WebSockets to enable high accuracy, real-time communication between your mobile and desktop devices, reducing latency and improving interactivity. Plus, building with web standards means the experience works across browsers, and without plug-ins. For a more in-depth tech overview, you can check out our technical case study on developers.google.com.

Visit google.com/starwars to experience Star Wars: The Force Awakens across your favorite Google apps and explore Jakku Spy, a Google Cardboard Experience.

May the Force be with you!

Posted by Paul Irish, Product Manager & T-70 X-Wing Cadet

Three holiday shopping trends to watch in 2015

If the idea of browsing gift ideas on your phone while waiting for your morning coffee sounds familiar, you’re not alone. This holiday season, shopping moments will replace shopping marathons. Rather than rely on day-long mall marathons, Canadian shoppers are now turning to their mobile phones at moments throughout the day, all season long.* In fact, in the past two days, 1 in 3 Canadian holiday shoppers used their smartphone to search for products and services.

But with holidays less than 2 weeks away, Canadians have completed less than half of their holiday shopping! We worked with Ipsos to survey Canadians on how they’ve used technology to shop so far this holiday season. And today we’re sharing the three trends that are impacting this year’s biggest shopping season.

Shopping marathons have become shopping moments.
Shopping marathons have been replaced by small shopping moments that can happen any time of the day, as shoppers turn to the nearest device when trying to decide, find, or buy something. Thanks to growing digital shopping options, every day can be a shopping day. This year, sixty-seven percent of Canadian holiday shoppers have conducted an online search for a holiday product or service, and 72 per cent have made a website visit as part of their  holiday shopping.  
And this year, online shopping never sleeps! While in-store shopping peaks between 2pm and 5pm, desktop and smartphone searches peak later in the evening between 7 – 9pm. In fact, 36 percent of visits to retailer websites happen between 7pm and 6am.

Mobile search is influencing purchases more than ever.
Smartphones have become the go-to for all steps in the path to purchase, from inspiration to research to purchasing. Globally, we’ve seen shopping-related searches on mobile have grown more than 120 per cent year over year.

Canadians aren’t just using smartphones to make purchases, they’re also using them as a personal shopper to locate products in nearby stores, look at reviews while in-store, and more. Sixty percent of shoppers who used their smartphone to search for products and services followed through on a purchase. Apps have become an additional toolkit for shoppers with 44 per cent of Canadians using mobile apps as part of their holiday shopping experience.

Anticipation for Boxing Day is higher than ever before
Even with our holiday shopping lists less than halfway complete, we already have a strong appetite for Boxing Day. Despite the success of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Boxing Day remains a significant shopping day in Canada and interest has increased steadily over the last 10 years. We also expect to see more and more searches for Boxing Day happening from mobile devices, as Canadians search for the deals closest to them. Last year, forty per cent of Boxing Week searches in Canada happened on smartphones.**
No matter how you’re shopping, have a happy holiday!

Posted by Sarah Bradley and Naumi Haque, Research and Market Insights Managers, Google Canada.

*Google/Ipsos Shopping Moments: 2015 Holiday Edition, Nov 17-Dec 10, n=1,554 Canadian shoppers
**Google Canada Data, 2014

Make your holidays a little easier with Now on Tap

Between gift shopping, traveling, and party-going and party-hosting, there’s a lot to do this time of year. With Now on Tap on Android phones, everything is a little bit easier. Today we’re making some updates to Now on Tap to help you out during the holiday season and year round.

On airport pick-up duty? If your cousin sends you a text with his flight number, simply tap and hold your phone’s home button to get info on flight status without a separate search. Your text message is still right there, so you can respond easily after a quick peek.

If you need make sure all the last-minute gifts you ordered online will make it under the tree on time, tapping and holding on your confirmation email will display tracking info and the status of your package.

And just because it’s the holidays doesn’t mean the news slows down (well, maybe a little). When reading a news article about Justin Trudeau or Ronda Rousey, tap and hold to get links to related articles so you can learn more. Plus, you’ll now see a share icon when you use Now on Tap to easily share what’s on your screen, without having to leave what you’re doing. You should start seeing all these features over the coming days.


Finally, for those of you French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian or Korean speakers—Now on Tap is now at your fingertips too. Of course, we’ll continue to add more languages and features soon.

Posted by Aneto Okonkwo, Product Manager



Even more to love about Chromecast Audio

A couple of months ago we launched Chromecast Audio to provide an easy way to stream your favourite tunes from your phone, tablet, or laptop to your existing speakers. At $45, Chromecast Audio is an affordable way to connect your speakers via WiFi so you can stream tons of popular apps including Google Play Music and Spotify from anywhere in your home. Today we're adding two new features to the latest software update to elevate your listening experience.
Introducing Hi-Res audio support

Close your eyes and imagine the musician is playing in the room. Today we’re rolling out high-resolution audio support, which gives you even higher quality music playback using Chromecast Audio. With support of up to 96KHz/24bit lossless audio playback, you can enjoy higher-than-CD-quality audio on your existing high fidelity audio equipment.

Blast the same song in every room

Now you can easily fill every room in your home—bedroom, kitchen, living room, or wherever you have a Chromecast Audio connected—with synchronous music. Multi-room lets you group Chromecast Audio devices together so you can listen to the same song on multiple speakers.


Setup is simple. Connect and setup a Chromecast Audio device for each of your speakers, then use the latest Chromecast app to create a group. You can cast to the group the exact same way you would cast to a single Chromecast device. Anyone with a phone can easily cast without pairing too, so throw a party, sync your home speakers together, and invite your friends to be the DJ.


So grab your hairbrush microphone, dust off your tennis racket guitar, and jam out to your favourite tunes at amazing quality and in every room of your house.

Posted by Tomer Shekel, Product Manager and a patron of loud music

Google Play Music: Now playing for your family

In a family of music lovers, there’s a soundtrack playing throughout our daily lives. My husband likes to listen to The Smiths radio while he works; I like Entering Beast Mode stations when I hit the gym; and we listen to Michael Bublé as a family while we are cooking dinner. What can I say, we’re a pretty fun bunch! But it means my family ends up paying for multiple subscription music accounts which can add up over time. For families like mine, we’re happy to start offering the Google Play Music family plan today.

With the family plan, you and up to five family members can subscribe to Google Play Music - together - for just $14.99 per month. You’ll unlock all of the same features you’d get from having individual subscriptions, including ad free, unlimited access to more than 35 million songs and the ability for each family member to stream simultaneously on any device, all for one low price. Now, you can keep your listening experiences separate from your partner and get music recommendations tailored to the music you like. So, my husband’s Depeche Mode singles will never show up in my account - only my true favorites will be front and center. And a family plan on Google play will also get your family access to YouTube Red in the U.S.

You and your family will be able to sign up for a Google Play Music family plan in the coming days on Android devices in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, France and Germany, with more countries coming soon. You and your family members can listen on Android, iOS and the web.

Posted by Eunice Kim, product manager for Google Play