This just in: your Google app for iPhone and iPad is now faster. We’ve cut down loading time and updated the app with some new features to help you save time and get the information you need as quickly as possible.
Faster every step of the way Each time you open the app or do a search, everything will load just a bit quicker. Whether you can notice the difference or not, these small improvements will save app users a combined 6.5 million hours this year.
Instant article loading with AMP A few months ago, we announced that Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) were coming to the mobile web. Starting today, AMP will be available in the Google app for iOS. So now news articles from a vast array of publishers will load instantly for your reading pleasure. Just look out for the lightning bolt and “AMP” next to articles in the “Top Stories” section of your search results and enjoy blazing-fast news.
Play sports highlights right from your Now cards With the NBA and NHL playoffs in full swing and the Olympics around the corner, it’s a good time to be a sports fan. And now, you can instantly watch sports highlights right from your Now cards. When you get a card with sports highlights, just tap the play button and watch it right from the app. Score!
So whether you’re searching for news from around the world or video playbacks from your favorite sports team, the Google app’s got you covered, faster. Ready, set, search!
Posted by Unni Narayanan, Director, Product Management
This blog is cross-posted on DoubleClick and Cloud Platform.
The television industry is in the midst of a massive change. The rise of new content models and connected devices has led to more choice than ever--both for content creators and consumers. But with this choice and opportunity comes new challenges to solve as well.
This morning, I spoke to the TV industry at the Closing General Session of the National Association of Broadcasters Show. In the keynote I discussed the rebirth of TV and how we’re helping Broadcasters and Distributors with discovery, monetization and content creation.
Discovery Announcing new ways to find where and when to watch your favorite shows. There are now more ways to watch your favorite TV shows than ever before. This shift has some even saying that we’re in the “golden age” of television. And what we're seeing is that more and more, viewers are turning to their phones to find out what to watch, where to watch it and when it’s available -- in fact, searches for TV shows and films on mobile have grown more than 55% in the past year alone.
Last year we launched video actions in Search to help viewers find direct options to watch the shows they are looking for on programmer and distributors mobile apps and sites or stores like Google Play.
Today, I'm excited to announce that, coming soon, Google Search will have live TV listings. So now when you're looking for The Big Bang Theory, we'll not only show you the apps and sites where you can find the latest episode, but also show which channel you can turn your tv to later in the evening or week to catch it live.
Monetization. Announcing personalized TV ads with DoubleClick Dynamic Ad Insertion Viewers no longer expect content personalized to them, they demand it. And that includes ads.
Today we are taking big steps to bring new addressable advertising capabilities to TV Broadcasters and Distributors by announcing DoubleClick’s Dynamic Ad Insertion. This makes ads hyper relevant for viewers across any screen that they watch. By creating individual streams for every viewer using server side ad insertion, we are able to deliver a better, more personalized viewing experience that looks and feels as seamless as TV today.
And not only will this work for both live and on-demand TV but it works across directly sold and programmatic.
We put this technology to the test with two of the highest rated TV events in the last year: the Rugby World Cup Finals on TF1, the leading network in France, and the Republican Presidential Debates on Fox News, a leading news network in the US. Politics and sports are pretty personal topics, so it’s only appropriate that TF1 and Fox News created a fully addressable viewing experience for the millions of viewers that tuned in using Dynamic Ad Insertion.
Announcing Smarter TV Ad Breaks Today we’re also announcing that DoubleClick for Publisher clients will soon be able to seamlessly enforce the level of control that has been firmly established in TV -- across all inventory, whether it was sold directly or indirectly. That means, we are able to honor competitive separation - so two automotive ads don’t appear in the same commercial break - and other rules like making sure an alcohol and children's cereal ad don’t appear in the same commercial break.
This has been major blocker to enabling programmatic to work for TV. And now you no longer need to turn down attractive opportunities from advertisers interested in transacting programmatically because of compliance concerns.
Announcing New TV Partners DoubleClick is focused on building advertising solutions that meet the changing needs of the TV ecosystem. We’re proud of our longstanding partnerships with industry leaders like AMC Networks in the US and Globo in South America.
Today we add three more to the list: we’re happy to welcome MCN, Roku and Cablevision as partners. They’ve all signed on to use DoubleClick for Publishers to serve ads and monetize cross-screen TV and video content.
“As the conventional TV and digital video worlds converge, people are watching more content than ever across a variety of screens. At Cablevision, we’re focused on developing innovative solutions that deliver the best experience for our viewers in this new cross-screen world and unlocking new opportunities for our advertisers. We are enthusiastic about using Google's DoubleClick for seamless advertising delivery across our set-top boxes and connected devices. Together, we are enabling more personalized and relevant ads with addressable and dynamic ad insertion.” - Kristin Dolan, Chief Operating Officer, Cablevision
Content Creation. Announcing Autodesk collaboration to enable 10x improvement in rendering efficiency Autodesk software has been behind the past 21 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects and we’re bringing this capability to Google Cloud Platform. Yesterday we announced (link) that Autodesk, maker of industry-leading 3D animation and modeling software, is collaborating with Google on a new cloud-based rendering solution called Maya® for Google Cloud Platform ZYNC Render. This allows artists to focus on creating incredible TV & movie content using the tools they already know, while shifting even the largest rendering jobs seamlessly to the cloud.
TV is the midst of a revival. And just like other media types which have been reimagined for the digital age like music, the arrival of this ‘new TV’ was preceded by change and tumult. But TV’s past was built on a rich history of creativity and innovation, and I’m incredibly optimistic that TV’s future will be as well. Our job is to help make that future become the present and we are excited to partner with the TV ecosystem to build it.
Post Content Posted by Daniel Alegre, President of Global Partnerships, Google
Earlier this week, we announced that podcasts are available in Google Play Music. As we said, everyone loves podcasts, so why not make them easy to find and listen to when you Search?
Starting today, you’ll be able to play podcasts right in the Android Google App. From Serial to Hidden Brain, Fresh Air and Radiolab, you can pick from thousands of podcasts and we're continually adding more.
To try it out, search for a podcast and you’ll see three recent episodes, a play button for each, and an option to see more episodes. Podcasts are available globally in English.
With controls at the bottom of your screen to play/pause, rewind or fast-forward, you’ll be free to browse the web on your phone while you listen -- or even turn off your screen. The podcast will keep playing in the background until you’re done.
Today’s update is just one more way that we’re working to make it easier for you to find what you’re looking for right in the Google App.
At the end of last year, we announced the ability to save images directly from Google’s image search in your mobile browser. Today, we’re making it easier to stay organized across more devices: now, you can save images to Google from your desktop.
For example, if your yard is in need of some spring re-planting, just go to your desktop, search for an image and tap the star to save your potential new flowers, bushes, or even swimming pools. When you’re at the store ready to start buying, you’ll be able to pull up your saved images on your phone and start building your perfect yard. You can also tag your saves to keep them organized.
This feature is currently available in the US when you search for images on desktop and in your mobile browser. To try it out, make sure you’re logged into your browser with your Google Account; then you can start image searching and saving.
We’re aiming to make what you search for and save more useful, so start saving to Google and let us know what you think about today’s update.
Post Content Posted by Mark Colbert, Software Engineer
Learning about the candidates and their campaigns is an important part of preparing for the upcoming elections. We’ve already added some Search features that let you dive into important issues and track the primaries. Starting today, we're making it easier for you to find two additional types of information about candidates: how their campaigns are funded, and how they’re trending compared to one another.
Campaign finance information just a search away Finding information on campaign funding can be difficult, if not seemingly impossible. Today, working with one of the most respected data sources in the industry, the Center for Responsive Politics, we’re making presidential campaign finance information easy to access and understand, right from Google Search. So when you search for donald trump or clinton campaign finance, you’ll see a snapshot of their campaigns’ finance breakdown and be able to dig into interesting insights, like the percentage of funds coming from SuperPACs versus individual donations, or which industries have donated the most to a given candidate.
Who’s trending? We’re also taking candidate search trends information and making it available directly in search. So when you search for a given candidate you can see how others have searched for them and their opponents over time.
Finding unbiased, objective election information isn’t an easy task. Today's update is the latest in our efforts to help users get the information they need to become informed about the elections and our candidates.
Posted by Jacob Schonberg and Payal Patel, Product Managers
Sometimes life can get in the way of what you love most. There are meetings to attend, groceries to shop for, sleep to be had — all things that take time away from what really matters: cricket. Being away from the action can be frustrating, but from today you’ll never have to miss another moment, with the launch of new cricket experiences on the Google app just in time for the ICC World T20 2016.
Ever wanted to know the connection between cricket and ajalebi? What the score is mid-match? Or when India plays next? With the Google app on your Android or iOS phone, you now have instant answers to your all cricket questions. Score updates and match schedules in English and Hindi give you a front row seat to all the games.And if you search for things like “Cricket score” or “T20 score” at any point during the game, scores will automatically update — no page refreshes needed.
Once you select the game you’re interested in you’ll be taken through to a new Search experience which shows you news articles related to the games, teams and players you’re interested in as well as detailed score boxes with in-depth game stats.
And just as you’d ask a cricket fan what the score is, or when the next game is, you can also speak to the Google app. If you say “Ok Google, when is the next cricket match?” it will show you the schedule of upcoming games. Or if you ask “When will India play New Zealand?” it will tell you the date and time. The only thing the Google app can’t tell you is who will win. You’ll have to wait a couple of seconds after the match for that.
This is just the first of a range of Cricket Search experiences Google will be bringing you over the coming weeks. Stay tuned for curated content from well known cricket commentators, players and personalities.
Posted by Yoav Schwartzberg, Product Manager, Google Search
In 2006, we started with machine learning-based translations between English and Arabic, Chinese and Russian. Almost 10 years later, with today’s update, we now offer 103 languages that cover 99% of the online population.
The 13 new languages — Amharic, Corsican, Frisian, Kyrgyz, Hawaiian, Kurdish (Kurmanji), Luxembourgish, Samoan, Scots Gaelic, Shona, Sindhi, Pashto and Xhosa — help bring a combined 120 million new people to the billions who can already communicate with Translate all over the world.
So what goes into adding a new language? Beyond the basic criteria that it must be a written language, we also need a significant amount of translations in the new language to be available on the web. From there, we use a combination of machine learning, licensed content and Translate Community.
As we scan the Web for billions of already translated texts, we use machine learning to identify statistical patterns at enormous scale, so our machines can "learn" the language. But, as already existing documents can’t cover the breadth of a language, we also rely on people like you in Translate Community to help improve current Google Translate languages and add new ones, like Frisian and Kyrgyz. So far, over 3 million people have contributed approximately 200 million translated words.
Before you dive into translating, here are a few fun facts about the new languages:
Amharic (Ethiopia) is the second most widely spoken Semitic language after Arabic
Corsican (Island of Corsica, France) is closely related to Italian and was Napoleon's first language
Frisian (Netherlands and Germany) is the native language of over half the inhabitants of the Friesland province of the Netherlands
Kyrgyz (Kyrgyzstan) is the language of the Epic of Manas, which is 20x longer than the Iliad and the Odyssey put together
Hawaiian (Hawaii) has lent several words to the English language, such as ukulele and wiki
Kurdish (Kurmanji) (Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria) is written with Latin letters while the others two varieties of Kurdish are written with Arabic script
Luxembourgish (Luxembourg) completes the list of official EU languages Translate covers
Samoan (Samoa and American Samoa) is written using only 14 letters
Scots Gaelic (Scottish highlands, UK) was introduced by Irish settlers in the 4th century AD
Shona (Zimbabwe) is the most widely spoken of the hundreds of languages in the Bantu family
Sindhi (Pakistan and India) was the native language of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the "Father of the Nation” of Pakistan
Pashto (Afghanistan and Pakistan) is written in Perso-Arabic script with an additional 12 letters, for a total of 44
Xhosa (South Africa) is the second most common native language in the country after Afrikaans and features three kinds of clicks, represented by the letters x, q and c
We’ve come a long way with over 100 languages, but we aren’t done yet. If you want to help, International Mother Language day — just around the corner on February 21 — is a great time to get involved in Translate Community. To start, just select the languages you speak; then choose to either translate phrases on your own or validate existing translations. Every contribution helps improve the quality of translation over time. You can also share feedback directly from Translate.Google.com, so as you try out the new languages, we’d love to hear your suggestions.
For each new language, we make our translations better over time, both by improving our algorithms and systems and by learning from your translations with Translate Community. Today's update will be rolling out over the coming days.
No matter what language you speak, we hope today’s update makes it easier to communicate with millions of new friends and break language barriers one conversation at a time.
Posted by Sveta Kelman, Senior Program Manager, Google Translate
As the 2016 primary season officially kicks off with voters across Iowa caucusing for candidates, we’re making a few updates to Google Search to help you stay informed about the elections. Starting today, you can see where candidates stand on key policy issues, follow the nomination races with live results and an ongoing tallying of the delegate counts, and get voting reminders and live result updates in Google Now.
Dive into the issues To help you learn where candidates stand on the issues that matter to you, you can now find candidate statements on important topics—such as national security, taxes, and immigration—right in search results. In addition to seeing direct statements from the candidates—if they choose to share them—you’ll also see a variety of candidate quotes aggregated from news articles. So now, if you search for a specific candidate (“Ted Cruz”) or a specific candidate and issue topic (“Hillary Clinton economic policies”) you’ll see statements and quotes from the candidate.
Follow the results Tracking what’s happening in the primaries and how each candidate is doing state-by-state can be hard. So now when you search for “primary results” or “resultados de la elección primaria” you’ll not only see the primary election schedule, but you’ll also see live results and an evolving tally of how many delegates each Republican and Democratic nominee has received. This feature works in English and Spanish. Remember the important things (like voting!) Google Now cards will keep you up-to-date on the latest elections news. In the Google app, you’ll get cards reminding you to vote in your local primary and others highlighting who won each contest. As with the election results, this works in English and Spanish.
We hope these features make it easier for you to keep up to date on the issues, the delegates and your local primary. Posted by Jacob Schonberg, Product Manager
An unexpected snow or rainstorm can put a bit of a damper on your day, so to help keep you dry and ready to take on any weather, we’re introducing an upgraded weather experience on Android phones.
Now when you search for “weather” or ask Google, “will it rain today?” in the Google app on your Android phone, you’ll get a wealth of new information, including: hourly sky conditions and chance of rain, severe weather alerts, a detailed 10-day forecast, air quality, UV index, sunrise and sunset times, and more.
When you tap on the weather result, you can also save your favorite locations by searching for a new location and selecting “Add.” You’ll start seeing your chosen locations in the drop-down in search.
We also have a new design so you can see at a glance what the day has in store with changing background colors that respond to the sky conditions and a new meteorologically inclined friend.
So whether you’re facing a blizzard in Boston, rain in London or unseasonably cold weather in Sydney, you’ll be better prepared to take on the day with Google.
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.
