After being hit by a massive fine of 2.4 billion Euro by EU antitrust regulations, Google has again invited trouble due to its search results. This time the search engine highlighted results for &quot;Best Torrent sites&quot;.

The results for &#39;best torrent sites&#39; listed down Rarbg, 1337x, isoHunt, The Pirate Bay and many others torrent sites.The report was first published by Torent Freak.&nbsp;

Google also displayed illegal infamous software like Putlocker and Alluc along with legal streaming such as Hulu and Crakle, for the search of &#39;streaming sites&#39;. This is in variance with Google&#39;s &nbsp;attempt of curbing online piracy.&nbsp;

In February Google and MIcrosoft entered into an agreement with the British Phonographic Industry and Motion Picture Association to delist pirated websites from the first page of search results. The agreement was supposed to come into effect from June 1, 2017. However, the latest developments reflect a failure of this attempt.&nbsp;

Google had shown similar pirated ratings of movies previously. The entertainment industry has already blamed Google for not doing much to curb piracy.&nbsp;

Google justified its stance on the matter by saying that the results are generated based on algorithms. &quot; These results are generated algorithmically, but in this particular case, do not reflect what we had in mind for this feature, and we are looking into it.&quot;

&nbsp;

Google results placed together pirated software along with legal streaming sites

After being hit by a massive fine of 2.4 billion Euro by EU antitrust regulations, Google has again invited trouble due to its search results. This time the search engine highlighted results for "Best Torrent sites". The results for 'best torrent sites' listed down Rarbg, 1337x, isoHunt, The Pirate Bay and many others torrent sites.The report was first published by Torent Freak. Google also displayed illegal infamous software like Putlocker and Alluc along with legal streaming such as Hulu and Crakle, for the search of 'streaming sites'. This is in variance with Google's attempt of curbing online piracy. In February Google and MIcrosoft entered into an agreement with the British Phonographic Industry and Motion Picture Association to delist pirated websites from the first page of search results. The agreement was supposed to come into effect from June 1, 2017. However, the latest developments reflect a failure of this attempt. Google had shown similar pirated ratings of movies previously. The entertainment industry has already blamed Google for not doing much to curb piracy. Google justified its stance on the matter by saying that the results are generated based on algorithms. " These results are generated algorithmically, but in this particular case, do not reflect what we had in mind for this feature, and we are looking into it."

Google results show pirated sites

Google has ramped up its legal firepower as it prepares to do battle with EU antitrust regulators after a landmark 2.4 billion-euro ($2.7 billion) fine and the possibility of a second record sanction before the end of the year.

Alphabet unit Google, the world&#39;s most popular internet search engine, is drawing on the expertise of at least five top law firms in Brussels to help it deal with its EU regulatory troubles.The EU competition authority hit the company with a 2.4 billion-euro ($2.7 billion) penalty last month for unfairly favouring its shopping service.

Antirust regulators are also weighing a record fine against Google over its Android mobile operating system and a third case involves its AdSense for Search platform.

The Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe&#39;s second-highest, will be the first battleground for Google if it challenges the European Commission&#39;s June decision and potentially disruptive changes to its business practices.

Cleary Gottlieb, Allen &amp; Overy, Slaughter and May, Garrigues and White &amp; Case have all been tapped by Google.

Google did not immediately respond to an email for comment.

A partner at London-based law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, Ian Giles, said &quot; The company&#39;s decision to rely on a diverse range of lawyers makes sense because of the risks it faces. Given the potential penalties and damages actions it faces, Google will want to invest in the best possible defence team, and direct legal costs will be a relatively minor consideration,&quot;.&nbsp;

&quot;There may be simple capacity reasons as to why they are sharing the workload between a number of law firms, but there is also value to seeking a second opinion, reconsidering strategy, and bringing new ideas to the table,&quot;&nbsp;he added.

Expect fireworks, economist Georgios Petropoulos at think-tank Bruegel said. &quot;There has been no similar case in European law in the past. It is a very challenging case and difficult to prove one or the other,&quot; he said referring to issues such as market dominance, definition of the relevant market, among others.

&quot;The (Commission&#39;s mention of a) 45-fold increase in traffic to Google shopping and the 85 per cent drop in traffic to some competitor sites suggest there is significant potential for such actions, as does the size of the penalty,&quot; Collyer Bristow lawyer Stephen Critchley wrote in a recent note.

The legal battles will also provide helpful markers for the fast-moving tech industry and regulators struggling to impose old rules on new markets and dominant social platforms, said Petropoulos.&quot;We need some decisions on what is good and what is bad. All these will provide more clarity on how this market works,&quot; he said.

Cleary Gottlieb is advising on the Google shopping case, Allen &amp; Overy together with Cleary on the Android smartphone case and Slaughter and May on the AdSense case, the sources said. Garrigues and White &amp; Case, which signed up former General Court Judge Nicholas Forwood last year, are also providing competition advice.

Forwood took part in the Luxembourg court&#39;s 2007 and 2012 rulings on Microsoft, which did battle with the EU in several investigations that ultimately cost it more than 2.2 billion euros in penalties.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The move has come after the EU competition authority hit the company with a 2.4 billion-euro ($2.7 billion) penalty last month for unfairly favouring its shopping service

Google has ramped up its legal firepower as it prepares to do battle with EU antitrust regulators after a landmark 2.4 billion-euro ($2.7 billion) fine and the possibility of a second record sanction before the end of the year. Alphabet unit Google, the world's most popular internet search engine, is drawing on the expertise of at least five top law firms in Brussels to help it deal with its EU regulatory troubles.The EU competition authority hit the company with a 2.4 billion-euro ($2.7 billion) penalty last month for unfairly favouring its shopping service. Antirust regulators are also weighing a record fine against Google over its Android mobile operating system and a third case involves its AdSense for Search platform. The Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe's second-highest, will be the first battleground for Google if it challenges the European Commission's June decision and potentially disruptive changes to its business practices. Cleary Gottlieb, Allen & Overy, Slaughter and May, Garrigues and White & Case have all been tapped by Google. Google did not immediately respond to an email for comment. A partner at London-based law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, Ian Giles, said " The company's decision to rely on a diverse range of lawyers makes sense because of the risks it faces. Given the potential penalties and damages actions it faces, Google will want to invest in the best possible defence team, and direct legal costs will be a relatively minor consideration,". "There may be simple capacity reasons as to why they are sharing the workload between a number of law firms, but there is also value to seeking a second opinion, reconsidering strategy, and bringing new ideas to the table," he added. Expect fireworks, economist Georgios Petropoulos at think-tank Bruegel said. "There has been no similar case in European law in the past. It is a very challenging case and difficult to prove one or the other," he said referring to issues such as market dominance, definition of the relevant market, among others. "The (Commission's mention of a) 45-fold increase in traffic to Google shopping and the 85 per cent drop in traffic to some competitor sites suggest there is significant potential for such actions, as does the size of the penalty," Collyer Bristow lawyer Stephen Critchley wrote in a recent note. The legal battles will also provide helpful markers for the fast-moving tech industry and regulators struggling to impose old rules on new markets and dominant social platforms, said Petropoulos."We need some decisions on what is good and what is bad. All these will provide more clarity on how this market works," he said. Cleary Gottlieb is advising on the Google shopping case, Allen & Overy together with Cleary on the Android smartphone case and Slaughter and May on the AdSense case, the sources said. Garrigues and White & Case, which signed up former General Court Judge Nicholas Forwood last year, are also providing competition advice. Forwood took part in the Luxembourg court's 2007 and 2012 rulings on Microsoft, which did battle with the EU in several investigations that ultimately cost it more than 2.2 billion euros in penalties.

Google taps top law firms to fight EU regulatory battles - sources

The smartphone industry is not innovating as aggressively as they would do in the recent past. As a result, all phones today look and offer pretty much the same - something that has been bothering consumers, tech pundits, enthusiasts and critics, alike. And therefore, to understand the change in the way the mobile industry is progressing, where it stands today and where it is actually heading, we spoke with former Motorola India head Amit Boni - who is now serving Smartron India as VP for sales and marketing. Serving the mobile industry for a long time, Amit shared with us some interesting insights on the innovation lull in the smartphone arena and what is going to be the next defining factor in the mobile world.

WION: How far do you think the smartphone market has come ever since the introduction of the first iPhone in 2007 and where does it actually stand today?

Amit: Well, if you are talking specifically in India context, I think, we are still a long way to go. If you see, the per capita smartphone penetration in India is still low. The TAM (Total Addressable Market) in India on the phones is probably upwards of 200 million units, probably a little more than that. But if you see the number of smartphones only, we are still looking at 120-125 million as the Total Addressable Market for the year.

So, fundamentally there is still a lot of people out there who are going for feature phones. And then you have a bunch of people, who are really buying not-so-great-quality smartphones in entry-level price tiers. So from purely India context, there is still a long way to go before we say everyone in India has a smartphone in hand. So the prospects out here, the transition out here, it will still unravel over the next 4-5 years.

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<h5>You can practically accuse the industry of lack of innovation. There is very limited work happening in terms of hardware innovation.</h5>
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WION: But Amit given that every phone today has something similar to offer, what do you think is holding the phone companies back from standing out - lack of innovation or market saturation or something else?

Amit: From my perspective, that is definitely not market saturation. You can practically accuse the industry of lack of innovation. There is very limited work happening in terms of hardware innovation. Most of the work that is being done is happening at the chipset level. Those guys are doing some really good work; let&rsquo;s say, Quick Charge from Qualcomm and so on and so forth.

So, there is a lot of good stuff that is coming on that side. But otherwise, from a pure hardware side, very limited work has happened over the last 5-8 years - in terms of innovation. I think, a lot of it has got to do with how the industry is structured, how a lot of people essentially look at success - not necessarily in terms of innovation, but in terms of how they do market shares.

If you see even in India, there are these articles that come out every three months saying now this is number 1, that is number 2 and that is number 3. And there is a huge hyperbolic conversation that starts happening around that, which tells you the mindset that a lot of companies come out with. They think about how do I make the numbers, how do I sell more rather than thinking how do I generate tremendous amount of intellectual property, how do I innovate and what makes me come out with some great products for end consumers.

WION: So where do you see the mobile industry going, or rather, say what do you think is going to be the next defining factor in the smartphone space?

Amit: Before I answer that, let&rsquo;s take a step back. If you see fundamentally phones, we look at them as a standalone product. So, over time, there is a good device or there is not such a good device, it&rsquo;s essentially spec-to-spec comparisons. People will say, there is more RAM, this is a bigger display, there is more internal storage. This is what people generally talk about.

As long as that stays, there is not much that is going to happen. But I think there is a growing understanding and I can tell you from Smartron perspective that when we are doing a bunch of devices, we are focusing on mobile ecosystem, because we understand that it&rsquo;s not only about putting in great hardware, what consumers are looking for is great use cases.

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<h5>The future of smartphones or, may be, a lot of other consumer electronics will be modularity.</h5>
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WION: Amit, having said that there is lack of innovation in the smartphone space, there are still companies that have been striving to make things better and coming up with new concepts, and one such is the modular concept. But how do you see this concept emerging, how far can it make as an approach or do you think if it has the potential to appeal to masses out there?

Amit: I think modularity is a phenomenally good concept. Unfortunately, I don&rsquo;t think companies so far have been able to come out with something that truly does justice to that thought process. As a concept, if somebody tells you that you don&rsquo;t have to replace your overall device but you can go, and for example, replace a camera if there is a new camera sensor coming in or you can just replace the speaker with a better speaker, it&rsquo;s interesting.

I think, at an eclectic level, there are some really interesting thoughts out there, but it also need to be seamless for end consumers. It cannot be either highly priced so much so that your modular solutions are, at times, costing as high as your device itself or that the use cases are difficult to do.

There have been various attempts by a multitude of companies. They have tried to do modularity in one form or the other. But I think there is some way to go on that. I think the future of smartphones or may be, a lot of other consumer electronics will be modularity. Are we there yet? No. I think it&rsquo;s going to be another 4-5 years down the line till you see modular use cases coming, which will be more widespread.

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<h5>I don&rsquo;t see GST changing anything with respect to manufacturing strategies. But what GST will interestingly do is it will alter the dynamics of last 3-4 years as you have seen between online and offline.</h5>
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WION: And talking about innovation, how promising do you find the concept of Augmented Reality-ready smartphones?

Amit: From a pure tech-next step, I see innovation in 2-3 different facets. I see innovation in terms of use cases. I see innovation in terms of business models. And then you see innovation purely in terms of technology additions. From a pure technology addition perspective, your Internet of Things, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) are next steps where your devices and technology will become a lot more connected.

There is a bunch of work that can happen - right from as simple thing as sports-themed cafes to actually doing a lot of education work. I think, AR and VR could play really interesting work. In next year or two, they will start becoming a lot more mainstream in a lot of ways.

But, as I said, a lot of this is dependent on your players in the market. If somebody thinks, you are not important enough as a country to get a flavour of AR and VR or IOT, then people are not going to do that. One of the problems that we have in India is that a lot of people think of market share as their primary driver. They want a run on those musical chairs.

As a result, nobody focuses on what consumers really want out there. They give them products that they believe are going to sell more without realising how you could make a user&rsquo;s life better. But I think if there are a bunch of people, who take that stance saying that this has use cases for Indian consumers, I think, you will see it becoming more mainstream over next 12-18 months.

WION: As we all know, India is one of the sought-after markets when it comes to smartphones, and a lot of companies are setting up their manufacturing units in India, but now with GST into the picture, how do you see the game is going to be like for manufacturers out there?

Amit: I don&rsquo;t see it changing anything for the manufacturing , because I am sure that the government is cognisant of the investments that have been made&nbsp; in terms of having a better manufacturing ecosystem in the country. I am pretty sure that they are going to be supportive of that. I don&rsquo;t see GST changing anything with respect to manufacturing strategies. But what GST will interestingly do is it will alter the dynamics of last 3-4 years as you have seen between online and offline. Because suddenly now there is no arbitrage in terms of VAT that existed earlier for online players. It&rsquo;s a much more better-level playing field. I think it needs to be seen how the market shifts.

WION: And Amit, there is one trend that I have been observing for a long time. A lot of companies enter the the high-end segment of the Indian mobile market at attractive prices. They keep the pricing really competitive for a couple of years and then eventually, they move to the price brackets where premium phones from top-notch players compete. I first noticed this trend with Motorola, then Google&rsquo;s Nexus lineup and now OnePlus is on the same path. What is the thought or better say, strategy behind it?

Amit: There are two things. So, a lot of players, when they enter the market, see pricing as an entry strategy. If you can increase the value for an end-consumer without spending that much money in marketing and brand building, you are probably going to have a much better price point. And those price points are interesting to consumers and they come in hoards to buy that.

In terms of really taking the price points up, I think it&rsquo;s singularly focused on pricing as a strategy. It&rsquo;s not a sustainable strategy, because supply chains globally in the phone industry give you a limited leverage - in terms of one&rsquo;s cost structure better than somebody else&rsquo;s. But I think there is not a lot of difference in those cost structures. So, if you keep on harping on those same price points, as a company, you are not going to survive.

So, companies need to make sure that they have a portfolio that spans a few product price points. May be, then they want to do a pricing play on a couple of products, which is plausible. But anyone, whose focus clearly is on pricing to begin with and then wants to move up, that doesn&rsquo;t work. But why they are forced is because sometimes, the economics come to bite back and say, a company cannot keep on doing those price points because they are not sustainable.

WION: We all know that how you played an instrumental role in Motorola India&rsquo;s business. So what is your plan for Smartron, a company which is yet to hold some grounds in the market? What is the way forward?

Amit: Smartron, essentially, is not a smartphone company. We are an Internet of Things company. We have multiple areas of interest in terms of hardware as well as software. We have multiple categories - we have phones, wearables, computing and smart homes, to name a few. We will have play on the enterprise and infrastructure side of it. so, there is a bunch of things that we are looking at doing at Smartron.

<h3>You can watch the full interview here: 
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Smartron India VP Amit Boni explains why all phones today look and offer pretty much the same - something that has been bothering consumers, tech pundits, enthusiasts and critics, alike.

The smartphone industry is not innovating as aggressively as they would do in the recent past. As a result, all phones today look and offer pretty much the same - something that has been bothering consumers, tech pundits, enthusiasts and critics, alike. And therefore, to understand the change in the way the mobile industry is progressing, where it stands today and where it is actually heading, we spoke with former Motorola India head Amit Boni - who is now serving Smartron India as VP for sales and marketing. Serving the mobile industry for a long time, Amit shared with us some interesting insights on the innovation lull in the smartphone arena and what is going to be the next defining factor in the mobile world. WION: How far do you think the smartphone market has come ever since the introduction of the first iPhone in 2007 and where does it actually stand today? Amit: Well, if you are talking specifically in India context, I think, we are still a long way to go. If you see, the per capita smartphone penetration in India is still low. The TAM (Total Addressable Market) in India on the phones is probably upwards of 200 million units, probably a little more than that. But if you see the number of smartphones only, we are still looking at 120-125 million as the Total Addressable Market for the year. So, fundamentally there is still a lot of people out there who are going for feature phones. And then you have a bunch of people, who are really buying not-so-great-quality smartphones in entry-level price tiers. So from purely India context, there is still a long way to go before we say everyone in India has a smartphone in hand. So the prospects out here, the transition out here, it will still unravel over the next 4-5 years. You can practically accuse the industry of lack of innovation. There is very limited work happening in terms of hardware innovation. × WION: But Amit given that every phone today has something similar to offer, what do you think is holding the phone companies back from standing out - lack of innovation or market saturation or something else? Amit: From my perspective, that is definitely not market saturation. You can practically accuse the industry of lack of innovation. There is very limited work happening in terms of hardware innovation. Most of the work that is being done is happening at the chipset level. Those guys are doing some really good work; let’s say, Quick Charge from Qualcomm and so on and so forth. So, there is a lot of good stuff that is coming on that side. But otherwise, from a pure hardware side, very limited work has happened over the last 5-8 years - in terms of innovation. I think, a lot of it has got to do with how the industry is structured, how a lot of people essentially look at success - not necessarily in terms of innovation, but in terms of how they do market shares. If you see even in India, there are these articles that come out every three months saying now this is number 1, that is number 2 and that is number 3. And there is a huge hyperbolic conversation that starts happening around that, which tells you the mindset that a lot of companies come out with. They think about how do I make the numbers, how do I sell more rather than thinking how do I generate tremendous amount of intellectual property, how do I innovate and what makes me come out with some great products for end consumers. WION: So where do you see the mobile industry going, or rather, say what do you think is going to be the next defining factor in the smartphone space? Amit: Before I answer that, let’s take a step back. If you see fundamentally phones, we look at them as a standalone product. So, over time, there is a good device or there is not such a good device, it’s essentially spec-to-spec comparisons. People will say, there is more RAM, this is a bigger display, there is more internal storage. This is what people generally talk about. As long as that stays, there is not much that is going to happen. But I think there is a growing understanding and I can tell you from Smartron perspective that when we are doing a bunch of devices, we are focusing on mobile ecosystem, because we understand that it’s not only about putting in great hardware, what consumers are looking for is great use cases. The future of smartphones or, may be, a lot of other consumer electronics will be modularity. × WION: Amit, having said that there is lack of innovation in the smartphone space, there are still companies that have been striving to make things better and coming up with new concepts, and one such is the modular concept. But how do you see this concept emerging, how far can it make as an approach or do you think if it has the potential to appeal to masses out there? Amit: I think modularity is a phenomenally good concept. Unfortunately, I don’t think companies so far have been able to come out with something that truly does justice to that thought process. As a concept, if somebody tells you that you don’t have to replace your overall device but you can go, and for example, replace a camera if there is a new camera sensor coming in or you can just replace the speaker with a better speaker, it’s interesting. I think, at an eclectic level, there are some really interesting thoughts out there, but it also need to be seamless for end consumers. It cannot be either highly priced so much so that your modular solutions are, at times, costing as high as your device itself or that the use cases are difficult to do. There have been various attempts by a multitude of companies. They have tried to do modularity in one form or the other. But I think there is some way to go on that. I think the future of smartphones or may be, a lot of other consumer electronics will be modularity. Are we there yet? No. I think it’s going to be another 4-5 years down the line till you see modular use cases coming, which will be more widespread. I don’t see GST changing anything with respect to manufacturing strategies. But what GST will interestingly do is it will alter the dynamics of last 3-4 years as you have seen between online and offline. × WION: And talking about innovation, how promising do you find the concept of Augmented Reality-ready smartphones? Amit: From a pure tech-next step, I see innovation in 2-3 different facets. I see innovation in terms of use cases. I see innovation in terms of business models. And then you see innovation purely in terms of technology additions. From a pure technology addition perspective, your Internet of Things, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) are next steps where your devices and technology will become a lot more connected. There is a bunch of work that can happen - right from as simple thing as sports-themed cafes to actually doing a lot of education work. I think, AR and VR could play really interesting work. In next year or two, they will start becoming a lot more mainstream in a lot of ways. But, as I said, a lot of this is dependent on your players in the market. If somebody thinks, you are not important enough as a country to get a flavour of AR and VR or IOT, then people are not going to do that. One of the problems that we have in India is that a lot of people think of market share as their primary driver. They want a run on those musical chairs. As a result, nobody focuses on what consumers really want out there. They give them products that they believe are going to sell more without realising how you could make a user’s life better. But I think if there are a bunch of people, who take that stance saying that this has use cases for Indian consumers, I think, you will see it becoming more mainstream over next 12-18 months. WION: As we all know, India is one of the sought-after markets when it comes to smartphones, and a lot of companies are setting up their manufacturing units in India, but now with GST into the picture, how do you see the game is going to be like for manufacturers out there? Amit: I don’t see it changing anything for the manufacturing , because I am sure that the government is cognisant of the investments that have been made in terms of having a better manufacturing ecosystem in the country. I am pretty sure that they are going to be supportive of that. I don’t see GST changing anything with respect to manufacturing strategies. But what GST will interestingly do is it will alter the dynamics of last 3-4 years as you have seen between online and offline. Because suddenly now there is no arbitrage in terms of VAT that existed earlier for online players. It’s a much more better-level playing field. I think it needs to be seen how the market shifts. WION: And Amit, there is one trend that I have been observing for a long time. A lot of companies enter the the high-end segment of the Indian mobile market at attractive prices. They keep the pricing really competitive for a couple of years and then eventually, they move to the price brackets where premium phones from top-notch players compete. I first noticed this trend with Motorola, then Google’s Nexus lineup and now OnePlus is on the same path. What is the thought or better say, strategy behind it? Amit: There are two things. So, a lot of players, when they enter the market, see pricing as an entry strategy. If you can increase the value for an end-consumer without spending that much money in marketing and brand building, you are probably going to have a much better price point. And those price points are interesting to consumers and they come in hoards to buy that. In terms of really taking the price points up, I think it’s singularly focused on pricing as a strategy. It’s not a sustainable strategy, because supply chains globally in the phone industry give you a limited leverage - in terms of one’s cost structure better than somebody else’s. But I think there is not a lot of difference in those cost structures. So, if you keep on harping on those same price points, as a company, you are not going to survive. So, companies need to make sure that they have a portfolio that spans a few product price points. May be, then they want to do a pricing play on a couple of products, which is plausible. But anyone, whose focus clearly is on pricing to begin with and then wants to move up, that doesn’t work. But why they are forced is because sometimes, the economics come to bite back and say, a company cannot keep on doing those price points because they are not sustainable. WION: We all know that how you played an instrumental role in Motorola India’s business. So what is your plan for Smartron, a company which is yet to hold some grounds in the market? What is the way forward? Amit: Smartron, essentially, is not a smartphone company. We are an Internet of Things company. We have multiple areas of interest in terms of hardware as well as software. We have multiple categories - we have phones, wearables, computing and smart homes, to name a few. We will have play on the enterprise and infrastructure side of it. so, there is a bunch of things that we are looking at doing at Smartron. You can watch the full interview here:

Q&A: Former Moto India head Amit Boni on innovation lull & next step in smartphone space

Some of Alphabet&#39;s Google&nbsp;services including, Admin Console, Calendar, and Hangouts, suffered some service disruption on Thursday but the outages have now been resolved, according to&nbsp;Google&nbsp;service status page.

The status page also said that &#39;the problem with&nbsp;Google&nbsp;Drive should be resolved.&#39;

Earlier reports of an issue with&nbsp;Google&nbsp;services were being investigated.&nbsp;GoogleDrive faced a similar disruption issue early in January this year.

Some of Alphabet Google services including, Admin Console, Calendar, and Hangouts suffered service disruption

Some of Alphabet's Google services including, Admin Console, Calendar, and Hangouts, suffered some service disruption on Thursday but the outages have now been resolved, according to Google service status page. The status page also said that 'the problem with Google Drive should be resolved.' Earlier reports of an issue with Google services were being investigated. GoogleDrive faced a similar disruption issue early in January this year.

Google says service disruption issues resolved

European union antitrust regulators slammed Google&#39;s Alphabet unit with 2.42-billion-euro ($2.7 billion) fine, on allegations that the world&#39;s most popular internet search engine favours its own shopping services and did not exercise a healthy competition with rivals.

The European Commission said that Google has 90 days to stop its unfair practices or Alphabet shall face a further penalty of up to 5 per cent of it&#39;s average daily global turnover.

After a seven-year long investigation, the Commission found that Google had systematically given prominent placement in searches to its own comparison shopping service -- Google Shopping, and demoted those of rivals in search results.

&quot;What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules. It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate. And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation,&quot; European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.

It is the biggest regulatory setback for Google, which settled with US&nbsp;enforcers in 2013 with a requirement to stop &quot;scraping&quot; reviews and other data from rival websites for its own products.

The hard fine, which is the largest for a single company in an EU antitrust case, exceeding the 1.06-billion-euro sanction handed down to US&nbsp;chipmaker Intel in 2009, hints that EU will be just as tough with Google in the two other cases.

The EU competition enforcer has charged Google with using its Android mobile operating system to crush rivals, a case that could potentially be the most damaging for the company, with the system used in most smartphones.

The company has also been accused of blocking rivals in online search advertising, with the Commission warning of deterrent fines if Google is found guilty of breaching EU rules.&nbsp;

Google has released a statement, denying the allegations.

($1 = 0.8890 euros)

(With inputs from Reuters)

The commission found that Google had systematically given prominent placement in searches to its own comparison shopping service

European union antitrust regulators slammed Google's Alphabet unit with 2.42-billion-euro ($2.7 billion) fine, on allegations that the world's most popular internet search engine favours its own shopping services and did not exercise a healthy competition with rivals. The European Commission said that Google has 90 days to stop its unfair practices or Alphabet shall face a further penalty of up to 5 per cent of it's average daily global turnover. After a seven-year long investigation, the Commission found that Google had systematically given prominent placement in searches to its own comparison shopping service -- Google Shopping, and demoted those of rivals in search results. "What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules. It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate. And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation," European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. It is the biggest regulatory setback for Google, which settled with US enforcers in 2013 with a requirement to stop "scraping" reviews and other data from rival websites for its own products. The hard fine, which is the largest for a single company in an EU antitrust case, exceeding the 1.06-billion-euro sanction handed down to US chipmaker Intel in 2009, hints that EU will be just as tough with Google in the two other cases. The EU competition enforcer has charged Google with using its Android mobile operating system to crush rivals, a case that could potentially be the most damaging for the company, with the system used in most smartphones. The company has also been accused of blocking rivals in online search advertising, with the Commission warning of deterrent fines if Google is found guilty of breaching EU rules. Google has released a statement, denying the allegations. ($1 = 0.8890 euros) (With inputs from Reuters)

EU slams Google with record 2.42 billion-euro fine for tampering with search results

Google&rsquo;s self-professed mission is to organise the world&rsquo;s information. But a company known for engineering excellence is still trying to solve the very human problem of how to organise itself.

Nearly two years ago, Google co-founder Larry Page announced the tech giant would be remade as Alphabet, a holding company whose units would include Google and an array of unrelated pursuits in areas such as healthcare, self-driving cars, and urban planning.

Wall Street cheered. Previously those riskier ventures had been lumped into Google&#39;s overall financial results. Investors would now see Google&rsquo;s performance independent of its so-called &#39;Other Bets,&#39; an eclectic collection of 11 ventures.

They include Nest which is a maker of Wi-Fi enabled thermostats, Calico which seeks to prolong the human lifespan and X, the company&#39;s secretive research lab.

Alphabet&#39;s top management also aimed to boost accountability by appointing chief executives to head each of the Other Bets. Few people in Google&#39;s constellation of ventures had ever held the title prior to that.

But so far Alphabet has failed to show it can convert its Other Bets from experiments to businesses with the reach, impact and money-making potential of Google&rsquo;s core search and advertising operations. Interviews with two dozen former Alphabet executives and employees reveal an organization grappling with how much time and resources Other Bets deserve in the pursuit of profitability.

In the first quarter, which ended on March 31, the ventures lost a combined $855 million; that&#39;s on top of a collective $3.6 billion loss for 2016. As a whole, Alphabet generated $90.3 billion in revenue in 2016. Google&#39;s share of that revenue was $89.5 billion, while its 2016 operating income was $27.9 billion.

Alphabet&#39;s early days have seen more pruning than expansion of its holdings.

The company has skinned back plans for Google Fiber, which delivers rapid Internet service in 10 metro areas. This month, Alphabet agreed to sell robotics company Boston Dynamics to Japanese multinational SoftBank Group. It unloaded its Terra Bella satellite imaging business in February.

At one point last year, it was even looking to sell Nest, the largest of the Other Bets. Google paid an eye-popping $3.2 billion for the start-up in 2014.

Meanwhile, a series of executives have departed since the reorganization, including the heads of Nest, an Internet operation called Access and a venture capital firm known as GV.

An Alphabet spokeswoman declined repeated requests for comment or to make executives available for interviews. Supporters of the restructuring frame the early struggles as typical growing pains.

For now, Wall Street isn&#39;t worried. Alphabet&#39;s stock is near an all-time high, having reached $1,000 per share in June. Ruth Porat, the no-nonsense chief financial officer who has steered the restructuring, has won rave reviews from investors for enforcing financial accountability across Alphabet.

Some Other Bets have made notable strides. Life sciences initiative verily recently attracted $800 million in outside investment. Self-driving car project Waymo is considered among the leaders in the burgeoning industry.

Analysts say the structure will enable Alphabet to do what most companies can not,conceive the next wave of innovation in-house or through the development of key acquisitions. That goal is central to both the company&#39;s mission and investor expectations.

&ldquo;The reason Google gets to trade at a decent multiple&hellip; is because there&#39;s a growth story beyond advertising,&rdquo; said analyst James Wang of ARK Investment Management.

CEO or COO?

The Alphabet structure is Google&rsquo;s stab at an age-old corporate conundrum: sustaining innovation within a giant enterprise.

Alphabet&#39;s strategy is to give entrepreneurs the autonomy of a startup, coupled with the discipline of a traditional corporate structure.

Roughly once a quarter, Other Bets leaders meet with the Alphabet board which is comprised of Porat, Page, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and David Drummond, Alphabet&#39;s senior vice president of corporate development, to discuss funding and performance.

At the same time, Alphabet is establishing separate compensation plans for the Other Bets to reward employees if their ventures succeed, mirroring startup incentives.

The formula has primed Alphabet&#39;s emerging businesses for &quot;global impact,&quot; Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said this month at the annual stockholders meeting at the Mountain View headquarters.

&quot;There is one solution that we know works well in capitalism, which is boards, shareholders, CEOs,&quot; Schmidt said. &quot;My bet is that the traditional lessons of business organisation will, in fact, result in success at Alphabet.&quot;

Still, Alphabet top brass continues to hold sway over key strategy and financing decisions, a dynamic that has chafed Other Bets chief executives who have complained they are treated more like chief operating officers than shot callers. 
In addition, scrutiny from Wall Street limits how generous Alphabet can be in extending Google&#39;s resources to Other Bets, said Brian McClendon, a former vice president of engineering at Google. &#39;As of yet, the restructuring hasn&rsquo;t provided what I think is one of the immediate benefits, which is a risk-taking investment&#39; he said.

NICKELED AND DIMED

Some companies acquired by Google found that being part of Alphabet was not what they had bargained for. 
Two former Nest employees said they were promised generous funding and time to achieve profitability following the company&#39;s acquisition by Google in 2014. But after the restructuring, Alphabet executives were keenly focused on revenue, one former employee said.

Pricey overhead has made the path to profitability tougher. After the restructuring, Alphabet began charging Other Bets for their portion of shared services such as security and facilities, ending what had previously amounted to a subsidy. The units also felt pressure to maintain Google perks such as free employee meals.

&ldquo;One of the pitfalls (of Alphabet) is that those companies are asked to stand on their own two feet, but they may inherit the cost structure of Google,&quot; said Nest investor Peter Nieh, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.

In early 2016, Alphabet explored selling Nest in an effort code-named Project Amalfi. No deal materialized, and Nest co-founder Tony Fadell departed last year. Fadell declined to comment.

Boston Dynamics, acquired in 2013 during a robotics shopping spree led by Android creator Andy Rubin, enjoyed generous funding at first. But it was adrift after Rubin&#39;s departure. Rubin did not respond to requests for comment.

GRUMPY GOOGLERS

The creation of the Other Bets has also changed what it means to work for Google.

Some grumble that their role now is to subsidize innovation at their sister companies, rather than to innovate themselves.

According to one former Googler, it sent a sort of message to people who stayed back at Google, whether in search or in ads. The ad said &#39;Your job isn&rsquo;t to push the envelope&#39;.

Employee transfers to X, the illustrious &ldquo;moonshot factory,&rdquo; are more complicated now that it&#39;s a separate entity, former employees say.

That&rsquo;s a striking shift, especially for high-performing employees accustomed to moving about the company almost at will, said Punit Soni, a former Google employee who is now chief executive of Learning Motors, an artificial intelligence startup.

&ldquo;A basic premise of Google was people could do whatever they wanted,&rdquo; Soni said. &ldquo;I can see why people will feel like it&rsquo;s no longer the old Google.&quot;

In the meantime, co-founder Page is pursuing yet another &#39;moonshot&#39; called flying cars. He is the primary investor in Kitty Hawk, a startup in the field that is entirely outside the Alphabet umbrella.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

A company known for engineering excellence is still trying to solve the very human problem of how to organise itself

Google’s self-professed mission is to organise the world’s information. But a company known for engineering excellence is still trying to solve the very human problem of how to organise itself. Nearly two years ago, Google co-founder Larry Page announced the tech giant would be remade as Alphabet, a holding company whose units would include Google and an array of unrelated pursuits in areas such as healthcare, self-driving cars, and urban planning. Wall Street cheered. Previously those riskier ventures had been lumped into Google's overall financial results. Investors would now see Google’s performance independent of its so-called 'Other Bets,' an eclectic collection of 11 ventures. They include Nest which is a maker of Wi-Fi enabled thermostats, Calico which seeks to prolong the human lifespan and X, the company's secretive research lab. Alphabet's top management also aimed to boost accountability by appointing chief executives to head each of the Other Bets. Few people in Google's constellation of ventures had ever held the title prior to that. But so far Alphabet has failed to show it can convert its Other Bets from experiments to businesses with the reach, impact and money-making potential of Google’s core search and advertising operations. Interviews with two dozen former Alphabet executives and employees reveal an organization grappling with how much time and resources Other Bets deserve in the pursuit of profitability. In the first quarter, which ended on March 31, the ventures lost a combined $855 million; that's on top of a collective $3.6 billion loss for 2016. As a whole, Alphabet generated $90.3 billion in revenue in 2016. Google's share of that revenue was $89.5 billion, while its 2016 operating income was $27.9 billion. Alphabet's early days have seen more pruning than expansion of its holdings. The company has skinned back plans for Google Fiber, which delivers rapid Internet service in 10 metro areas. This month, Alphabet agreed to sell robotics company Boston Dynamics to Japanese multinational SoftBank Group. It unloaded its Terra Bella satellite imaging business in February. At one point last year, it was even looking to sell Nest, the largest of the Other Bets. Google paid an eye-popping $3.2 billion for the start-up in 2014. Meanwhile, a series of executives have departed since the reorganization, including the heads of Nest, an Internet operation called Access and a venture capital firm known as GV. An Alphabet spokeswoman declined repeated requests for comment or to make executives available for interviews. Supporters of the restructuring frame the early struggles as typical growing pains. For now, Wall Street isn't worried. Alphabet's stock is near an all-time high, having reached $1,000 per share in June. Ruth Porat, the no-nonsense chief financial officer who has steered the restructuring, has won rave reviews from investors for enforcing financial accountability across Alphabet. Some Other Bets have made notable strides. Life sciences initiative verily recently attracted $800 million in outside investment. Self-driving car project Waymo is considered among the leaders in the burgeoning industry. Analysts say the structure will enable Alphabet to do what most companies can not,conceive the next wave of innovation in-house or through the development of key acquisitions. That goal is central to both the company's mission and investor expectations. “The reason Google gets to trade at a decent multiple… is because there's a growth story beyond advertising,” said analyst James Wang of ARK Investment Management. CEO or COO? The Alphabet structure is Google’s stab at an age-old corporate conundrum: sustaining innovation within a giant enterprise. Alphabet's strategy is to give entrepreneurs the autonomy of a startup, coupled with the discipline of a traditional corporate structure. Roughly once a quarter, Other Bets leaders meet with the Alphabet board which is comprised of Porat, Page, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and David Drummond, Alphabet's senior vice president of corporate development, to discuss funding and performance. At the same time, Alphabet is establishing separate compensation plans for the Other Bets to reward employees if their ventures succeed, mirroring startup incentives. The formula has primed Alphabet's emerging businesses for "global impact," Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said this month at the annual stockholders meeting at the Mountain View headquarters. "There is one solution that we know works well in capitalism, which is boards, shareholders, CEOs," Schmidt said. "My bet is that the traditional lessons of business organisation will, in fact, result in success at Alphabet." Still, Alphabet top brass continues to hold sway over key strategy and financing decisions, a dynamic that has chafed Other Bets chief executives who have complained they are treated more like chief operating officers than shot callers. In addition, scrutiny from Wall Street limits how generous Alphabet can be in extending Google's resources to Other Bets, said Brian McClendon, a former vice president of engineering at Google. 'As of yet, the restructuring hasn’t provided what I think is one of the immediate benefits, which is a risk-taking investment' he said. NICKELED AND DIMED Some companies acquired by Google found that being part of Alphabet was not what they had bargained for. Two former Nest employees said they were promised generous funding and time to achieve profitability following the company's acquisition by Google in 2014. But after the restructuring, Alphabet executives were keenly focused on revenue, one former employee said. Pricey overhead has made the path to profitability tougher. After the restructuring, Alphabet began charging Other Bets for their portion of shared services such as security and facilities, ending what had previously amounted to a subsidy. The units also felt pressure to maintain Google perks such as free employee meals. “One of the pitfalls (of Alphabet) is that those companies are asked to stand on their own two feet, but they may inherit the cost structure of Google," said Nest investor Peter Nieh, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. In early 2016, Alphabet explored selling Nest in an effort code-named Project Amalfi. No deal materialized, and Nest co-founder Tony Fadell departed last year. Fadell declined to comment. Boston Dynamics, acquired in 2013 during a robotics shopping spree led by Android creator Andy Rubin, enjoyed generous funding at first. But it was adrift after Rubin's departure. Rubin did not respond to requests for comment. GRUMPY GOOGLERS The creation of the Other Bets has also changed what it means to work for Google. Some grumble that their role now is to subsidize innovation at their sister companies, rather than to innovate themselves. According to one former Googler, it sent a sort of message to people who stayed back at Google, whether in search or in ads. The ad said 'Your job isn’t to push the envelope'. Employee transfers to X, the illustrious “moonshot factory,” are more complicated now that it's a separate entity, former employees say. That’s a striking shift, especially for high-performing employees accustomed to moving about the company almost at will, said Punit Soni, a former Google employee who is now chief executive of Learning Motors, an artificial intelligence startup. “A basic premise of Google was people could do whatever they wanted,” Soni said. “I can see why people will feel like it’s no longer the old Google." In the meantime, co-founder Page is pursuing yet another 'moonshot' called flying cars. He is the primary investor in Kitty Hawk, a startup in the field that is entirely outside the Alphabet umbrella.

Insight - With Alphabet, Google faces a daunting challenge of organising itself

Social media giants Facebook, Google&#39;s YouTube, Twitter, and Microsoft are forming a global working group to combine their efforts to remove terrorist content from their platforms.

Responding to pressure from governments in Europe and the United States after a spate of militant attacks, the companies said they would share technical solutions for removing terrorist content, commission research to inform their counter-speech efforts and work more with counter-terrorism experts.

&quot;The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism will formalise and structure existing and future areas of collaboration between our companies and foster cooperation with smaller tech companies, civil society groups and academics, governments and supra-national bodies such as the EU and the UN,&quot; the companies said in a statement.

The move comes on the heels of last week&#39;s call from European heads of state for tech firms to establish an industry forum and develop new technology and tools to improve the automatic detection and removal of extremist content. The political pressure on the companies has raised the prospect of new legislation at EU level, but so far only Germany has proposed a law fining social media networks up to 50 million euros ($56 million) if they fail to remove hateful postings quickly. The lower house of the German parliament is expected to vote on the law this week.

The companies will seek to improve technical work such as a database created in December to share unique digital fingerprints they automatically assign to videos or photos of extremist content. They will also exchange best practices on content detection techniques using machine learning as well as define &#39;standard transparency reporting methods for terrorist content removals.&#39;

Earlier this month Facebook opened up about its efforts to remove terrorism content in response to criticism from politicians that tech giants are not doing enough to stop militant groups using their platforms for propaganda and recruiting. Google announced additional measures to identify and remove terrorist or violent extremist content on its video-sharing platform YouTube shortly thereafter. Twitter suspended 376,890 accounts for violations related to the promotion of terrorism in the second half of 2016 and will share further updates on its efforts to combat violent extremism on its platform in its next Transparency Report.

The social media firms said they would work with smaller companies to help them tackle extremist content and organisations such as the Center for Strategic and International Studies to work on ways to counter online extremism and hate. All four companies have initiatives to counter online hate speech and will use the forum to improve their efforts and train civil society organisations engaged in similar work.

The companies said they will share technical solutions for removing terrorist content, commission research to inform their counter-speech efforts and work more with counter-terrorism experts

Social media giants Facebook, Google's YouTube, Twitter, and Microsoft are forming a global working group to combine their efforts to remove terrorist content from their platforms. Responding to pressure from governments in Europe and the United States after a spate of militant attacks, the companies said they would share technical solutions for removing terrorist content, commission research to inform their counter-speech efforts and work more with counter-terrorism experts. "The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism will formalise and structure existing and future areas of collaboration between our companies and foster cooperation with smaller tech companies, civil society groups and academics, governments and supra-national bodies such as the EU and the UN," the companies said in a statement. The move comes on the heels of last week's call from European heads of state for tech firms to establish an industry forum and develop new technology and tools to improve the automatic detection and removal of extremist content. The political pressure on the companies has raised the prospect of new legislation at EU level, but so far only Germany has proposed a law fining social media networks up to 50 million euros ($56 million) if they fail to remove hateful postings quickly. The lower house of the German parliament is expected to vote on the law this week. The companies will seek to improve technical work such as a database created in December to share unique digital fingerprints they automatically assign to videos or photos of extremist content. They will also exchange best practices on content detection techniques using machine learning as well as define 'standard transparency reporting methods for terrorist content removals.' Earlier this month Facebook opened up about its efforts to remove terrorism content in response to criticism from politicians that tech giants are not doing enough to stop militant groups using their platforms for propaganda and recruiting. Google announced additional measures to identify and remove terrorist or violent extremist content on its video-sharing platform YouTube shortly thereafter. Twitter suspended 376,890 accounts for violations related to the promotion of terrorism in the second half of 2016 and will share further updates on its efforts to combat violent extremism on its platform in its next Transparency Report. The social media firms said they would work with smaller companies to help them tackle extremist content and organisations such as the Center for Strategic and International Studies to work on ways to counter online extremism and hate. All four companies have initiatives to counter online hate speech and will use the forum to improve their efforts and train civil society organisations engaged in similar work.

Social media giants step up joint fight against extremist content

Alphabet&#39;s Google will stop scanning Gmail content for creating personalised ads from later this year, bringing the widely-used email service in line with its enterprise offering, G Suite.

The decision was outlined in a blog post by Google cloud computing chief Diane Greene, who joined the company in 2015 and has been responsible for the rapid growth of Google&#39;s cloud business.

Google&#39;s practice of analysing incoming and outgoing emails of its free consumer Gmail users has been criticised on privacy concerns.

Google&#39;s G Suite business bundle have been gaining more enterprise users in the past year, with more than 3 million companies paying for the G Suite service, the company said.

Gmail has more than 1.2 billion users worldwide.

The decision has been outlined in a blog post by Google cloud computing chief Diane Greene

Alphabet's Google will stop scanning Gmail content for creating personalised ads from later this year, bringing the widely-used email service in line with its enterprise offering, G Suite. The decision was outlined in a blog post by Google cloud computing chief Diane Greene, who joined the company in 2015 and has been responsible for the rapid growth of Google's cloud business. Google's practice of analysing incoming and outgoing emails of its free consumer Gmail users has been criticised on privacy concerns. Google's G Suite business bundle have been gaining more enterprise users in the past year, with more than 3 million companies paying for the G Suite service, the company said. Gmail has more than 1.2 billion users worldwide.

Now, Google will not scan your Gmail messages for creating targeted ads

&nbsp;Alphabet Inc&#39;s Google will implement more measures to identify and remove terrorist or violent extremist content on its video-sharing platform YouTube, the company said in a blog post on Sunday.

Google said it would take a tougher position on videos containing supremacist or inflammatory religious content by issuing a warning and not monetizing or recommending them for user endorsements, even if they do not clearly violate its policies.

The company will also employ more engineering resources and increase its use of technology to help identify extremist videos. &nbsp;It will also train new content classifiers to quickly identify and remove such content.

&quot;While we and others have worked for years to identify and remove content that violates our policies, the uncomfortable truth is that we, as an industry, must acknowledge that more needs to be done,&quot; said Google&#39;s general counsel Kent Walker.

Google will expand its collaboration with counter-extremist groups to identify content that may be used to radicalize and recruit extremists.

The company will also reach potential Islamic State recruits through targeted online advertising and redirect them towards anti-terrorist videos in a bid to change their minds about joining.

Germany, France and Britain, countries where civilians have been killed and wounded in bombings and shootings by Islamist militants in recent years, have pressed Facebook and other providers of social media such as Google and Twitter to do more to remove militant content and hate speech.

Facebook on Thursday offered additional insight on its efforts to remove terrorism content, a response to political pressure in Europe to militant groups using the social network for propaganda and recruiting.

Facebook has ramped up the use of artificial intelligence such as image matching and language understanding to identify and remove content quickly, the company said in a blog post.

Germany, France and Britain, countries where civilians have been killed and wounded in bombings and shootings by Islamist militants in recent years, have pressed Facebook and other providers of social media such as Google and Twitter to do more to remove militant content and hate speech

Alphabet Inc's Google will implement more measures to identify and remove terrorist or violent extremist content on its video-sharing platform YouTube, the company said in a blog post on Sunday. Google said it would take a tougher position on videos containing supremacist or inflammatory religious content by issuing a warning and not monetizing or recommending them for user endorsements, even if they do not clearly violate its policies. The company will also employ more engineering resources and increase its use of technology to help identify extremist videos. It will also train new content classifiers to quickly identify and remove such content. "While we and others have worked for years to identify and remove content that violates our policies, the uncomfortable truth is that we, as an industry, must acknowledge that more needs to be done," said Google's general counsel Kent Walker. Google will expand its collaboration with counter-extremist groups to identify content that may be used to radicalize and recruit extremists. The company will also reach potential Islamic State recruits through targeted online advertising and redirect them towards anti-terrorist videos in a bid to change their minds about joining. Germany, France and Britain, countries where civilians have been killed and wounded in bombings and shootings by Islamist militants in recent years, have pressed Facebook and other providers of social media such as Google and Twitter to do more to remove militant content and hate speech. Facebook on Thursday offered additional insight on its efforts to remove terrorism content, a response to political pressure in Europe to militant groups using the social network for propaganda and recruiting. Facebook has ramped up the use of artificial intelligence such as image matching and language understanding to identify and remove content quickly, the company said in a blog post.

Google to take measures to prevent terrorist content on youtube

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said on Monday that Amazon Prime Video would be available on Apple TV and other Apple devices starting later this year.

Apple has about 50 media partners that supply content to its Apple TV and on the television app on its popular iPhone. But Amazon&#39;s service, which includes hit shows like &quot;Transparent,&quot; has been a notable absence from Apple&#39;s hardware.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/science-tech/apple-debuts-homepod-speaker-to-take-on-amazon-google-16472">Also read: Apple debuts HomePod speaker to take on Amazon, Google</a>

CEO Tim Cook also used the Apple keynote to show off new iPad and Mac computer models, as well as provide glimpses at coming versions of the software powering the technology titan&#39;s devices.

Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi said the next Mac operating system will be named &quot;High Sierra&quot; in tribute to the California mountain range.

High Sierra features will include being able to stop unexpected videos from starting to play automatically when landing on web pages and &quot;intelligent tracking prevention&quot; that will prevent ads from following people about the internet.

High Sierra will be released later this year as a free update, according to Federighi.

(WION with inputs from agencies)

&nbsp;

Apple has about 50 media partners that supply content to its Apple TV and on the television app on its popular iPhone.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said on Monday that Amazon Prime Video would be available on Apple TV and other Apple devices starting later this year. Apple has about 50 media partners that supply content to its Apple TV and on the television app on its popular iPhone. But Amazon's service, which includes hit shows like "Transparent," has been a notable absence from Apple's hardware. Also read: Apple debuts HomePod speaker to take on Amazon, Google CEO Tim Cook also used the Apple keynote to show off new iPad and Mac computer models, as well as provide glimpses at coming versions of the software powering the technology titan's devices. Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi said the next Mac operating system will be named "High Sierra" in tribute to the California mountain range. High Sierra features will include being able to stop unexpected videos from starting to play automatically when landing on web pages and "intelligent tracking prevention" that will prevent ads from following people about the internet. High Sierra will be released later this year as a free update, according to Federighi. (WION with inputs from agencies)

WWDC 2017: Amazon Prime Video coming to Apple devices

In the wake of the recent terror attack in London on Saturday night, British Prime Minister Theresa May issued a statement wherein she mentioned different ways that need to be adopted to counter terrorism. Emphasising on the need to overhaul strategies to combat extremism, May held tech companies partly responsible for providing extremists a &ldquo;safe space&rdquo; to grow.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/london-bridge-attack-facebook-twitter-aim-to-clean-terrorist-content-16431">Also </a><a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/london-bridge-attack-facebook-twitter-aim-to-clean-terrorist-content-16431">Read:</a><a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/london-bridge-attack-facebook-twitter-aim-to-clean-terrorist-content-16431">&nbsp;Facebook, Twitter aim to clean &#39;terrorist content&#39;</a>

&ldquo;We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed. Yet that is precisely what the internet, and the big companies that provide internet-based services provide,&rdquo; said May in a statement on the London Bridge terror attack.

It is true that extremist groups are using the web to recruit members, spread hate and extremist propaganda, send coded messages and coordinate attacks, but it wouldn&rsquo;t be right to condemn internet companies for the same as these companies, seemingly, are doing a fair job to take down any content or accounts that are involved in terrorist activities and/or encourage support for terrorism.

Facebook, for instance, has been using a mix of tech and humans to prevent the spread of extremist content on the website. &quot;Using a combination of technology and human review, we work aggressively to remove terrorist content from our platform as soon as we become aware of it,&rdquo; said Simon Milner, director of policy at Facebook in an emailed statement.

&ldquo;And if we become aware of an emergency involving imminent harm to someone&#39;s safety, we notify law enforcement,&rdquo; added Milner.

Twitter, on the other hand, <a href="https://transparency.twitter.com/en/gov-tos-reports.html">suspended a total of 3,76,890 accounts</a> for promoting terrorism between July-Dec 2016. According to the company, 3/4th of the accounts taken down were discovered with the help of Twitter&#39;s internal, proprietary spam-fighting tools, while only the two per cent of those were suspended in the reported time after government requests.

Not only Facebook and Twitter, Google has also been playing an active role to fight terrorism on its multiple platforms. For instance, YouTube doesn&rsquo;t encourage the spread of hateful content and immediately removes any content that aims to incite violence. Its software further prevents the video from being reposted. In 2015 alone, YouTube removed 92 million videos for violation of its policies through a mix of user flagging and its own spam-detection technology. However, videos that were taken down for terrorism or hate speech violations happened to be 1 per cent of them.

In fact, companies including Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and YouTube last year joined hands to help curb extremist content online. They teamed up to create a shared industry database of unique digital fingerprints for images and videos that support extremist organisations. Those digital fingerprints come to the companies&#39; help for identifying extremist content so that it can be easily removed.

Cyberspace regulation

Not only May held tech companies responsible for the growing extremism online, but she also expressed the need &ldquo;to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements that regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremist and terrorism planning.&quot; While it is believed that May&rsquo;s recent remark suggesting the need to regulate the internet and encryption could aggravate problems further.

Explaining why this wouldn&rsquo;t be a right move to opt for cyberspace regulation, privacy advocacy organisation <a href="https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2017/the-london-attacks">Open Rights Group said</a>, &ldquo;This could be a very risky approach. If successful, Theresa May could push these vile networks into even darker corners of the web, where they will be even harder to observe.&rdquo;

&ldquo;While governments and companies should take sensible measures to stop abuse, attempts to control the Internet is not the simple solution that Theresa May is claiming,&rdquo; added British non-profit.

The government, on the other hand, finds encrypted data to be of threat to national security. It has been long arguing that companies should provide investigators with the backdoor access to the encrypted information. But privacy advocates have been suggesting that by forcing tech companies to share encrypted data wouldn&rsquo;t protect national security.

Weakening encryption wouldn&rsquo;t guarantee people&rsquo;s safety, says cyber security expert Richard Forno. Terrorists in such cases may develop their own cyber channels, Forno hinted at a likely possibility. &quot;The bad guys are not constrained by the law. That&#39;s why they&#39;re bad guys,&rdquo; he added.

Also, building backdoor entries into encryption could make data, which include personal and confidential details, more prone to hacking.

No wonder, tech companies like Facebook and Google are behaving responsibly and putting in their efforts to prevent the spread of extremist content, without compromising on the user privacy, but the bigger question is that is it solely the tech companies&#39; job to police the internet?

Will the Internet censorship help curb the terrorism? We don&rsquo;t believe so.

(WION)

British Prime Minister Theresa May held tech companies partly responsible for providing extremists a ?safe space? to grow.

In the wake of the recent terror attack in London on Saturday night, British Prime Minister Theresa May issued a statement wherein she mentioned different ways that need to be adopted to counter terrorism. Emphasising on the need to overhaul strategies to combat extremism, May held tech companies partly responsible for providing extremists a “safe space” to grow. Also Read: Facebook, Twitter aim to clean 'terrorist content' “We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed. Yet that is precisely what the internet, and the big companies that provide internet-based services provide,” said May in a statement on the London Bridge terror attack. It is true that extremist groups are using the web to recruit members, spread hate and extremist propaganda, send coded messages and coordinate attacks, but it wouldn’t be right to condemn internet companies for the same as these companies, seemingly, are doing a fair job to take down any content or accounts that are involved in terrorist activities and/or encourage support for terrorism. Facebook, for instance, has been using a mix of tech and humans to prevent the spread of extremist content on the website. "Using a combination of technology and human review, we work aggressively to remove terrorist content from our platform as soon as we become aware of it,” said Simon Milner, director of policy at Facebook in an emailed statement. “And if we become aware of an emergency involving imminent harm to someone's safety, we notify law enforcement,” added Milner. Twitter, on the other hand, suspended a total of 3,76,890 accounts for promoting terrorism between July-Dec 2016. According to the company, 3/4th of the accounts taken down were discovered with the help of Twitter's internal, proprietary spam-fighting tools, while only the two per cent of those were suspended in the reported time after government requests. Not only Facebook and Twitter, Google has also been playing an active role to fight terrorism on its multiple platforms. For instance, YouTube doesn’t encourage the spread of hateful content and immediately removes any content that aims to incite violence. Its software further prevents the video from being reposted. In 2015 alone, YouTube removed 92 million videos for violation of its policies through a mix of user flagging and its own spam-detection technology. However, videos that were taken down for terrorism or hate speech violations happened to be 1 per cent of them. In fact, companies including Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and YouTube last year joined hands to help curb extremist content online. They teamed up to create a shared industry database of unique digital fingerprints for images and videos that support extremist organisations. Those digital fingerprints come to the companies' help for identifying extremist content so that it can be easily removed. Cyberspace regulation Not only May held tech companies responsible for the growing extremism online, but she also expressed the need “to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements that regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremist and terrorism planning." While it is believed that May’s recent remark suggesting the need to regulate the internet and encryption could aggravate problems further. Explaining why this wouldn’t be a right move to opt for cyberspace regulation, privacy advocacy organisation Open Rights Group said, “This could be a very risky approach. If successful, Theresa May could push these vile networks into even darker corners of the web, where they will be even harder to observe.” “While governments and companies should take sensible measures to stop abuse, attempts to control the Internet is not the simple solution that Theresa May is claiming,” added British non-profit. The government, on the other hand, finds encrypted data to be of threat to national security. It has been long arguing that companies should provide investigators with the backdoor access to the encrypted information. But privacy advocates have been suggesting that by forcing tech companies to share encrypted data wouldn’t protect national security. Weakening encryption wouldn’t guarantee people’s safety, says cyber security expert Richard Forno. Terrorists in such cases may develop their own cyber channels, Forno hinted at a likely possibility. "The bad guys are not constrained by the law. That's why they're bad guys,” he added. Also, building backdoor entries into encryption could make data, which include personal and confidential details, more prone to hacking. No wonder, tech companies like Facebook and Google are behaving responsibly and putting in their efforts to prevent the spread of extremist content, without compromising on the user privacy, but the bigger question is that is it solely the tech companies' job to police the internet? Will the Internet censorship help curb the terrorism? We don’t believe so. (WION)

Terrorism on web: Why it's not fair to condemn tech companies and regulate cyberspace

Aiming to make search more personalised, Google has added a &ldquo;Personal&rdquo; tab to its search results page. Clicking on this tab allows users to search through their Google account, which includes data from Gmail as well as Google Photos.

The personalised search results also show information like recent purchases and flight details.

Twitter user Jessica Grammer was the first one to spot this tab. She also tweeted a screenshot of the new feature embedded in the search results page.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Anyone notice the &quot;personal&quot; SERP option in <a href="https://twitter.com/Google">@Google</a> yet? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SEO?src=hash">#SEO</a> cc <a href="https://twitter.com/rustybrick">@rustybrick</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/sengineland">@sengineland</a> <a href="https://t.co/F2NOXgVFcA">pic.twitter.com/F2NOXgVFcA</a>
&mdash; Jessica Grammer (@Jgrammer) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jgrammer/status/867861482318565376">May 25, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">&times;</a></div>

The &ldquo;Personal&rdquo; tab is visible to users only if they are signed into their Google accounts. The new filter can be accessed by clicking the &ldquo;More&rdquo; tab.

The feature is not currently rolled out for everyone. It appears that Google plans to make it available to users in a phased-manner.

We, however, are yet to hear from Google on the same.

(WION)

Personalised search results show information like recent purchases and flight details

Aiming to make search more personalised, Google has added a “Personal” tab to its search results page. Clicking on this tab allows users to search through their Google account, which includes data from Gmail as well as Google Photos. The personalised search results also show information like recent purchases and flight details. Twitter user Jessica Grammer was the first one to spot this tab. She also tweeted a screenshot of the new feature embedded in the search results page. Anyone notice the "personal" SERP option in @Google yet? #SEO cc @rustybrick @sengineland pic.twitter.com/F2NOXgVFcA — Jessica Grammer (@Jgrammer) May 25, 2017 × The “Personal” tab is visible to users only if they are signed into their Google accounts. The new filter can be accessed by clicking the “More” tab. The feature is not currently rolled out for everyone. It appears that Google plans to make it available to users in a phased-manner. We, however, are yet to hear from Google on the same. (WION)

You can now search your personal data by running a Google search

Google is offering a four-month free subscription on its music streaming service Google Play Music for new subscribers, allowing users to scan up to 50,000 songs from their music library.

Typically, Google offers a 90-day free trial when a user signs up, but the offer has been extended by one month, reported The Verge.

Users can listen to custom radio stations on their computer or mobile device using Google Play Music service.

However, users who use the free service face ads on their app, unlike those subscribers who pay around $10.&nbsp;

Such users can also listen to over 35 million songs, download music to listen offline, and get access to YouTube Red.

Though Google has offered similar deals in the past, it was not clear how long the deal would remain active.

(IANS)

Google offers a 90-day free trial when a user signs up for its music service, but the offer has now been extended by one month

Google is offering a four-month free subscription on its music streaming service Google Play Music for new subscribers, allowing users to scan up to 50,000 songs from their music library. Typically, Google offers a 90-day free trial when a user signs up, but the offer has been extended by one month, reported The Verge. Users can listen to custom radio stations on their computer or mobile device using Google Play Music service. However, users who use the free service face ads on their app, unlike those subscribers who pay around $10. Such users can also listen to over 35 million songs, download music to listen offline, and get access to YouTube Red. Though Google has offered similar deals in the past, it was not clear how long the deal would remain active. (IANS)

Google Play Music now offers free subscription for four months

Almost 36.5 million Android devices have been affected with a new malware dubbed &lsquo;Judy&rsquo;. It has been found in 41 apps on the Google Play Store, and uses infected devices to generate fraudulent clicks on advertisements, generating revenues for the perpetrators behind it.

According to Check Point, some of the apps discovered resided on Google Play for several years, but all were recently updated. It is unclear how long the malicious code existed inside the apps, hence the actual spread of the malware remains unknown. The security firm also stated that the malicious apps reached an astonishing spread between 4.5 million and 18.5 million downloads.

Similar to previous malware which infiltrated Google Play, such as FalseGuide and Skinner, Judy reportedly relies on the communication with its Command and Control server (C&amp;C) for its operation. After the firm alerted Google, the apps were removed from the Play store.

How does the &#39;Judy&#39; malware work?

To bypass Bouncer, Google Play&rsquo;s protection, the hackers create a seemingly benign bridgehead app, meant to establish connection to the victim&rsquo;s device, and insert it into the app store. Once a user downloads a malicious app, it silently registers receivers which establish a connection with the C&amp;C server.

The server replies with the actual malicious payload, which includes JavaScript code, a user-agent string and URLs controlled by the malware author.

The malware opens the URLs using the user agent that imitates a PC browser in a hidden webpage and receives a redirection to another website. Once the targeted website is launched, the malware uses the JavaScript code to locate and click on banners from the Google ads infrastructure. Upon clicking the ads, the malware author receives payment from the website developer, which pays for the illegitimate clicks and traffic.

Who is behind the &#39;Judy&#39; malware?

CheckPoint stated that the malicious apps are all developed by a Korean company named Kiniwini, registered on Google Play as ENISTUDIO corp. The company develops mobile apps for both Android and iOS platforms. It is quite unusual to find an actual organization behind mobile malware, as most of them are developed by purely malicious actors. It is important to note that the activity conducted by the malware is not borderline advertising, but definitely an illegitimate use of the users&rsquo; mobile devices for generating fraudulent clicks, benefiting the attackers.

A list of malicious apps released by Check Point:

Fashion Judy: Snow Queen style

Animal Judy: Persian cat care

Fashion Judy: Pretty rapper

Fashion Judy: Teacher style

Animal Judy: Dragon care

Chef Judy: Halloween Cookies 
 
Fashion Judy: Wedding Party 
 
Animal Judy: Teddy Bear care 
 
Fashion Judy: Bunny Girl Style 
 
Fashion Judy: Frozen Princess 
 
Chef Judy: Triangular Kimbap 
 
Chef Judy: Udong Maker &ndash; Cook 
 
Fashion Judy: Uniform style 
 
Animal Judy: Rabbit care 
 
Fashion Judy: Vampire style 
 
Animal Judy: Nine-Tailed Fox 
 
Chef Judy: Jelly Maker &ndash; Cook 
 
Chef Judy: Chicken Maker 
 
Animal Judy: Sea otter care 
 
Animal Judy: Elephant care 
 
Judy&rsquo;s Happy House 
 
Chef Judy: Hotdog Maker &ndash; Cook 
 
Chef Judy: Birthday Food Maker 
 
Fashion Judy: Wedding day 
 
Fashion Judy: Waitress style 
 
Chef Judy: Character Lunch 
 
Chef Judy: Picnic Lunch Maker 
 
Animal Judy: Rudolph care 
 
Judy&rsquo;s Hospital: Pediatrics 
 
Fashion Judy: Country style 
 
Animal Judy: Feral Cat care 
 
Fashion Judy: Twice Style 
 
Fashion Judy: Myth Style 
 
Animal Judy: Fennec Fox care 
 
Animal Judy: Dog care 
 
Fashion Judy: Couple Style 
 
Animal Judy: Cat care 
 
Fashion Judy: Halloween style 
 
Fashion Judy: EXO Style 
 
Chef Judy: Dalgona Maker 
 
Chef Judy: ServiceStation Food 
 
Judy&rsquo;s Spa Salon

Infected devices are used to generate fraudulent clicks on advertisements, generating revenues for the perpetrators behind it

Almost 36.5 million Android devices have been affected with a new malware dubbed ‘Judy’. It has been found in 41 apps on the Google Play Store, and uses infected devices to generate fraudulent clicks on advertisements, generating revenues for the perpetrators behind it. According to Check Point, some of the apps discovered resided on Google Play for several years, but all were recently updated. It is unclear how long the malicious code existed inside the apps, hence the actual spread of the malware remains unknown. The security firm also stated that the malicious apps reached an astonishing spread between 4.5 million and 18.5 million downloads. Similar to previous malware which infiltrated Google Play, such as FalseGuide and Skinner, Judy reportedly relies on the communication with its Command and Control server (C&C) for its operation. After the firm alerted Google, the apps were removed from the Play store. How does the 'Judy' malware work? To bypass Bouncer, Google Play’s protection, the hackers create a seemingly benign bridgehead app, meant to establish connection to the victim’s device, and insert it into the app store. Once a user downloads a malicious app, it silently registers receivers which establish a connection with the C&C server. The server replies with the actual malicious payload, which includes JavaScript code, a user-agent string and URLs controlled by the malware author. The malware opens the URLs using the user agent that imitates a PC browser in a hidden webpage and receives a redirection to another website. Once the targeted website is launched, the malware uses the JavaScript code to locate and click on banners from the Google ads infrastructure. Upon clicking the ads, the malware author receives payment from the website developer, which pays for the illegitimate clicks and traffic. Who is behind the 'Judy' malware? CheckPoint stated that the malicious apps are all developed by a Korean company named Kiniwini, registered on Google Play as ENISTUDIO corp. The company develops mobile apps for both Android and iOS platforms. It is quite unusual to find an actual organization behind mobile malware, as most of them are developed by purely malicious actors. It is important to note that the activity conducted by the malware is not borderline advertising, but definitely an illegitimate use of the users’ mobile devices for generating fraudulent clicks, benefiting the attackers. A list of malicious apps released by Check Point: Fashion Judy: Snow Queen style Animal Judy: Persian cat care Fashion Judy: Pretty rapper Fashion Judy: Teacher style Animal Judy: Dragon care Chef Judy: Halloween Cookies Fashion Judy: Wedding Party Animal Judy: Teddy Bear care Fashion Judy: Bunny Girl Style Fashion Judy: Frozen Princess Chef Judy: Triangular Kimbap Chef Judy: Udong Maker – Cook Fashion Judy: Uniform style Animal Judy: Rabbit care Fashion Judy: Vampire style Animal Judy: Nine-Tailed Fox Chef Judy: Jelly Maker – Cook Chef Judy: Chicken Maker Animal Judy: Sea otter care Animal Judy: Elephant care Judy’s Happy House Chef Judy: Hotdog Maker – Cook Chef Judy: Birthday Food Maker Fashion Judy: Wedding day Fashion Judy: Waitress style Chef Judy: Character Lunch Chef Judy: Picnic Lunch Maker Animal Judy: Rudolph care Judy’s Hospital: Pediatrics Fashion Judy: Country style Animal Judy: Feral Cat care Fashion Judy: Twice Style Fashion Judy: Myth Style Animal Judy: Fennec Fox care Animal Judy: Dog care Fashion Judy: Couple Style Animal Judy: Cat care Fashion Judy: Halloween style Fashion Judy: EXO Style Chef Judy: Dalgona Maker Chef Judy: ServiceStation Food Judy’s Spa Salon

Beware! 'Judy' malware infects 36.5 million Android devices

Google is testing a way to tie online ads to brick-and-mortar store purchases, a move whetting marketing appetites while fueling privacy worries.

A product called &quot;Google Attribution&quot; was unveiled at a marketing conference this month in San Francisco by the internet giant. Google has long been able to determine when users click on an ads and make a purchase, but linking online and offline habits takes its analytics a step further.

Google senior vice president Sridhar Ramaswamy, who announced that Attribution is in test mode with a limited number of partners and will be rolled out to more advertisers in coming weeks, touted the tool as being able to answer the long-challenging question of whether marketing campaigns are working.

&quot;Google Attribution makes it possible for every marketer to measure the impact of their marketing across devices and across channels,&quot; Ramaswamy said.

&quot;Data-driven attribution uses machine learning to determine how much credit to assign to each step in the consumer journey -- from the first time they engage with your brand for early research down to the final click before purchase.&quot;

Real-world customer email addresses or loyalty plan information can be woven with Google data from services such as AdWords, Google Analytics and DoubleClick Search to provide &quot;a complete view&quot; of marketing performance, according to the company.

Using artificial intelligence, or machine learning, to better analyse and understand consumer behavior to target ads and promote sales was a major theme of the conference.

&nbsp;

Ad &#39;holy grail&#39;&nbsp;

For several years now, AdWords has enabled advertisers to measure visits to real-world stores stemming from online campaigns, Ramaswamy noted. &quot;Still, measuring store visits is just one part of the equation,&quot; Ramaswamy said. &quot;You also need insights into how your online ads drive sales for your business.&quot;

Real-world transactions matched back to Google ads are handed in &quot;a secure and privacy-safe way,&quot; with store sales information reported in aggregated and anonymised forms to protect individual privacy, according to the company.

Tying online activity to offline shopping decisions has been a &quot;holy grail&quot; for advertisers for quite some time, and comes with worrisome privacy implications, according to ACLU senior policy analyst Jay Stanley.

Attribution threatens to intrude on a core tenant of privacy, that people can have dealings with one party not spill over into affairs with other parties they interact with, Stanley contended.

&quot;This is an evolution, not a revolution; another step toward increased monitoring of individuals,&quot; Stanley said.

&quot;Each step raises the question &#39;Where does this all stop?&#39;&quot;

Stanley expected Google to be on its best behavior when it came to handling the growing trove of information about users, but that even the best of intentions could crack under the &quot;enormous hydraulic pressure of the profit motive&quot;.

&quot;We have the full fury and genius of the capitalist system being driven toward monitoring people in ever increasing detail and companies are competing to do so,&quot; Stanley said

&quot;It will not stop without some sort of rules in which we as a society express our values through legal protections.&quot;

&nbsp;

More tempting ads?

Google and Facebook dominate the online ad world, and what one does to prove its worth to advertisers is likely to be copied by the other, according to Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group.

Attribution promised to give Google a way to assure advertisers they are getting their money&#39;s worth at the firm&#39;s online venues.

&quot;The big problem is that showing conversion from ad consumption to purchase has been horrible,&quot; Enderle said of online marketing. &quot;This has been a problem for a long time. Google is trying to make a metric so they get credit for it when you do purchase after viewing an ad.&quot;

Data showing which ads are translating into real sales should mean that the relevance of ads people see online will improve as marketers abandon mis-aimed or ineffectively tailored messages, the analyst reasoned.

&quot;You are going to be hit with ads for things that you might actually want to buy, so you are going to spend a lot more money,&quot; Enderle predicted.

Worries about privacy sparked by linking offline and online activities are a decade or so late, because the time to protest was when collection began of the troves of data about people, the analyst argued.

&quot;There really is no downside to this application,&quot; Enderle said while discussing Google&#39;s marketing metrics move.

&quot;This is the good side of collecting data; it is what else is being done with the data that should be unnerving and that we really don&#39;t know.&quot;

(AFP)

Google's Sr VP touted the tool as being able to answer the long-challenging question of whether marketing campaigns are working

Google is testing a way to tie online ads to brick-and-mortar store purchases, a move whetting marketing appetites while fueling privacy worries. A product called "Google Attribution" was unveiled at a marketing conference this month in San Francisco by the internet giant. Google has long been able to determine when users click on an ads and make a purchase, but linking online and offline habits takes its analytics a step further. Google senior vice president Sridhar Ramaswamy, who announced that Attribution is in test mode with a limited number of partners and will be rolled out to more advertisers in coming weeks, touted the tool as being able to answer the long-challenging question of whether marketing campaigns are working. "Google Attribution makes it possible for every marketer to measure the impact of their marketing across devices and across channels," Ramaswamy said. "Data-driven attribution uses machine learning to determine how much credit to assign to each step in the consumer journey -- from the first time they engage with your brand for early research down to the final click before purchase." Real-world customer email addresses or loyalty plan information can be woven with Google data from services such as AdWords, Google Analytics and DoubleClick Search to provide "a complete view" of marketing performance, according to the company. Using artificial intelligence, or machine learning, to better analyse and understand consumer behavior to target ads and promote sales was a major theme of the conference. Ad 'holy grail' For several years now, AdWords has enabled advertisers to measure visits to real-world stores stemming from online campaigns, Ramaswamy noted. "Still, measuring store visits is just one part of the equation," Ramaswamy said. "You also need insights into how your online ads drive sales for your business." Real-world transactions matched back to Google ads are handed in "a secure and privacy-safe way," with store sales information reported in aggregated and anonymised forms to protect individual privacy, according to the company. Tying online activity to offline shopping decisions has been a "holy grail" for advertisers for quite some time, and comes with worrisome privacy implications, according to ACLU senior policy analyst Jay Stanley. Attribution threatens to intrude on a core tenant of privacy, that people can have dealings with one party not spill over into affairs with other parties they interact with, Stanley contended. "This is an evolution, not a revolution; another step toward increased monitoring of individuals," Stanley said. "Each step raises the question 'Where does this all stop?'" Stanley expected Google to be on its best behavior when it came to handling the growing trove of information about users, but that even the best of intentions could crack under the "enormous hydraulic pressure of the profit motive". "We have the full fury and genius of the capitalist system being driven toward monitoring people in ever increasing detail and companies are competing to do so," Stanley said "It will not stop without some sort of rules in which we as a society express our values through legal protections." More tempting ads? Google and Facebook dominate the online ad world, and what one does to prove its worth to advertisers is likely to be copied by the other, according to Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group. Attribution promised to give Google a way to assure advertisers they are getting their money's worth at the firm's online venues. "The big problem is that showing conversion from ad consumption to purchase has been horrible," Enderle said of online marketing. "This has been a problem for a long time. Google is trying to make a metric so they get credit for it when you do purchase after viewing an ad." Data showing which ads are translating into real sales should mean that the relevance of ads people see online will improve as marketers abandon mis-aimed or ineffectively tailored messages, the analyst reasoned. "You are going to be hit with ads for things that you might actually want to buy, so you are going to spend a lot more money," Enderle predicted. Worries about privacy sparked by linking offline and online activities are a decade or so late, because the time to protest was when collection began of the troves of data about people, the analyst argued. "There really is no downside to this application," Enderle said while discussing Google's marketing metrics move. "This is the good side of collecting data; it is what else is being done with the data that should be unnerving and that we really don't know." (AFP)

Google linking online and offline worlds in new ad challenge, fuelling privacy concerns

Alphabet Inc&rsquo;s Google announced on Wednesday it would make its digital assistant available on Apple Inc&rsquo;s iPhone, opening up the tool to a key high-end segment of the technology market.

Speaking at an annual developer conference in Mountain View, California, Google CEO Sundar Pichai touted the company&#39;s progress with the Google Assistant.

The Assistant debuted last year on Google&rsquo;s own hardware, and the company has gradually extended the tool to devices from other manufacturers running on its Android operating system.

Tech companies such as Apple, Google and Amazon are competing to establish the dominant voice-powered digital assistant, which many in the industry believe will supplant keyboards and touch screens as a primary way that users interact with technology.

(Reuters)

Google announced on Wednesday it would make its digital assistant available on Apple Inc?s iPhone, opening up the tool to a key high-end segment of the technology market

Alphabet Inc’s Google announced on Wednesday it would make its digital assistant available on Apple Inc’s iPhone, opening up the tool to a key high-end segment of the technology market. Speaking at an annual developer conference in Mountain View, California, Google CEO Sundar Pichai touted the company's progress with the Google Assistant. The Assistant debuted last year on Google’s own hardware, and the company has gradually extended the tool to devices from other manufacturers running on its Android operating system. Tech companies such as Apple, Google and Amazon are competing to establish the dominant voice-powered digital assistant, which many in the industry believe will supplant keyboards and touch screens as a primary way that users interact with technology. (Reuters)

Google opens up digital assistant to iPhone

President Donald Trump announced that he has signed an executive order creating a new technology council to &quot;transform and modernise&quot; the US government&#39;s information technology systems.

A White House official confirmed on Monday that about 20 technology chief executives will attend meetings at the White House in early June to talk about improving government information technology.

&quot;Americans deserve better digital services from their Government. To effectuate this policy, the federal government must transform and modernize its information technology and how it uses and delivers digital services,&quot; Trump&#39;s executive order dated April 28 said.

Trump has held a number of meetings with top tech chief executives since becoming president, including Apple, Facebook, Alphabet, IBM, Microsoft, and Tesla.

In March, Trump signed a separate order to overhaul the federal government. Trump tapped Jared Kushner in March to lead a White House Office of American Innovation to leverage business ideas and potentially privatise some government functions as the White House pushes to shrink government, cut federal employees and eliminate regulations.

Officially called the American Technology Council, Chris Liddell will be its director. He is the White House director of strategic initiatives, and former Microsoft and General Motors chief financial officer.

A 2016 US Government Accountability Office report publicly estimated the US government spends more than $80 billion in IT annually, but said spending has fallen by $7.3 billion since 2010. In 2015, there were at least 7,000 separate IT investments by the US government, the report said.

The $80 billion figure does not include Defense Department classified IT systems; and 58 independent executive branch agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the report said.

The GAO report said US government IT investments &quot;are becoming increasingly obsolete: many use outdated software languages and hardware parts that are unsupported.&quot;

The report found some agencies are using systems that have components that are at least 50 years old. &quot;The Department of Defense uses 8-inch floppy disks in a legacy system that coordinates the operational functions of the nation&rsquo;s nuclear forces,&quot; the report said.

The report said the Defense Department plans to update the system by the end of September.

The Treasury Department&#39;s business master file of tax data pertaining to individual business income taxpayers dates back to the 1950s and using an antiquated computer language &quot;and operates on an IBM mainframe.&quot;

The council is chaired by Trump and includes the defense secretary, homeland security secretary, budget director and director of national intelligence.

(Reuters)

About 20 technology chief executives will attend meetings at the White House in early June to talk about improving government information technology

President Donald Trump announced that he has signed an executive order creating a new technology council to "transform and modernise" the US government's information technology systems. A White House official confirmed on Monday that about 20 technology chief executives will attend meetings at the White House in early June to talk about improving government information technology. "Americans deserve better digital services from their Government. To effectuate this policy, the federal government must transform and modernize its information technology and how it uses and delivers digital services," Trump's executive order dated April 28 said. Trump has held a number of meetings with top tech chief executives since becoming president, including Apple, Facebook, Alphabet, IBM, Microsoft, and Tesla. In March, Trump signed a separate order to overhaul the federal government. Trump tapped Jared Kushner in March to lead a White House Office of American Innovation to leverage business ideas and potentially privatise some government functions as the White House pushes to shrink government, cut federal employees and eliminate regulations. Officially called the American Technology Council, Chris Liddell will be its director. He is the White House director of strategic initiatives, and former Microsoft and General Motors chief financial officer. A 2016 US Government Accountability Office report publicly estimated the US government spends more than $80 billion in IT annually, but said spending has fallen by $7.3 billion since 2010. In 2015, there were at least 7,000 separate IT investments by the US government, the report said. The $80 billion figure does not include Defense Department classified IT systems; and 58 independent executive branch agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the report said. The GAO report said US government IT investments "are becoming increasingly obsolete: many use outdated software languages and hardware parts that are unsupported." The report found some agencies are using systems that have components that are at least 50 years old. "The Department of Defense uses 8-inch floppy disks in a legacy system that coordinates the operational functions of the nation’s nuclear forces," the report said. The report said the Defense Department plans to update the system by the end of September. The Treasury Department's business master file of tax data pertaining to individual business income taxpayers dates back to the 1950s and using an antiquated computer language "and operates on an IBM mainframe." The council is chaired by Trump and includes the defense secretary, homeland security secretary, budget director and director of national intelligence. (Reuters)

Trump creating new tech group to ?transform and modernise? US govt

Commemorating the 88th birth anniversary of veteran Kannada actor Rajkumar, Google has posted a doodle on its India homepage. The doodle features Rajkumar&rsquo;s larger-than-life personality beaming at a crowd of moviegoers from the silver screen where his legacy lives on for generations of Indian audiences.

Beginning in 1954, the method actor&#39;s career spanned over 200 films and a wide swath of movie genres and roles, establishing Rajkumar as a dynamic and enduring presence in Kannada cinema.

According to the Google doodle team, &quot;Early drafts of today&#39;s doodle featured different interpretations of the beloved star&rsquo;s work. The first illustrates Rajkumar singing and holding the white bird from Kasturi Nivasa, a quintessential Kannada drama and a cornerstone of Rajkumar&rsquo;s cinematic legacy. Another Doodle draft showcases an array of iconic characters Rajkumar played over a half century of acting.&rdquo; But ultimately, the team decided to feature Rajkumar&rsquo;s larger-than-life personality.

Born on April 24, 1929, as Singanalluru Puttaswamayya Muthuraju, the legendary actor is a four-time National award winner, a recipient of the Padma Bhushan (in 1983) and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (in 1995) for the lifetime contribution to Indian Cinema.

He started his film career in 1954 in the film Bedara Kannapa and went on to star in over 220 movies, his last being Shabdavedhi in 2000.

In 2000, the Kannada icon had to face a bad phase, when he was kidnapped by sandalwood smuggler Veerappan and was held captive for 108 days. The actor died of cardiac arrest at his residence in Bangalore on April 12, 2006 at the age of 77.

(WION)

&nbsp;

The doodle features Rajkumar?s larger-than-life personality beaming at a crowd of moviegoers from the silver screen

Commemorating the 88th birth anniversary of veteran Kannada actor Rajkumar, Google has posted a doodle on its India homepage. The doodle features Rajkumar’s larger-than-life personality beaming at a crowd of moviegoers from the silver screen where his legacy lives on for generations of Indian audiences. Beginning in 1954, the method actor's career spanned over 200 films and a wide swath of movie genres and roles, establishing Rajkumar as a dynamic and enduring presence in Kannada cinema. According to the Google doodle team, "Early drafts of today's doodle featured different interpretations of the beloved star’s work. The first illustrates Rajkumar singing and holding the white bird from Kasturi Nivasa, a quintessential Kannada drama and a cornerstone of Rajkumar’s cinematic legacy. Another Doodle draft showcases an array of iconic characters Rajkumar played over a half century of acting.” But ultimately, the team decided to feature Rajkumar’s larger-than-life personality. Born on April 24, 1929, as Singanalluru Puttaswamayya Muthuraju, the legendary actor is a four-time National award winner, a recipient of the Padma Bhushan (in 1983) and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (in 1995) for the lifetime contribution to Indian Cinema. He started his film career in 1954 in the film Bedara Kannapa and went on to star in over 220 movies, his last being Shabdavedhi in 2000. In 2000, the Kannada icon had to face a bad phase, when he was kidnapped by sandalwood smuggler Veerappan and was held captive for 108 days. The actor died of cardiac arrest at his residence in Bangalore on April 12, 2006 at the age of 77. (WION)

Rajkumar's 88th birth anniversary: Google honours veteran Indian actor with doodle

A new Google Earth Virtual Reality (VR) feature allows users to visit any address in the world and fly over it in 3D with the help of a headset system, according to the company.

Using a new updated feature on Google Earth VR, people can choose their own destinations, as long as they know the address or name of the location.

&quot;People want to quickly find and revisit the places that mean the most to them, whether it is a childhood home or favourite vacation spot,&quot; Joanna Kim, a product manager at Google Earth VR said in a blog post.

Users can type an address or the name of a location, and visit it with a 3D headset system, Kim said.

Sightseers can also visit 27 handpicked locations that are now available on Google Earth VR, including Neuschwanstein Castle that inspired the castle in Disney&#39;s &quot;Sleeping Beauty&quot;, Table Mountain in South Africa and the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina.

&quot;When we first launched Google Earth VR, we knew there was something powerful about being able to point anywhere in the world and start flying,&quot; said Kim.

&quot;You could soar over landscapes and cities, and discover locations you did not even know existed,&quot; Kim added.

(PTI)&nbsp;

You can fly over it in 3D with the help of a headset system, the company says

A new Google Earth Virtual Reality (VR) feature allows users to visit any address in the world and fly over it in 3D with the help of a headset system, according to the company. Using a new updated feature on Google Earth VR, people can choose their own destinations, as long as they know the address or name of the location. "People want to quickly find and revisit the places that mean the most to them, whether it is a childhood home or favourite vacation spot," Joanna Kim, a product manager at Google Earth VR said in a blog post. Users can type an address or the name of a location, and visit it with a 3D headset system, Kim said. Sightseers can also visit 27 handpicked locations that are now available on Google Earth VR, including Neuschwanstein Castle that inspired the castle in Disney's "Sleeping Beauty", Table Mountain in South Africa and the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina. "When we first launched Google Earth VR, we knew there was something powerful about being able to point anywhere in the world and start flying," said Kim. "You could soar over landscapes and cities, and discover locations you did not even know existed," Kim added. (PTI)

New Google Earth Virtual Reality to take you to any address in world

Google on Tuesday launched a re-imagined version of its free Earth mapping service, weaving in storytelling and&nbsp;artificial intelligence.

&quot;This is our gift to the world,&quot; Google Earth director Rebecca Moore said while giving AFP an early look at the new version of the program that lets people range the planet from the comfort of their computers, smartphones or tablets.

&quot;It&#39;s a product that speaks to our deepest values around education and making information available to people.&quot;

A new &#39;Voyager&#39; feature enables people digitally exploring the planet to be guided on interactive stories told by experts, boasting partners including BBC Earth, NASA, Sesame Street, and the Jane Goodall Institute.

Google artificial intelligence will be put to work for Earth users in the form of &quot;knowledge cards&quot; that let them dive deeper into online information about mountains, countries, landmarks or other places being virtually visited.
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It will also make suggestions on other locations armchair explorers might be interested in exploring based on what they have searched in the past.

&quot;This is the first time we have done this deep integration with the Google Knowledge Graph,&quot; Earth engineering manager Sean Askay said.

&quot;Everything Google knows about the world, you can know about the world.&quot;

There is also a newly installed &quot;Feeling Lucky?&quot; feature for people who want to let the software suggest hidden gems such as Pemba Island off the Swahili coast or the Oodaira Hot Spring in Yamagata, Japan.

People can choose to fly around the world in Earth, using a 3D button to see the Grand Canyon, Chateau Loire Valley and other stunning spots from any angles they wish.

&quot;With the new Earth, we want to open up different lenses for you to see the world and learn a bit about how it all fits together; to open your mind with new stories while giving you a new perspective on the locations and experiences you cherish,&quot; Earth product manager Gopal Shah said in a blog post.

Online explorers cruising the mobile version of Earth can also capture pictures on their travels, sending friends digital postcards.

New Earth was launched on Google&#39;s Chrome and Android software, with versions tailored for Apple devices and other internet browsing software promised soon.

It&#39;s the first time that Earth can be reached on a web browser instead of through applications installed on devices. 
The move allows Google to tap into more powerful computing power at data centers in the internet &quot;cloud&quot; instead of relying on the capabilities of smartphones and other devices.

(AFP)

The brand-new version of Google Earth is available for both Android and the web

Google on Tuesday launched a re-imagined version of its free Earth mapping service, weaving in storytelling and artificial intelligence. "This is our gift to the world," Google Earth director Rebecca Moore said while giving AFP an early look at the new version of the program that lets people range the planet from the comfort of their computers, smartphones or tablets. "It's a product that speaks to our deepest values around education and making information available to people." A new 'Voyager' feature enables people digitally exploring the planet to be guided on interactive stories told by experts, boasting partners including BBC Earth, NASA, Sesame Street, and the Jane Goodall Institute. Google artificial intelligence will be put to work for Earth users in the form of "knowledge cards" that let them dive deeper into online information about mountains, countries, landmarks or other places being virtually visited. It will also make suggestions on other locations armchair explorers might be interested in exploring based on what they have searched in the past. "This is the first time we have done this deep integration with the Google Knowledge Graph," Earth engineering manager Sean Askay said. "Everything Google knows about the world, you can know about the world." There is also a newly installed "Feeling Lucky?" feature for people who want to let the software suggest hidden gems such as Pemba Island off the Swahili coast or the Oodaira Hot Spring in Yamagata, Japan. People can choose to fly around the world in Earth, using a 3D button to see the Grand Canyon, Chateau Loire Valley and other stunning spots from any angles they wish. "With the new Earth, we want to open up different lenses for you to see the world and learn a bit about how it all fits together; to open your mind with new stories while giving you a new perspective on the locations and experiences you cherish," Earth product manager Gopal Shah said in a blog post. Online explorers cruising the mobile version of Earth can also capture pictures on their travels, sending friends digital postcards. New Earth was launched on Google's Chrome and Android software, with versions tailored for Apple devices and other internet browsing software promised soon. It's the first time that Earth can be reached on a web browser instead of through applications installed on devices. The move allows Google to tap into more powerful computing power at data centers in the internet "cloud" instead of relying on the capabilities of smartphones and other devices. (AFP)

Redesigned Google Earth introduced: A look at what's new in the free mapping service

Google has offered to invest at least 1 trillion won ($880.29 million) to help South Korea&#39;s LG Display boost output of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens for smartphones, the Electronic Times reported on Monday citing unnamed sources.

The paper said Google offered the investment to secure a stable supply of flexible OLED screens for its next Pixel smartphones.

Samsung Electronics&rsquo; flagship Galaxy smartphones use the bendable displays, while Apple is expected to start using them in at least some of its next iPhones.

LG Display declined to comment, while Google could not be immediately reached for comment.

(Reuters)

&nbsp;

Google, reportedly, has offered the investment to secure a stable supply of flexible OLED screens for its next Pixel smartphones

Google has offered to invest at least 1 trillion won ($880.29 million) to help South Korea's LG Display boost output of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens for smartphones, the Electronic Times reported on Monday citing unnamed sources. The paper said Google offered the investment to secure a stable supply of flexible OLED screens for its next Pixel smartphones. Samsung Electronics’ flagship Galaxy smartphones use the bendable displays, while Apple is expected to start using them in at least some of its next iPhones. LG Display declined to comment, while Google could not be immediately reached for comment. (Reuters)

Google offers around $880 million to LG Display: Report

Government investigators looking into how Google pays its employees have accused the tech giant of shortchanging women doing similar work to men.

A US Department of Labour official disclosed the agency&#39;s allegations during a Friday court hearing in San Francisco. 
&quot;We found systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce,&quot; Janette Wipper, a Labour Department regional director, testified, according to a report published by The Guardian.

Google said it vehemently disagreed with the charges, which the Mountain View, California, company said it hadn&#39;t heard until Wipper&#39;s court appearance.

&quot;Every year, we do a comprehensive and robust analysis of pay across genders and we have found no gender pay gap,&quot; Google said in its statement.

Google and other technology companies have been trying to improve hiring practices that have historically doled out most of their technical jobs to white and Asian men. Their efforts to strike a better balance have been mostly unsuccessful so far.

For instance, only 19 per cent of Google&#39;s technology jobs are held by women. Overall, nearly one-third of Google&#39;s more than 70,000 workers are women.

The Labour Department&#39;s probe evolved from a lawsuit filed in January seeking to bar Google doing business with the federal government unless the company complied with an audit of its employee-compensation records. Google has said it has turned over some of the requested records, but withheld other information that it believes would invade its workers&#39; privacy.

While Google and its peers have been disclosing embarrassing sexual and racial imbalances in their workforces for the past few years, the technology industry so far has kept its compensation practices a closely guarded secret. 
The Labour Department is now scrutinising Silicon Valley for patterns of pay and hiring discrimination under its powers to vet companies that bid for lucrative government contracts.

Earlier this year, the Labour Department also sued Oracle, alleging that the business software maker routinely pays white male workers more than their female and non-white counterparts for comparable jobs.

(PTI)

Only 19 per cent of Google's technology jobs are held by women

Government investigators looking into how Google pays its employees have accused the tech giant of shortchanging women doing similar work to men. A US Department of Labour official disclosed the agency's allegations during a Friday court hearing in San Francisco. "We found systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce," Janette Wipper, a Labour Department regional director, testified, according to a report published by The Guardian. Google said it vehemently disagreed with the charges, which the Mountain View, California, company said it hadn't heard until Wipper's court appearance. "Every year, we do a comprehensive and robust analysis of pay across genders and we have found no gender pay gap," Google said in its statement. Google and other technology companies have been trying to improve hiring practices that have historically doled out most of their technical jobs to white and Asian men. Their efforts to strike a better balance have been mostly unsuccessful so far. For instance, only 19 per cent of Google's technology jobs are held by women. Overall, nearly one-third of Google's more than 70,000 workers are women. The Labour Department's probe evolved from a lawsuit filed in January seeking to bar Google doing business with the federal government unless the company complied with an audit of its employee-compensation records. Google has said it has turned over some of the requested records, but withheld other information that it believes would invade its workers' privacy. While Google and its peers have been disclosing embarrassing sexual and racial imbalances in their workforces for the past few years, the technology industry so far has kept its compensation practices a closely guarded secret. The Labour Department is now scrutinising Silicon Valley for patterns of pay and hiring discrimination under its powers to vet companies that bid for lucrative government contracts. Earlier this year, the Labour Department also sued Oracle, alleging that the business software maker routinely pays white male workers more than their female and non-white counterparts for comparable jobs. (PTI)

Google accused of underpaying female workers

Facebook has added a feature to its Messenger app that allows users to share their locations continuously for up to an hour, ramping up competition with tools offered by Apple and Alphabet&#39;s Google Maps.

The company has found that one of the most-used phrases on Messenger as people talk to friends and family is &quot;How far away are you?&quot; or some variation, Stan Chudnovsky, head of product for Messenger, said in an interview.

&quot;It happens to be what people are saying, what they&#39;re interested in the most,&quot; he said.

Sharing location information is optional, but it can also be live, so that once a user shares the information with a friend, the friend can watch the user&#39;s movement for up to 60 minutes.

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Messenger was once part of the core Facebook smartphone app, but the company broke it out as a separate app in 2014 and has since invested in frequent changes to build a service distinct from the massive social network.

Google Maps said last week that it was adding a similar live feature, an attempt to boost engagement on a product of increasing strategic importance to that company.

The close proximity of the announcements tells Facebook &quot;that we&#39;re working on the right things,&quot; Chudnovsky said. The Messages app on Apple&#39;s iPhone has such a feature, too.

Facebook has been testing its change in Mexico, he said. It was ready as long ago as October, he added, but the company worked on it for five more months to minimize the impact on the battery life of phones.

Facebook sees the feature being used for convenience to coordinate with friends, for safety-related purposes or for other uses, Chudnovsky said. &quot;There are all sorts of products that you can imagine you could build on top of that,&quot; he said.

The update is being made available globally, the company said.

(Reuters)

Users will be able to see where you are on a map for the next 60 minutes

Facebook has added a feature to its Messenger app that allows users to share their locations continuously for up to an hour, ramping up competition with tools offered by Apple and Alphabet's Google Maps. The company has found that one of the most-used phrases on Messenger as people talk to friends and family is "How far away are you?" or some variation, Stan Chudnovsky, head of product for Messenger, said in an interview. "It happens to be what people are saying, what they're interested in the most," he said. Sharing location information is optional, but it can also be live, so that once a user shares the information with a friend, the friend can watch the user's movement for up to 60 minutes. Messenger was once part of the core Facebook smartphone app, but the company broke it out as a separate app in 2014 and has since invested in frequent changes to build a service distinct from the massive social network. Google Maps said last week that it was adding a similar live feature, an attempt to boost engagement on a product of increasing strategic importance to that company. The close proximity of the announcements tells Facebook "that we're working on the right things," Chudnovsky said. The Messages app on Apple's iPhone has such a feature, too. Facebook has been testing its change in Mexico, he said. It was ready as long ago as October, he added, but the company worked on it for five more months to minimize the impact on the battery life of phones. Facebook sees the feature being used for convenience to coordinate with friends, for safety-related purposes or for other uses, Chudnovsky said. "There are all sorts of products that you can imagine you could build on top of that," he said. The update is being made available globally, the company said. (Reuters)

Facebook adds real-time location sharing to Messenger

US wireless carriers Verizon Communications and AT&amp;T said they have suspended digital advertising on Google&#39;s YouTube and other advertising platforms not related to search over concerns that their ads may have run next to extremist videos.

Verizon and AT&amp;T joined a list of well-known British brands such as retailer Marks and Spencer Group deserting Alphabet&#39;s Google. Google is under fire in Europe from politicians and brands angered by ads appearing alongside videos on its YouTube platform carrying homophobic or anti-Semitic messages.

Google on Tuesday vowed an overhaul of its practices. The company must act swiftly to ensure that more advertisers do not pile on, analysts say.

As advertisers revolt, the search giant faces both a short-term loss of revenue and a long-term danger that companies will lose faith in the automated placement of ads upon which Google has built its empire, said analyst Jan Dawson of Jackdaw Research.

&quot;The bigger risk is this seems to be a backlash against programmatic advertising in general,&quot; Dawson said. &quot;There&#39;s this worry that you no longer have control over where ads appear.&quot;

AT&amp;T is removing ads from the non-search inventory on Google because its &quot;ads may have appeared alongside YouTube content promoting terrorism and hate,&quot; the company wrote in an email.

Verizon said it had suspended all digital advertising not related to search after saying earlier on Wednesday that it had only suspended advertising on Google&#39;s non-search platforms. It took the action after its ads were appearing on &quot;non-sanctioned websites,&quot; a spokeswoman wrote in an email.

&quot;We are working with all of our digital advertising partners to understand the weak links so we can prevent this from happening in the future,&quot; the spokeswoman said.

Google declined to comment on individual customers but said it has begun a review of its advertising policies. The news that AT&amp;T and Verizon were suspending Google ads was first reported by Britain&#39;s Times newspaper.

Other big brands, such as Mondelez International Inc , were keeping an eye on the situation. While Mondelez has not seen evidence that its ads have appeared alongside inappropriate content, it is in &ldquo;constant discussion with both Google and YouTube and will be monitoring the issue closely,&rdquo; a spokeswoman said.

YouTube has been a key driver of growth for Google as its traditional business of search advertising matures. Google&rsquo;s net ad revenue worldwide from YouTube was $5.58 billion last year, according to New York-based research firm eMarketer. It is expected to hit $7 billion in 2017, according to a forecast by eMarketer made before the recent controversy.

One question many people are asking is whether advertisers will reallocate the marketing dollars they have devoted to YouTube to other platforms, said Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research. Wieser, however, thinks that if the boycott is widespread enough, no one else will benefit.

&ldquo;If you know all of your competitors are reducing their spending too, then you don&rsquo;t need to spend more,&rdquo; he said. 
Google must walk a fine line between giving advertisers more control and alienating the massive community of content creators who have made the site a top destination for coveted young viewers. 
 
One likely path forward for Google is to tighten controls on which videos are eligible for advertising, perhaps by the channel&#39;s track record or number of viewers, said Dawson. But any such restrictions risk hurting artists with small followings.

&quot;Google is caught between a rock and a hard place here between its creators and its advertisers,&quot; Dawson said.

(Reuters)

Google is under fire for showing ads of different brands alongside YouTube videos carrying homophobic or anti-semitic messages

US wireless carriers Verizon Communications and AT&T said they have suspended digital advertising on Google's YouTube and other advertising platforms not related to search over concerns that their ads may have run next to extremist videos. Verizon and AT&T joined a list of well-known British brands such as retailer Marks and Spencer Group deserting Alphabet's Google. Google is under fire in Europe from politicians and brands angered by ads appearing alongside videos on its YouTube platform carrying homophobic or anti-Semitic messages. Google on Tuesday vowed an overhaul of its practices. The company must act swiftly to ensure that more advertisers do not pile on, analysts say. As advertisers revolt, the search giant faces both a short-term loss of revenue and a long-term danger that companies will lose faith in the automated placement of ads upon which Google has built its empire, said analyst Jan Dawson of Jackdaw Research. "The bigger risk is this seems to be a backlash against programmatic advertising in general," Dawson said. "There's this worry that you no longer have control over where ads appear." AT&T is removing ads from the non-search inventory on Google because its "ads may have appeared alongside YouTube content promoting terrorism and hate," the company wrote in an email. Verizon said it had suspended all digital advertising not related to search after saying earlier on Wednesday that it had only suspended advertising on Google's non-search platforms. It took the action after its ads were appearing on "non-sanctioned websites," a spokeswoman wrote in an email. "We are working with all of our digital advertising partners to understand the weak links so we can prevent this from happening in the future," the spokeswoman said. Google declined to comment on individual customers but said it has begun a review of its advertising policies. The news that AT&T and Verizon were suspending Google ads was first reported by Britain's Times newspaper. Other big brands, such as Mondelez International Inc , were keeping an eye on the situation. While Mondelez has not seen evidence that its ads have appeared alongside inappropriate content, it is in “constant discussion with both Google and YouTube and will be monitoring the issue closely,” a spokeswoman said. YouTube has been a key driver of growth for Google as its traditional business of search advertising matures. Google’s net ad revenue worldwide from YouTube was $5.58 billion last year, according to New York-based research firm eMarketer. It is expected to hit $7 billion in 2017, according to a forecast by eMarketer made before the recent controversy. One question many people are asking is whether advertisers will reallocate the marketing dollars they have devoted to YouTube to other platforms, said Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research. Wieser, however, thinks that if the boycott is widespread enough, no one else will benefit. “If you know all of your competitors are reducing their spending too, then you don’t need to spend more,” he said. Google must walk a fine line between giving advertisers more control and alienating the massive community of content creators who have made the site a top destination for coveted young viewers. One likely path forward for Google is to tighten controls on which videos are eligible for advertising, perhaps by the channel's track record or number of viewers, said Dawson. But any such restrictions risk hurting artists with small followings. "Google is caught between a rock and a hard place here between its creators and its advertisers," Dawson said. (Reuters)

Verizon, AT&T suspend ads from Google over offensive videos

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