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Google Apologizes For Ads Alongside Offensive Videos on YouTube

Mar 20, 2017 By

Google has been one of the biggest names when it comes to the world of smartphone technology. The company has been around for quite a while now and has introduced various innovations in the way the markets of technology function. They started off with their search engine and expanded into various other sectors. The biggest chunk of Google’s revenue comes from advertising on various platforms. YouTube is one of their biggest platforms and hundreds of millions of dollars are earned from it. Google was recently in a pickle as ads of their high profile clients appeared alongside some offensive videos.

Google had to apologize to Marks and Spencer and HSBC as their ads appeared alongside some offensive videos for the British audiences. The British government too, has stopped their advertising on YouTube following their ads appearing alongside homophobic and anti-semitic videos. Following this various other companies backed out. Britain is the second biggest market for Google (the biggest being the US).

Google generated $7.8 Billion from Britain last year, which accounts for 9% of their revenue. The company needs to ensure that their high priority clients are happy. “I would like to apologize to our partners and advertisers who might have been affected by their ads appearing on controversial content,” Google EMEA President Matt Brittin said at the annual Advertising Week Europe event in London.

As per a report by Reuters, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s and Argos, British banks HSBC and RBS, McDonald’s, the UK branch of advertising group Havas and the BBC had stopped ads. This is indeed a major blow to Google. However it is expected that things will get back to normal after the apology and Google ensuring that the content is displayed properly. A number of ad firms such as Publicis and WPP have been looking at their working relationship with Google moving forward.

Gmail For Web Now Streams Videos Without Downloading Them

Mar 17, 2017 By

Google introduced Gmail in 2004. On 1st of April this year, it would be 13 years old. When Gmail started off, it was the new kid in the block and faced immense competition from the likes of Yahoo, AOL and Hotmail, three established players in the industry. Gmail began as an invite-only e-mail service, but soon grew popular and was made open for all users. The service has over the years become the top name among email users. With over a billion monthly active users, Gmail is massive. The key to Gmails secret is regular updates. Gmail for Web, Android and iOS, all keep getting updates from time to time.

Gmail for Web users have begun receiving a new update today where they can stream their attached videos which they have received without having to download it. In the past, Gmail for web users had to download the video file to play the video. In some cases they needed a software to play the video too. However, this update eliminates all those problems. While this is a minor update, it has major implications. Users will now save on a lot of time on this too.

The streaming videos will be played in a YouTube like format with YouTube-like controls. Google says that video streaming of attachments on Gmail for Web has been made possible using the same technology that powers YouTube as well as video streaming on Google Drive. This is indeed quite a major step up for Google.

Google has been improving Gmail’s services for quite a while now. Gmail users received an update a couple of days ago that allows them to send and receive money on Google Wallet via mail! The company keeps innovating various offerings of theirs, and this constant improvement has indeed been the key and the core component to the large scale success of Google.

Google Home Being Offered for Free With the LG G6 Orders Till 30th April

Mar 16, 2017 By

LG’s latest flagship smartphone, the LG G6 was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress 2017 event in Barcelona in late February. The launch of the phone was awaited for a very long time, and when it did come out, it was quite a good phone. It was appreciated by many users, and the early interest, as well as the numbers are good. Over 30,000 phones have been sold, while over 80,000 units have been pre-ordered. The company has now introduced a new offer in the US where users would get a free Google Home on the purchase of the LG G6.

The Google Home was launched in the October of last year and has since been Google’s response to the Amazon Echo. The Google Home runs on the Google Assistant. Talking about the assistant, the LG G6 was the first non-Pixel device to feature the Google Assistant (before it was made available for all users running Marshmallow and above). Google and LG have a long history together. The two have worked on multiple smartphones like the Nexus 5 and Nexus 5X. The LG V20 was the first ever smartphone to release with the Android Nougat OS, and now LG G6 customers will be getting the Google Home for free!

Those interested in pre-ordering the LG G6 would need to register at this promo website from LG. As of now no details have been revealed as to how to claim the LG G6, but they are likely to be announced once the phone comes out.

In all likelihood, users would need to enter their purchase details (proof of purchase), and wait for a couple of weeks till they get their Google Home. The Google Home costs $129 if bought separately. It is indeed quite a generous discount, as well as a great device to try out. The deal is valid only for the US based customers.

Chrome 57 To Throttle Background Tabs To Conserve Power

Mar 15, 2017 By

Google Chrome has been one of the most popular web browsers right since the day it came out. Remember the days when Chrome was an invite-only service? From there to being the most popular browser in the world with billions of people using it, Chrome has come a long way. The browser offers the users with the latest security as well as regular improvements. The latest update that comes with Chrome 57 is that of improving power consumption by throttling background tabs.

What makes Google Chrome really special is the fact that Google keeps bringing forward continuous updates for the users. This time, the company is focusing on the power consumption. It is a well known fact that the more processes you run, the more power your PC consumes. While this might not bother the traditional desktop users much, but those on laptop, tablets and mobiles want the most out of their battery life. The Chrome 57 update will now throttle tabs to ensure they consume less power.

Chrome has made some changes to their throttling policies, and as a result they say that they will now ensure less power is consumed by background tabs. Google comments that tabs with audio playback going on, or with live streams running will not be affected by this. This is achieved with the help of Chrome’s new and improved page visibility API which checks tabs for inactivity every ten seconds. Chrome 57 helps conserve power in a 25% better manner.

While this Chrome 57 feature will ensure that the battery life is not hampered because a user opens multiple tabs, the upcoming versions of Chrome will focus more on the memory consumption. Chrome 57 is about power conservation, and Chrome 58 to Chrome 60 are likely to be about memory conservation. Chrome has been known to be rather harsh on the RAM. However, with the next few updates, this issue is going to be addressed.

Major Google Allo Glitch Can Display Your Search History To Friends

Mar 14, 2017 By

Google Allo has been one of the biggest disappointments when it comes to smartphone apps. Google initially announced the Allo and Duo apps during the Google I/O 2016 event. The apps released later in the year. However, while Duo was mildly popular, it was just a downward spiral for Allo. The app was knocked off the list of the top 500 Android apps recently. In another bad news for Allo users, a glitch in the app has now been discovered which allows your friends to see your search history results.

This glitch was spotted by ReCode. This happens due to the Google Assistant. The Assistant, which was earlier exclusive to the Google Pixel and Google Home has now started rolling out on all Android Marshmallow and Android Nougat smartphones. The assistant can be directly asked questions even in the middle of the chat by tagging it as @Google. However, as ReCode notes, there’s a major glitch here –

This was observed in a chat between two people. When one of the participants asked the Google Assistant to identify itself, it sent out a link. The link, however, was not as random as it seemed. It was a link from a harry potter website Pottermore. This was incidentally a link that appeared in the user’s search history in his last few searches. What is even more strange is that Harry Potter was not even mentioned in the chat till that point. While this was a rather innocent search, this is potentially a major threat to privacy as not all searches are like this one.

There’s a risk that some day messenger might divulge a more sensitive or a more personal search result. This is something that demand immediate attention from Google and it needs to be fixed immediately. Google has been contacted over this glitch and we expect it to be soon resolved.

Hangouts Gets Split Into Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat

Mar 10, 2017 By

Google has been innovating their way into the markets of technology for the past several years. Google started off as a search engine and are among the biggest tech firms in the world! The company’s latest focus is towards their enterprise users, and as a result of this, Google just announced that they are now splitting the Hangouts app into two – Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat apps.

Google had been talking about this change of strategy for quite a while now. When they announced the Google Allo and Google Duo apps during the Google I/O 2016 event last year, they made their intentions clear that they plan to move hangouts towards a more enterprise level offering and make it into a tool for businesses and corporate communication. They have achieved this with Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat.

Hangouts Meet allows the users to set meetings, and essentially acts as an Amazon Chime competitor. It allows the users to communicate at an enterprise level and set up meetings, conference calls and more. It also comes with the first ever bot for Hangouts, @Meet. This bot makes use of natural language processing to set up meetings. This is indeed a major breakthrough for Google. Hangouts Chats is an app that features topic specific chats where teams can communicate with each other on the basis of their ‘rooms’ created on topics. This is an app that works similar to how Slack works, or how Microsoft Teams app works.

Google has ensured that each of their app now has a specific purpose. While Allo is now for the casual chat and interpersonal communication, Duo is an app for video calling, the Hangouts apps – Hangouts Meet is for setting up meetings and for corporate communications, while the Hangouts Chat app is more about teamwork and intra-group communication.