Monthly Archives: February 2022

During Googles I/O event last year, the company laid out plans to significantly revamp the look and feel of its Workspace cloud apps (they were called G Suite until a 2020 name change). That includes a new look for Gmail thats starting to roll out this month, search chips (you can just call them filters) for Google Drive, and a set of changes that are about to arrive for Google Docs and Google Sheets.

The theme of this approach is called smart canvas. It takes some hints from productivity apps like Notion to give you more options for blending the features of multiple tools in one screen and to promote ways that you can collaborate remotely with coworkers, powered by Googles AI. Integrating its various office apps is an approach that conveniently helps Google increase corporate lock-in to its services, which is a good enough idea that Microsoft is working in a very similar direction with Fluid framework updates in its own Office suite.

Last fall, Google added AI-generated formula suggestions that we called autofill for math, and now, Google says its next step is more like autocorrect. The feature is coming soon to Sheets, with promises to help users troubleshoot their formulas and catch errors.

Features described during the May I/O presentation are going to be rolling out to Workspace accounts gradually over the next couple of weeks, including a pageless format for Google Docs. Instead of defaulting to a view that replicates a standard-size printed page, Google Docs content has no boundaries, which the company says will make it expand or shrink to fit whatever kind of screen you happen to be using. According to Googles support document for the feature, [w]hen you view a pageless document, you can select a text width of narrow, medium, or wide. Youll see the same text width on all pageless docs that you view. Your text width choice wont affect how collaborators see your docs.

You can switch back to a view with page breaks if you need to print something out or convert it to a PDF, but Googles bet is that in connected, remote workplaces, that wont be as necessary in the future.

Instead, people will interact directly with documents that include interactive elements to surface whatever information is relevant at the moment, like embedded Google Maps links that you can click to quickly see a preview without opening another page or app. Another new feature enables Google Docs to auto-generate summaries of documents using its own intelligence to find the main points that appear in the left rail. Once its live on eligible Workspace accounts, just click View at the top, then Show document outline to bring up the summary.

One feature that isnt available yet is an easy-access email draft template so that you can click one button to output all of the content into a draft in Gmail. Thats rolling out in the coming weeks.

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Googles smart canvas vision for Workspace is bringing a pageless interface to Docs - The Verge

Has your Google Nest Doorbell been draining its battery faster than normal or stopped working altogether, even when hooked up to your doorbell wires? Thats because it doesnt like being left out in the cold. A new support page published this week by Google, confirms that Googles newest smart video doorbell, the Google Nest Doorbell (Battery), and its Google Nest Cam (Battery), cant charge at temperatures below 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

The update comes on the heels of complaints by users in the Google Nest forum that their Nest Doorbells were draining their batteries faster than normal this winter, even when hooked up to doorbell wiring to maintain their charge. Cold weather will also affect the batteries in the new Google Nest Cam. But Google says if the camera is connected to a wired power source (it sells a weatherproof power adaptor for $35), there wont be any charging issues at lower temperatures, as the wire powers the camera directly.

The reason for the doorbell problem is based on a small but important distinction between battery-powered and true wired doorbells. Battery-powered doorbells hooked up to doorbell wires arent being powered by your homes electrical wiring; the battery is being trickle charged by the power from the doorbell wiring. If that battery is too cold to hold a charge, it will eventually run down. The same is true if you use a solar panel to keep your Google Nest Cam charged. That trickle charges and doesnt power the camera directly, so it will run out of juice in the cold, says Google.

While its battery-powered cameras (Nests first in the category) can operate in temps as low as -4 degrees Fahrenheit, Googles new support page now lists a minimum charging temperature of 32 degrees Fahrenheit. The support article states that the battery can still power the device at lower temperatures, but it wont charge and may drain faster. Google warns that at the minimum operating temperature, the battery could have less than half the life it does in warmer weather.

So what can you do if you bought a Nest Doorbell and live in a part of the country with sub-freezing temps? Google says you should take the entire doorbell down and bring it inside to a warm place to charge (something you likely already do if its not hooked up to doorbell wiring).

If youre not sure if your device is affected, you can check in the Google Home app where the device will say charging paused or charging slowly with a long estimated charge time if your doorbell is too chilly.

This is not a problem unique to Nests battery-powered cameras. Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries struggle in colder weather. Ring has a support article on its site detailing how its doorbell and camera batteries are affected when temps drop. However, most Ring cameras have the advantage of swappable, removable batteries that are easier to bring indoors to charge.

For those of us in warmer climes, Google says not to worry: the Nest camera batteries can still be charged up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Googles Nest Doorbell and Nest Cam will stop charging when its too cold outside - The Verge

The medical journal Health Affairs spent years planning its special issue on health and racism, which it published at the beginning of February. The journal wanted to reach new readers by promoting the issue through targeted advertisements on Twitter and YouTube.

Thats why it was so frustrating when Twitter and Google blocked its ads before they could go up, says Patti Sweet, the director of digital strategy at Health Affairs. The journals Google ads account was also suspended. Sweet wrote a blog post outlining that frustration last week, saying she thought the use of the word racism was the trigger for the rejections.

But Twitter and Google say the ad rejections didnt have to do with the language around racism rather, they were blocked due to policies around advocacy and COVID-19, respectively. The confusion highlights how health research sometimes doesnt fit neatly into categories used by tech companies to flag potentially problematic content, making it challenging for them to push out credible information when certain keywords pop up.

Health Affairs is a reputable peer-reviewed journal widely read by people working in public health and public policy. The journals health and racism issue, released last week, includes articles on sexual and reproductive health of Black women in the South, racial bias in electronic health records, health and police encounters, and inequity in the use of home health agencies. It hoped to use the ads to draw in a new audience to the special issue, Sweet says.

Google blocked the journals ads because the video the advertisements were for discussed COVID-19, communications and public affairs manager Christa Muldoon told The Verge. Ads for content that mentions COVID-19 have to follow the companys sensitive events policy, which blocks ads that potentially profit from or exploit a sensitive event.

Twitter said in a statement that the ads were blocked under the cause-based policy, which requires advertisers get certified before publishing ads that educate, raise awareness, and/or call for people to take action in connection with civic engagement, economic growth, environmental stewardship, or social equity causes. Twitters caused-based ad policy was put into place in November 2019 as part of its regulation of political ads aimed at protecting against bad actors co-opting the platform and covers topics from climate change to animal rights.

Sweet says shes familiar with Twitters policies but wouldnt have assumed the journals content would fall under cause-based policy. Were not advocating on behalf of something. Were just putting the information out there, she says.

Health Affairs also got one notice for an ad taken down by Twitter under the inappropriate content policy, according to screenshots Sweet shared with The Verge. The ad was similar to the ones flagged under the cause-based policy and described how the special issue focused on racism and health. Twitter spokesperson Laura Pacas said in an email to The Verge that any ad would have been denied under the same cause-based policy.

Sweet says she thinks the tech companies policies around ads are important, but that theyre applied to small groups like Health Affairs in an inequitable way. She wasnt able to easily contact someone at Google or Twitter to address the issue quickly the same way she might have at a large media agency. As a result, she had trouble getting information from the companies about why the ads were blocked. Sweet also doesnt think Health Affairs even falls under the type of advocacy category that Twitters policy, for example, is set up to target.

Were not a political organization, but when a machine sees health policy, they might assume politics, Sweet says. And when they see us talking about racism and health, they might assume we are advocating on behalf of something for politicians. So, the brand is awkwardly in a nowhere land.

Health Affairs got its caused-based certification for Twitter this week and plans to resubmit its ads. Sweet says the Google ads account is also back on after she submitted appeals. Shes hoping her team can now redirect the spotlight to the research, rather than the conflict with the tech companies.

Were not able to share it with the world as much as we want to, she says. Instead, were talking about Google and Twitter.

Correction February 18th, 5:24PM ET: An earlier version of the story said that the Health Affairs YouTube account was suspended. The Google ads account was suspended. We regret the error.

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Twitter and Google blocked ads from a medical journal about health and racism - The Verge

Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet and Google, announced on Sunday that Google is funding a $25 million skilling initiative over five years to increase opportunities in Israels hi-tech sector for underrepresented groups, including women, Arab citizens, ultra-orthodox Jews and residents of the geographic periphery. Google will also announce an initiative for the Palestinian tech sector later this week.

Porat arrived in Israel Saturday evening and will be meeting with Israeli and Palestinian entrepreneurs and business leaders, policymakers and Google employees during her visit. Along with the United States Ambassador to Israel, Thomas R. Nides, she met today with women and Arab entrepreneurs, engineers and investors to hear about the challenges they have faced integrating into Israels hi-tech industry.

Porat joined Google as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in May 2015 and has also held the same title at Alphabet since it was created in October 2015. She is responsible for Finance, Business Operations and Real Estate & Workplace Services. Before joining Google, Porat was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Morgan Stanley and held roles there that included Vice Chairman of Investment Banking, Co-Head of Technology Investment Banking and Global Head of the Financial Institutions Group. Ruth is a member of the Board of Directors of Blackstone Inc., the Stanford Management Company and the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Board of Trustees of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She previously spent ten years on Stanford Universitys Board of Trustees. Ruth holds a BA from Stanford University, an MSc from The London School of Economics and an MBA from the Wharton School.

At Google, we believe that to have sustainable economic growth, you must have inclusive growth, said Ruth Porat, Alphabet and Google CFO. By providing members of underrepresented groups with a path into tech, we hope to help create a more diverse workforce, and increase opportunities for a broader group of people. We look forward to deepening our commitment to Israel as we work to support the government's ongoing efforts in this area.

My first meeting as Ambassador was with Arab business leaders in Israel to talk about increasing access to greater economic opportunities, and Googles announcement today is a strong practical step toward that goal, said U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides.

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Google to invest $25 million over next five years to diversify Israeli tech workforce | Ctech - CTech

Legal and court losses are piling up across Europe for American ad tech companies and for Google.

Turns out navigating the GDPR and last years Schrems II decision, which invalidated Privacy Shield, the former data-sharing agreement between the US and the EU, is far from straightforward.

In January, the Austrian data protection authority (DPA) ruled that sites cant use Google Analytics if the service shuttles data back to US servers. Which Google does.

The French DPA, called the CNIL, released its own judgement last week agreeing with the Austrian DPA. One decision in Austria might be considered an outlier. But with the French CNIL the bellwether of European data regulators backing up Austrias ruling, this is starting to look like a consensus among European DPAs and a full-on siege of Google Analytics.

The Belgian DPA, meanwhile, ruled last week that IAB Europes Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF), the online advertising industrys mechanism for conveying a persons consent status to use data for advertising, is illegal under GDPR. The DPA gave IAB Europe six months to rework the framework so that the IDs can be audited.

IAB Europe has appealed another part of the ruling classifying it as a data controller for the TCF, which would effectively make the trade group legally responsible for how any publisher or ad tech company uses the framework to target ads.

If the ruling stands, IAB Europe would face a huge increase in costs and legal liability.

Google Analytics under fire

Google Analytics and other web infrastructure services collect data, namely IP addresses, that are considered personal information in the EU.

But the problem in this case isnt GDPR, because the data isnt being used for targeting ads, at least per the allegation. The issue, rather, is that the data of European citizens could be transferred to American systems and thats not okay as a result of the Schrems II ruling.

The Schrems II suit was against Facebook, but not anything to do with Cambridge Analytica or other ad targeting issues. Facebook lost the case because of Edward Snowdens NSA leaks, which revealed that the US government collects user-level information from internet services. Individuals have no idea if and when their data is collected and have no legal redress regardless.

Although someone browsing an Austrian news site may not fall under NSA surveillance, in theory, it could happen and that means the data cant be transferred at all, even if its innocuous and collected legally under GDPR.

None of Your Business, Schremss advocacy group, brought both of the cases against Google Analytics decided by the Austrian and French DPAs. Schrems has parallel suits in practically every European country so more dominos are likely to fall.

Theres clearly a coordinated effort by regulators to settle on an interpretation of the law, rather than have a hodgepodge of different inter-EU standards, said Wayne Matus, co-founder and general counsel of SafeGuard Privacy, a data privacy compliance startup.

The most straightforward solution for Google Analytics is to localize data in Europe, Matus said.

But thats not the only consideration. If Alphabet localizes in response to DPA rulings it could set a tough new precedent, since Google might be able to derive greater economic benefits from globally consolidating data. There may also be technical difficulties that prevent setting up local data systems.

Even if Google Analytics kept data in Europe, however, theres still a Microsoft case from 2018 to contend with, when the company was ordered via FBI warrant to hand over email data stored in Ireland, Matus said. The lower courts disagreed, and by the time the case was argued before the Supreme Court, President Trump had signed a new law granting investigators powers to compel such extraterritorial data. The previous decision which favored Microsoft was rendered moot.

In other words, even if Google Analytics set up local data services that never transferred to the US, the data could still be compelled by warrant.

Matus said Google would still have options, like establishing an independent business in Europe that couldnt be compelled by the FBI that trick only works on US companies.

A likelier solution is geopolitical. The problem could be resolved by a new US and EU data-sharing agreement. (The previous two, Safe Harbor and Privacy Shield, were both overturned in cases brought by Schrems.)

Consent on the ropes

IAB Europes TCF is now working against a six-month deadline to prepare an alternative that meets the Belgian DPAs stipulations.

For one, the framework may not collect data based on legitimate interest (whereby data can be collected without a users explicit approval, such as for fraud detection, cyber security and web infrastructure services like logging traffic). Also, TCF ID strings need to be audited for use in programmatic.

Moving away from legitimate interest is the (relatively) easy part. Publishers, consent management platforms (CMPs) and ad tech companies can simply be forthright about exactly how data will be used, rather than popping up broad cookie opt-in notices that dont explain much of anything, Matus said. Legitimate interest doesnt mean data cant be collected, just that it cant be used in any ways an individual would not have expected when they provided consent.

A more intractable problem is auditability of the TCF. After all, TCF strings are visible to any DSP bidding on any programmatic inventory within the framework, and whether theres consent to use data for targeting determines how much DSPs bid.

A rogue employee at a publisher or CMP could falsify consent data with no easy way to identify the violation in the fraction of a second before an ad is served, or even retrospectively.

Auditing the TCF seems like an impossibility.

Let me stop you right there, Matus said. It is 100% possible.

Its just not practical to audit OpenRTB impressions in real time, Matus said.

But the Belgian and other DPAs could still get behind the framework if supply-chain vendors CMPs, ad tech companies and data providers agree to audits by the IAB Europe and by advertisers within the context of a campaign. An agency or brand marketer, for example, could insist that vendors agree to transparent auditing as a prerequisite before buying through them.

The DPA wouldnt offer a six-month window and agree to work on an updated version with IAB Europe if it didnt expect to resolve the issue, Matus said. If the regulator thought it wasnt feasible, the TCF would have been ruled flat-out illegal with appeal as the only recourse.

What happens next?

Its difficult to predict how GDPR and European data privacy case law will play out.

Google is lobbying in the EU and US to allow for basic global data transfers. IAB Europe is appealing the Belgian DPAs classification of the trade group as a data controller and working with the same regulator on a potential TCF fix. Until then the framework is a bit like a cat in Schrodingers box we dont know if its alive or dead, but well find out in six months.

One irony of these various EU suits is the different ways in which they affect the competitive digital advertising market.

For example, in addition to harmonizing European data protection laws, the GDPR was meant to empower European tech companies and publishers, which have been beholden to US tech giants. But the GDPR suits targeting the TCF are a major boon to Google. If the TCF crashes, Googles AdBuyers protocol is the only way to programmatically target ads using consent information.

And whereas the purpose of the Schrems II decision is to target US government surveillance, not crack down on anticompetitive big tech practices, its Schrems II that could deal a major blow to Google. If Google Analytics is severely hampered in Europe, the only apparent solution will be to find a local data server system.

But European regulators are hard at work trying to get Google to change its business practices, Matus said. And if that doesnt work, theyll target Google customers. For instance, also last week, a German court levied a token fine of 100 Euros against a news publisher because Googles web-hosting service transferred IP addresses outside of the EU.

It will start small and theyll crank up the fines, Matus said. But this isnt stopping until the behavior stops.

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Google And IAB Europe Are Losing Data Privacy Lawsuits In The EU, But What Does It Mean? - AdExchanger

Two former members of the Google Maps team have navigated their way to Microsoft, joining the Redmond company as corporate vice presidents on its Maps and Local team, part of its Web Experiences (WebXT) group.

Nicholas Lee, former senior director of engineering for Google Maps, who worked at Google for nearly 17 years, was named the new leader of Microsofts Maps and Local team in an internal memo viewed by GeekWire.

Also joining Microsoft is Russell Dicker, who was previously senior director of product for Google Maps Routing + Navigation, Google Automotive Services, Transit & Multimodal, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Microsoft declined to comment in response to our inquiry about the new hires.

The WebXT group, led by Mikhail Parakhin, Microsoft Web Experiences president, includes the Bing search engine, Microsoft News, Maps, the companys advertising platform and the Edge web browser.

Microsoft posted more than $3 billion in search and news advertising revenue in the December quarter, up 32% year-over year, excluding traffic acquisition costs.

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Google Maps veterans hired by Microsoft as new VPs in Maps and Local team - GeekWire