Category Archives: Google

The logo of Google is seen in Davos, Switzerland January 20, 2020. 2020. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo

Nov 4 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google has invested $1 billion in CME Group (CME.O) and has struck a separate deal to move the futures exchange operator's trading systems to the cloud, the companies said on Thursday.

Under the terms of the 10-year partnership between Google and CME, the Chicago-based exchange operator will begin moving its technology infrastructure to Google Cloud next year.

The deal with CME marks a big win for Google's cloud business, which competes against Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) for large, lucrative contracts from blue-chip Fortune 500 companies.

The deal also gives Google a foothold in the financial services sector, which is starting to invest big money on cloud computing services.

Google's $1 billion equity investment was in the form of non-voting convertible preferred stock of CME, the companies added.

The partnership with Google would help CME provide easy access for more market participants, optimize costs and streamline IT infrastructure and other operations, the companies said.

Last year, Amazon and two stock exchanges - Singapore Exchange SGX and London-based Aquis Exchange - undertook a pilot program which they said showed moving share trading to cloud computing from costly physical servers could save money and reduce the potential for outages.

Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Niket Nishant; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Google to invest $1 bln in CME Group, agrees cloud computing deal - Reuters

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt sounded skeptical on Tuesday that Meta, formerly known as Facebook, will succeed at building the metaverse.

"I look forward to excellent innovation in the metaverse," Schmidt told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday, while discussing his new book "The Age of AI: And Our Human Future." "I've been waiting for about thirty years. ... As to whether Facebook will build that, I don't know."

Schmidt reacted to the news that Meta would shift its focus to build the metaverse, a virtual world where you can socialize, work and play. Google, Microsoft and Apple are working on technology that can help build the metaverse as well. But the vision could take a decade or more to come to fruition.

Schmidt said he will continue to call the company Facebook, just as others call Alphabet "Google," which he said is "how it really works." The promise of the metaverse, he added, is powerful but could pose problems when people forgo real life for the virtual world.

The rise of the metaverse does pose questions for regulators already fighting to regulate social media, the internet and misinformation. Facebook is facing increased scrutiny from Congress and the media after former Facebook employee Frances Haugen leaked documents that ignited a series of Wall Street Journal stories that revealed the company is aware of many problems but chooses to ignore or not resolve them.

"We're going to have to figure it out," he said about regulating the metaverse. "I don't think we know. I don't think regulators today have the right formulation or even how to discuss this."

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Former Google CEO sounds skeptical that Facebook will build the metaverse - CNBC

As the holiday shopping season gets under way early this year due to supply concerns, Google today announced its latest tools for local shops, including a renamed Business Profile.

Google My Business is now Google Business Profile. The dedicated My Business Android and iOS app will be replaced in 2022 in favor of Google recommending small businesses manage their profiles directly on Search or Maps, apps that SMB owners as consumers will undoubtedly already have installed. Meanwhile:

The existing Google My Business web experience will transition to primarily support larger businesses with multiple locations, and will be renamed Business Profile Manager. Well share more details on these changes in the months ahead.

Besides the name change, its now easier to claim and verify your profile through those two apps. Start this week, those eligible can:

Search for your business by name and youll see an option to claim and verify the associated Business Profile. Once your business is verified, you can edit your business information, including the address, store hours, photos and more.

Customer messaging is also coming directly to Search (previously only available in Maps) with read receipts for both parties.

As of late last year, businesses have been able to reply to messages directly from the Google Maps mobile apps in the Updates tab. This upcoming Search option brings the capability to desktop web after tapping on the Customers menu (as seen above).

Lastly, a call history feature will show which inbound customer calls came from their Business Profile on Google. Available in the US and Canada for verified profiles, it will note total answer and missed call count, performance, and history.

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Google renames My Business to Business Profile, dedicated app will be replaced by Search/Maps - 9to5Google

True Oregonians are devoted to two things: inadequate raingear and The Simpsons.

And while there are no available studies that prove the first one, beyond my entire life being an Oregonian and witnessing first-hand the widespread dismissal of the umbrella, there is now confirmation that Oregonians cant stop Googling The Simpsons.

And what do these slack-jawed yokels do with their newfound knowledge of the longest-running animated sitcom in history? We dont know. Frankly, we dont want to know.

According to Google Trends research done by CenturyLinkQuote, Oregonians with their Eye on Springfield, searched for The Simpsons more than any other family sitcom in the past 12 months.

Most searched for family sitcom, via CenturyLinkQuoted

Dont have a cow, man. This shouldnt be a surprise. Oregonians are already well-known Simpsonophiles.

In September, for example, Portland named a new car-free bridge Ned Flanders Crossing, after a character on the show, which was, of course, created by Matt Groening, an Oregonian.

But the city gives and the city takes away. In October, a Merge Simpson sign that had mysteriously appeared in Northwest Portland was removed.

Oh well. At least we can rest easy knowing that, according to the CenturyLinkQuoted research, The Simpsons is actually the most-searched-for family sitcom in the entire country.

So make that three things Oregonians are devoted to: inadequate raingear, The Simpsons and national domination.

Now if youll excuse us, were about to embiggen our day with a Simpsons binge-a-thon.

Actual Simpsons knowledge provided by Oregonian/OregonLive reporter Eder Campuzano. I am fully responsible for the Dont have a cow, man, reference.

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052, lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker

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Youll never guess which family sitcom Oregonians Google most (Hint: its perfectly cromulent) - OregonLive

The mystery behind a strange 'black hole' found in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has finally been solved!

Last month, an eagle-eyed social media user came across a dark spot in the middle of the ocean when scrolling on Google maps.

It soon got lots of people talking and wondering what it could could be.

It's now been found to be a little-known uninhabited island called Vostok Island, which belongs to the Republic of Kiribati, a country that's located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean!

The 'black hole' on Google Maps was actually a mystery island belonging to Kiribati, a country located in the Pacific Ocean

What happened?

The social media user spotted the strange 'black hole' in the middle of the Pacific Ocean when they were using Google Maps.

The 'black hole' seemed to be situated far away from any other countries or islands.

It confused many people online and lots of different ideas and suggestions were made as to what it could be.

Some wondered whether it was an underground volcano, whereas others thought it might be a secret island or a military base.

However, it turned out to be a small coral island which is located nearly 4000 miles east of Australia.

The island has a lot of dense forest made up of trees which have grown tightly together.

The trees are dark green - but look black from the air and that's why on Google maps it looked like a 'black hole'!

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The mystery behind Google Maps' 'black hole' in the Pacific Ocean - CBBC Newsround

The Federal Trade Commission is warning consumers about a new scam on the rise, targeting people selling items on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace or posting about lost pets on social media. Scammers contact posters pretending to be potential buyers or claiming they found the lost pet, but they are concerned that the seller is not a real person or pet owner. They send the consumer a text message with a Google Voice verification code, ostensibly to verify the consumers identity. Scammers then use the verification code to create a Google Voice number linked to your phone number, which can then be used to hide the scammers identity and take advantage of other people. Dont share a verification code with anyone you didnt contact first.

If you think youve been a victim of this scam, Google has instructions to reclaim your number within 45 days. Go to voice.google.com, settings, linked number and enter your phone number under new linked number.

More information at marincountyda.org or 415-473-6495

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Consumer tip: Be careful of this Google Voice scam - Marin Independent Journal

Google Home, the companion app for Googles smart home products, is changing the way users interact with photos on the app and on Nest Hub devices. 9to5Google first noticed the changes, which include a revamped Photo Frame settings menu.

Now, when you use Google Home to change the displayed album while your Nest Hub is idle, youll see a carousel-style UI that gives you the option to choose from curated groups of photos, categorized as Select family & friends, Recent highlights, and Favorites, 9to5Google reports. Scroll past that, and youll be able to see all the albums that youve created.

A preview window appears at the bottom of the page, and you can swipe through the preview carousel to see how your pictures will look when displayed on your Nest Hub. 9to5Google also notes that the time and weather are displayed at the bottom-left corner of the preview window on iOS, but only the photo appears on Android.

In addition to the new Photo Frame settings, 9to5Google also reports that the Nest Hub may be getting a new clock face option that includes the beloved Weather Frog. Also known as Froggy, the character first became available on the Nest Hub as a display option that shows the time, along with an animated depiction of the current weather conditions.

9to5Google found that theres a new option in the Photo Frame menu, called Google Weather Frog, and its description on the app implies youll be able to display Froggy alongside weather conditions and your photos. The feature appears to be unfinished, so it remains unclear just how Froggy might interact with your photos once its officially released.

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Google Home app gets new Photo Frame settings and possible Weather Frog display option - The Verge

The ability to quickly find the answer to just about any question changes how people perceive their own intelligence, research finds.

People lose sight of where their memory ends and where the internet begins, the findings indicate.

When were constantly connected to knowledge, the boundaries between internal and external knowledge begin to blur and fade, says Adrian Ward, assistant professor of marketing in the University of Texas at Austins McCombs School of Business. We mistake the internets knowledge for our own.

When thinking with Googleor using the internet to fill in gaps in ones ownknowledgepeople believe theyresmarterand have a better memory than others, and incorrectly predict that theyll perform better on future knowledge tests that they take without internet access.

WhatS Me and WhatS Google?

Although humans have long relied on external knowledge stored in books and other people, online search has made the interface between internal thought andexternal informationswifter and more seamless, muddying the waters.

The process of searching Google is also much like searching your own memory, he adds. That can cause people to confuse information found online with information in their own heads.

Ward set out to investigate this possibility by running several experiments. In the first, participants answered 10 general knowledge questions either on their own or using online search. Then, they reported how confident they were in their ability to find information using external sources, as well as in their own ability to remember information.

Unsurprisingly, participants who used Google answered more questions correctly and were more confident in their ability to access external knowledge. More strikingly, they were also more confident in their own memory.

In a second experiment, participants answered the same 10 general knowledge questions either on their own or using online search. Then, Ward told them they would take a second knowledge test without using any outside sources, and he asked them to predict how many questions they would answer correctly.

Those who completed the first knowledge test with Google thought they would know significantly more when forced to rely on their own memory in the futuresuggesting they attributed their initial performance to their own knowledge, not to the fact they were using Google.

A subsequent experiment offers an explanation for this effect. In that study, participants answered knowledge questions on their own, using Google, or with a version of Google that delayed search results by 25 seconds. Unlike those who used standard Google, participants who used slow Google were not more confident in their internal knowledge and did not predict higher performance on future tests, suggesting search speed is partially responsible for knowledge misattributions.

In a final experiment, Ward asked participants to answer 50 questions using either Google or Wikipedia. Although both tools provided the same answers to all questions, Wikipedia contains additional contextual information that may help people recall that the answers originated online.

Participants were then shown 70 questions (50 from before and 20 new ones) and were asked whether each had been answered using internal knowledge or the internet, or whether it was new. Those who used Google were far less accurate in identifying the source of informationspecifically, they were more likely to attribute online information to themselves than those who used Wikipedia were.

Were seeing that people even forget that they googled a question, Ward says.

Less Smart But Feeing Smarter

The research offers a cautionary tale. It suggests that in a world in which searching online is often faster than using our memory, we may ironically know less but think we know more.

This could affect decision-making, Ward says. Feeling more knowledgeable just because youve used the internet might cause you to rely on intuition when making medical decisions or risky financial decisions, and it could make you even more entrenched in your views of science and politics.

Ward adds that the research also has major implications for education, as students might devote less time and energy to gaining knowledge if they already feel knowledgeable. More broadly, educators and policymakers may want to reconsider what it means to be educatedperhaps putting less priority on memorizing facts that can just be googled. Maybe we can use our limited cognitive resources in a more effective and efficient way, Ward says.

For now, Ward says hes scaled back somewhat on googling since conducting the study. Instead, when hes looking for information, he often tries to test his own memory.

When we immediately jump to Google, we dont do the remembering, Ward says. Were not exercising those muscles.

The study appears in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: Deborah Lynn Blumberg forUT Austin

Original StudyDOI: 10.1073/pnas.2105061118

This article was originally published inFuturity. Edits have been made to this republication. It has been republished under theAttribution 4.0 International license.

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Are You Really Smart, or Is It Just Google? - GovExec.com

Google says minors and their families can ask for an image to be removed from its search results, in a new policy unveiled Wednesday. Screengrab by NPR hide caption

Google says minors and their families can ask for an image to be removed from its search results, in a new policy unveiled Wednesday.

Google installed a new policy Wednesday that will allow minors or their caregivers to request their images be removed from the company's search results, saying that "kids and teens have to navigate some unique challenges online, especially when a picture of them is unexpectedly available on the internet."

The policy follows up on Google's announcement in August that it would take a number of steps aiming to protect minors' privacy and their mental well-being, giving them more control over how they appear online.

Google says the process for taking a minor's image out of its search results starts with filling out a form that asks for the URL of the target image. The form also asks for the URL of the Google search page used to find the image, and the search terms that were used. The company will then evaluate the removal request.

While the request could wind up scrubbing problematic images from Google's search tools, "It's important to note that removing an image from Google results doesn't remove it from the internet," the company said as it announced the policy.

The changes come after Google and other tech companies have faced intense criticism for their policies toward children, who now live in the public eye more than any previous generation facing the prospect of having any moment in their lives shared and preserved online, regardless of their own wishes.

The tool states that it is intended for cases in which the subject is under 18. Google says that if adults want material related to them to be removed, they should use a separate set of options.

In 2019, allegations that Google's YouTube subsidiary collected personal information from children without their parents' knowledge or consent resulted in the company paying a $170 million settlement to state and federal regulators.

"Our children's privacy law doesn't allow companies to track kids across the internet and collect individual data on them without their parents' consent," then-FTC commissioner Rohit Chopra told NPR at the time. "And that's exactly what YouTube did, and YouTube knew it was targeting children with some of these videos."

When Google first announced the image-removal initiative in August, it also pledged to block ads that target people based on their age, gender or interests if they're younger than 18. It also said its YouTube division would change the default privacy settings on video uploads to the tightest restrictions if they come from teens between 13 and 17 years old.

One of the biggest early adjustments for Google's search tools stem from Europe, where a Spanish man's case established the "right to be forgotten" in 2014. In the four years that followed, Google said, people made more than 650,000 requests to remove specific websites from its search results.

Editor's note: Google and YouTube are among NPR's financial sponsors.

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You can now ask Google to scrub images of minors from its search results - NPR

Press Releases

10/29/2021

(MIDDLETOWN, CT) Governor Ned Lamont, Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) President Terrence Cheng, and Alphabets Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat today announced that Connecticut has become the first state in the nation to offer the full suite of Google Career Certificates across its state colleges and universities system, and that the program is now available to all community colleges and career and technical education (CTE) high schools across the nation to onboard.

Part of the Grow with Google economic opportunity initiative, the certificates are available on the online learning platform Coursera. The program equips people with skills for in-demand jobs within three to six months with no degree or experience required at a time when employers in information technology related sectors have reported a skills gap in the U.S. workforce.

This is exactly what workforce development is all about, Governor Lamont said. We have employers that are looking to hire individuals with these digital skills, and our community college system responded quickly by entering into a partnership with Google to ensure our colleges are ready to start equipping students with these skills so they can enter these in-demand careers that pay over $60,000.

Following an agreement between Google, the Connecticut Office of Workforce Strategy, and CSCU, Google and Coursera will provide a diverse population of Connecticut residents with the training to fill positions in data analytics, IT support, project management, and UX design fields that are projected to grow in the next ten years, with an average starting salary of $69,000. After completing the program, graduates can share their resume with an employer consortium of more than 150 companies including Infosys, Verizon, Walmart, Wayfair, and Google. Infosys has already pledged to hire 250 program graduates at its Hartford location.

We are excited about this expansion of our Grow with Google Certificates program and the opportunity to partner with academic institutions across the U.S., including community colleges, which are critical to workforce development and economic mobility, Porat said. We believe that to have sustainable economic growth, we must have inclusive growth, and we are committed to continuing to help people develop the digital skills they need to participate in this economy.

Starting in early 2022, community colleges in all corners of Connecticut will offer Googles IT Support Certificate, with other certificates rolling out throughout the spring and summer, CSCU President Terrence Cheng said. Our public colleges and universities offer the highest quality education and cutting-edge training opportunities. We are thrilled to be the first in the nation to offer all Google Career Certificates on a statewide basis it is a testament to Governor Lamonts laser focus on workforce development.

Building on Googles initiative with Jobs for the Future to offer its first certificate in IT support to more than 100 community colleges, the companys new partnerships aim to help individuals bridge the skills gap by gaining the skills needed to take advantage of job openings. These institutions play an essential role in workforce training with 44% of all U.S. undergraduates attending community colleges, and 7.5 million high school students enrolled in CTE programs.

Through the College of Technology, all Connecticut community colleges will offer credit courses that will include Google Career Certificate courses beginning in spring 2022. Non-credit courses will also be offered regionally using the community colleges workforce development offices, with the roll out of the Google IT Support certificate in spring 2022. CSCU will partner with the Office of Workforce Strategy to help initially subsidize these programs for students and job seekers.

The Connecticut Department of Labor (CTDOL) was recruited by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies to be one of five states administering up to 100 Grow with Google scholarships for veterans and their spouses. The scholarships will be distributed through the American Job Center by CTDOLs Disabled Veterans Outreach Program specialists who work directly with veterans to meet their employment training needs.

The Connecticut Department of Labor is proud to be one of only five states with Grow with Google scholarships for veterans and their spouses, Connecticut Labor Commissioner Dant Bartolomeo said. With certificate programs in technology, analytics, and project management, we can prepare the workforce of the future and help Connecticuts veterans by providing free access to certifications that will help them prepare for, find, and retain good-paying jobs in growing industries.

The Google Career Certificates have a track record of helping people rapidly skill and obtain in-demand jobs. Fifty-three percent of graduates identify as Black, Latino, female, or veteran, and eighty-two percent of graduates report a positive career impact within six months of completion, such as a raise, promotion, or new job.

For more information about the certificates, visit either Googles website at g.co/grow/GoogleCareerCertificates or CSCUs website at ct.edu/google.

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Governor Lamont, Connecticut State Colleges and Universities, and Google Announce Google Career Certificates Are Now Available Across the Entire CSCU...