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Google Introduces New Signed Exchanges to Show the Original URL for the AMPs

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Google introduced AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) in 2015, in order to speed up the load time for the mobile web pages. Since then, these have been used by almost every website. Those web pages are simpler and load super quickly. Google pre-loads the web page and produces its cached copy to provide lesser load time for the user.

But with the good side of the AMPs, there has been a flaw that has been annoying the publishers of the content on those web pages, over the past years. The URL which shows up for the web page is usually in the format “http://www.google.com/abc” instead of the real URL of that particular web page.

google amp
Image Source: edenstudios.com

This way, it has prevented the publishers from displaying their content under their unique URLs. But now, Google has launched a fix for this problem, such that the URL that will display on cached AMP results will be the same as the publisher’s link. This new fix is called the Signed Exchanges.

Google is now using the new Web Packaging standard in order to make the browser trust the document belonging to the original publisher with the help of digital signatures and the signed exchanges.

Originally, the browser is programmed to reject the scripts that do not belong to the original publisher and try to access the data in the web page. But from now, the publishers will have to use the signed exchange in order to make a portable copy of their content and to achieve faster content delivery, easy content sharing between different users and better offline experience. With the signed exchange, the publishers will have to publish two different versions of their content, i.e. signed and unsigned.

AMPs have been great at providing the users with the content instantly, and also, bringing the desired traffic to their eCommerce websites. So it had become essential for Google to provide a better fix for the problem, and for that, the company had been working since the past one year. In fact, Google had announced last January that it is working on fixing the URL of the AMPs such that the real URL of the AMP will be displayed instead of the Google URL. The company had also provided a developers preview for the solution last year in November.

The new fix is expected to be a great move for driving the traffic from the AMP version of the web pages to its original domain as well as reduce the bounce rate for it.

Google is Working on Apple-Inspired Face ID Authentication & Privacy Protections

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Android Pie is still not available on all the Android Smartphones, and Google is all set to launch its another mobile operating system, i.e. Android Q. There have been various guesses about the release date and the features of this new Android OS, and last week the XDA Developers, also, published its findings through the leaked AOSP build of Android Q.

Android Q
Image Source: YouTube

The code obtained by the XDA developers includes various methods, classes and strings that reveals that the new OS may have the facial recognition. Even being late for the fingerprint technology on the iPhones, Apple was the first who introduced the face recognition technology on them. Now, along with the other guesses, this piece of code clearly shows that Google is all set to catch up with its rival company on the face recognition technique.

Although Android already has got a 2D-based “Trusted Face” face scanning-based authentication support, Android doesn’t offer any native hardware support. The new feature will be a secure biometric authentication feature similar to Apple’s Face ID.

Apple uses a depth sensing system, that projects a structured light from a dot project in order to recognise the user’s face. An array of 30,000 dots projected through True Depth, in a known pattern using a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) module, is processed and compared with the resulting image against secure reference data.

Mishaal Rahman, specially indicated towards the code it found related to facial identification on the XDA-Developers Portal site, writing, “dozens of strings and multiple methods, classes and fields related to facial recognition in the framework, SystemUI and Settings APKs”.

The Smartphone companies including Huawei and Xiaomi, already have incorporated the suitable hardware for such technology, but as they are using the Android OS on them, they were not able to make use of the hardware, until now.

The findings also indicated towards the new Android Q having better privacy for users, especially, involving the clipboard permissions. Usually, the apps can access a user’s clipboard, even having the most sensitive information on them, but now, the OEM may prevent the apps to access the information on the clipboard without permission.

France Fines Google €50 Million Upon Failing the GDPR Directives

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Due to the data breach allegations, 2018, proved to be an unfavourable year for tech giants like Google and Facebook. Now again Google is having troubles with the same issues as French regulators have fined Google nearly US $57 million for violating Europe’s tough new data-privacy rules.

Google
Image Source: marketingland.com

This is the first time when the European regulator has put such a huge amount as fine to a U.S. giant company since the regionwide regulations took effect last year.

CNIL, France’s top data-privacy agency, reported that Google has failed the tough new regulations, that were implemented last year in May, resulting in major data violation. It also said that Google was unable to explain how and why it was collecting the users’ data, and how the users could control the permissions.

Although seemingly, the amount looks huge, according to the GDPR rules, for a more serious offence, the fine will be maximum of four per cent of the annual global turnover of the offender.

A spokesperson form Google said, “People expect high standards of transparency and control from us. We’re deeply committed to meeting those expectations and the consent requirements of the GDPR”.

Soon after the GDPR regulations came into effect last May, two advocacy groups lodged complaints against Google, saying that it is difficult to understand and manage the preferences on how Google is using their personal information.

To file the complaint, almost 10,000 members from France’s Quadrature du Net group had signed an agreement against Google’s data consent policies. The None Of Your Business group also complained upon the tech giant against the forced consent its apps and software put on the users.

Since GDPR has been applied to the web, every tech company need to follow the same in order to run their services in the European region. Having faced a number of data breach charges last year, Google has been working on its data privacy regulations. Even though this time again it has failed the same to some extent, the company still has time to rectify these violations.

Google Assistant’s Expansion to Reach 1B Devices By the End of January

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The CES 2019 is already started, and even before Google’s real product launch in the conference, the company has made news with its announcement about the rolling out of Google Assistant, in more than a billion devices, by the end of January.

Google assistant

The google assistant is an AI assistant that runs on various Android and iOS devices, including the smart speaker, home hub, headphones, TV, smartwatches, etc. As of October 2018, the company introduced the same for the home gadgets and the home appliances such as dishwashers, oven, bulb, etc. According to the reports Google Assistant was already running on more than 500 million devices from 1000 different brands in May last year. And, for the last month, Google reported having over 900 million devices enabled with the Google Assistant.

It has been two years since Google Assistant was launched, in 2016, and following then Google is trying really hard to beat its rivals. In a revelation, Amazon has also reported that it sold over 100 million Alexa-enabled devices last year, making the competition further tougher for Google.

Google has also made some updates to the Google Assistant, along with the support for 22 new languages. From now on, it will also be available for 66 countries. It means, Google Assistant will be supporting 30 languages in total and will be actively working in 80 different countries.

There has been a significant change in the number of Google Assistant enabled devices since last January when the total number of users was over 400 million. The main reason behind the rising number of Google Assistant users may be the Android smartphones that also run the Google Assistant on them.

Manuel Bronstein, the Vice President of Google Assistant, said, “The biggest footprint right now is on the phones. On Android devices, we have a very, very big footprint.” Google Assistant has played a vital role in the growth of the company. Although the smartphone users may not be using the assistant actively, the home devices from Google are becoming really popular, and adopting the AI for its devices is really paying it off well.

Meghan Markle to Tristan Thompson; List of Top 5 Google Searches 2018

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google search

Yet again at the end of the year, Google has released its summary of what people searched the most in 2018, or we can say the list of the Most Searched 2018. Google started with a video on its most-searched list, which included the phrase, “In 2018 people searched for Good.” The video includes the searches like, “Good things in the world,” “Good news,” “How to be a good citizen/singer/dancer/listener,” etc.

But the year was not only about searching good things but also included sports, entertainment, history, self-care, etc. The top five searches of 2018 had the FIFA world cup on the top, followed by Avicii, Mac Miller, Stan Lee, and Black Panther, on the rest of the four positions respectively. Sadly the people on the second to the fourth position was searched due to their sudden death. People searched about who Avicii, Mac Miller, and Stan Lee, were, and what was the cause of their deaths.

Among news as well, the world cup topped the list, and at the second position, the Hurricane Florence of September 2018, 2006 and 1994 were the most searched. On the third place in the most searched news were the Mega Million lotteries and its results, which got the most searched in the month of October this year. The Royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle took the fourth place in the list followed by the election results on the fifth position.

The most searched people on Google in 2018 included Meghan Markle on the top for the obvious reasons, American singer Demi Lovato at the second position, Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone on third, the American actor and Internet personality Logan Paul on fourth position, followed by one of the Kardashian, Khloé Kardashian, on the fifth position.

Sylvester Stallone and Logan Paul again grabbed a position in the list of the most searched actors of 2018, and this time at the top and the second positions. Pete Davidson held the third position, Bill Cosby from the famous sitcom The Cosby Show and new Netflix sensation Noah Centineo held the fourth and the fifth positions, respectively. Surprisingly no female actor reached the top five most searched actors in 2018.

People also asked many beauty questions, and questions like “How to play Mega Millions,” “How to buy Bitcoin,” also about the “Keto pancakes,” “How to vote,” etc. The Google’s list of five most searched of 2018 in all the categories is as follow:

Searches:
World Cup
Avicii
Mac Miller
Stan Lee
Black Panther

News:
World Cup
Hurricane Florence
Mega Millions Result
Royal Wedding
Election Results

People:
Meghan Markle
Demi Lovato
Sylvester Stallone
Logan Paul
Khloé Kardashian

Athletes:
Tristan Thompson
Alexis Sánchez
Lindsey Vonn
Shaun White
Khabib Nurmagomedov

Musicians and Bands:
Demi Lovato
Cardi B
Daniel Küblböck
Travis Scott
Rick Ross

Actors:
Sylvester Stallone
Logan Paul
Pete Davidson
Bill Cosby
Noah Centineo

Loss:
Avicii
Mac Miller
Stan Lee
Anthony Bourdain
XXXTentacion

Movies:
Black Panther
Deadpool
Venom
Avengers: Infinity War
Bohemian Rhapsody

TV Shows:
Story of Yanxi Palace
Altered Carbon
Buppesannivas
Motu Patlu
Roseanne

Google Announced its Best of 2018 List; PUBG Selected the Best Game 2018

Google, News, Tech News / By

The year is about to end, and Google, following the ritual of selecting best of the year, has published a list of its best apps of 2018, in various categories, including “Most Entertaining” and “Hidden Gems”. There are millions of apps and other content available on the Play Store, and along with apps, the list of bests includes the best movies, TV shows, and books, etc.

Google on the basis of various factors selected the top five among every category and named the best of all. Google, also, first time also added a Fan Favorite category, a user poll, from where the users could support their favourite apps in various categories. On the basis of the voting, Google Pay won the User’s Choice App of 2018 and Google selected Drops as the Best App of 2018.

Google-Play-Best-Of-2018-Awards
Image Source: 9to5google.com

The best app also included other subcategories, and among those categories, Tik Tok became the Most Entertaining App 2018. Unfold won the Hidden Gems of 2018, and Home Workout – No Equipment was named the Best Self-Improvement App 2018. Otter Voice Notes became the Best Daily Helper 2018.

The other main category was the Best Game 2018, and it also had various sub-categories, i.e. Best Game, User’s Choice Game, Best Casual, Most Innovative, Most Competitive and Best Indie. PUBG Mobile won the Best Game 2018 from both User’s Choice and Google. The Best Casual 2018 won by Ludo King, Battlelands Royale named the Most Innovative 2018, Real Cricket 18 won the Most Competitive 2018, and Alto’s Odyssey named the Best Indie 2018.

Black Panther was selected as the Best Movie of 2018 on Play Store, and the top five list includes the following:

  • Black Panther
  • Avengers: Infinity War
  • Thor: Ragnarok
  • Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
  • Deadpool 2

Google’s top five TV shows of 2018 are:

  • The Walking Dead
  • Riverdale
  • The Big Bang Theory
  • The Flash
  • PAW Patrol

The top five eBooks of 2018 selected by Google:

  • Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff
  • The Outsider by Stephen King
  • Fear by Bob Woodward
  • 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson
  • Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis

In the category of best Audiobooks of 2018, the following win the race of top 5:

  • 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson
  • Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis
  • Fear by Bob Woodward
  • Becoming by Michelle Obama
  • The Outsider by Stephen King