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Google Wins Battle Against €1.5 Billion EU Fine for Ads Abuse

Google Wins Battle Against €1.5 Billion EU Fine for Ads Abuse

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Google has got triumph in contested a €1.5 billion fine levied by the European Union (EU). It was because of engaging in anti-competitive conduct concerning online advertising. It marked a noteworthy judicial triumph. The 2019 fine was partially overturned by the General Court of the EU in Luxembourg and it sided with the tech giant. The penalty was first levied to prevent competitors like Microsoft and Yahoo from running advertisements on websites owned by third parties.

What Happened

Google Wins Battle Against €1.5 Billion EU Fine for Ads Abuse

Image Source: tech.hindustantimes.com

The European Commission concluded after looking into Google’s AdSense program that the company had exploited its dominance in the online ad brokerage market. There is evidence indicating that a period of time occurred between 2006 and 2016. It happened when Google’s contracts prevented rival search ads from showing up on websites which utilized Google’s search engine, giving the company an unfair competitive advantage.

But the Commission’s inquiry contained flaws, according to the court, especially in how it determined how long and how serious the violations were.

EU Commission Errors

The Commission’s conclusions were largely confirmed by the court, but it found errors in the assessment of the extent of the purported violations. Judges determined that the Commission had not provided sufficient evidence to establish that Google’s actions constituted a persistent and singular violation of EU antitrust laws. This ruling allows for more appeals and this could lead to the case being heard by the EU’s top court renowned as the Court of Justice.

Google's Reaction

Google said it was pleased with the court’s judgment, finding that it supported its stance and verified the errors in the initial probe. The business argued that, even before to the Commission’s decision, it had already amended its contracts in 2016 to remove the problematic language.

Also Read: The Inspiring Success of Laxman Narasimhan and the CEO Change at Starbucks

Ramifications for Large Technology

With its recent setback over a €2.4 billion fine for favouring its own services in search results, Google’s victory comes at a critical juncture. The case represents a turning point in the EU’s protracted attempts, led by antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, to limit Big Tech’s dominance. Despite this win, Google’s ad technology division is still under regulatory examination in the US and the EU.

Google Search Trends

Google Search Trends in India for 2021: Indian Premier League, CoWIN Among The Top Results.

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A Google India report summarizing the top search trends in India for 2021 was released today by the company. The list reveals what Indians looked up the most in news, sports, entertainment, and other categories throughout the year.
The top five trending search topics on Google Search Trends in India in 2021 were ‘Indian Premier League,’ ‘CoWIN,’ ‘ICC T20 World Cup,’ ‘Euro Cup,’ and ‘Tokyo Olympics.’ Following the last COVID-19 outbreak in the country, many internet users turned to Google to look for COVID vaccines and hospitals. This year searches for ‘oxygen cylinders’ and ‘CT scans’ saw a spike in ‘near me’ searches as people looked for ways to combat the deadly virus. Similarly, Google searches for food deliveries, tiffin services, and takeout restaurants increased this year, according to the company.

Google Search Trends
Image source: hindustantimes.com

Google’s Most Popular ‘How To’ And ‘What Is’ Queries

In April and May, India was hit hard by the second wave of COVID-19, which resulted in an increase in cases and deaths. The ‘How to’ section topped the search chart during the massive crisis, with queries like ‘How to increase oxygen level’, ‘How to make oxygen at home’, and ‘How to register for covid vaccine’. These are the year’s top three ‘how to’ searches.
‘What is Black Fungus?’ and ‘What is Remdesivir?’ was the most popular ‘what is’ searches. ‘What is Taliban?’ and ‘What is the factorial of hundred?’ ranked highly as well.

2021 Searches For “Near Me”

This year’s ‘near me’ searches were dominated by services related to the pandemic. While many people searched for vaccines, Covid tests, Covid hospitals, oxygen cylinders, and CT scans as they fought the second wave of COVID in the first half of the year, searches for vaccines, Covid tests, Covid hospitals, and searches for oxygen cylinders and CT scans also increased.
In addition, Google revealed that people looking for food deliveries, tiffin services, and takeout restaurants increased as a result of the intermittent lockdowns.

Aryan Khan and Neeraj Chopra: Two Of The Most Sought-After Celebrities

With his historic performance at the Tokyo Olympics, where he won independent India’s first-ever medal in athletics, Neeraj Chopra topped the list of most searched personalities. Following him was Shahrukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, who faced a major controversy in October after he was arrested by the NCB in connection with a suspected drug case on board the Cordelia cruise ship.
The list also included PV Sindhu and Bajrang Punia, two other 2020 Tokyo Olympic medalists. A few high-profile people topped the list, including Elon Musk, Shehnaaz Gill, and Raj Kundra.

Google’s Most Popular Movies Of The Year

Regional cinema piqued the interest of Google users in India this year, with Tamil drama film Jai Bhim topping the list, followed by Bollywood titles Shershaah, Radhe, and Bell Bottom. Godzilla vs Kong and Eternals, both from Hollywood, were among the year’s most popular films in the country.

Google’s Most Popular Recipes

Because people stayed at home for the first few months of the year, many of them appear to have used Google to find new recipes. ‘Enoki Mushrooms’ was the top-searched recipe on Google in India this year, though ‘Modak’ and ‘Cookies’ were also popular. The top recipes searched on Google this year included comfort foods like ‘Methi Matar Malai’ and ‘Palak,’ as well as immunity-boosting ‘Kada.’

Trending Sports Events On Google

The Indian Premier League, the ICC T20 World Cup, and the Euro Cup were the top three sports events searched on Google in India, according to Google. The Tokyo Olympics and the Copa America were the next events on the calendar.

Trending News Events on Google

This year, the Tokyo Olympics dominated the ‘news events’ category on Google in India. Black Fungus, Afghanistan news, West Bengal elections, and tropical cyclone Tauktae were the next items on the agenda.

Global Trends

Google also revealed the top search trends around the world, in addition to the top trends in India. The top search trend is ‘Australia vs India,’ followed by ‘India vs England,’ ‘IPL,’ ‘NBA,’ and ‘Euro 2021.’ These come from over 70 countries and include ‘Australia vs India,’ ‘India vs England,’ ‘IPL,’ ‘NBA,’ and ‘Euro 2021.’
It’s worth noting that Google’s Year in Search results for 2021 doesn’t directly suggest the most popular searches on its site. Instead, the company views the searches as “trending queries” that saw a significant increase in traffic over a “sustained period” in 2021 compared to 2020. The algorithm that compares the percentage increase in trending searches also takes into account a minimum threshold to keep very small search volumes off the list.
Last year, the top Google search queries were ‘coronavirus,’ ‘US election results,’ and ‘PM Kisan Yojana,’ but this year, the top trending query was ‘Indian Premier League,’ which surpassed all others.

Timnit Gebru

Two Google engineers resigned after the company fired AI researcher, Timnit Gebru

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A lot of disputes have been taking place in Alphabet Inc’s Google regarding ethics and work culture among the company’s employees. The intensity of the situation has been rattled as two engineers of Google resigned after the company dismissed the AI researcher Timnit Gebru. From the engineering department, one engineering director and a software developer quit Google and it’s a sign of not approving of the departure of Timnit Gebru.

Diversity and ethics have become a point of conflict on Google for some time now as David Baker, an employee of Google resigned last month. He worked at Google for sixteen years and during his departure, he said that Gebru’s dismissal “extinguished my desire to continue as a Googler”(witnessed by Reuters). David Baker worked as a director in the user safety division in Google. He also mentioned that the environment of Google was acting against the belief of diversity though it claimed otherwise. His exact words were “We cannot say we believe in diversity, and then ignore the conspicuous absence of many voices from within our walls.”

Resignation of Kannan

Vinesh Kannan, a software engineer who worked at Google resigned on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he tweeted about his resignation and that Google mistreated Timnit Gebru. He also mentioned April Christina Curley, an ex-employee of Google who claimed that she was wrongly fired by the company. The dismissal of April took place last year which means that the tension regarding diversity in work culture is going on in Google for a long time. Kannan also mentioned that both of them were wrong but Google declined to comment on this. The company has assured that it is trying its best to restore trust between the company and its employees, also it disputes April’s accusations.

Why the sudden disputes?

The tension regarding the departure of Timnit has been growing for the last few months. The workers in Google have demanded academic freedom and management commitments in the company’s research organization. In December, around 2,600 employees of Google signed a letter supporting Timnit, and last month more than 800 people joined a union to bring advancement in workplace protection.

The story of Timnit Gebru

Timnit Gebru is one of the most leading Black women who have a very impactful contribution in the field of ethical AI. Last year, Timnit was promoted by Google as the co-leader of a group focussed on ethical AI due to her remarkable performance in annual employee appraisal. After she was promoted, Jeff Dean, head of Google AI, only made a single comment regarding what she and her team are supposed to focus on. He mentioned that Timnit and her team should look forward to building software for processing human language that should abide by the AI principles of the company.

Timnit Gebru
Image Source: miro.medium.com

There was an exchange of email conversations between Timnit and Jeff during October 2020. Timnit informed Jeff that her team was working on a paper which was regarding the same area of understanding the complexity of language while Jeff told her that he would be interested in reading it. And, after six weeks of that conversation, Timnit was surprisingly fired by Google. She was on her vacation when she received the news.

Explaining Timnit’s departure

After Timnit was fired by Google, Jeff tried to explain the situation to his other employees. Jeff mentioned that the paper she and her team was working on didn’t meet the publication bar of the company. He also mentioned that the paper was missing relevant information regarding the recent improvements done in this field. While Timnit’s superiors tried to convince her to retract the paper Google’s Research team mentioned that the previous works of authors who claimed benefits of large language models were not scrutinized properly before approval. This created a lot of fuss questioning Google’s scrutiny process.

Google

Google Trusted Contact Service is going to be discontinued from December 2020

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On 16th October 2020, Google announced that it will be shutting down the company’s trusted contact service. Google’s trusted contact service was launched in 2016 to enable location sharing for friends, family, and emergency contacts. A service that was solely focused on location sharing so that you feel safe when you are outside or send your location so that your family can track you for your safety is now shutting down. The main reason behind the ceasing operations of Google’s trusted contact is the same functionality can be carried out by Google Maps nowadays. This service was available for both iOS and Android where the activity and device battery status of your trusted people were visible.

Google’s Trusted Contact Service will stop working on 1st December 2020. Till then you can still use the service on your smartphone to share the location. One disadvantage or at times advantage of using trusted contact service is that if someone requested your location and you didn’t respond, they will receive your location automatically. At the time of emergencies, when one is unable to respond this feature is a savior.

Google Trusted Contact Service

In December 2016, Google rolled out the app of trusted contacts to keep track of friends and family. With an increasing number of crimes outside our home especially against women, this was a thoughtful initiative taken by Google. Moreover, by installing and using this app the parents can also track the activity of their kids. If you are in danger, chances are you won’t be able to pick up a call leading to growing tension in your family. So, if they know your location it will be easier for them to reach you.

Using this app, you can create a list of trusted people who can request your location. The users will have to approve the list of people manually who can send the request for location. And, once a user sent a location request you will have five minutes to accept and request or deny it. If the person didn’t opt for any option then the location will be sent automatically to the requested person. If the network connectively is poor or completely cut off the other user will receive the person’s last updated location. There is also a feature of live tracking in the app. When the app was launched, it was made free.

Google

Sharing location in Google Maps

Now that after a month we won’t be able to use the trusted contact app of Google, we need to have a look at our alternate option. Google Maps is a very diverse app with new features getting added at quick intervals. If you don’t use Google Maps, it is better to get a hang of it as it is easy to use and gives you location privacy as well.

How to share your location with someone using Google Maps?

  • First, open the Google Map on your phone and sign in.
  • Tap on the profile picture icon followed by location sharing.
  • Click on New share to send your location to someone.
  • If the person is in your Google contacts you can easily find him or her.
  • Create a time limit you want to avail for location sharing and then select the contact and tap on Share.
  • If the person doesn’t have a Google account then you can simply copy the location link by tapping on Copy to Clipboard.
  • You can then send the link via any social media or phone messaging.
  • If you want to stop sharing the location then again open the app, go to location sharing, and click on Stop.

How to request someone’s location on Google Maps?

  • First, open Google Maps and click on the profile picture icon.
  • Go to location sharing and select the contact with whom you one to request location.
  • Tap on the Request option.
  • The person will receive a notification with your email address and that you requested the location.
  • Then the person can check your profile, accept the request, deny the request, or block your profile so that you cannot request anymore.

There are many other features on Google Maps that can come in handy. But, these two are the very basic and most important features you should know how to use.