Google HR 'suggested medical leave' for racism victims. Google promises to drop personalised ad tracking. Facebook and Google 'too powerful' says watchdog boss. Google-linked smart city plan ditched in Portland. Margaret Mitchell: Google fires AI ethics founder. Google workers form tech giant's first labour union. Google ad practices under fire in new lawsuit. Google's Fitbit takeover approved by EU. Timnit Gebru: Google and big tech are 'institutionally racist' Google fined £91m over ad-tracking cookies. Timnit Gebru: Google staff rally behind fired AI researcher. Google fired employees for union activity, says US agency. Google Photos abandons unlimited uploads amid storage changes. Google sued by US government over search dominance. Google reveals Mineral crop-inspecting robots. TikTok: YouTube launches rival to be tested in India. Image copyright Getty Images YouTube has announced it will test a beta version of its new TiktTok rival in India.
YouTube Shorts will limit videos to 15 seconds, and the platform will feature creator tools that are similar to Chinese-owned TikTok's. India banned TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps in June as border tensions rose between the two countries. At the time, India was TikTok's biggest foreign market, with an estimated 120 million users. YouTube will also be in competition with a number of local competitors who have rushed in to fill the void after TikTok's ban in India. How did TikTok grow to 800 million users? In a blog post, YouTube's vice president of product management Chris Jaffe said Shorts is "for creators and artists who want to shoot short, catchy videos using nothing but their mobile phones".
The new platform features a multi-segment camera to string multiple video clips together, speed controls, and a timer and countdown to record hands-free. Google says its carbon footprint is now zero. Image copyrightGetty Images Google says it has wiped out its entire carbon footprint by investing in "high-quality carbon offsets".
It became carbon-neutral in 2007 and says it has now compensated for all of the carbon it has ever created. Other large technology companies have also committed to reducing or eliminating their carbon use. Google-Fitbit takeover: EU launches full-scale probe. Image copyright Reuters The European Commission will carry out a full-scale probe into Google's takeover of Fitbit.
The announcement follows a preliminary review, and threatens to derail the purchase of the fitness-tracking firm. YouTube Music: Google to axe Play Music in October. Image copyright YouTube Google will shut down its Play Music service in the UK in October, to focus on its newer YouTube Music app.
Google Play Music failed to attract as many subscribers as rivals such as Spotify and Apple Music, despite being pre-installed as the default music app on millions of Android phones. YouTube Music will offer more than 60 million songs to stream, but will not have a download store to buy music. One analyst said focusing on the YouTube brand was the "right strategy". Google offers refunds after smart glasses stop working. Image copyright North Smart glasses company North has told customers that their $600 (£460) purchases will stop working in a few days' time.
The Canadian company, recently purchased by Google, says its Focals glasses will cease functioning on Friday. From then, owners will not be able to use "any features" of the glasses, or connect to the companion app. But the company has also said it will automatically refund all customers. It promised to send the purchase price back to the original payment method, and to contact those customers whose refunds it could not process. Google buys smart glasses company North. Image copyright Google Google has bought a company that makes smart glasses, following the failure of its own, Glass, to go mass market.
North, founded in Canada in 2012, said it would now be "winding down" support for its first-generation Focals. And it would not ship the next version. Google senior vice-president of devices and services Rich Osterloh wrote: "We're building towards a future where helpfulness is all around you, where all your devices just work together and technology fades into the background. " Apple and Samsung are also rumoured to be launching glasses, while Facebook's Oculus division is looking to turn virtual reality mass market.
North's Focals hide a computer processor, battery and Bluetooth module in the arms of the frames. Controlled via a ring called the Loop and compatible with Amazon's Alexa, a holographic display allows wearers to see notifications or even call a taxi. A basic pair cost $599 (£480), with prescription lenses an extra $200. Google to auto-delete users' records by default. Image copyright Getty Images Google is changing its default settings to automatically delete some of the data it collects about users.
Web and app activity, including a log of website searches and pages visited, as well as location data, will now be wiped after 18 months. YouTube histories - including which clips were watched and for how long - will be erased after 36 months. The changes apply to new accounts only but existing users will soon be shown new prompts to adjust their settings. The announcement comes as Google and other big technology companies' data-collection efforts and business practices face increased scrutiny. Google affiliate Sidewalk Labs abruptly abandons Toronto smart city project. Google’s affiliate Sidewalk Labs has abruptly abandoned its vision to transform Toronto’s waterfront into one of the world’s first “smart cities”.
In a statement released on Thursday, Sidewalk Labs’ CEO, Dan Doctoroff, said that sustained unpredictabilities stemming from the coronavirus pandemic meant that the project was no longer feasible. “As unprecedented economic uncertainty has set in around the world and in the Toronto real estate market, it has become too difficult to make the 12-acre project financially viable without sacrificing core parts of the plan we had developed,” he wrote. The sudden end to the Quayside project marks a stunning downfall to the vision championed by the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and Eric Schmidt of Google, of a community built “from the internet up”. Doctoroff nonetheless praised Toronto as “one of the world’s great centres of technological innovation” and said the decision came with “great personal sadness and disappointment”.
Coronavirus: Google ends plans for smart city in Toronto. Image copyright Waterfront Toronto Google's sister firm Sidewalk Labs has scrapped a plan to build a smart city in Canada, citing complications caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
For several years it had pursued ambitions to build a digital-first city in Toronto "from the internet up". Google sued by New Mexico over claims it spies on US students. Image copyright Getty Images The attorney general of the US state of New Mexico is suing Google, accusing the company of illegally collecting the personal data of school children.
The tech giant is alleged to have collected data on which websites pupils visited, passwords, videos watched, contact lists, and other information. The data was allegedly gathered from Google's Chromebook laptops and G Suite for Education programme. Google disputes the claim, with a spokesman calling it "factually wrong". Google Chromebooks and the G Suite for Education - which includes Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs and others - are offered for free to more than 60% of students in New Mexico, according to the lawsuit. DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman switches to Google.
What else does Google's Alphabet do? Image copyright Thinkstock When the word Google entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006 it was widely seen as proof that the chirpy US tech firm, with its primary-coloured logo and "do no evil" mantra, had officially captured the zeitgeist of the internet age. The word alphabet - well that's been around a little longer. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin step down from parent firm. Image copyright Getty Images Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google, have announced they are stepping down from running the online giant's parent company.
The pair will leave their respective roles as Alphabet's CEO and president but will remain on the company's board. Google's CEO Sundar Pichai will become Alphabet's CEO too, a statement said. Google set to offer banking current accounts. Image copyright Getty Images Google has become the latest big tech firm to move into banking by offering current accounts. The firm said it plans to partner with banks and credit unions in the US to offer the "smart checking" accounts. It said the service, to be launched via Google Pay, will allow users to add Google's analytic tools to traditional banking products. The move follows offerings of credit cards, payment systems and loans by Facebook, Uber, Apple and Amazon. While the products and arrangements differ, the tech giants entering the world of banking share an underlying motive: making themselves indispensable, says Gerard du Toit, a partner at the Bain & Co consulting firm.
"They're all competing for consumer attention and for their ecosystem and platform to win," he says. Amazon's credit card and business loans are aimed at boosting its e-commerce business, while Uber Money is providing credit cards, debit accounts and money tracking tools to serve the company's taxi operations. Project Nightingale: Google probed over US patient data deal. Image copyright Getty Images Google is to be investigated over how it is accessing US patient data via a major health firm, the Wall Street Journal reports. An office of the US Department of Health and Human Services will examine the details of a deal dubbed "Project Nightingale".
Google said patient data was "secure". Separately, in the UK, the Financial Times (FT) reports that popular health websites are sharing sensitive data with firms including Google. Fitbit snapped up by Google in $2.1bn deal. Image copyright Smith Collection/Gado Fitness device marker Fitbit is being bought by Google for $2.1bn (£1.6bn). The move allows Google to expand into the market for fitness trackers and smart watches. It comes at a time when loss-making Fitbit has been looking to expand into other areas. "Google is an ideal partner to advance our mission," said James Park, co-founder and chief executive of Fitbit.
The bid values Fitbit at $7.35 a share, a premium of about 19% to the stock's closing price on Thursday. "With Google's resources and global platform, Fitbit will be able to accelerate innovation in the wearables category, scale faster and make health even more accessible to everyone," said Mr Parks, who founded Fitbit 12 years ago. Fitbit has sold more than 100 million devices, but had put itself up for sale last month in the face of waning demand for its products as other companies enter the market. Its shares have jumped 40% since Monday, when Reuters reported the interest from Google. Google sign language AI turns hand gestures into speech. Google Doodle: Meet the artist with an audience of billions. News BBC News Navigation Sections Previous Next Media player Media playback is unsupported on your device Jump media player Media player help Out of media player. Google Doodle: Meet the artist with an audience of billions. Google's next undersea internet cable will link Africa and Europe.
How Google is building its huge subsea cable infrastructure. Google announced a milestone in its bid to control the world’s internet infrastructure as its first privately funded intercontinental subsea cable touched down in Chile yesterday. The technology titan first revealed the Curie project last January, alongside two other new cables, while touting itself as the “first major non-telecom company” to build a private international cable. Here, we take a look at all of the underwater cable projects Google has invested in, either in partnership or on its own.
Google city sparks fresh controversy. $1 billion Google plan aims to ease Bay Area housing crisis. Goggles 'give back' sight to Maisy so she can read again. Google Wing launches first commercial drone delivery service. Image copyright Wing The world's first consumer drone delivery service has been launched in Australia, after years of test flights.
Google shuts failed social network Google+ Google announces AI ethics panel. Google hit with €1.5bn fine from EU over advertising. Image copyright Getty Images Google has been hit with a €1.49bn (£1.28bn) fine from the EU for blocking rival online search advertisers. It is the third EU fine for the search and advertising giant in two years. Google outlines $13bn US investment. Google works on spotting dodgy 'evil domains' Seven things to watch as Google's CEO appears before Congress hearing. Google+ to shut early after second bug revealed.