The 6 Biggest Things Google Just Announced

Google on Wednesday revealed several new updates for its most popular hardware and services as part of its annual I/O conference. While the developer-centric event has historically focused on Google products like Android and Chrome, this year's announcements revolved mainly around the search giant's advancements in artificial intelligence, or AI. That's been a common theme among Silicon Valley's top companies lately, setting up AI as the next big tech battleground.

Here's a quick look at Google's biggest announcements from its its 2017 I/O keynote.

Google Home can make phone calls

The smart speaker battle is heating up: Just days after Amazon revealed a new Echo device with a screen, Google announced a slew of new capabilities for its own connected speaker, the Home.

The most significant upgrade is that Home users will be able to make hands-free phone calls through the device. Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free, while Home owners can choose to link their phone number to the gadget. (Amazon recently announced a similar feature, but calling is limited to Echo-to-Echo communication for now).

Because Google Home can tell the difference between various users' voices, it will know to call the right person depending on who's placing the call. During a live demo, Google's Rishi Chandra asked to call his mom, then said that if his wife had uttered the same phrase, the Home would have known to call Chandra's mother-in-law instead.

Google is also launching a new Home feature called "proactive assistance," which is basically a different term for notifications (another feature that arrived on the Echo this month.) When the Home's microphone lights up, users will be able to ask the Home if it has any important updates to share, such as a change to an upcoming calendar appointment or a flight delay.

The Google Assistant can "see"

The Google Assistant digital aide is getting a big visual upgrade. In the coming months, users will be able to point their phone at a sign in a different language and watch as it's translated before their very eyes. Or, if they aim their phone at a theater, it could show upcoming showtimes and an option to buy tickets. That's all thanks to Google's Lens app, which is similar to the Bixby Vision feature Samsung offers on its Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones.

Furthermore, the Google Assistant is coming to Apple iPhones as a standalone app. It won't be baked in at the operating system level like Siri is, so it will be limited in how useful it is for iPhone owners. But it can still do things like the Lens features above.

Android O updates

Google offered new information about what to expect from its next major Android update, which for now is referred to as "Android O."

One highlight: When downloading an app for the first time, Android may ask if you'd like it to fill in your username if you've already used that service in Google Chrome.

Google is also making it easier to copy-and-paste text in Android. If you tap an address, for example, it will automatically select the entire address instead of just a portion of it, and from there it will suggest pasting it into Google Maps.

Other core Android O updates will improve security and battery life and add a picture-in-picture mode, which will let users minimize a video so that it only occupies a portion of the screen.

New Android software for low-end phones

Google is working on a version of Android called Android Go that's optimized to work on low-end phones with under 1GB of memory (most high-end phones have around 4GB.) Go is also built to help users budget their bandwidth: When using the Android Go version of YouTube, for instance, users will be able to preview videos and see exactly how much data they will eat up before deciding to stream a full clip.

Android Go is similar in spirit to Google's Android One program, which offers low-cost Android devices to users in developing markets.

Virtual reality without a phone

Google is one of several tech companies pursuing the "holy grail" of virtual reality: Headsets that don't need to be connected to a computer or smartphone to work. To that end, the search giant announced that standalone VR headsets will be available starting later this year.

HTC — maker of the Steam-compatible Vive headset — and PC maker Lenovo are among the first partners working on these headsets. The search giant collaborated with chipmaker Qualcomm to come up with a reference design.

Google Photos makes real-life albums now

Move over, Shutterfly. Google announced a new service that creates photo books based on the images in your phone's gallery. If you're using the Google Photos app, you'll be able to search for images of a specific person. From there, Google Photos can choose the best photos and arrange them in an album that you can order.

Google also announced other sharing-centric features for Google Photos. You can, for instance, choose to share your entire photo library with your spouse or a family member. If you don't want them seeing your entire collection, you can limit the sharing to only include photos of specific people, like your kids.

Facebook wants to know why teens are using group video app Houseparty

The social giant issued a survey earlier this year trying to figure out why teens use group video apps. Could it clone the app?

 

Are you a teenager who uses the group video chat app, Houseparty? Facebook wants to know!

At least Facebook did want to know back in February, and was willing to pay people for their thoughts on the app, which lets users jump in and out of video conversations with friends (or friends of friends).

Screenshots from Facebook’s survey earlier this year.

Facebook

Facebook circulated a survey a few months back that asked, among other things, for responders to share their “most recent experience” using Houseparty or Fam, a separate app which self-describes as “group Facetime” for iPhone users.

Facebook issued the survey to find teenagers who would come to Facebook headquarters to participate in a study about “texting and messaging apps,” including Houseparty. They offered participants $275 in Amazon gift cards to participate.

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the survey was legit, and was part of the company’s “ongoing effort to better understand how different groups of people use different technology products, including video messaging.” Facebook runs these studies “all the time,” she added.

The survey was issued just a few months after reports that Houseparty raised $50 million in new venture funding.

Facebook

While it’s clear Facebook is taking an interest in group video apps, it’s unclear what they plan to do about it. Facebook has a history of copying trends that seem to be on the rise, especially among teenagers.

You may remember it tried to copy Snapchat’s disappearing messages concept on multiple occasions back when the app was still young, and when anonymous messaging apps like Secret and Whisper were on the rise, Facebook rolled out an anonymous chat app of its own called Rooms.

The folks behind Houseparty know this well. Before Houseparty existed, the company’s main product was a live video streaming app called Meerkat.

CEO Ben Rubin basically threw in the towel on live video broadcasting in part because Facebook’s live video efforts were starting to pick up and Twitter had recently bought a rival service, Periscope.

So it’s possible that a survey like this means Facebook is preparing to get into group video calls — it already offers group video on Messenger, but not in the same jump-in, jump-out kind of way that Houseparty allows.

It’s also possible that Facebook could look to make an acquisition in this space, though the company tends to start with a build versus buy mentality when it comes to new consumer features.

It’s even possible this survey means little, and that Facebook learned that it doesn’t care about group video chats after all. (If you know more about this, please reach out!)

When we asked Houseparty about the survey, a spokesperson thanked Facebook for doing the research and said, “We’re looking forward to seeing the results!”

We also asked Houseparty if they’ve met with Facebook, and the same spokesperson replied the two companies have “had a few friendly chats about the future of live video,” though didn’t elaborate further.

Facebook, on the other hand, says it doesn’t plan to share any of the results from its study and declined to say whether or not it was still ongoing or if the results were influencing Facebook’s products.

Facebook didn’t immediately get back to a question about meeting with Houseparty, though it’s common for big tech companies to bring in startups to both vet them, but also just learn what they’re building.

The Facebook has been under investigation in the Netherlands and France

Facebook has been found to have violated data privacy rules in France and the Netherlands. 

The company has been fined €150,000 by France’s privacy watchdog, the maximum amount permitted by French law when the investigation started in 2014.

“The investigations conducted by the CNIL have revealed several failures,” it revealed in a statement. “In particular it has been observed that FACEBOOK proceeded to a massive compilation of personal data of Internet users in order to display targeted advertising. 

“It has also been noticed that FACEBOOK collected data on browsing activity of internet users on third-party websites, via the “datr” cookie, without their knowledge.”

The CNIL announcement also referenced similar investigations into Facebook’s activities in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and the German city of Hamburg.

The investigation in the Netherlands hasn’t resulted in a fine for Facebook, but the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) says it may “issue a sanction” if the company continues to violate privacy laws in the country.

“The company breaches Dutch data protection law including by giving users insufficient information about the use of their personal data,” it announced. 

“The Dutch DPA has also found that the Facebook Group uses sensitive personal data from users without their explicit consent. For example, data relating to sexual preferences were used to show targeted advertisements.”

Facebook has now stopped that practice, says the DPA, but it's still assessing whether the company's other violations have stopped.

Last year, France’s CNIL gave Facebook three months to stop tracking the online activities of non-users without their consent.

 

 

Its investigation has found that Facebook did not “provide direct information to internet users concerning their rights and the use that will be made of their data”, did not “allow users to validly oppose to cookies placed on their terminal equipment” and did not “demonstrate the need to retain the entirety of IP addresses of users all along the life of their account”.

Facebook disagrees with the CNIL ruling.

“We take note of the CNIL’s decision with which we respectfully disagree,” a Facebook spokesperson told Reuters.

“At Facebook, putting people in control of their privacy is at the heart of everything we do. Over recent years, we've simplified our policies further to help people understand how we use information to make Facebook better.”

Facebook’s Fact Checking Can Make Fake News Spread Even Faster

After acknowledging that it has a problem with fake news, Facebook introduced a feature recently that flags certain posts as "disputed." In some cases, however, this appears to be having the opposite effect to the one Facebook intended.

According to a report by The Guardian, the tagging of fake news is not consistent, and some stories that have been flagged continue to circulate without a warning. In other cases, traffic to fake news posts actually increased after Facebook applied the warning.

Facebook started rolling out the new feature last month, as part of a partnership with a group of external fact-checking sites, including Snopes.com, ABC News, and Politifact.

When a user tries to share links that have been marked as questionable, an alert pops up that says the story in question has been disputed. The alert links to more information about the fact-checking feature and says that "sometimes people share fake news without knowing it."If the user continues to share the link or story anyway, the link is supposed to appear in the news-feeds of other users with a large note that says "disputed," and lists the organizations that flagged it as fake or questionable.
The idea behind the effort was to try to decrease the visibility of hoaxes and fake news, which many Facebook critics believe are spread rapidly by the site's news-feed algorithm.

Thailand backs down on threat to ban Facebook

The government of Thailand has backed down on a threat to ban Facebook if it did not block content deemed to be illegal in the country.

The ruling military junta last week said it would ban the U.S. social network if it did not disable Thailand-based users from being able to access a selection of 131 “illicit” posts, including content that violates lese majeste laws that prevent criticism of the royal family. The government set a deadline of 10:00 am on May 16 for the pages to be blocked, but TechCrunch has verified that the social network remains accessible in the country while Facebook has not censored the pages, according to media reports.
Facebook provided the following statement:

“When governments believe that something on the Internet violates their laws, they may contact companies like Facebook and ask us to restrict access to that content. When we receive such a request, it is scrutinized to determine if the specified content does indeed violate local laws. If we determine that it does, then we make it unavailable in the relevant country or territory and notify people who try to access it why it is restricted.”

A Thai court initially drew up a list of 309 web pages to be censored. A government spokesperson told the Bangkok Post that Facebook had removed 178 of them as of last week.
Facebook isn’t alone in being pushed to censor its pages. Google and YouTube deleted at least 469 web pages in response to recent government requests, according a report from The Nation. Google did not reply to a request for confirmation or comment.
While Thailand hasn’t enforced a ban on Facebook at this time, it did temporarily block the social network in May 2014, one week after the military seized control of the country via a coup. Speaking at the time, it claimed the issue was down to a glitch, however mobile operator DTAC later revealed that it had acted on an order to block the social network.
Facebook opened an office in Thailand in September 2015, and its audience measure tools suggest it has up to 45 million monthly users. That makes it the largest social network in the country by some margin. Rather than risk a public backlash from a full-out block, Thailand has instead pursued a policy of censoring specific pieces of content within the social network.
This year, it has geo-blocked articles that fall within the lese majeste law and it even making it illegal to exchange information with three prominent critics of the regime who are based overseas. Facebook’s own data shows that the firm restricted access to 50 pieces of content in Thailand during 2016.
In its most recent annual report, Freedom House, a U.S.-based think tank that monitors global web freedom, noted that Thailand’s internet and media are “not free.” The organization cited the jailing of citizens for interacting with Facebook posts and plans for a single national internet gateway to facilitate censorship among its key concerns.