Google has released a new Google Earth VR service as well as an update to Google Allo which it says will help people make and use better emojis.
Lets start with Google Earth VR. The company is now offering people the ability to see the world without having to leave their homes through 360 degree imaging. Just put on your virtual reality goggles and let Google take you to see Paris, London, Rome, Tokyo and all of the other great cities of the world. Have you always wanted to see what the Grand Canyon looks like up close, but cannot afford the trip? Well now you can.
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Earth VR offers cinematic tours and hand-picked destinations.
Google stated in a blog post, “Ten years ago, Google Earth began as an effort to help people everywhere explore our planet. And now, with more than two billion downloads, many have. Today, we are introducing Google Earth VR as our next step to help the world see the world. With Earth VR, you can fly over a city, stand at the top of the highest peaks, and even soar into space.”
So now we are one step closer to having holodecks which recreate real locations like they have on Star Trek.
How about emojis? You know those silly little graphics which you can add to an email or a social media post that tell people how you are feeling. They let readers know if you are just kidding about something or if you are in a bad mood.
Google says that it is so hard for people to find the right emoji that the ones available are only used 3% of the time.
https://twitter.com/google/status/798957703251054592
So the company says that a new feature added to Google Allo will make it easier to find and send “the perfect emoji or sticker.” If you tap the “Smart Smiley” button as you’re typing a message, Google will suggest relevant emojis and stickers to help you finish your thought. For example, for food you will see ?, ?, or ?.
Google has also also added a new feature which it boasts will help users to find new sticker packs. When someone sends you a sticker from a pack which you do not have yet, you can tap on that sticker to download the entire pack.
https://twitter.com/google/status/798645154953367552
As for Google translate, this week the company activated Neural Machine Translation. This offers a total of eight language pairs to and from English and French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Turkish. The company states that these languages represent the native tongues of about one-third of the world’s population, covering more than 35% of all Google Translate queries.
The company said in a blog post, “With this update, Google Translate is improving more in a single leap than we’ve seen in the last ten years combined. But this is just the beginning. While we’re starting with eight language pairs within Google Search the Google Translate app, and website; our goal is to eventually roll Neural Machine Translation out to all 103 languages and surfaces where you can access Google Translate.”
Finally, Google is responding to all of the complaints about fake news stories coming up in searches. These complaints have increased in the wake of the American Presidential election results.
Earlier this week the tech giant said that it was taking action to block websites which have misleading or false news content from using its AdSense advertising system. This would not only deny lesser known web sites a much needed revenue stream, but also push them much lower down on Google search results.
The world’s number one search engine and maker of the Android operating system released a statement saying, “Moving forward, we will restrict ad serving on pages that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information about the publisher, the publisher’s content, or the primary purpose of the web property.”
Wow that sure is a lot for one week. Google is continuing its march to running just about everything and it isn’t even twenty years old yet.
