Three Google Maps Tips for Easy Travels

In today’s time, any traveler cannot afford to miss to download Google Maps app on their iPhone or Android smartphone while visiting any new place. In the past few months, Google has added more value added features to make this app more handy and efficient for its users.

Consider the following Google Maps’ tips and tricks compiled by  Jovago Pakistan  that will help you make your next  holiday destination more navigable.

Offline Mode for Google Maps
This feature is available for both iPhone and Android smartphone users. Through this, you may simply save maps of your desired destination while at home when you have access to internet and later access it offline. This would help you to greatly save on the mobile internet packages and help you efficiently allocate your  limited travel budget  on things that you desire to purchase.

Share location with your friends
Most people are still unaware of this functionality of the App. Suppose you want to share your location details with your friend in a foreign land but you are unable to describe your current location. In this kind of a situation, all you need to do is press the geo-locate icon on your app and then press and hold on that location to drop a pin on a map. By swiping on the display to bring secondary menu, you can tap on ‘Share’ option to share your location with anyone you desire.

Voice Search
In order to facilitate the consumers, this app offers the option of searching any surrounding location or destination by simply calling out the name of the place aloud. This saves a traveler from the hassles of excessive texting while travelling. By simply tapping the microphone option on the search bar and voicing your desired destination, Google Maps provides a range of appropriate results for your query.

Did we miss any tips and tricks that can help a traveler? Share with us in the comments below!

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Google Doing more on diversity

When Google (We) released the composition of our workforce almost a year ago, it confirmed what many people suspected: the tech industry needs to do a lot more when it comes to diversity. Since then, the question I get asked most is—so what are you doing about it? 

You may have heard about some of the work we’ve been doing: embedding engineers at Historically Black Colleges and Universities; partnering with Hollywood to inspire girls to pursue careers in computer science; building local initiatives to introduce coding to high school students from diverse communities; and expanding our employee unconscious bias training. 

But these programs represent only a sampling of all the work that is going on behind the scenes. If we’re really going to make an impact, we need a holistic plan. Today, we want to share our diversity strategy, which is focused on four key areas: 




Hire diverse Googlers: In the past, our university-focused hiring programs have relied heavily on a relatively small number of schools. But, we know those schools aren't always the most diverse. For example, while 14% of Hispanic college enrollment is at 4-year schools, Hispanics make up just 7% at the 200 most selective schools. In the past two years, we've doubled the number of schools where we recruit, to promote student diversity. This year, nearly 20 percent of the hires we make from a university are from these new campuses.

Foster a fair and inclusive culture: We want to ensure that we have an environment where all Googlers can thrive. We’ve raised awareness around unconscious bias—half of all Googlers have participated in our unconscious bias workshops—and we’ve now rolled out a hands-on workshop that provides practical tips for addressing bias when we see it. We’re also drawing on the idea of 20 percent time to enable employees to use their time at work to focus on diversity projects. In 2015, more than 500 Googlers will participate in Diversity Core, a formal program in which employees contribute—as part of their job—to the company’s diversity efforts. 

Expand the pool of technologists: Making computer science (CS) education accessible and available to everyone is one of our most important initiatives. Our CS First program is designed to help anyone—a teacher, a coach, or volunteer—teach kids the basics of coding. And since research tells us that to inspire more girls, we need to show them that computer science isn’t just for boys, we started Made with Code—and we’re working with the entertainment industry to change the perceptions around CS and what it means to be a computer scientist.

Bridge the digital divide: We also want more underrepresented communities, including women and minorities, to share the benefits of the web, and to have access to the economic engine it provides. The Accelerate with Google Academy helps business owners get online, grow and drive economic impact. 

With an organization of our size, meaningful change will take time. From one year to the next, bit by bit, our progress will inch forward. More importantly, our industry will become more inclusive, and the opportunities for currently underrepresented groups will grow. We’ll share our updated diversity data for 2015 soon. We’re gradually making progress across these four areas, and we’re in it for the long term.

Via Google Official Blog

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Google Introduces 'Project Fi' Wireless Service

As expected, Google today rolled out its new wireless service, dubbed Project Fi, which will initially be an invite-only service restricted to theNexus 6.

Rather than build its own network, Google will rely on Wi-Fi hotspots and cellular service from T-Mobile and Sprint for connectivity. The company said your phone will connect to the strongest signal in a given area, and move between then seamlessly. You can shut off Wi-Fi like any other phone, but Google recommends you keep it on.

Google said it has "verified" more than 1 million free, open Wi-Fi hotspots as fast and reliable. Once connected, "your data is secured through encryption," Google said. "It's like your data has a private tunnel to drive through."

Project Fi will cost $20 per month for basic service (talk, text, Wi-Fi tethering, and international coverage in 120+ countries), and an additional $10 per GB (1GB for $10, $20 for 2GB, and so on). If you don't use that data, Google said it will issue a refund.

"Let's say you go with 3GB for $30 and only use 1.4GB one month. You'll get $16 back, so you only pay for what you use," Google said.

There are no annual commitments with Project Fi; at this point, Google is offering individual services, no family rates.

If you travel abroad, Project Fi offers unlimited free texts. On cellular, calls will cost 20 cents per minute; on Wi-Fi, it depends on the country.

Phone numbers, meanwhile, live "in the cloud," so you can talk and text on your phone, as well as tablets and PCs. "So the next time you misplace your phone, you can stay connected using another screen," Google said. Incoming calls will ring on devices that are signed into Google Hangouts with your Project Fi account. Outgoing calls can be made on the Hangouts Android and iOS apps, and the Hangouts widget inside Gmail on PC.

You can transfer your existing number to Project Fi, Google said.

Why the Nexus 6? "The Nexus 6 is the first smartphone that supports our network of networks," Google said. "It works with the Project Fi SIM card, which supports multiple cellular networks, and a state-of-the-art cellular radio tuned to work across network types."

You can buy a Nexus 6 directly from Google when you sign up for Project Fi for $649 (32GB) or $699 (64GB). If you already have one, Google will ship a Project Fi-compatible SIM card to you.

That SIM card, Google said, "supports access to multiple networks." The Nexus 6 cellular radio, meanwhile, "works with all the 4G LTE networks in the US and many around the world—unlike the radios in other smartphones which work with [fewer] network types."

In a blog post, T-Mobile CEO John Legere said that "Project Fi is going to make people think differently about wireless—and I love that. Anything that shakes up the industry status quo is a good thing—for both U.S. wireless customers and T-Mobile."

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Expect a Steep Drop in Traffic If You Don’t Have a Mobile-Friendly Website

It is estimated that 60% of online traffic is mobile based and Google's new initiative makes the estimates all the more credible. Google wants to ensure that people have a mobile friendly experience when they use it for queries and for that purpose, it has updated its mobile search algorithm to highlight mobile optimized results.

This won't change much visibly but the algorithm will change search results so that non-mobile friendly websites are demoted while mobile-optimized sites are promoted in results. Keep in mind that Google had already announced the changes a couple of months ago. Furthermore, desktop rankings remain unaffected.

According to Itai Sadan, CEO of a website building company Duda, who spoke to Business Insider:

I think the people who are at risk are those who don't know about it. Come April 21, a lot of small businesses are going to be really surprised that the number of visitors to their websites has dropped significantly. This is going to affect millions of sites on the web.

Sadan thinks that this will also affect websites that rely mostly on localized search which could results being pushed back because they lack the "mobile friendly" stamp. Several European Union websites, Microsoft and even BBC fail Google Mobile Friendly Test developer tool. Webmasters can search for the tool and check to see if their websites are classed as mobile friendly.

Some search engine experts have termed the new ranking method as "Mobilegeddon"

Webmasters need to optimize their websites for mobile screens as pages with small text, links that are difficult for touch screen inputs and similar basic non-touch friendly problems will be demoted in rankings. This includes long page load times as well as graphic intensive websites.

The company stated that:

This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact on our search results.

So webmasters are advised to optimize their websites if they have not done so in the past or they can expect huge drop in visitors reaching their sites. Head over to Google's Mobile Friendly test to see if your site makes the mark or not. If not, better make some changes quickly because the results will start to appear within a week.

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Google Aims to Speed Up the Internet with its QUIC Protocol

If you happen to be a Google Chrome user, you have likely made use of the QUIC protocol before. That's because Google has had QUIC support added to the more recent versions of Google Chrome and you've been testing it for them. Google believes that it has the potential to speed up browsing which is why it's being proposed to Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

What is QUIC?

The mnemonic 'QUIC' stands for Quick UDP Internet Connection. The experimental implementation is a low latency internet protocol which facilitates VoIP services, streaming services and online gaming over UDP. As opposed to it's counterpart TCP, UDP is known to be lightweight in comparsion. This is balanced out with TCP offering a lot more error correction services, though.

How fast are we talking about?

On the usual TCP connection, atleast a couple of round trips are needed before your browser begins to receive data. It's different with QUIC in the sense that the browser responds to the server in no time. Two new added features make it even better than pure UDP. These include: automatic retransmission and congestion control. Congestion control is expected to significantly improve load times for those on slower connections.

How is this beneficial for gaming?

This is especially great news for all those who are into online gaming. Ideally, gamers require low overheads such that the latency can be reduced to the bare minimum. Even if the server is unable to pick the latest mouse click, the player doesn't have squander any more time to remedy that lost second or two since the action continues to progress.

Why doesn't Google look to improve TCP?

That could have been an option if TCP support wasn't directly built into the OS kernels. Since Google has absolutely no control over those, it resorts to experimenting with QUIC instead. It does wish that the features sported by QUIC will prove enough effective to be eventually ported to TCP.

What improvements have been made so far?

Google has reported that so far a 3 percent improvement in mean page load time on Google Search has been recorded while using QUIC. Before you begin to think that sounds far from impressive, bear in mind the fact that Google Search is quite effectively optimized in its current state. Improvements with latency-heavy apps and websites will be more noticeable. For instance, there are 30 percent lesser rebuffers when watching YouTube videos.

If you are interested to see if your internet connection to Google Chrome makes use of the QUIC, install this Chrome extension.

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Google Gives Mobile Search a Tidier Look

Google have announced that they have started replacing the URLs found beneath website titles in mobile search results by the site name and a categorized breadcrumb path. The current roll out is for mobile users only, with an expected wider expansion soon.

Google states that starting from today:

“algorithms that display URLs in the search results to better reflect the names of websites, using the real-world name of the site instead of the domain name, and the URL structure of the sites in a breadcrumbs-like format.”

The procedure has been under testing for several years now and has been seen by several Google search users over the years.

This is a much better presentation of website details as mobile screens are much smaller compared to desktop screens and usually URLs are cut off midway and the viewer can’t know where the page is being retrieved from. This neater manner of presentation will let the users know which section of the particular website they are about to visit.

This change might not effect websites without a layered structure. Websites like Wikipedia, organisational or shopping websites are better suited for this presentation as their URLs can be replaced by their page hierarchy giving easy demonstration of the path used to get to that page from the homepage of the website.

Google has also announced support for schema.org structured data for websites to let the Google algorithms retrieve certain data from websites. The data will include the website name to be used instead of the domain name and the structure of the websites URL as breadcrumbs. Google has provided further details and code examples for web developers and webmasters to better understand how they can employ this structured data scheme.

The changes are rolling out gradually where the ‘.com’ mobile domain will see the change first which has started rolling out, beginning from the US and expanding worldwide. Other Google search country domains will see the change in the second stage of the roll out expected soon but there is no exact timeline provided.

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Google HR boss explains the only 2 ways to keep your best people from quitting

In today's knowledge economy, people are often a company's most valuable asset, and losing talented employees can be extremely expensive.

Laszlo Bock, the SVP of Google's People Operations and author of new book "Work Rules!," told Stephanie Ruhle in a panel interview at Bloomberg on Tuesday that most companies don't know how to hold onto their best people.

"People don't stay for the money," Bock said, noting that more than a third of Google's first 100 employees are still working at the company despite making boatloads of money in its IPO. 

According to Bock, people stay for the following two reasons:

1. The quality of the people they work with

"That's why hiring is so important," he said. Google sets a high standard for everyone it hires. Whether you're applying for an administrative assistant position or that of senior engineer, every candidate is screened by their potential boss, potential colleagues, a hiring committee, and finally Google CEO Larry Page.

2. The feeling that the work they do is meaningful

"People want to do more than just make a buck," Bock said. "People want to do something that means something." Plus, giving employees a sense of purpose has benefits beyond retention. He cited research by Wharton professor Adam Grant that found when people are able to connect their jobs to something meaningful, their productivity increases as much as five times.

Interestingly, the lavish perks that Google is known for — free gourmet meals, in-house massages, and dry cleaning on campus — are nice-to-haves but ultimately not game-changers.

"The dirty secret of all these perks is it doesn't actually retain people or even attract people," Bock said. While the perks may provide efficiency, community, and an inviting atmosphere, he believes they ultimately won't swing people who are thinking about leaving. 

See Also: 

• Do you know the hidden Secrets of Google search: Like Do a barrel roll
• History Of Doodle for Google
• Twitter and Google Finally struck a deal with Twitter

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Microsoft to Offer its Own Payment Solution

By Gulshan Naz: After Apple, Google and Samsung, Microsoft is getting closer to its own payments solution. The so-called "Microsoft Payments" is all but confirmed now and can make an appearance once Windows 10 for phones hits the market.

A similar "tap to pay" feature has already been shown at a Windows hardware partners' conference in China. The service,  like Apple Pay and others uses NFC for payments and supports Host Card Emulation on Windows 10, which means you won't need a SIM card or carrier support in order to carry out transactions.

It's still not known whether some sort of secondary encryption in the form of fingerprint scanners will be mandatory, but Windows 10 does support a wide range of encryption methods, including iris, face and biometric-sensor support.

That's not to say that wireless payments haven't been available on Windows Phones up till now. Microsoft has already partnered with PayPal to support PayPal Here while a few third-party app developers such as Softcard already have their solutions for Redmond's Mobile OS.

However, this will be the first time that Microsoft itself is working as a primary entity in this cause. With a comparatively limited reach until now, it will be interesting to see whether the new service, which will get a formal launch soon catches fire or not.

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History Of Doodle for Google

By Siraj Muneer: As all we know google is a world’s no 1 Search Engine. Hundreds of millions of people rely on Google for everything from web searches and email to finding directions and scheduling our lives. But as often as you use the company’s many great services.

here is Google Doodle Service by Google.

google use first time doodle in 1998. which was actually a modified Google Logo on the Google’s Home Page.

How Doodle Idea Comes Out:

Google’s Founder Larry page and Sergei Brin were going out of the Town to attend the Burning Man festival and they make a Decision to Modified their logo about this festival just for one by doing this on there Home page Logo people can know that that is Fastival about. and the idea become popular. Then google starts making more doodle at any special days. Interesting thing is all those doodle were made by Googlers working in different Department of Google. in those days if any one have good idea they come up and created something and put up one the Home page.

Until 2009 All google Doodle were static Images or a GIFs Image.

In 2009 Kristopher Hom join Google as an Engineer. but he was not a part of Doodle Department in 2009 Google hired some Illustrators and artists especially for Doodle Department.

When Google Puts first Animated Doodle?

One day Hom and doodle team were sitting in same department and Hom were busy in playing  with animations and doodle team were seeing him and they ask to Hom if you are interesting in creating an animation for The Home Page. he agreed and create a First animated Newton Doodle for google’s Home Page.

blow a Picture of first Newton Doodle.

(Picture)

The Newton Doodle was very simple. And yet, it conveyed the idea beautifully. first it appeared on google’s Website in 2010 to mark the birthday of Isaac Newton, the doodle showed Google logo with a branch of an apple tree. A few seconds on the page and then it showed an apple falling down.

Doodle team liked it very much and get positive feedback from visitors. and offers Hom to do it again.

Doodle team starts creating animated doodle with Hom and he creates some interesting doodles like Pacman Doodle at its 30th anniversary it was actually a game and he faces more difficulties to keep them responsive for all users.

Hom says doodle is a bid to surprise user in a pleasant way. google doodle don’t put doodle Daily but when they do it HOPE to delight and surprise users.

google also celebrates important dates with Doodle.doodle team want to happy everyone in just 10 second.

Google have just one team for creating doodles which is setting on mountain view office in USA.

One a Local Googler have a Idea for New Doodle they pass the Idea to Doodle team in USA.

Google Doodle In Pakistan:

First Times in pakistan Google decide to celebrate Pakistan’s Independence day with Google Doodle here is first Doodle for pakistan blow

(Picture)

After that Google Doodle Continues to Celebrate Pakistan’s Important Dates with doodle

Google Doodle on Mourn Of Peshawar Incident

When Taliban gunmen attacked an army run public school in Peshawer, killing dozens of children. All nation were crying and everyone showing their Solidarity.   Then google Decide to show solidarity with the martyrs By light a Candle for Peshawar in Google Home Page. See Picture Blow

(Picture)

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Twitter and Google Finally struck a deal with Twitter

Once Twitter started taking off back in 2009 and 2010, there was a lot of speculation about how their platform would affect Google. Over the years, speculation has ranged from tweets becoming a leading SEO factor to Google actually buying the company.

While there have been plenty of signs that point towards correlations between content that performs well on Twitter doing the same in Google rankings, there have continued to be obstacles for Google to fully utilize all of the new data that is created on Twitter.

Specifically, Google had to use their bots to crawl through this massive amount of data. As a result, Google was only able to include a portion of Twitter’s total data in search results. However, as of today, the two companies have officially struck a deal to show tweets in Google search results.

The Details of the Deal

Over the last couple of years, there have been several examples of Twitter limiting apps’ access to their platform. In some cases, they have actually banned apps from the platform despite them being very popular.

Because of those actions, some industry experts were skeptical about Twitter and Google ever coming to terms on working together. But based on this deal, it looks like Twitter may be taking a different approach to business.

While engineers from both companies are still working to implement this change, the result will be tweets showing up in Google search results as soon as they’re published. As you may have already realized, this means that Twitter activity is likely to have a direct impact on search engine visibility.

The most surprising component of this deal is that no advertising revenue is involved. Instead, it’s believed that Twitter will be compensated in the form of data-licensing revenue.

The Easiest Way to Harness Social Media for Your Business

Although we’re well past the stage of most businesses viewing social media as a trend, that doesn’t mean it’s become any easier to fully harness the marketing power of these platforms.

In fact, as social media platforms have grown, matured and become more complex, it’s gotten more difficult for businesses to find the time and resources to dedicate to these channels.

Since this deal is yet another clear reminder of the influence that social media has on the entire Internet, it can be frustrating to realize that your business isn’t fully utilizing social media. However, things don’t have to remain that way.

The post SEO Game Changer – Twitter and Google Finally Agree to a Search Deal appeared first on Web Strategy Plus.

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Google Release 5.1 update to Android Lollipop

By Gulshan Naz: Google rolled out "tasty additions" to its Android Lollipop mobile operating system, adding some new capabilities like multiple-SIM card support. First major update to Android 5.0 Lollipop to supported devices, including Motorola's Nexus 6 and HTC's Nexus 9.

Android 5.1 "improves stability and performance" in phones and tablets running Lollipop, Google Android Platform executive Dave Burke said

The Device Protection feature is Google's answer to Apple's Activation Lock and works on the same anti-theft idea. It basically makes stolen phones "useless" to whoever took it. The feature will keep your stolen device locked unless you sign in with your Google account, even if someone resets your device to factory settings.

There are some additional new capabilities made possible with the update, including "crystal-clear" HD Voice calling between phones running Android 5.1 and serviced by T-Mobile and Verizon, and the addition of controls in Quick Settings letting users join Wi-Fi networks and manage paired Bluetooth devices.

Device Protection would be "available on most Android phones and tablets shipped with Android 5.1" as well as in Nexus 6 Phablets and Nexus 9 slates which are upgraded with the software update. Google exec said

Benchmarking and crash testing of the patched version has resulted in positive reviews for Lollipop, though as of early March, research suggested that Android 5.0 was only running on 3 percent of Android phones.

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One of the Best Emotional Advertisement by Google for India Pakistan

Post by paktechinsider.

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