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Google’s New Strategy In Hitting Next Billion Internet Users

February 20, 2016 By Chen Lai Leave a Comment

The tech press is gossiping about Google’s new strategy in hitting next billion users, by opening an engineering hub in Singapore. That’s not all. The company also announced it acquired the startup Pie, which makes a mobile workplace chat app similar to Slack.

Although many people don’t think of this, we take the internet for granted. With smartphones giving us quick access to the information that we either need or want to view, we forget that this technology has literally been with us since the early 2000’s. A lot of us may get upset when we lose internet connection, but the true reality of it all is that while we’re busy surfing the web and getting upset when a YouTube video clocks out, people across the world are for the first time using the internet.

A report from the UN says that 300 Million people stepped into the online world for the first time last year which made 2015 the year that the most people were using the internet. For the many people who fall in that large sum of new users, accessing the internet isn’t as easy as one may think. People that live in countries like India, Indonesia, and the Philippines have a much more difficult time trying to gain access to sites due to poor service.

In addition for many first time internet users their only source for retrieving internet is through a budget smartphone and paying to connect cost a lot of money. To add insult to injury, loading websites on these budget phones isn’t nearly as quick as ours, taking long minutes to load.

Now that we’ve pictured that in our heads, let’s switch to the actual news. Google wants to try and help out and fix these issues by constructing an engineering team, so they can get closer to the next billion internet users that will soon come online.

However, the project has already started with the acquihire of Pie.co.

Founded in 2013, Pie is a Singapore-based startup providing tools for work specializing in messaging software that employees use at the office. Their idea is to make work much more fun and engaging along with enhanced communication at work. Pie believes that ‘all software should be fun, fast, and easy to use.’ The team, which comprises nine members, is led by founder and CEO Thijs Jacobs.

As a result of the deal, Pie will cease its operations on March 2, after which it will fully integrate with Google. Also, the acquisition was undisclosed – both Pie founder and CEO Pieter Walraven and Google declined to comment on the price of the deal.

This is not where the story ends. In conjunction with this deal, Google has also committed to help train developers. Indonesian President Joko Widodo is visiting the company in Mountain View, and Google has offered support in helping to train up a generation of software developers. The target is 100,000 Indonesian developers by 2020.

Google notes that its target will be reached using a three-step approach.

Firstly, it will partner with universities to reach senior year computer science students, offering them a full semester curriculum focussed on creating Android apps.

Secondly, Google’s Udacity courses will be translated into Bahasa Indonesia. These courses are free and can be taken anywhere, from any device. Translating these courses in to a local language will make it easier for the country’s aspiring developers to get going with building their app ideas. Or, at least, that’s Google’s hope.

Finally, Google plans to hold Developer Study Jams. They’ll host these intensive study groups across five cities: Bandung, Jakarta, Semarang, Surabaya and Yogyakarta.

To sum up, this is the latest from the technology company as it continues on its mission to standardize information from all over the world and making it both universally available and helpful.

Image Source: slashgear.com.

Google Shuts Down All Its Russian Engineering Offices

December 15, 2014 By Deborah Nielsen Leave a Comment

Google announced that it intends to close all its engineering offices in Russia. However, the biggest tech giant said that it will “remain committed” to its Russian users.

The company informed that it has transferred engineers to other countries. Merely a few workers will stay there to control the sales, support, communication and marketing of the company.

A new internet rule of Russia compels Google to relocate its engineers. Currently, around 50 engineers work in the engineering offices of Google located in Russia. However, after the execution of the law Google gives a choice to engineers whether they want to move with the company or not.

Russia is a strict country when it comes to the laws designed to control the Internet activities. At the start of 2014, Russian government proposed a rule that compel the internet firms to store citizen’s personal data in Russia.

A few months ago, Russian parliament implemented the new regulation regarding the internet firms.

The authorities inform that this law is specially formed to ensure the data protection. However, some analysts state that it is a clever attempt of officials to block particular sites through this law.

Generally, tech firms store users’ data in different data storage facilities. The storage houses of the companies are situated all around the globe. It indicates that it is pretty difficult for the tech companies to store data in the same country.

A spokesman of Google refused to disclose the reason behind this action.

U.S. Jobless Claims Drop by 10000 to Hit a 14-Year Low

November 6, 2014 By Jason Leathers 1 Comment

As per the recent reports revealed, fewer people have applied for the unemployment benefits in the U.S. last week, which is a sign that the job market continues to improve.

“ The weekly applications fell 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 278,000. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, declined 2,250 to 279,000, the lowest level in more than 14 years,” Labor Department said Thursday.

These applications are a substitute for layoffs and have fallen 18.5% in the past year, which implies rising economic confidence among businesses, causing them to keep their workers and potentially look to hire more employees.

Jesse Hurwitz, a Barclays research economist, wrote via e-mailed analysis, “The Labor Department noted no special factors in this week’s report. The continued downward trend for initial and continuing claims is consistent with solid labor market improvement; though, given that this week’s report corresponds to the period after the survey week for the October payrolls report, our forecast for nonfarm payroll gains of 225,000 in tomorrow’s report remains unchanged.”

The turn down in applications is overlapping with stronger hiring this year.

In 2014, employers have added an average of 227,000 jobs a month, up from an average of 194,000 last year. Over the past year, employers have added 2.64 million jobs, the best showing since April 2006. The unemployment rate has fallen to 5.9%, a six-year low.

As per the Friday’s report, 230,000 jobs were added in the month of October, economists say. The rate of unemployment is projected to hold stable.

Payroll Processer ADP said Wednesday, U.S. companies added 230,000 jobs in October. The result was the highest in 4 months and an indication that businesses are still willing to hire in spite of slow growth signs overseas. Normally, job gains above 200,000 are enough to lower the unemployment rate.

Still, the improvement in hiring has yet to translate into higher wages. Average wages have grown slightly faster than inflation. According to Sentier Research Median, annual household income at $54,045 remains 4.6% lower than incomes when the recession began in late 2007.

The government’s job report on Friday revealed a healthy pace of hiring. The ADP numbers cover only private businesses and sometimes diverge from the government’s more comprehensive report.

According to a survey by FactSet, economists predict that the government’s report will show that all employers, including government agencies, also added 230,000 jobs in October.

The job gains in the ADP report were broad-based: Construction firms added a solid 28,000 jobs last month, while manufacturing gained 15,000 positions. Professional and business services, which include mostly higher-paying positions such as accountants and engineers, gained 53,000.

Regardless of some hiccup in economic growth, hiring has been strong this year. In 2014, employers have added an average of 227,000 jobs a month that puts this year on pace to be the strongest year for job creation since 1999.

Snake Robots: Slithering Machines Could Help Search & Rescue Missions

October 10, 2014 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

Meet the sidewinder rattlesnake robot! This motorized serpent can actually move across sandy surfaces, both flat and inclined, an exploit that has escaped engineers so far.

Recently, the team of Georgia tech researchers has portrayed for the first time how sidewinder rattlesnakes also known as Crotalus Cerastes, move across a challenging sandy mound. The study is published in the ‘Science’ journal.

“We observed snakes on an artificial mound, finding that the snakes often flatten themselves on the steeper slopes to increase their contact with the sand,” researchers stated.

Likewise, the researchers tested the new insights with the help of a robotic snake and described the best strategy for the snakes that how to balance the sandy slope without slipping.The unhinged, grainy surfaces such as sand mounds cause a scrupulous problem for animals and robots trying to traverse them, researchers says.

Dr Daniel Goldman, senior author, who runs a biomechanics lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology stated, “We actually hypothesized the way snakes could climb will be by digging out their bodies deep into the sand, the same as we would do on a sandy slope.”

However, that’s not what he and his colleagues found, but as they painted reflective markers vigilantly on to 6 noxious rattlesnakes and put them in tilting sand, which they call home.

Dr. Goldman told BBC, “The most striking thing for us was how nice these animals are as subjects, they lean to just sidewind on command.”

Another surprise, captured by our high-resolution video cameras was that rather than digging in for extra purchase, these rattlesnakes trampled themselves smoothly against the sandy surface, every time we skewed the ‘mound’ more orderly.

Dr. Goldman and his colleagues also contacted robotics engineers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in order to test out their results in detail.

Researchers have long worked on snakelike robots, potentially useful for traversing rough terrain or entering damaged buildings in search of survivors. One such robot built by Howie Choset, a roboticist at Carnegie Mellon University and co-author of the study, was deployed on an archaeological mission to search ancient Egyptian caves thought to hold artifacts that were thousands of years old. However, Elizabeth, a robot, which had failed in Egypt, slipping and falling on a steep slope in an archaeological site.

So, the robotic engineers took Elizabeth to the artificial mound that Dr. Goldman and his team had built in a shed out back of Atlanta Zoo in order to see what they could learn. Not surprisingly, the robot’s performance improved.

Andrew Graham, who is the technical director at Bristol Company (OC Robotics), particularly specializes in snake like robots. He stated that, though the Carnegie Mellon team was quite famous for their sidewinding designs, the novel study was a thorough examination of the efficacy of the process.

He further told BBC News, “They have looked deeply into the entire matter, end to end, and illustrated the application of what they have observed in nature to a robotic model.”

He added that these new rattlesnake insights would possibly help Prof Choset’s robots to become more effective and applicable to distinctive environments.

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