Author Archives: Nabil Naghdy

New features in Jamboard to help you make the best of your jams

A few months have passed since we first released Jamboard—Google’s cloud-based, collaborative whiteboard. Since then, our engineering and product teams have been developing new features to make your jam sessions even better.

For those of you new to Jamboard, check out this video. For those of you who have been testing Jamboard with your teams, here are eight new updates to help you jam even easier.

1. Use Jamboard in Canada and the U.K. now.

Starting today, you can use Jamboard to collaborate with teammates in Canada and the United Kingdom. This means that your Chicago office can have a product development working session with their Toronto counterparts, or your marketing team in New York can redline the latest website proposal live with the London headquarters. Of course, any team can still view and participate remotely via the Jamboard iOS or Android apps.

2. Duplicate and select objects on Jamboard easier.

Now, you can duplicate objects on your Jamboard screen or mobile device. Select an object and click on the duplicate icon on the upper right-hand corner. You can also select drawings and objects—like post-its, stickers, and images—and easily move or resize them using the “Lasso” selection tool.

Object dupblication GIF: G Suite

3. Try out “Glide Typing.”

Jamboard now offers “Glide Typing”—a way to type by swiping your finger across letters on your keyboard—so you can add text to a jam even quicker.

4. Share your work with teammates fast.

Ready to get feedback on a project from colleagues? Click “Add people” in the Jamboard app, and it will auto-suggest contacts based on history, matching address book contacts and your email domain. When you add an individual, they receive a notification in their email just like in Google Docs.

5. Redline text to edit jams like you would on paper, but better.

You now have the option to edit text within jams using the stylus. To delete, simply strike over a letter you’d like to remove from a word. To insert letters, write them either above or below the word and draw a small arrow to insert them. To merge, select a text object and drag it to another text object. Check it out.

Jamboard deletion
Delete text in Jamboard using your stylist pen.
Object insertion: Jamboard
Insert text in Jamboard by drawing a caret.
Merge text in Jamboard
Merge text by dragging a text object near another object on Jamboard.

6. Add your favorite GIFs.

Jamboard now supports adding GIF images via Google Drive, so you can add dynamic images to your jams. Or, you know, a team pick-me-up.

7. Move objects to adjacent jam frames.

By popular demand, objects can now be moved to adjacent jam frames or pages. Just select and glide the image toward the left or right edge of your screen.

Adjacent: Jamboard
Move objects adjacent to other images or text on Jamboard.

8. Additional reporting for Jamboard admins.

For the G Suite admins out there, you can now see historical data for Wi-Fi network strength (RSSI), Wi-Fi network speed and board online/offline status in the Jamboard Admin console.

Start jamming

Creative agencies, professional services companies and teams in a variety of industries are using Jamboard to collaborate from different locations more effectively.  For a full list of Jamboard updates, check out What’s New in Jamboard, or you can visit google.com/jamboard to see how you can start jamming with your colleagues today.

New features in Jamboard to help you make the best of your jams

A few months have passed since we first released Jamboard—Google’s cloud-based, collaborative whiteboard. Since then, our engineering and product teams have been developing new features to make your jam sessions even better.

For those of you new to Jamboard, check out this video. For those of you who have been testing Jamboard with your teams, here are eight new updates to help you jam even easier.

1. Use Jamboard in Canada and the U.K. now.

Starting today, you can use Jamboard to collaborate with teammates in Canada and the United Kingdom. This means that your Chicago office can have a product development working session with their Toronto counterparts, or your marketing team in New York can redline the latest website proposal live with the London headquarters. Of course, any team can still view and participate remotely via the Jamboard iOS or Android apps.

2. Duplicate and select objects on Jamboard easier.

Now, you can duplicate objects on your Jamboard screen or mobile device. Select an object and click on the duplicate icon on the upper right-hand corner. You can also select drawings and objects—like post-its, stickers, and images—and easily move or resize them using the “Lasso” selection tool.

3. Try out “Glide Typing.”

Jamboard now offers “Glide Typing”—a way to type by swiping your finger across letters on your keyboard—so you can add text to a jam even quicker.

4. Share your work with teammates fast.

Ready to get feedback on a project from colleagues? Click “Add people” in the Jamboard app, and it will auto-suggest contacts based on history, matching address book contacts and your email domain. When you add an individual, they receive a notification in their email just like in Google Docs.

5. Redline text to edit jams like you would on paper, but better.

You now have the option to edit text within jams using the stylus. To delete, simply strike over a letter you’d like to remove from a word. To insert letters, write them either above or below the word and draw a small arrow to insert them. To merge, select a text object and drag it to another text object. Check it out.

6. Add your favorite GIFs.

Jamboard now supports adding GIF images via Google Drive, so you can add dynamic images to your jams. Or, you know, a team pick-me-up.

7. Move objects to adjacent jam frames.

By popular demand, objects can now be moved to adjacent jam frames or pages. Just select and glide the image toward the left or right edge of your screen.

8. Additional reporting for Jamboard admins.

For the G Suite admins out there, you can now see historical data for Wi-Fi network strength (RSSI), Wi-Fi network speed and board online/offline status in the Jamboard Admin console.

Start jamming

Creative agencies, professional services companies and teams in a variety of industries are using Jamboard to collaborate from different locations more effectively.  For a full list of Jamboard updates, check out What’s New in Jamboard, or you can visit google.com/jamboard to see how you can start jamming with your colleagues today.

Source: Google Cloud


New ways to make trip planning easier and cheaper

Everyone loves a good deal—especially when it comes to travel. That’s why last year we added tips on how to save money to Google Flights and hotel search on Google. Being flexible on travel dates and where to stay helps save money when planning a trip—so now we’re adding more ways to explore dates, airports and hotel locations to help you save when you have a bit of wiggle room in your itinerary.

Pick travel dates that are less expensive

Three out of five people who have planned a vacation in the last year said they’d be open to changing travel dates if it would save them money.1 We already show tips when it’s possible to get a lower price by shifting dates slightly; in fact, almost 10 percent of the time that a Google Flights user sees a tip, they choose to change their original travel dates.2

In order to make flight prices—and potential savings—easier to find for a wide range of dates, we’ve added more price insights to Google Flights. Tap on “Dates” to see the calendar view of date combinations with the cheapest prices highlighted in green and the most expensive in red. Or if you have a certain length of trip in mind, the price graph allows you to see how airfare varies over time. Just swipe left to see more dates.

Flight insights dates and price graph

These new flight insights are now available on mobile and will be rolling out to Google Flights on desktop later this year.

We’ve also added new features to help you find the cheapest dates to reserve a hotel. When choosing dates for a specific hotel, you’ll now see the nightly rate in the calendar view. Or you can check out price trends for a hotel to see how rates change over time.

Hotel search price trends

Consider nearby airports or hotel locations to decrease costs

Did you know that there are 10 major airports within three hours of New York City? Sometimes just changing the airport you’re flying through can make a big difference in the price you pay. In fact, for more than 25 percent of flight searches you can get a better price by choosing an alternate airport.3

Now you can see all nearby airports on an interactive map, view the distance between each one and your final destination, and select the most convenient airports to include in your results. This shows you all your airport options, offers more flights to choose from, and might save you a few dollars, too.

Flight insights airports tab

When you’re trying to choose a hotel, you can now see hotel prices on a map to quickly identify the best areas and hotels for both your budget and itinerary needs. You may find that a hotel just around the corner from a museum you’re interested in is available at a great price.

Hotel prices in maps

When it comes to travel planning, flexibility pays off. Search for flights and hotels on Google to save time and money planning your next trip, so you can focus on the journey ahead.

1 Google Surveys n= 467 U.S. people 18+ who planned a vacation in the last year, July 2017.
2Google Flights data, Global, July 2017.
3Google Flights data, Global, July 2017.


Source: Travel


New ways to make trip planning easier and cheaper

Everyone loves a good deal—especially when it comes to travel. That’s why last year we added tips on how to save money to Google Flights and hotel search on Google. Being flexible on travel dates and where to stay helps save money when planning a trip—so now we’re adding more ways to explore dates, airports and hotel locations to help you save when you have a bit of wiggle room in your itinerary.

Pick travel dates that are less expensive

Three out of five people who have planned a vacation in the last year said they’d be open to changing travel dates if it would save them money.1 We already show tips when it’s possible to get a lower price by shifting dates slightly; in fact, almost 10 percent of the time that a Google Flights user sees a tip, they choose to change their original travel dates.2

In order to make flight prices—and potential savings—easier to find for a wide range of dates, we’ve added more price insights to Google Flights. Tap on “Dates” to see the calendar view of date combinations with the cheapest prices highlighted in green and the most expensive in red. Or if you have a certain length of trip in mind, the price graph allows you to see how airfare varies over time. Just swipe left to see more dates.

Flight insights dates and price graph

These new flight insights are now available on mobile and will be rolling out to Google Flights on desktop later this year.

We’ve also added new features to help you find the cheapest dates to reserve a hotel. When choosing dates for a specific hotel, you’ll now see the nightly rate in the calendar view. Or you can check out price trends for a hotel to see how rates change over time.

Hotel search price trends

Consider nearby airports or hotel locations to decrease costs

Did you know that there are 10 major airports within three hours of New York City? Sometimes just changing the airport you’re flying through can make a big difference in the price you pay. In fact, for more than 25 percent of flight searches you can get a better price by choosing an alternate airport.3

Now you can see all nearby airports on an interactive map, view the distance between each one and your final destination, and select the most convenient airports to include in your results. This shows you all your airport options, offers more flights to choose from, and might save you a few dollars, too.

Flight insights airports tab

When you’re trying to choose a hotel, you can now see hotel prices on a map to quickly identify the best areas and hotels for both your budget and itinerary needs. You may find that a hotel just around the corner from a museum you’re interested in is available at a great price.

Hotel prices in maps

When it comes to travel planning, flexibility pays off. Search for flights and hotels on Google to save time and money planning your next trip, so you can focus on the journey ahead.

1 Google Surveys n= 467 U.S. people 18+ who planned a vacation in the last year, July 2017.
2Google Flights data, Global, July 2017.
3Google Flights data, Global, July 2017.


From Uganda to Korea—teaching English, one chat at a time

As part of our series of interviews with entrepreneurs across Asia Pacific who use the internet to grow, we sat down with Tella founder and CEO, Yuha Jin. Tella provides one-on-one English-language tutoring through mobile chats for Korean students. Now in its third year, the startup teaches more than 2,000 Korean students while providing an avenue of employment for talented Ugandan college graduates, all while leveraging machine learning to get the job done. 

I am a Tella tutor
Founder and CEO Yuha Jin, third from the right, with members of her Tella team in Uganda

What led you to start Tella?
I’ve always wanted to make an impact, and I really like to do work no one has really done yet. In college, I studied social enterprise and became interested in startups. Six years ago, I spent three  weeks in East Africa, helping a friend’s missionary group. While there, I learned there are many college graduates who are fluent in English and other languages, but they’re unemployed.  

It’s always exciting to see how a problem can be solved if it’s viewed as a business opportunity. That’s how I thought of linking online English language education needs in Korea to unemployed graduates in Uganda. 

We now have a growing team of English language tutors in Uganda. The average monthly wage for employees with tertiary education and higher in Uganda is UGX 335,000, or $92. Tella provides double this, a minimum of $200 per month in salary to each one of our tutors. Supporting our tutors is at the heart of our business.  In the next three to five years, we want to expand our pool of tutors to employ around 500 people in Uganda.

How did you decide to establish Tella as a mobile phone-based startup?
When I traveled to East Africa for the first time I noticed everybody had a mobile phone, and that many people used it to do business using “mobile money.” This inspired the idea of  starting an online English education business on mobile, in particular, via online chat. 

Students and their tutors chat in English on the app, and we use machine learning and Google Cloud’s natural language processing API to analyze their lessons and provide a “before” look at their original English sentences and an “after” look with their tutor’s feedback. We provide data analysis for each lesson, too—the number of words used and the average length of sentences, which helps to diagnose their proficiency. Students love this. They believe this analysis of the chat information really helps them study. We have 2,000 students now! 

What helped to really transform your business and make it more successful? 
Being located at the Outbox Hub, a Google for Entrepreneurs tech hub partner, means our teachers are part of a vibrant community of Ugandan entrepreneurs and creative thinkers—this is really inspiring for us. 

Also, we were lucky to be selected to participate in Google’s Customer Success Lab in Seoul. By working closely with the Google team, we learned how to improve our online advertising strategy. As a result, our quarterly business revenues grew by 15%. The results are paying off. Over half of our students repurchase their subscriptions for more tutoring. 


Tella team
Tutors at Tella’s offices in the Outbox Hub in Kampala, Uganda (clockwise from top left): Simon Aguma, Sydney Mugerwa, Esther Namukasa, Shiphrah Mirembe,and Evelyn Mwasa.

What sets your business apart from others in Korea and the region?
We’re really diverse. We have both Ugandan and Filipino tutors. We have nine tutors and one manager in Uganda. I lead a team of six others in Seoul. In the beginning, we were worried about hiring tutors from a country that’s unfamiliar to most students. However, once students experience a trial lesson, they have no doubt about the talents of our Ugandan tutors. I believe getting to know young, professional Africans naturally raises Uganda’s national brand in Korea and eventually in all over the world. I’m really motivated to provide our learners with the opportunity to get to know Uganda and more of Africa by interacting with their gifted tutors.

What’s next for your business?
By 2018, the plan is to expand to Japan and China—both countries have great opportunities for digital learning and education. Tella's next step is to provide customized learning content catered to providing even more detailed analysis of each learner’s proficiency, such as vocabulary, fluency, and accuracy in expression and grammar. We have already started this with recommending new words for our students to study and use, thanks to the analysis we run with machine learning. Our business grows as our students grow, and we’re excited to hire more tutors from Uganda. 

Ad X-Zyte’s story: All signs point to taking business online

As part of our series of interviews with entrepreneurs across Asia Pacific who use the internet to grow, we spoke with Norachai Lappiam, the founder, CEO, and owner of Ad X-Zyte, to find out how he operates a creative sign-making business with global customers — all without a physical storefront. 

Norachai Lappiam
Ad X-Zyte founder, CEO, and owner Norachai Lappiam

Tell us about your journey to becoming an entrepreneur.
Eleven years ago, I was just making ends meet as a normal salaryman for a small local company producing newsletters and some signs. With a growing family to take care of, poverty was a real and terrifying prospect for me. That’s what motivated me to start my own company.

I started a sign-making company because I recognized that every business needs a sign for their storefront location if they want to attract customers. Now, I can support my family and give them a better life. We are fortunate to have enough money to send my son and daughter to university for higher education.


What sets your business apart from other sign makers in Thailand and in the region?
We’re completely online! Most sign makers in Thailand only have a walk-in shop. That means their business is limited to the town or city they are located in. As an online-only business, customers anywhere in the world can find us easily, using a search engine like Google Search. They can reach us by phone, tablet, or the laptop at their fingertips. I think convenience is the most important thing for attracting customers.

What difference has the Internet made for your business?
The Internet changed business for the better by growing our sales, connecting us to more customers, and keeping us ahead of our competitors. Before mastering AdWords, I was struggling to promote my products and to reach customers. We didn’t have enough social media, either. The change came when I started learning about AdWords. I’ve been working with the Google AdWords team for 4 years now. It’s been amazing.  Whenever I have a question, they immediately reply and even call me to ask if it’s been answered. I saw a big difference to the business as early as 2014, when we hit TBH 50 million ($1.4 million) in revenue.


Ad X-Zyte signs.png
Ad X-Zyte makes signs for all kinds of businesses, including the Ayutthaya Park Mall in Thailand, Honda cars, and the Mahidol Medical Center. His fifty-person team has also exported its signs, proudly lighting up the Hard Rock Cafe  in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

What’s your advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Master your own trade. Be active in the core of your business, expand your personal and professional connections, and use as many online media channels as possible to promote your business! I also treat my employees’ families like they are my family too. I try to take good care of them as much as I can. It builds our relationship in the long-term. Finally, be adventurous, too. Being adventurous is a key characteristic of our company—we enjoy discovering what’s new, being open-minded, and ready to face new challenges.

Ad X-Zyte workshop.png
The Ad X-Zyte workshop floor

What’s next for your business?
We’re continuing to build our presence online and are experimenting with social media more. Recently, I’ve uploaded videos to YouTube to show our customers our sign-making process but we’ve been so busy I haven’t promoted it yet, so I haven’t gotten feedback yet.

I want to do my best in signage and continually improve our sign-making as much as I can. I also want to stay in the present moment and try not to worry much about the future. This doesn’t mean I’m not looking out for the future of my company! Let’s just say the older I get, the more I realize we should be less stressed. All I want is happiness, not money anymore since we’re fortunate to have enough and my family is happy.


How Singapore’s QLIPP is taking tennis to the next level, globally

Editor’s note: This one's just in time for Wimbledon fans. As part of our series of interviews with entrepreneurs across Asia Pacific who use the internet to grow, we spoke with Dr. Donny Soh, co-founder and CEO of QLIPP, whose six-person startup developed a tennis sensor and mobile app to help players track and improve their performance in real time.

Dr Donny Soh

Tell us, what inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
I’ve always wanted to build my own products—products that people would find useful. That’s what drove my decision to leave my job as an engineer in another company. 

I come from a very traditional family with a humble financial background, so my relatives were surprised when I told them about my plans to start my own business. I’ll admit being an entrepreneur does have its financial ups and downs, and one can’t expect success to come easily. I believe the key is to always press on regardless of whatever difficulties one faces.

What does a tennis performance sensor actually do and how does it help your users?  
QLIPP fits on any racquet and measures every part of your stroke, analyzing the spin, speed and sweet spot accuracy of each shot. It syncs to your phone, so you can easily access the data to track your game and improve over time.

We currently have over 7,000 users, most of whom are in the Americas and Europe. While many tell us it’s the best tennis sensor they’ve ever used, we’ve also had negative feedback. We welcome all feedback and whenever we see negative comments, we use them as suggestions to improve. Over this past year, the feedback has helped us create a much better product.

What difference has the Internet made for your business?
We’re a small startup with limited resources, but we have big dreams to reach out to tennis players all over the world. Using Google Search ads and YouTube video ads, we’re able to bring our products to life and reach the right customers overseas—this has really magnified our potential customer base beyond those living in Singapore. 

For example, we worked with Google to target the top 10 tennis-playing states in the United States, resulting in a ten-fold increase in web traffic and a 30% increase in sales in just three months! Since we adopted digital tools, 90% of our company’s sales now come from overseas.

What are some of the biggest challenges for a startup in the Internet age?
“How can you get your message out?” That’s one of the big challenges. There’s so much information out there. This is where Google’s tools help us a lot. We conduct user surveys using Google Forms.

We also use another tool known as Firebase, which helps people build better mobile apps and run them as a business. That’s how we’re able to identify the features users love and understand how they interact with the QLIPP app. We also use Google AdWords to drive both traffic, downloads, and sales too.

What’s next for your business?
We’re aggressively moving into other sports. I would say in two years, we would have to have a strong brand presence on at least three sports. Ultimately, we aim to be the go-to company for all sports wearables.

Who’s your Asian Internet hero?
Jack Ma. He has a great quote: “Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine.” What really inspires me is his persistence. But it doesn’t take much to find heroes all around us. 

One of my early inspirations was my neighbor. She lost the use of her legs and had to move around in a mobility vehicle. Yet everyday, she brought her three kids to school and went to the market. In the evenings she would sell newspapers. Whenever I think of her, I’m inspired. No matter what situation I am in, there will always be a way forward.

A vision for success: Taking LED glasses made in Korea to the world

As part of our series of interviews with entrepreneurs across Asia Pacific who use the Internet to grow their business, we caught up with Kyuhee Lee, marketing manager at Chemion, to find out how this startup went from selling zero pairs of Chemion LED glasses to over 10,000 in just three months.

Chemion's Kyuhee Lee
Kyuhee Lee, Chemion’s marketing manager, puts a pair of Chemion glasses to work at Neofect’s office in Seoul

We’re excited to learn more about you! Tell us about about your startup...and these fancy looking glasses.
Our company, Neofect, has been around since 2010. Today we have 50 employees working primarily on high-tech, rehabilitative devices, including the Rapael Smart Glove, which helps patients strengthen the range of their hand motions. Our business’ core goal has always been to help people have fun while doing everyday, routine activities. That’s why we invented various games associated with our rehabilitative devices. 

We began making LED glasses for fun. We thought it would offer a way to get people to laugh with their friends and have more fun at parties and events. That’s how Chemion got started, and I think this is what differentiates us from other startups—we’re making these glasses just to have fun ourselves and let our users have fun, too.

What were some challenges to launching Chemion?
When we launched the LED glasses in February 2016, we only had B2B experience. First, we tried focusing exclusively on the domestic Korean market, hoping the glasses would catch on at electronic music festivals or become trendy at nightclubs in Seoul. We were disappointed to find the local reception just wasn’t there. But instead of giving up, we knew we needed to re-think how to reach out to new customers. So we did. That is when we started to expand to overseas markets and focus on our digital reach, specifically, via e-commerce and online social platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

How did you turn your business around and make Chemion popular?
Initially, we faced challenges setting up marketing campaigns online. Every time I encountered an issue, I would search for and watch how-to videos on YouTube, including the ones made by AdWords Online Seminar in Korea. This was a huge help in setting up AdWords and I still use the channel today to learn more about Google Analytics.

Eventually, we reached out to the Korea Google Marketing Solutions team for ideas, too. They gave thoughtful advice on campaign optimization strategies. They even shared their screen via Google Hangouts which was cool and extremely time-saving, since I could see exactly what I needed to do. I thank the team for their help!

At what point did your product really begin to take off?
It’s a funny story actually. Chemion glasses were featured in a video that we didn’t even know about for a while! In Q4 2016, sales suddenly shot up, especially from overseas. People were buying Chemion in Germany, the US, the UK, Japan, and even Austria. We had no idea why!

Eventually we found out through our customers that a YouTube creator The Never Cat had posted a video about how he used our glasses and created a role-playing mask to represent a gaming character. He was really creative and found Chemion online and incorporated the glasses into his mask. He took something we had made and made something new and original, which is very cool. Ever since his video went viral, people started asking where they could purchase the glasses and the name of our brand. That’s when we realized the power of YouTube.

What’s next for Chemion?
We need to get our brand out there and reach people who want to have fun. Video is an important medium for getting our message across—especially through the power of YouTube creators. When a famous YouTube creator, Unbox Therapy, decided to review us, we saw a direct impact on our sales, better than our own offline marketing events. That’s really the beauty of the Internet—it allows us to find and connect with people we otherwise wouldn’t be able to reach.

You've Never Seen Glasses Like This...

You've Never Seen Glasses Like This...

A vision for success: Taking LED glasses made in Korea to the world

As part of our series of interviews with entrepreneurs across Asia Pacific who use the Internet to grow their business, we caught up with Kyuhee Lee, marketing manager at Chemion, to find out how this startup went from selling zero pairs of Chemion LED glasses to over 10,000 in just three months.

Chemion's Kyuhee Lee
Kyuhee Lee, Chemion’s marketing manager, puts a pair of Chemion glasses to work at Neofect’s office in Seoul

We’re excited to learn more about you! Tell us about your startup...and these fancy looking glasses.
Our company, Neofect, has been around since 2010. Today we have 50 employees working primarily on high-tech, rehabilitative devices, including the Rapael Smart Glove, which helps patients strengthen the range of their hand motions. Our business’ core goal has always been to help people have fun while doing everyday, routine activities. That’s why we invented various games associated with our rehabilitative devices. 

We began making LED glasses for fun. We thought it would offer a way to get people to laugh with their friends and have more fun at parties and events. That’s how Chemion got started, and I think this is what differentiates us from other startups—we’re making these glasses just to have fun ourselves and let our users have fun, too.

What were some challenges to launching Chemion?
When we launched the LED glasses in February 2016, we only had B2B experience. First, we tried focusing exclusively on the domestic Korean market, hoping the glasses would catch on at electronic music festivals or become trendy at nightclubs in Seoul. We were disappointed to find the local reception just wasn’t there. But instead of giving up, we knew we needed to re-think how to reach out to new customers. So we did. That is when we started to expand to overseas markets and focus on our digital reach, specifically, via e-commerce and online social platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

How did you turn your business around and make Chemion popular?
Initially, we faced challenges setting up marketing campaigns online. Every time I encountered an issue, I would search for and watch how-to videos on YouTube, including the ones made by AdWords Online Seminar in Korea. This was a huge help in setting up AdWords and I still use the channel today to learn more about Google Analytics.

Eventually, we reached out to the Korea Google Marketing Solutions team for ideas, too. They gave thoughtful advice on campaign optimization strategies. They even shared their screen via Google Hangouts which was cool and extremely time-saving, since I could see exactly what I needed to do. I thank the team for their help!

At what point did your product really begin to take off?
It’s a funny story actually. Chemion glasses were featured in a video that we didn’t even know about for a while! In Q4 2016, sales suddenly shot up, especially from overseas. People were buying Chemion in Germany, the US, the UK, Japan, and even Austria. We had no idea why!

Eventually we found out through our customers that a YouTube creator The Never Cat had posted a video about how he used our glasses and created a role-playing mask to represent a gaming character. He was really creative and found Chemion online and incorporated the glasses into his mask. He took something we had made and made something new and original, which is very cool. Ever since his video went viral, people started asking where they could purchase the glasses and the name of our brand. That’s when we realized the power of YouTube.

What’s next for Chemion?
We need to get our brand out there and reach people who want to have fun. Video is an important medium for getting our message across—especially through the power of YouTube creators. When a famous YouTube creator, Unbox Therapy, decided to review us, we saw a direct impact on our sales, better than our own offline marketing events. That’s really the beauty of the Internet—it allows us to find and connect with people we otherwise wouldn’t be able to reach.

You've Never Seen Glasses Like This...

You've Never Seen Glasses Like This...

How machine learning in G Suite makes people more productive

Email management, formatting documents, creating expense reports. These are just some of the time-sinks that can affect your productivity at work. At Google, this is referred to as “overhead”—time spent working on tasks that do not directly relate to creative output—and it happens a lot.

According to a Google study in 2015, the average worker spends only about 5 percent of his or her time actually coming up with the next big idea. The rest of our time is caught in the quicksand of formatting, tracking, analysis or other mundane tasks. That’s where machine learning can help.

Machine learning algorithms observe examples and make predictions based on data. In G Suite, machine learning models make your workday more efficient by taking over menial tasks, like scheduling meetings, or by predicting information you might need and surfacing it for you, like suggesting Docs.

Eliminating spam within Gmail using machine learning

One of the earliest machine learning use cases for G Suite was within Gmail. Historically, Gmail used a rule-based system, which meant our anti-spam team would create new rules to match individual spam patterns. Over a decade of using this process, we improved spam detection accuracy to 99 percent.

Starting in 2014, our team augmented this rule-based system to generate rules using machine learning algorithms instead, taking spam detection one step further. Now, we use TensorFlow and other machine learning to continually regenerate the “spam filter,” so the system has learned to predict which emails are most likely junk. Machine learning finds new patterns and adapts far quicker than previous manual systems—it’s a big part of the reason that more than one billion Gmail users avoid spam within their account.

See machine learning in your favorite G Suite apps

G Suite’s goal is to help teams accomplish more with its intelligent apps, no matter where they are in the world. And chances are, you’ve already seen machine learning integrated into your day-to-day work to do just that.

Smart Reply, for example, uses machine learning to generate three natural language responses to an email. So if you find yourself on the road or pressed for time and in need of a quick way to clear your inbox, let Smart Reply do it for you.
Smart Reply GIF

Explore in Docs, Slides and Sheets uses machine learning to eliminate time spent on mundane tasks, like tracking down documents or information on the web, reformatting presentations or performing calculations within spreadsheets.

Quick Access in Drive predicts and suggests files you might need within Drive. Using machine intelligence, Quick Access can predict files based on who you share files with frequently, when relevant meetings occur within your Calendar or if you tend to use files at certain times of the day.

Quick Access

To learn more about how machine intelligence can make your life easier, sign up for this free webinar on June 15, 2017, featuring experts from MIT Research, Google and other companies. You can also check out the Big Data and Machine Learning blog or watch this video from Google Cloud Next with Ryan Tabone, director of product management at Google, where he explains more about “overhead.”

Source: Drive