Author Archives: Nabil Naghdy

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


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% 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.

Time spent chart

Source: Google Data, April 2015

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%.

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 Tensor Flow 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.

Explore

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.”

Indonesia’s YouTube creators Cameo Project: Laughter for Good

As part of our series of interviews with people using the Internet to do exciting things, we sat down with Cameo Project, Indonesia’s favorite comedic troupe on YouTube. They’ve been making relatable and funny videos about life in Indonesia since 2012, and have been using comedy to raise awareness about important social issues for young people. They were named YouTube’s Creators for Change Ambassadors last year.

As we announced at the YouTube Pop-up Space in Jakarta today, Cameo Project is teaming up with local NGOs—the Maarif Institute and Habibie Center—on a cross-country project to encourage students to create videos for positive change on topics that affect their community. They’ll also run workshops on YouTube to create content that can make a difference.

Here we speak to the members of Cameo Project about their plans to shine a light on the importance of diversity in Indonesia, and why they think video is the best medium to affect the change they want to see.  

The guys of Cameo Project
The Cameo Project

You’ve made videos confronting difficult and heavy topics such as racism, inclusion, and bullying. What prompted you to enter into these conversations, and why on YouTube?
We think video is the best medium for communication, and YouTube makes sense because it’s where you find the world’s biggest video audience. To make an impact, we have to deliver our message on the platform where we’re heard the most.

Through video, we can illustrate our points of view in a way that resonates with our audience—often in a humorous way, but in a way that is thought-provoking and honest, too. Indonesia is a diverse country with many different voices and perspectives—and we want to show that those differences are there to complement each other, and to make us stronger.

What feedback have you gotten from your viewers about these “social change” videos?
The responses are varied. The Internet is a platform for free expression, so even though some viewers may not personally agree with us, we hope they still appreciate our point of view.  We also understand that haters will be haters, and positive messages don’t always go viral. However, we are encouraged by the fact that there are always people in the audience who give us constructive feedback, which helps us evaluate how we can get better.

MAYORITAS VS MINORITAS #GUEMAYORITAS

MAYORITAS VS MINORITAS #GUEMAYORITAS

What do you think are the most important social messages that Indonesian youth need to hear today?
Create for good, make positive content, and embrace differences. The strength of Indonesia lies in its diversity. Because we’re different, we complement each other, and that’s unifying.

What’s the best part about being an Ambassador for YouTube’s Creators for Change program?
We get to meet young people from different cities all across Indonesia, and we get to remind them that you can change people’s lives through the positive content you create. And they can make money while doing it too! Doesn’t that sound like a dream? Work from home, make positive content, AND get paid.  

You’re also teaming up with two local NGOs—the Maarif Institute and Habibie Center. Can you tell us more about that?
The work we do will create a bigger impact if we have more hands joining us.  It’s humbling to be named a role model for young people, but we definitely can’t do it alone—it makes sense to work with organizations that have been working on social change initiatives for years. So as part of the Creators for Change program in Indonesia, we will join forces with local NGOs with similar objectives: to make the Internet a better place for  youth.

With Maarif Institute for instance, we will have a program to show how diversity can lead to many good things for the country. We will travel and meet high school and university students in ten cities and share what it’s like to be YouTube creators and how they can play a part in creating a positive online community. We will also give technical workshops for those interested in becoming YouTube creators, and provide them with a challenge where they have to make videos that they think will affect positive change in their home city.

Indonesia’s YouTube creators Cameo Project: Laughter for Good

As part of our series of interviews with people using the Internet to do exciting things, we sat down with Cameo Project, Indonesia’s favorite comedic troupe on YouTube. They’ve been making relatable and funny videos about life in Indonesia since 2012, and have been using comedy to raise awareness about important social issues for young people. They were named YouTube’s Creators for Change Ambassadors last year.

As we announced at the YouTube Pop-up Space in Jakarta today, Cameo Project is teaming up with local NGOs—the Maarif Institute and Habibie Center—on a cross-country project to encourage students to create videos for positive change on topics that affect their community. They’ll also run workshops on YouTube to create content that can make a difference.

Here we speak to the members of Cameo Project about their plans to shine a light on the importance of diversity in Indonesia, and why they think video is the best medium to affect the change they want to see.  

The guys of Cameo Project
The Cameo Project

You’ve made videos confronting difficult and heavy topics such as racism, inclusion, and bullying. What prompted you to enter into these conversations, and why on YouTube?
We think video is the best medium for communication, and YouTube makes sense because it’s where you find the world’s biggest video audience. To make an impact, we have to deliver our message on the platform where we’re heard the most.

Through video, we can illustrate our points of view in a way that resonates with our audience—often in a humorous way, but in a way that is thought-provoking and honest, too. Indonesia is a diverse country with many different voices and perspectives—and we want to show that those differences are there to complement each other, and to make us stronger.

What feedback have you gotten from your viewers about these “social change” videos?
The responses are varied. The Internet is a platform for free expression, so even though some viewers may not personally agree with us, we hope they still appreciate our point of view.  We also understand that haters will be haters, and positive messages don’t always go viral. However, we are encouraged by the fact that there are always people in the audience who give us constructive feedback, which helps us evaluate how we can get better.

MAYORITAS VS MINORITAS #GUEMAYORITAS

MAYORITAS VS MINORITAS #GUEMAYORITAS

What do you think are the most important social messages that Indonesian youth need to hear today?
Create for good, make positive content, and embrace differences. The strength of Indonesia lies in its diversity. Because we’re different, we complement each other, and that’s unifying.

What’s the best part about being an Ambassador for YouTube’s Creators for Change program?
We get to meet young people from different cities all across Indonesia, and we get to remind them that you can change people’s lives through the positive content you create. And they can make money while doing it too! Doesn’t that sound like a dream? Work from home, make positive content, AND get paid.  

You’re also teaming up with two local NGOs—the Maarif Institute and Habibie Center. Can you tell us more about that?
The work we do will create a bigger impact if we have more hands joining us.  It’s humbling to be named a role model for young people, but we definitely can’t do it alone—it makes sense to work with organizations that have been working on social change initiatives for years. So as part of the Creators for Change program in Indonesia, we will join forces with local NGOs with similar objectives: to make the Internet a better place for  youth.

With Maarif Institute for instance, we will have a program to show how diversity can lead to many good things for the country. We will travel and meet high school and university students in ten cities and share what it’s like to be YouTube creators and how they can play a part in creating a positive online community. We will also give technical workshops for those interested in becoming YouTube creators, and provide them with a challenge where they have to make videos that they think will affect positive change in their home city.

Indonesia’s YouTube creators Cameo Project: Laughter for Good

As part of our series of interviews with people using the Internet to do exciting things, we sat down with Cameo Project, Indonesia’s favorite comedic troupe on YouTube. They’ve been making relatable and funny videos about life in Indonesia since 2012, and have been using comedy to raise awareness about important social issues for young people. They were named YouTube’s Creators for Change Ambassadors last year.

As we announced at the YouTube Pop-up Space in Jakarta today, Cameo Project is teaming up with local NGOs—the Maarif Institute and Habibie Center—on a cross-country project to encourage students to create videos for positive change on topics that affect their community. They’ll also run workshops on YouTube to create content that can make a difference.

Here we speak to the members of Cameo Project about their plans to shine a light on the importance of diversity in Indonesia, and why they think video is the best medium to affect the change they want to see.  

The guys of Cameo Project
The Cameo Project

You’ve made videos confronting difficult and heavy topics such as racism, inclusion, and bullying. What prompted you to enter into these conversations, and why on YouTube?
We think video is the best medium for communication, and YouTube makes sense because it’s where you find the world’s biggest video audience. To make an impact, we have to deliver our message on the platform where we’re heard the most.

Through video, we can illustrate our points of view in a way that resonates with our audience—often in a humorous way, but in a way that is thought-provoking and honest, too. Indonesia is a diverse country with many different voices and perspectives—and we want to show that those differences are there to complement each other, and to make us stronger.

What feedback have you gotten from your viewers about these “social change” videos?
The responses are varied. The Internet is a platform for free expression, so even though some viewers may not personally agree with us, we hope they still appreciate our point of view.  We also understand that haters will be haters, and positive messages don’t always go viral. However, we are encouraged by the fact that there are always people in the audience who give us constructive feedback, which helps us evaluate how we can get better.

MAYORITAS VS MINORITAS #GUEMAYORITAS

MAYORITAS VS MINORITAS #GUEMAYORITAS

What do you think are the most important social messages that Indonesian youth need to hear today?
Create for good, make positive content, and embrace differences. The strength of Indonesia lies in its diversity. Because we’re different, we complement each other, and that’s unifying.

What’s the best part about being an Ambassador for YouTube’s Creators for Change program?
We get to meet young people from different cities all across Indonesia, and we get to remind them that you can change people’s lives through the positive content you create. And they can make money while doing it too! Doesn’t that sound like a dream? Work from home, make positive content, AND get paid.  

You’re also teaming up with two local NGOs—the Maarif Institute and Habibie Center. Can you tell us more about that?
The work we do will create a bigger impact if we have more hands joining us.  It’s humbling to be named a role model for young people, but we definitely can’t do it alone—it makes sense to work with organizations that have been working on social change initiatives for years. So as part of the Creators for Change program in Indonesia, we will join forces with local NGOs with similar objectives: to make the Internet a better place for  youth.

With Maarif Institute for instance, we will have a program to show how diversity can lead to many good things for the country. We will travel and meet high school and university students in ten cities and share what it’s like to be YouTube creators and how they can play a part in creating a positive online community. We will also give technical workshops for those interested in becoming YouTube creators, and provide them with a challenge where they have to make videos that they think will affect positive change in their home city.

Campus Exchange in Korea inspires start-ups’ minds, hearts and “Seoul”

Campus Exchange is a start-up exchange program hosted by Google for Entrepreneurs. We recently invited four start-ups from Korea and another four from Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, and Poland to join us at Campus Seoul for a week.  We gave them access to Startup:Con 2016, and hosted workshops on the topic of going global with their businesses. Two founders — Byungik Choi, CEO of CoolJam, the Korean start-up behind “Hum On!”, an app which transforms hummed melodies into musical soundtracks, and Pedro Matsumura Kayatt, co-founder of VRMonkey, a virtual reality start-up based in Brazil — share their insights from the exchange.  

Byungik of Cool Jamm

What are some of the differences between running a start-up in your countries and elsewhere? 

Byungik of Cool Jamm (Korea): I’ve realized just how supportive the Korean government is of start-ups compared to some other countries. Mentors are readily available here—though I do think there’s always room for more role models who are open to sharing advice about their entrepreneurial journey. 

Pedro of VRMonkey (Brazil): Korea has a very tech-friendly environment that helps companies to perform better and even attract more investments. Brazil’s still an emerging country when it comes to technology—there aren’t many big tech players, and many people with a technical background end up going abroad. 

Pedro of VRMonkey

How do you think your experience at the Google Seoul Campus Exchange will shape your company?

Pedro: First thing we learned is to focus. Our VR studio has been doing a lot of things, and we should really focus on doing more in one particular area. We also learned how we can collaborate better with so many content providers to create really amazing VR experiences that’ll hopefully go mainstream.

Second, we now understand how important it is for our projects to be accessible in other languages. English is not enough. People in Korea and other countries want to play games in their own language. Plus, we understand that we can launch games and experiences that can also impact other regions, so we are exploring more themes—including Asian themes—to create more content. 

Byungik: First, it reminded me of the importance of English. For a global start-up, having fluent English skills are mandatory. Second, the dogfooding session taught us that we could get a lot of meaningful feedback from Googlers and other start-up members who are from different cultures. It was really helpful. We've now decided to do dogfooding sessions frequently.

Who was one of the most memorable entrepreneurs or people you met during this trip? 

Pedro: Wow, that is hard! I met so many amazing people during the program, but one guy who made me feel at home was Junsoo Kim, Chief Operating Officer of Reality Reflection. He invited me to their office and we spent a night there talking about the future of VR and sharing our companies’ projects over a pizza! It was a great time and made us rethink a lot of things about VRMonkey.

Byungik: All the participating start-ups are wonderful. FanFootage from Ireland was most impressive to me. I think it was a good example where a great idea and great technology are well-combined. And the Brazilian guys of VRMonkey were cool and friendly.

Campus Exchange in Seoul
The week-long Campus Exchange in Seoul featured participants from all around the world, icnlduing FanFootage from Ireland, FEAT Sp. z o.o. from Poland,  Machina Wearable Technology from Mexico, VRMonkey from Brazil, and 1DAY1SONG, Cool Jamm, Maverick Co. and Busking TV all from Korea.
Fundraising panel
A panel on fundraising in Korea featuring Tim Chae of 500startups and Kihong Bae of Strong Ventures
Exchanging stories at Campus Exchange

What's your advice to entrepreneurs seeking to expand their business?

Byungik: Staying humble. It is I who must ask for advice from other entrepreneurs because I just started my first start-up. Everything is new to me.

Pedro: My strongest advice would be to share. Be honest about what you are doing, do it in the best way you can imagine, and share your work with anyone interested in it. There are few secrets and almost no competitors when it comes to markets like mobile and VR because basically, the whole world is your client.

Campus Exchange in Korea inspires start-ups’ minds, hearts and “Seoul”

Campus Exchange is a start-up exchange program hosted by Google for Entrepreneurs. We recently invited four start-ups from Korea and another four from Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, and Poland to join us at Campus Seoul for a week.  We gave them access to Startup:Con 2016, and hosted workshops on the topic of going global with their businesses. Two founders — Byungik Choi, CEO of CoolJam, the Korean start-up behind “Hum On!”, an app which transforms hummed melodies into musical soundtracks, and Pedro Matsumura Kayatt, co-founder of VRMonkey, a virtual reality start-up based in Brazil — share their insights from the exchange.  

Byungik of Cool Jamm

What are some of the differences between running a start-up in your countries and elsewhere? 

Byungik of Cool Jamm (Korea): I’ve realized just how supportive the Korean government is of start-ups compared to some other countries. Mentors are readily available here—though I do think there’s always room for more role models who are open to sharing advice about their entrepreneurial journey. 

Pedro of VRMonkey (Brazil): Korea has a very tech-friendly environment that helps companies to perform better and even attract more investments. Brazil’s still an emerging country when it comes to technology—there aren’t many big tech players, and many people with a technical background end up going abroad. 

Pedro of VRMonkey

How do you think your experience at the Google Seoul Campus Exchange will shape your company?

Pedro: First thing we learned is to focus. Our VR studio has been doing a lot of things, and we should really focus on doing more in one particular area. We also learned how we can collaborate better with so many content providers to create really amazing VR experiences that’ll hopefully go mainstream.

Second, we now understand how important it is for our projects to be accessible in other languages. English is not enough. People in Korea and other countries want to play games in their own language. Plus, we understand that we can launch games and experiences that can also impact other regions, so we are exploring more themes—including Asian themes—to create more content. 

Byungik: First, it reminded me of the importance of English. For a global start-up, having fluent English skills are mandatory. Second, the dogfooding session taught us that we could get a lot of meaningful feedback from Googlers and other start-up members who are from different cultures. It was really helpful. We've now decided to do dogfooding sessions frequently.

Who was one of the most memorable entrepreneurs or people you met during this trip? 

Pedro: Wow, that is hard! I met so many amazing people during the program, but one guy who made me feel at home was Junsoo Kim, Chief Operating Officer of Reality Reflection. He invited me to their office and we spent a night there talking about the future of VR and sharing our companies’ projects over a pizza! It was a great time and made us rethink a lot of things about VRMonkey.

Byungik: All the participating start-ups are wonderful. FanFootage from Ireland was most impressive to me. I think it was a good example where a great idea and great technology are well-combined. And the Brazilian guys of VRMonkey were cool and friendly.

Campus Exchange in Seoul
The week-long Campus Exchange in Seoul featured participants from all around the world, icnlduing FanFootage from Ireland, FEAT Sp. z o.o. from Poland,  Machina Wearable Technology from Mexico, VRMonkey from Brazil, and 1DAY1SONG, Cool Jamm, Maverick Co. and Busking TV all from Korea.
Fundraising panel
A panel on fundraising in Korea featuring Tim Chae of 500startups and Kihong Bae of Strong Ventures
Exchanging stories at Campus Exchange

What's your advice to entrepreneurs seeking to expand their business?

Byungik: Staying humble. It is I who must ask for advice from other entrepreneurs because I just started my first start-up. Everything is new to me.

Pedro: My strongest advice would be to share. Be honest about what you are doing, do it in the best way you can imagine, and share your work with anyone interested in it. There are few secrets and almost no competitors when it comes to markets like mobile and VR because basically, the whole world is your client.

Campus Exchange in Korea inspires start-ups’ minds, hearts and “Seoul”

Campus Exchange is a start-up exchange program hosted by Google for Entrepreneurs. We recently invited four start-ups from Korea and another four from Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, and Poland to join us at Campus Seoul for a week.  We gave them access to Startup:Con 2016, and hosted workshops on the topic of going global with their businesses. Two founders — Byungik Choi, CEO of CoolJam, the Korean startup behind “Hum On!”, an app which transforms hummed melodies into musical soundtracks, and Pedro Matsumura Kayatt, co-founder of VRMonkey, a virtual reality startup based in Brazil — share their insights from the exchange.  

Byungik of Cool Jamm

What are some of the differences between running a start-up in your countries and elsewhere? 

Byungik of Cool Jamm (Korea): I’ve realized just how supportive the Korean government is of start-ups compared to some other countries. Mentors are readily available here—though I do think there’s always room for more role models who are open to sharing advice about their entrepreneurial journey. 
Pedro of VRMonkey (Brazil): Korea has a very tech-friendly environment that helps companies to perform better and even attract more investments. Brazil’s still an emerging country when it comes to technology—there aren’t many big tech players, and many people with a technical background end up going abroad. 

Pedro of VRMonkey

How do you think your experience at the Google Seoul Campus Exchange will shape your company?

Pedro: First thing we learned is to focus. Our VR studio has been doing a lot of things, and we should really focus on doing more in one particular area. We also learned how we can collaborate better with so many content providers to create really amazing VR experiences that’ll hopefully go mainstream.

Second, we now understand how important it is for our projects to be accessible in other languages. English is not enough. People in Korea and other countries want to play games in their own language. Plus, we understand that we can launch games and experiences that can also impact other regions, so we are exploring more themes—including Asian themes—to create more content. 

Byungik: First, it reminded me of the importance of English. For a global start-up, having fluent English skills are mandatory. Second, the dogfooding session taught us that we could get a lot of meaningful feedback from Googlers and other start-up members who are from different cultures. It was really helpful. We've now decided to do dogfooding sessions frequently.

Who was one of the most memorable entrepreneurs or people you met during this trip? 

Pedro: Wow, that is hard! I met so many amazing people during the program, but one guy who made me feel at home was Junsoo Kim, Chief Operating Officer of Reality Reflection. He invited me to their office and we spent a night there talking about the future of VR and sharing our companies’ projects over a pizza! It was a great time and made us rethink a lot of things about VRMonkey.

Byungik: All the participating start-ups are wonderful. FanFootage from Ireland was most impressive to me. I think it was a good example where a great idea and great technology are well-combined. And the Brazilian guys of VRMonkey were cool and friendly.

Campus Exchange in Seoul
The week-long Campus Exchange in Seoul featured participants from all around the world, icnlduing FanFootage from Ireland, FEAT Sp. z o.o. from Poland,  Machina Wearable Technology from Mexico, VRMonkey from Brazil, and 1DAY1SONG, Cool Jamm, Maverick Co. and Busking TV all from Korea.
Fundraising panel
A panel on fundraising in Korea featuring Tim Chae of 500startups and Kihong Bae of Strong Ventures
Exchanging stories at Campus Exchange

What's your advice to entrepreneurs seeking to expand their business?

Byungik: Staying humble. It is I who must ask for advice from other entrepreneurs because I just started my first start-up. Everything is new to me.

Pedro: My strongest advice would be to share. Be honest about what you are doing, do it in the best way you can imagine, and share your work with anyone interested in it. There are few secrets and almost no competitors when it comes to markets like mobile and VR because basically, the whole world is your client.

Making travel planning less stressful this holiday season

Whether you’re heading home for the holidays or escaping to some exotic destination, one of the most time-consuming and stressful parts of travel planning is finding the right flight and hotel. Sixty-nine percent of U.S. leisure travelers worry that they're not finding the best price or making the best decision while booking a trip — making this kind of purchase more worrisome than financial investments, home improvements or electronics purchases.*

This holiday season we’re making travel planning less stressful by updating you when flights are likely to increase in price, helping you find good hotel deals, and making travel planning easier on mobile.

Making it easier than ever to choose the right flight

Google Flights can now help you be more confident that you’re booking your flight at the right time to get the best price. We now show you when prices are expected to increase for some specific flights and routes you’re interested in.

After selecting a specific flight, a notification may appear letting you know when the current fare is expected to expire and how much you can save if you book now. For example, this flight to San Diego is likely to cost more in eight hours — and you would likely save $87 if you book before then.

If you’re looking at a certain route like New York to San Diego, but haven’t selected a specific flight yet, you may see a notification bar with multiple tips showing how to find the best price for this route. Tips can include things like recommendations for alternate airports or dates. You may also see a new tip telling you about an expected price jump based on historic prices for that route. When you tap on the card, you’ll see more details like how much the price is likely to increase and when.

If you’re not ready to book yet, you can choose to track your flight or route and receive notifications via email letting you know when prices are expected to change. Fare expiration and expected price jump notifications will be rolling out over the coming weeks everywhere Google Flights is available. You’ll also continue to receive updates when prices actually do increase or decrease significantly for tracked flights.

We’re also making it easier to find flights on the go. Next time you visit Google Flights, you’ll be able to track and manage saved flights seamlessly on your phone.

If you’re still looking for inspiration on where to travel, tap on Explore to find ideas on destinations to visit based on the type of vacation you’re looking for. For example, you can look for destinations in the Caribbean with direct flights only. 

Providing more ways to uncover deals in hotel search

We’re also making it easier to immediately recognize and find more deals when searching on Google for hotels in the location of your choice, like “hotels in new york”. We already label deals when a hotel’s price is lower than usual compared to historical pricing, or if there are discounts to the normal rate for those dates. Now if you want to only look at hotel deals — say, to ring in the new year in Paris — just tap in the upper left to filter for Deals and voilà!

We’ll also notify you when savings are available to loyalty members on a hotel’s website. 

Don’t let travel planning stress you out this holiday season. Google Flights and hotel search on Google can help save you time and money so you can spend more time with the people you love. Wishing you safe and happy holiday travels!

* Google/Phocuswright, leisure traveler study, base: U.S. leisure travelers, n=930, Oct. 2015.

Source: Travel


Making travel planning less stressful this holiday season

Whether you’re heading home for the holidays or escaping to some exotic destination, one of the most time-consuming and stressful parts of travel planning is finding the right flight and hotel. Sixty-nine percent of U.S. leisure travelers worry that they're not finding the best price or making the best decision while booking a trip — making this kind of purchase more worrisome than financial investments, home improvements or electronics purchases.*

This holiday season we’re making travel planning less stressful by updating you when flights are likely to increase in price, helping you find good hotel deals, and making travel planning easier on mobile.

Making it easier than ever to choose the right flight

Google Flights can now help you be more confident that you’re booking your flight at the right time to get the best price. We now show you when prices are expected to increase for some specific flights and routes you’re interested in.

After selecting a specific flight, a notification may appear letting you know when the current fare is expected to expire and how much you can save if you book now. For example, this flight to San Diego is likely to cost more in eight hours — and you would likely save $87 if you book before then.

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If you’re looking at a certain route like New York to San Diego, but haven’t selected a specific flight yet, you may see a notification bar with multiple tips showing how to find the best price for this route. Tips can include things like recommendations for alternate airports or dates. You may also see a new tip telling you about an expected price jump based on historic prices for that route. When you tap on the card, you’ll see more details like how much the price is likely to increase and when.

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If you’re not ready to book yet, you can choose to track your flight or route and receive notifications via email letting you know when prices are expected to change. Fare expiration and expected price jump notifications will be rolling out over the coming weeks everywhere Google Flights is available. You’ll also continue to receive updates when prices actually do increase or decrease significantly for tracked flights.

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We’re also making it easier to find flights on the go. Next time you visit Google Flights, you’ll be able to track and manage saved flights seamlessly on your phone.

If you’re still looking for inspiration on where to travel, tap on Explore to find ideas on destinations to visit based on the type of vacation you’re looking for. For example, you can look for destinations in the Caribbean with direct flights only. 

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Providing more ways to uncover deals in hotel search

We’re also making it easier to immediately recognize and find more deals when searching on Google for hotels in the location of your choice, like “hotels in new york”. We already label deals when a hotel’s price is lower than usual compared to historical pricing, or if there are discounts to the normal rate for those dates. Now if you want to only look at hotel deals — say, to ring in the new year in Paris — just tap in the upper left to filter for Deals and voilà!

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We’ll also notify you when savings are available to loyalty members on a hotel’s website. 

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Don’t let travel planning stress you out this holiday season. Google Flights and hotel search on Google can help save you time and money so you can spend more time with the people you love. Wishing you safe and happy holiday travels!

* Google/Phocuswright, leisure traveler study, base: U.S. leisure travelers, n=930, Oct. 2015.