Many millions of years ago, dinosaurs ruled the Earth and giant sea creatures were not just Hollywood creations, but fearsome predators that stalked the oceans.

It’s a world that vanished long ago, but one that continues to fascinate those seeking to understand the origins of life on our planet.

To allow anyone, anywhere to explore this world, we’ve partnered with more than 50 of the world’s leading natural history institutions and scientists to bring this lost world to life again online. From today, you’ll now be able to browse through more than 150 interactive stories, 300,000 new photos and videos and more than 30 virtual tours on Google Arts & Culture, exploring the beautiful, the dangerous and the endangered.

You can go behind the scenes at the Australian Museum, look at a book in the Queensland Museum that has pictures of creatures drawn by Europeans nearly 500 years ago, and meet Sweetheart, a 5.1m saltwater crocodile at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, and study a kiwi up close at the Auckland Museum.



With just a few clicks on Google Arts & Culture, you can come face to face with a 180 million year old giant, as virtual reality raises the colossal sea dragon from extinction.



Discovered in Dorset in the UK and residing at London’s Natural History Museum. the Rhomaleosaurus — to give it its formal name — can now be explored in 360 degrees. We also used VR to bring the Giraffatitan back to life in Berlin’s natural history museum. Standing at 13 meters (42 feet), it’s one of the tallest dinosaurs that ever lived. It was twice as tall as today’s giraffes, and could easily put its head through a fourth floor window.

We worked with ecologists, paleontologists and biologists to put virtual skin and flesh on the preserved skeletons. From the size of the eye to the position of the snout and the bend of the neck, the texture and creases of the skin were all painstakingly recreated, and verified by a team of scientists. For the best experience, use a viewer like Google Cardboard to look the beast in the eye.

As well as the VR experiences, we’ve added plenty more artifacts and features for experts and armchair explorers alike:

• Incredible images of butterfly eggs from Museum Victoria 
• Meet Sweetheart at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory 
• View the awesome PNG photography and Wild Planet exhibition at the Australian Museum 
• See the Queensland Museum’s ancient drawings of Sea Monks and Sea Bishops 
• View 3,000 species on display in one giant cabinet or find out how our own predecessors may have looked. 
• With Street View, walk around dinosaurs in New York, explore 30+ natural history museums from Australia to Russia and even go underwater with turtles in Brazil. 

The free collection opens today at g.co/naturalhistory and through the Google Arts & Culture mobile app on iOS and Android. And if you are a teacher, there are more than 20 new Google Expeditions waiting for you and your classroom to discover. We hope you enjoy this journey through the history of nature as much as we do.

Posted by Alan Noble, Director of Engineering, Google Australia

Today we’re dealing two new hands from the Google Search deck: solitaire and tic-tac-toe. Now you can play two of the oldest and most popular games for all ages, on desktop and in the Google app.

It’s been said solitaire’s roots are in fortune telling. If that’s true, today your fate rests on your quick wit and the luck of the draw. When you search for “solitaire” on Google, the familiar patience game may test yours!
If you’re looking for something a bit simpler, tic-tac-toe is your best bet. In this game of naughts and crosses, you can select your level of difficulty or even go head to head against a friend. Xs and Os to the winner (hugs and kisses, that is!).
For some other fun tips, try asking Google, “what sound does a pig make?” Or if you’re looking to settle a bet and feeling lucky, “flip a coin” may come in handy.

These are just a sample of the delightful surprises that await you on Google. After all, Search is for so much more than research and practical matters -- it’s for fun, too!

Posted by Stephen Cognetta, Associate Product Manager

Video calling is the next best thing to being with someone in person, but too often it can be a frustrating or complicated experience. You shouldn’t have to worry about whether your call will connect, or if your friend is using the same type of device as you are. It’s no wonder that nearly half of us never make video calls on mobile*.

Today, we’re releasing Google Duo — a simple 1-to-1 video calling app available for Android and iOS. Duo takes the complexity out of video calling, so that you can be together in the moment wherever you are.

Simple interface
Duo is simple from start to finish. To get started, all you need is your phone number and you’ll be able to reach people in your phone’s contacts list. No separate account is required, so you can sign up in just a few steps. From there, you can instantly begin a video call with a single tap.

Fast and reliable 
We all know how it feels when a call fails to connect or when video gets choppy. We’ve built Duo to be fast and reliable, so that video calls connect quickly and work well even on slower networks. Call quality adjusts to changing network conditions to keep you connected — when bandwidth is limited, Duo will gracefully reduce the resolution to keep the call going smoothly. For video calls on the go, Duo will switch between Wi-Fi and cellular data automatically without dropping your call. You can start your call at home, and continue seamlessly even when you head out the door.

Human design
We designed Duo to feel warm and inviting, focused on just you and the person you’re calling. To make calls feel more like an invitation rather than an interruption, we created a feature in Duo called Knock Knock which lets you see live video of your caller before you answer, giving you a sense of what they’re up to and why they want to chat. Knock Knock makes video calling more spontaneous and welcoming, helping you connect with the person before you even pick up.


Finally, we built Duo with an emphasis on privacy and security, and all Duo calls are end-to-end encrypted.

Give your friends a wave with Duo! We’re roll out Duo for Android and iOS today across Australia.

Posted by Justin Uberti, Principal Software Engineer 
*Google YouGov Survey, July 2016, U.S., Among 18+ online population, n=1,058

Kiwi iPhone users—this one’s for you. Gboard — the new app for your iPhone that lets you search and send information, GIFs, emojis and more, right from your keyboard — is now available in New Zealand.

Say you’re texting with a friend about tomorrow’s brekky plans. They ask you for the address. Until now it’s worked like this: You leave your texting app, open Search, find the restaurant, copy the address, switch back to your texts, paste the address into a message, and finally, hit send.

Searching and sending stuff on your phone shouldn’t be that difficult. With Gboard, you can search and send all kinds of things—restaurant info, flight times, news articles—right from your keyboard. Anything you’d search on Google, you can search with Gboard. Results appear as cards with the key information front and center, such as the phone number, ratings and hours. With one tap, you can send it to your friend and you keep the conversation going.

You can search for more than just Google search results. Instead of scrolling to find? or ? , search for “dancer” and find that emoji you were looking for instantly. Even better—you can search for the perfect GIF to show people how you’re really feeling.




Gboard also has Glide Typing, which lets you type words by sliding your finger from key to key instead of tapping—so everything you do is just a little bit faster.

Joining text, search and emoji suggestions, you’ll now see GIF suggestions too. Say you’ve got a reason to celebrate so you text your friend “let’s party!” — now, you’ll see a suggestion to search for relevant party GIFs with one tap.


Whether you like a keyboard that blends into the background or shows your personal style, today’s update is for you. For those who like a more low-key style, in addition to the current light keyboard, we’re adding a dark keyboard so that Gboard can blend in with darker apps. We’re also introducing the ability to select a personal image from your camera roll to show behind your keyboard, so you’ll never be without your favorite picture from that trip to Crater Lake.

Gboard works in any app—messaging, email, YouTube—so you can use it anywhere on your phone. Get it now in the App Store.

Posted by Rajan Patel, Principal Engineer

Back in May we launched YouTube Red, a paid membership that makes allows you to enjoy ad-free videos across all of YouTube. You can also save videos to watch offline and play videos in the background of your phone or tablet. Since then we’ve heard from families that they’d love the option of these features in the YouTube Kids app too. So today we’re excited to say it’s finally here: the YouTube Kids app now works with YouTube Red in New Zealand!

With YouTube Red, your kids can now watch their favorite shows with all-new features like:

• Ad-free videos: Let your kids learn and laugh along with their favourite characters without paid ads. 
• Offline videos: In the car or on grandma’s sofa—always have videos when you need ‘em, even if you don’t have a connection. 
• Uninterrupted music: Keep family sing-alongs going while you use other apps on your phone. 

To get started, all parents need is the YouTube Kids app and a YouTube Red membership. Then, just sign in to your YouTube Red account from the parental controls section of the YouTube Kids app and follow a few simple steps. Once that’s done, your little one’s ready to sing along with Bounce Patrol or bake something yummy with Charli’s Crafty Kitchen.

Families bond over shared entertainment, whether it’s Friday night movie night or a new favourite game. With this in mind, we’re introducing Family Library, a way for up to six family members to share purchases on Google Play. When you buy an eligible app, game, movie, TV show, or book in the Play Store, you can now share it with your family—across devices—with no additional sign-up fee.





Share across your family’s devices 
Many families have a lot of devices, and it should be easy to share content no matter where we are or what we’re doing. Everyone in my family loves the Star Wars movies and we all want to be able to watch them on our phones, tablets, laptops, or TV. All purchases added to Family Library are available across Android devices, and movies, TV shows and books can be enjoyed on iOS devices and the web.

Easily manage sharing and family purchases 
As with most family matters, flexibility and choice is important. With Family Library, you can choose which items you want to share and which to keep to yourself—for example, I’ll probably keep my collection of comic books in my personal library. Flexibility is also built into your purchasing options. When you sign up, you’ll select a credit card to share as your family payment method, but your family members will always have the option of buying stuff with their personal credit cards or gift cards. And for your younger family members, you’ll have the option to approve each of their purchases.

Share a Music subscription with your family 
Finally, if your family loves music, you can also subscribe to the Google Play Music family plan. On this plan, up to six family members can stream millions of songs on demand for $14.99 a month. We launched the family plan late last year, and today we’re expanding it to New Zealand. And you can now sign up on the web, in addition to your Android device.

Family Library is available in Australia and New Zealand from today. To get started, sign up in Google Play, invite your family members, and start sharing what you love!


Posted by Raj Iyengar, Product Manager, Google Play

Preparing Kiwis for the careers of tomorrow begins in the classroom today. We welcome today’s announcement that New Zealand will formally integrate Digital Technologies into the curriculum. This curriculum will help produce a new generation of creators in technology by teaching students about computational thinking, design and programming.

Research shows that 75% of the fastest growing occupations require skills in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM)—which are the building blocks for a career in computer science. We believe New Zealand’s innovation, growth and future prosperity will be accelerated by helping young people develop these critical skills.

As with any curriculum change, teachers will be the key to both educating and inspiring the next generation of innovators in the classroom. At Google and we’ve long supported the professional development of teachers.

We’ve supported the development of CS Unplugged and the Computer Science Field Guide, and many other resources to support teachers and classrooms across New Zealand and around the world. Through our Computer Science for High Schools (CS4HS) program, we work with our partners to train hundreds of high school teachers in computer science across New Zealand each year.

For example, this year we partnered with Professor Tim Bell at Canterbury University in Christchurch to offer the program to Christchurch's primary school teachers. Professor Bell has been working on a pilot to integrate computer science and computational thinking (a set of problem-solving skills and techniques that software engineers use) into other curriculum areas — such as numeracy, literacy, music, and physical education.
Students at Christchurch’s Chisnallwood Intermediate School completing an information theory activity.

While we know there’s a long way to go to implement this curriculum, we’re excited by it’s potential. As the new digital curriculum rolls out, we’re committed to continue our support for teachers to help prepare Kiwi kids for the jobs of the future.

Posted by Sally-Ann Williams, Engineering Community & Outreach Manager, Google New Zealand

[Cross posted from the Google for Education blog]

Teachers are great communicators, collaborators, creators and critical thinkers. It takes a teacher to empower students with these skills and create the leaders of the future. As technology becomes an increasingly integral component of our classrooms, the role of teachers becomes even more important.

Today at ISTE, we’re announcing four more ways for these everyday heroes to engage their classes and empower their students using Google tools. Look out for a deeper dive on each of these launches on the blog throughout this week.

Bring curriculum to life: introducing the Expeditions app
Since we launched the beta Expeditions Pioneer Program in September of 2015, more than one million students across 11 countries have taken one of our virtual reality trips. Today, we’re making Expeditions available to everyone. To get started, all teachers need to do is download the Expeditions app onto a set of devices. With more than 200 Expeditions to choose from, students can journey far and wide, learning from immersive new experiences. Our content offerings have also grown to include Expeditions made by established educational content providers like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Pearson is beginning work on Expeditions content as well. The app is available today for Android and will be available for iPhones and iPads soon.

While Expeditions can be used with many of the devices schools or students already have — either smartphones with Google Cardboard or tablets in 2D full screen mode — Best Buy Education will also be making Expeditions kits available for schools to purchase. These kits will contain everything teachers need to bring their classes on amazing Expeditions: a tablet, virtual reality viewers and a router to connect them all. Kits are available for pre-order and will ship in time for back-to-school. We’ll also publish clear specs for partners interested in working with us to create their own kits.



Empower student-driven classrooms: Google Cast for Education
Collaboration is key to student success, but in most classrooms today the biggest screen in the room is out of reach for students. If students want to share their screens with the class, they have to physically connect their devices to the classroom projector. When teachers present, they’re tied to the projector at the front of the room. Educators are eager to overcome this barrier, so much so that wireless screen sharing for schools was one of the top features requested by teachers in 2015.

Today we’re announcing Google Cast for Education, a free Chrome app that allows students and teachers to share their screens wirelessly from everywhere in the classroom. Cast for Education carries video and audio across complex school networks, has built-in controls for teachers and works with Google Classroom so it’s easy to invite your students. And because the app runs on the teacher’s existing computer, it doesn’t require new hardware. Teachers run the Cast for Education app, and students can share their screens with the existing Cast feature in Chrome. Check out the Cast for Education video.





Accelerate the feedback loop: Quizzes in Google Forms
Getting feedback early helps students learn and teachers teach. Starting today, Quizzes in Google Forms will allow teachers to auto-grade multiple choice and checkbox questions — so teachers can spend less time grading and more time teaching.

Teachers can also add review materials in the form of explanations, supplemental websites or review videos — so students can get quick, actionable feedback. Plus, teachers can get instant feedback on student progress, so they know which lessons need more explanation and what to teach next. We’ve also added a common request from educators to disallow students from sending themselves a copy of their responses.


Ignite student creativity: creative apps on Chromebooks
We’re on a mission to discover Chromebook tools that foster skills of the future, including problem-solving, digital literacy, leadership and creativity. We listened to teachers in Chromebook classrooms and collaborated with EdTechTeacher, and we’re excited to announce a collection of creative apps on Chromebooks that schools can purchase as a bundle.

Explain Everything, Soundtrap and WeVideo are creative apps that help students demonstrate their understanding of curriculum through their own unique voice. We’ve worked closely with our partners to offer these apps to schools at a special price when all three apps are purchased together. They may be purchased alongside Chromebooks or on their own. Contact your school’s reseller to learn more.



Posted by Jonathan Rochelle, Director of Product Management, Google for Education & Cyrus Mistry, Lead Product Manager, Devices and Content in Education

From Bryce Langston’s Living Big in a Tiny House channel to Shirley Setia’s cover of Sanam Re with an EDM twist, New Zealand content creators are pushing creative boundaries and drawing huge online audiences in New Zealand and around the world.

To help support these rising stars and the next generation of New Zealand storytellers, we’re teaming up with NZ On Air to launch Skip Ahead — a $300,000 grants program for talented Kiwis that want to develop new scripted shows, experiment with online formats, and grow their global audience.

Starting today, Kiwi-based YouTube creators can apply for up to $100,000 in funding to create a new narrative-led webseries that represents a clear step-up for them in terms of storytelling ambition and production values.

YouTube will contribute grant funding, skills development workshops and line up networking opportunities for the successful Kiwi artists to help them create these new webseries.

NZ On Air will select the artists for the program in the coming months. The successful creators will receive seed funding and support to visit a YouTube Pop-Up Space later this year.

If you’re a NZ-based YouTube creator, you can apply today and find out more about the application criteria here. Applications close on 30 August.

We hope that Skip Ahead encourages the next generation of New Zealand producers to take to the web and share more New Zealand stories with the world.

Posted by Felicity McVay, Head of YouTube Content Partnerships AUNZ, YouTube

New Zealand’s first ever YouTube Pulse was held in Auckland on 1 June 2016, bringing together YouTube creators, industry leaders, advertisers and users.

More than 150 marketing and advertising industry representatives came to hear about latest research on YouTube and learn from New Zealand’s best-in-class brands.


Air New Zealand, the New Zealand Transport Agency, J. Walter Thompson (JWT) and Samsung shared their experiences of using YouTube to increase engagement, reach and connect with new audiences.

Air New Zealand spoke about their “Men in Black” flight safety video, featuring the All Blacks, which received more than 3.5 million views on YouTube, while the New Zealand Transport Agency outlined the effectiveness of YouTube as a platform to communicate important messages around road safety. Samsung New Zealand and agency JWT spoke about using YouTube to engage with their target audiences, particularly young people.


I spoke at the event and highlighted that people are engaged on YouTube across every device and every screen, from Mums to millennials. Watch-time on YouTube has increased 55 per cent year on year in New Zealand. Interestingly, more than 45 per cent of YouTube video is now being consumed on mobile devices.

YouTube is a place where creativity and diversity of thinking thrive and that’s what I love about it.


It’s a global stage for local talent and we had the chance to meet some of these local stars at the event. Guests met with YouTube personalities like Jamie Curry and Jimi Jackson and enjoyed a performance from Auckland dance troupe Vospetron.

YouTube is building more influence than ever before - it’s changing the way we engage with content and it’s changing our culture. But judging by the crowd at the event and the response to the YouTube stars, this won’t be news to many of you!

Photo credit: Chris Dillon dillon.co.nz

Posted by Stephanie Davis, Google New Zealand Country Manager