Google and Binomial Partner to Open-Source Basis Universal Texture Format

Today, Google and Binomial are excited to announce that we have partnered to open source the Basis Universal texture codec to improve the performance of transmitting images on the web and within desktop and mobile applications, while maintaining GPU efficiency. This release fills an important gap in the graphics compression ecosystem and complements earlier work in Draco geometry compression.

The Basis Universal texture format is 6-8 times smaller than JPEG on the GPU, yet is a similar storage size as JPEG – making it a great alternative to current GPU compression methods that are inefficient and don’t operate cross platform – and provides a more performant alternative to JPEG/PNG. It creates compressed textures that work well in a variety of use cases - games, virtual & augmented reality, maps, photos, small-videos, and more!

Without a universal texture format, developers are left with 2 options:

  • Use GPU formats and take the storage size hit.
  • Use other formats that have reduced storage size but couldn't compete with the GPU performance.

Maintaining so many different GPU formats is a burden on the whole ecosystem, from GPU manufacturers to software developers to the end user who can’t get a great cross platform experience. We’re streamlining this with one solution that has built-in flexibility (like optional higher quality modes) but is much easier on everyone to improve and maintain.

How does it all work? Compress your image using the encoder, choosing the quality settings that make sense for your project (you can also submit multiple images for small videos or optimization purposes, just know they’ll share the same color palette). Insert the transcoder code before rendering, which will turn the intermediary format into the GPU format your computer can read. The image stays compressed throughout this process, even on your GPU!  Instead of needing to decode and read the whole image, the GPU will read only the parts it needs. Enjoy the performance benefits!
Basis Universal can efficiently target the most common GPU formats
Google and Binomial will be working together to continue to support, maintain and add features, so check back frequently for the latest. This initial release of Basis Universal transcodes into the following GPU formats: PVRTC1 opaque, ETC1, ETC2 basic alpha, BC1-5, and BC7 opaque. Over the coming months more functionality will be added including BC7 transparent, ASTC opaque and alpha, PVRTC1 transparent, and higher quality BC7/ASTC.
Basis Universal reduces transmission size for texture while maintaining similar image quality.
See full benchmarking results
Basis Universal improves GPU memory usage over .jpeg and .png
With this partnership, we hope to see adoption of the transcoder in all major browsers to make performant cross-platform compressed textures accessible to everyone via the WebGL API, and the forthcoming WebGPU API. In addition to opening up the possibility of seamless integration into pipelines, everyone now has access to the state of the art compressor, which will also be open sourced.

We look forward to seeing what people do with Basis Universal now that it's open sourced. Check out the code and demo on GitHub, let us know what you think, and how you plan to use it! Currently, Basis Universal transcoders are available in C++ and WebAssembly.

By Stephanie Hurlburt, Binomial and Jamieson Brettle, Chrome Media

A new look for Google Search

Our goal with Search always has been to help people quickly and easily find the information that they’re looking for. Over the years, the amount and format of information available on the web has changed drastically—from the proliferation of images and video, to the availability of 3D objects you can now view in AR.


The search results page, too, has changed to help you discover these new types of information and quickly determine what’s most useful for you. As we continue our ongoing efforts to improve Search and provide a modern and helpful experience, today we’re unveiling a visual refresh of the mobile search results page to better guide you through the information available on the web.


Google Search Redesign_2

With this new design, a website’s branding can be front and center, helping you better understand where the information is coming from and what pages have what you’re looking for.  


The name of the website and its icon appear at the top of the results card to help anchor each result, so you can more easily scan the page of results and decide what to explore next. Site owners can learn more about how to choose their prefered icon for organic listings here.


When you search for a product or service and we have a useful ad to show, you'll see a bolded ad label at the top of the card alongside the web address so you can quickly identify where the information is coming from.


As we continue to make new content formats and useful actions available—from buying movie tickets to playing podcasts—this new design allows us to add more action buttons and helpful previews to search results cards, all while giving you a better sense of the web page’s content with clear attribution back to the source.


This redesign is coming first to mobile and will be rolling out over the next few days. Stay tuned for even more fresh ways that Search can help you find what you’re looking for.

How the San Francisco 49ers spent a day as Google “interns”

Editor’s note: In April, the San Francisco 49ers visited Google for a day as part of their player engagement and development program. This program gives players life and career skills they can use to set themselves up for success after the NFL. Quarterback Nick Mullens walked us through what he learned as a “Google intern for the day.”

For basically my entire life, all I’ve known is football. I grew up loving sports, and I played basketball and football in Hoover, AL. I played football in high school, then at Southern Mississippi, and now for the 49ers. That’s why I was so excited when I received the team text from our player engagement director: “Opportunity to go visit Google, sign up sheets are in the office.” We all signed up right away, to get a glimpse of life outside the next football practice.

Our player engagement program gives us all the resources we might need for life outside of football. They take rookies through a series of classes and talk about just the adjustment into the NFL. There are so many new things that you have to learn: dealing with money, dealing with family, dealing with fame, dealing with stress. Recently we realized, hey, we’re in the Bay Area around all these big companies, so why not learn something great—from Google?

So after workouts the other day, we got on the bus and headed to Google. We walked in a building and immediately we saw a sign that said, “Welcome San Francisco 49ers” and this cool light-up floor.

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We had a YouTube presentation that shined a light on how our whole generation is changing and how social media affects fans and people around the world. I mean, shoot, I view myself as a regular dude, but I learned there are people out there who would love to see what I and other professional athletes do on a daily basis.

Then after that there was a VR and AR demo. You always hear about virtual reality as the new thing, but I really had no clue what augmented reality was before the presentation and now I can’t wait to see what else comes out of that field—there are so many possibilities.

But my favorite part of the day was hearing from Chase Williams, a former football player and Googler. It was really cool to see an athlete make their way into the tech industry and to be successful after football.

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Google recruiter Chase Williams talks transferable skills.

The biggest struggle when leaving the NFL is that you’ve surrounded yourself with this game your entire life, doing the exact same thing over and over. When it’s over, what are you going to enjoy working on? What will you love more than the sport? What else will we be good at? During Chase’s presentation one of my teammates asked the question, “I’ve been playing in the NFL for so long, what skills do I have for the workforce? I’ve just been playing football!”

When it’s over, what will you love more than the sport?

Chase’s talk helped many of us realize that we’ve been developing ourselves for life after football all along. We know how to perform under pressure and have our work put under a microscope. We know how to communicate—with our teammates, our coaches, our higher-ups, our fans. After playing in the NFL for years, you have a lot of other skills, you just have to realize you have them.

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When I was a senior in college, I honestly didn’t know how long the NFL would last. I was actually applying for jobs at the same time that I was pursuing the NFL. At that point I wasn’t looking at tech, because I just felt like I didn’t know enough about it to get into it. That’s changed now.

I didn’t know just how many things Google could do. It’s not just a search engine—there’s so many different things Google is involved with. It was interesting for me to see just how many people have to contribute just to make the company go. The second I stepped on the Google campus I sensed the open atmosphere and work environment that Google has. Everybody’s just “Googley”—bright, respectful and it looks like they’re enjoying their work. They’re not “going to work,” they’re enjoying what they do.

I’m so glad I signed up, because visiting Google was probably the coolest thing we’ve gotten to do—outside of football.

Europe talks: helping Europeans get to know each other better

Starting tomorrow, Europeans will cast their votes to elect their members of the European Parliament. In an increasingly polarized world, Europeans are less likely to understand the points of view of someone from a different city or with opposite political views. But this understanding is essential to a healthy political discourse.

The German news website Zeit Online, with technical and financial support from Google, wanted to bridge the gap. Together with 15 other European media outlets like Der Standard (Austria), Efimerida Ton Syntakton (Greece), Financial Times (UK), Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland), La Repubblica (Italy) and Politiken (Denmark), ZEIT ONLINE created “Europe talks,” a platform that brings together thousands of Europeans with diverse views to debate politics. The idea behind “Europe talks” is simple: diverse opinions make conversations more interesting and foster mutual understanding.

Europe Talks Map

Each circle on the map corresponds to a city. The size of the dot represents the size of the group who participated in Europe talks.

In total, almost 6,000 people held a cross-border debate in person or video conference on May 11. People of all ages traveled far and wide to participate: two debate partners traveled a combined distance of 4,000 kilometers for the debate, and the oldest participant was 91 years old. 500 participants met their debate partner in person at the kick-off event held at the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels. The event included prominent guests like ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti; Philippe Van Parijs, philosopher at the University of Louvain; or Yasmine Ouirhrane, “Young European of the Year 2019.“ ZEIT ONLINE wrapped up ten of the many interesting conversations.

Participants at Europe talks

Here are two participants at the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels.

Europe talks stems from “My Country Talks,” a project initiated by ZEIT ONLINE. Since 2017, we provided funding to build the technology that powered My Country Talks, which matches people to debate, based on a questionnaire and the country they live in. Since then, nearly 80,000 people people with diverse political views have participated. Now when Europeans head to vote in the coming days, hopefully they’ll know their region and their neighbors a bit better than before.

Dev Channel Update for Desktop

The dev channel has been updated to 76.0.3795.5, 76.0.3800.0, & 76.0.37800.2 for Windows and 76.0.37800.0 for Mac & Linux.



A partial list of changes is available in the log. Interested in switching release channels? Find out how. If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug. The community help forum is also a great place to reach out for help or learn about common issues.
Abdul Syed
Google Chrome

Stable Channel Update for Desktop

The stable channel has been updated to 74.0.3729.169 for Windows, Mac, and Linux, which will roll out over the coming days/weeks.

A list of all changes is available in the log. Interested in switching release channels? Find out how. If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug. The community help forum is also a great place to reach out for help or learn about common issues.

Abdul Syed
Google Chrome

Announcing v201905 of the Google Ad Manager API

We're happy to announce that v201905 of the Google Ad Manager API is available starting today. This version introduces a long-requested feature: Targeting Presets. The new TargetingPresetService allows you to read your network's targeting presets in a familiar Targeting object that can be applied to line items, forecasts, and proposal line items.

This release also introduces support for configuring and reporting on custom dimensions, and new Programmatic features such as Pause and Resume actions for Proposals.

For a full list of API changes in v201905, see the release notes.

For questions about these or any other API changes, reach out to us on the Ad Manager API forums.
 - Chris Seeley, Ad Manager API Team

Little kid, big campus: reporting live from Take Your Child to Work Day

It was the start of just another work day for thousands of Googlers at our headquarters in Mountain View. But for the hundreds of fidgeting kids lined up on the sidewalk at the Googleplex, a special day was about to begin. The sun was shining, the Kidz Bop was bopping, the bubbles (not that kind) were flowing. This year’s Take Your Child to Work Day at Google had officially arrived.

Well, almost. As the minutes ticked by until the gates opened, I waited with Peri, our 6-year-old reporter (daughter of a Googler and aspiring YouTuber) who led the coverage of this year’s event. As she quietly looked down at her sneakers, perhaps she was asking herself—as many of us do on a Tuesday morning—what the day would bring.

Turns out the secret recipe to managing first-grade talent is part one-on-none soccer, part floss (the dance move, not dental … come on, Mom!), and part completely unscripted and unfettered access to a microphone. Hold the organic snacks. Who knew?

Minutes later we were off to the races. Building Legos, sticking our hands in water tanks, petting a four-foot alligator (wait, what?), diving in colorful ball pits (this *is* Google, after all) and of course learning just a little bit more about what Mom or Dad really does at work all day long. Guess those few hours away from school weren’t so bad after all.

Finding my authentic self, from the outside looking in

As a child growing up in West Virginia, I have a distinct memory of looking at all of our silverware. Our forks, knives and spoons had the letter “S” engraved on them. I asked my mother why, and she said, “Oh, that’s because that’s our last name.” (My maiden name was Sui.) It was only later in life, after I went to college, that I realized where the S really came from.

My parents immigrated from China via Taiwan during the Cultural Revolution. They both came from very modest backgrounds and my father came to the U.S. with $5 in his pocket. He was a dishwasher at the Sheraton at night while he was doing his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. And the Sheraton gifted them the silverware as a wedding gift.

My mom and dad worked incredibly hard to support us as a family. And as one of two Asian families in my town, assimilation was important to them. They wanted us to fit in, not stand out. They wanted us to only speak English, and now I speak Chinese very poorly. But my parents' emphasis on assimilation didn't stop me from facing adversity because of who I am. I had to fight to get the recognition I deserved, and that fight served me well through the rest of my career.

The plus side of being in a small town is everyone knows you. But the downside is that people are deeply critical about anyone who is different. I was on the student council, and would walk into another homeroom to make an announcement and have a whole bunch of kids make racist comments. Sadly, the teacher would do absolutely nothing.

All of us have that moment of being the “other.” Being the “other” meant that I had to work harder to be treated the same as everyone else. I had to work harder to get the same awards because of prejudices that I couldn’t articulate at the time.

It scars you. I repressed much of it and was very angry about it which drove me to think, “I'm going to show you all.” The best thing I did was deciding to go to Stanford. It was a gift to go to a place where I could meet people from all walks of life, and all types and sizes and religions and colors. You start to rethink who you are.

All of us have that moment of being the 'other.' Carol Carpenter

I think it’s critical to learn from the past and to determine what is authentic to you. And now that it’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I’ve had a chance to reflect on how my past, how that's affected my path, and the lessons I've learned along the way. If you've been a high achiever, you've been around other high achievers and you have beliefs about who you should be or what you should be doing. I’ve had team members come into my office and say, “By the time I’m 30, I want to be a CEO.” These are extrinsic beliefs, not intrinsic beliefs. You need to know for yourself: Where are your lines? Which lines are you not going to cross? What really matters to you? What are you going to go to bat for and fight for, even if your job is on the line?” That's when you can be the best you can be. That's when you'll do your best work.

I’m grateful to be at Google, which is an extraordinary company when it comes to accepting all the “others” and working actively to promote respect and inclusion. As a leader, I have a desire to mentor and help others find their sweet spot and thrive, and it’s important to me that no one feels like the “other” on our team. No doubt, we have work to do in our workplace and community, but I see green shoots of progress every day. I’m so excited to see the green shoots blossom!

Research details Android growth in the enterprise

Mobility is key to building a connected workforce that can tackle today’s complex business challenges. According to recently-published IDC research, mobile platforms need to offer hardware choice, multi-layered security, and comprehensive management capabilities to enable digital transformation.

This infographic from IDC illustrates how Android meets these attributes, and demonstrates why Android has strong and growing adoption in the enterprise.

Security incidents are less frequent in Android-majority enterprises compared to iOS-majority deployments. IDC Infographic
"Android Taking Off in the Enterprise"

Among the key IDC findings:

  • 74 percent of U.S.-based IT decision makers believe Android Enterprise Recommended devices are more secure and enterprise-grade than iOS devices. A recently released Gartner reportdetails Android security performance.

  • 77 percent of U.S.-based multinational firms prefer Android devices.

  • Android-majority deployments have a higher satisfaction rate than a mixed or iOS-only fleet.

  • Android-majority enterprises experience eight percent fewer mobile phishing incidents, and five percent fewer issues integrating mobile devices with back end systems.

For more insights, explore the IDC findings to discover how Android powers mobile, connected teams and can help your company transition to a digital workforce.