Announcing The Google Ads API Migration Workshop

Today, we’re announcing The Google Ads API Migration Workshop, which will be presented live in three regions, to provide you with knowledge, resources, and support to migrate from the AdWords API to the Google Ads API.
Session DatesGet to know the team supporting your migration during this three-day virtual workshop as we:
  • Teach you about the new API
  • Walk through interactive demonstrations
  • Help you create a migration plan
  • Discuss best practices for migrating your application

Whether you’re new to the Google Ads API or want to level up your skill set, we'll have a variety of sessions to help you achieve your goals. We’ll be delivering several talks to discuss what’s new in the Google Ads API and explain key concepts. Tune into our interactive sessions as we demonstrate how to migrate components of your application and leverage the suite of developer tools supporting the Google Ads API.


Throughout the workshop, you’ll have the opportunity to interact with our team via live Q&A and breakout sessions. We’ll also host a panel featuring the Tech Leads of the Google Ads API Engineering and Developer Relations teams.


Follow the event link to register for the event and view the full agenda. We look forward to seeing you!
- Devin Chasanoff, on behalf of the Google Ads API Team

A new training programme to help small businesses reduce their carbon emissions

The climate crisis is an urgent issue for everyone. The UK government has set an ambitious target to reach net zero by 2050 and all businesses of all sizes need to play a part if we’re to reach those goals. 

This is not just about doing the right thing — today’s consumers expect action: according to research from Edelman, 80% of people want brands to solve society’s problems. 


Small businesses make up 99% of the UK’s business community so they’ll play a crucial role in reaching net zero. Yet, understandably, small businesses don’t always have the time, resources or expertise to dedicate to this — especially as they focus on recovery from the pandemic. A study from the British Chambers of Commerce and O2 found that only one in 10 small businesses are measuring their carbon footprint, and a fifth of small businesses don't fully understand the term "net zero". Cost, and an ability to understand, measure and report emissions are cited as two of the main barriers to change. 


Sustainability training for small businesses


To help small businesses overcome these obstacles, we’re announcing a new free, simple and actionable training programme to help SMEs reduce their emissions. We developed the training in partnership with leading sustainability and net zero certification group, Planet Mark, as part of the UK Government’s Together for our Planet Business Climate Leaders campaign, which encourages small businesses to commit to cutting their emissions in half by 2030 and to net zero by 2050. 


Our training is designed for small businesses starting their journey towards sustainability, with an emphasis on how a sustainability strategy can help drive business performance. It sets out the business case and imperative for cutting emissions, and explains practical, digitally-focused ways to decarbonize — from using paperless billing and Cloud-enabled technology, to renewable energy sourcing and supply chains. Since we know how much consumers care about this, it also covers how small businesses can use their sustainability credentials to differentiate. 


One business already doing this successfully is catering company, Fooditude. They made tangible changes to their business, like limiting their food waste, going paperless with admin systems and swapping to local suppliers, and reduced their emissions by over 30% per meal. Dean Kennett, Fooditude’s Managing Director, attributes £3 million in new revenue to their new sustainability credentials, as well as their ability to hire staff who share their values, and a shared purpose among employees. 

Swati Deshpande, part of the team at Fooditude

Swati Deshpande, part of the team at Fooditude

We’ll deliver the training through the Google Digital Garage, building on our experience of coaching more than 650,000 people and small businesses in the UK in digital and business skills. And we’ll lean on our expertise as leaders on climate change for over two decades, from becoming carbon neutral in 2007 to our latest and most ambitious commitment to become the first major company to operate on carbon-free energy 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.


We’re encouraging companies who complete the training to make a commitment to going net zero by signing up to the SME Climate Commitment, which can be found on the UK Business Climate Hub. Businesses who sign up and share their commitments will be recognized by the United Nations Race to Zero campaign initiative and inspire other businesses to take action. 


Helping SMEs track carbon emissions


Measuring carbon emissions accurately is essential if small businesses are to know if their actions make a difference, but most small businesses can’t do this alone.  That’s why we’re supporting Normative, the software platform behind the SME Climate Commitment, to help businesses track and account for their carbon emissions, making climate mitigation easier and actionable. Over the next six months, as part of the Google.org Fellowship, we’ll provide a team of 11 Googlers to work full-time, pro bono, to assist Normative with building the technical infrastructure that underpins the free-to-access platform. Normative was one of the organisations to receive a €1M grant through the Google.org Impact Challenge on Climate, which funds bold ideas that aim to use technology to accelerate Europe’s progress toward a greener, more resilient future.


We’re optimistic that by supporting organisations and technologies like these we can help small businesses make the journey towards a carbon-free future. 


How to sign up


Small businesses can sign up to the training here. 


Discover Dubai’s Culture & Heritage with Google Arts & Culture

In Dubai, we believe our future is derived from our past.  While my hometown has become renowned for its fast-paced development and soaring skyscrapers, many people still don’t know about the rich culture and heritage this city holds. 


Today, I’m proud to unveil ‘Dubai’s Culture and Heritage’, launched in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture, which will help you discover my hometown's story and its vibrant art scene through more than 80 expertly curated stories, 5 audio stories, 25 videos, and over 800 high-resolution images of arts, crafts, heritage sites and much more. 

Did you know Dubai was a trading port?

Some people wonder what it was like to live in Dubai before the city became a bustling metropolis. What better way to learn than to hear firsthand from some of Dubai’s residents, from pearl merchants, boat builders and craftspersons to hearing about childhood memories of swimming in the Dubai Creek.

For many of us, the traditional Emirati Majlis, a cultural and social space where members of the community come together for discussions, was and remains a staple feature of our social lives. 

To get a sense of traditional life in Dubai, take a virtual walk through alleyways and witness traditional architecture such as buildings with high air towers called Barajeel, in the Al-Fahidi district. You can also learn more about traditional embroidery, palm weaving and, for the coffee lovers, the history and culture of coffee in the UAE.

  • A picture of a wooden boat in the Al Fahidi District

    A wooden boat in the Al Fahidi District

  • A picture of a tall tower in the Al Fahidi District

    A tower in the Al Fahidi District

  • A picture of a Pearl Merchant's Chest against a grey background from the collection of Al Shindagha Museum

    Bishtakhtah (Pearl Merchant's Chest) from the collection of Al Shindagha Museum

Modern Dubai, Zaha Hadid and the art scene

Fast-forward with the click of a button to see some of modern-day Dubai’s iconic architecturallandmarks, from towers with 90 degree rotation from top to bottom to torus-shaped structures with Arabic calligraphy and the first hotel to have its interiors and exteriors designed by renowned architect Zaha Hadid. 


Dubai’s art scene has also evolved over the years, reflecting the diversity of its social fabric. Learn about one of the city’s first cinemas, learn more about the Sikka Arts Festivaland Art Dubai — two important artistic events held in the heart of the city —  and hear from emerging artists from around the world who are using Dubai as a hub to share their work with the world. 

Ready to take the tour?

We’re excited to be able to help people, wherever they may be, discover our culture and heritage through our work with Google Arts & Culture. To learn more, visit g.co/dubaiculture or download the Google Arts & Culture app for Android or iOS.


New Digital Tools for Kiwi Teachers and Schools


Image: Manaiakalani Classroom using Chromebooks

Nearly 1 million students will find themselves out of school in New Zealand during a national COVID-19 lockdown. While this can in turn put families, schools and teachers under immense pressure to ensure that students continue to learn, over the past 18 months Kiwi teachers and students have greatly accelerated their digital skills. Whether the ‘classroom’ is in-person, virtual or a hybrid of the two, building educators and students capacity and equal access to digital skills education has been central to the partnerships Google has developed throughout New Zealand.



That’s why today we’re pleased to announce the continuation and evolution of our agreement with the Ministry of Education. Since 2018 we’ve provided all state and state-integrated schools across New Zealand with Ministry-funded Chrome Education Upgrades to manage new and existing unmanaged Chromebooks. Now, in addition, the Chrome Education Upgrade will be available to schools via our distribution partner Synnex NZ, allowing schools to also upgrade their Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals (the free for Education edition - previously called G Suite for Education) to Google Workspace for Education Plus. 


Google Workspace for Education Plus gives schools access to enterprise level teaching and learning, reporting and security tools. This comprehensive edition includes all the enhanced security features and tools from Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and more to ensure your school has the best educational tools available.



Schools can harness the power of enhanced teaching and learning tools like secure Breakout rooms in Google Meet, Originality checkers in Google classroom and the ability to livestream important school events to the community wherever they are. Kura can customise and personalise Big Query data exports of their student engagement to help support their student learning journeys.  



The Chrome Education upgrade was developed to make device management in schools a breeze, so that teachers and students can focus on what’s most important—teaching and learning. Equipped with the Chrome Education upgrade, schools can utilise essential education features to better support the many ways Chromebooks - the number one device in New Zealand schools -  are used in the classroom.


The introduction of Chrome Education Upgrade Licences with Workspace for Education,  now provides schools with an advanced set of Google Education tools and services that are tailored for Schools, Clusters and homeschools to collaborate, streamline instruction, and keep learning safe and secure.



Our team is working to make digital tools easier and more helpful for everyone and we hope this agreement enables even more educators and students around New Zealand to access and make the most of their digital learning.


Post content Posted by Caroline Rainsford, Country Director Google New Zealand.

Introducing an accelerator program for digital news startups, and support for more Indian languages in Google News Showcase

Access to trustworthy information is vital for all components of a thriving democracy. Through the years, we have kept up consistent efforts to help with continued access to quality journalism, contributing to the sustainability of news organizations, supporting emerging news business models and enabling newsrooms to engage their readers in new ways through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.


Today we’re building on this commitment with a new Google News Initiative (GNI) Startups Lab program for aspiring news entrepreneurs from all across India.



Google News Initiative (GNI) Startups Lab India - applications open 



Applications open today for GNI Startups Lab -- a four-month program that seeks to help independent local or single-subject journalism organizations find a pathway to financial and operational sustainability through intensive coaching, skills training and other support.


Created in partnership with the global innovation lab Echos and DIGIPUB News India Foundation, the GNI Startups Lab India program will support high-quality reporting for local and underserved communities. We welcome applications from news startups publishing in all Indian languages.


The 16-week program is tailored to the needs of startup newsrooms in India and participants will benefit from Echos' experience in supporting media startups and from DIGIPUB's network and community with workshops and coaching.


"Digipub is excited to partner with Google News Initiative Startups Lab to make the digital media ecosystem robust and sustainable. Digital news media is the future of news in India and collaborations like these will ensure that new entrants receive the support they deserve,"  Dhanya Rajendran, Chairperson of Digipub News India Foundation commented. 


Applications are open until 18 October 2021 and 10 independent digital news publishers will be selected to participate in the first cohort in India. To learn more and apply, click here. 



Supporting more Indian languages with Google News Showcase



In May, we announced the expansion of Google News Showcase, our online experience and licensing program to support news organizations and readers, to India. Today, we are pleased to add support for four new languages  - Kannada, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu -  in addition to English and Hindi in dedicated News Showcase panels in Google News and on Discover, to help more readers get access to quality news in their own languages. With the addition of these new languages and new partners today, we now have onboarded more than 50 partners representing more than 70 publications. 



We continue to work with publishers of all kinds -- from digital natives to regional media in India to help them to engage with readers and deliver trusted information across our platforms. 


We are delighted to partner with the Indian news industry and support new digital formats and innovations to build a sustainable, independent and diverse news ecosystem.


Posted by Kate Beddoe, Director of News Partnerships, Google Asia Pacific 

Chrome Beta for Android Update

Hi everyone! We've just released Chrome Beta 94 (94.0.4606.40) for Android: it's now available on Google Play.

You can see a partial list of the changes in the Git log. For details on new features, check out the Chromium blog, and for details on web platform updates, check here.

If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug.

Krishna Govind
Google Chrome

Restore a page via version history in new Google Sites

Quick launch summary 

In new Google Sites, you can now restore a specific page from version history. Previously, you could only restore an entire site. This additional functionality makes it easier to restore, edit, and re-publish specific pages that may have changed by mistake or been deleted. 



Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers and users with personal Google accounts 

Resources 

Forms settings are now easier to navigate

 

Quick launch summary 
Now you can easily customize your form or quiz settings with a more visible settings tab and an improved settings layout. 


You’ll see an improved settings menu in the settings tab.

You’ll see an improved settings menu in the settings tab.


Getting started 
  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: There is no end user control for this feature.

Rollout pace 
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers. Available to users with personal Google Accounts 
 Roadmap 

Beta Channel Update for Desktop

The Beta channel has been updated to 94.0.4606.41 for Windows, Mac and linux.


A full list of changes in this build is available in the log. Interested in switching release channels?  Find out how here. 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.




Srinivas Sista
Google Chrome

Android 12 Beta 5 update, official release is next!

Posted by Dave Burke, VP of Engineering

Android 12 logo

We’re just a few weeks away from the official release of Android 12! As we put the finishing touches on the new version of Android, today we’re bringing you a final Beta update to help you with testing and development. For developers, now is the time to make sure your apps are ready!

You can get Beta 5 today on your Pixel device, including on the Pixel 5a with 5G, by enrolling here for over-the-air updates. If you’re already enrolled, you’ll automatically get the update. You can also try Android 12 Beta 5 on select devices from several of our partners like Sharp. Visit the Android 12 developer site for details.

Watch for more information on the official Android 12 release coming soon!

What’s in Beta 5?

Today’s update includes a release candidate build of Android 12 for Pixel and other devices and the Android Emulator. We reached Platform Stability at Beta 4, so all app-facing surfaces are final, including SDK and NDK APIs, app-facing system behaviors, and restrictions on non-SDK interfaces. With these and the latest fixes and optimizations, Beta 5 gives you everything you need to complete your testing.

timeline

Get your apps ready!

With the official Android 12 release coming next, we’re asking all app and game developers to complete your final compatibility testing and publish your compatibility updates ahead of the final release. For SDK, library, tools, and game engine developers, it’s important to release your compatible updates as soon as possible -- your downstream app and game developers may be blocked until they receive your updates.

To test your app for compatibility, just install it on a device running Android 12 Beta 5 and work through the app flows looking for any functional or UI issues. Review the Android 12 behavior changes for all apps to focus on areas where your app could be affected. Here are some of the top changes to test:

  • Privacy dashboard — A new dashboard in Settings lets users see which apps are accessing which type of data and when. Users can adjust permissions if needed, and they can request details from your app on the reason for access. More here.
  • Microphone & camera indicators — Android 12 shows an indicator in the status bar when an app is using the camera or microphone. More here.
  • Microphone & camera toggles — New toggles in Quick Settings let users instantly disable microphone and camera access for all apps. More here.
  • Clipboard read notification — A toast alerts users when an app reads data from the clipboard unexpectedly. More here.
  • Stretch overscroll — A new “stretch” overscroll effect replaces the previous “glow” overscroll effect systemwide. More here.
  • App splash screens — Android 12 launches apps with a new splash screen animation. More here.
  • Keygen changes — Several deprecated BouncyCastle cryptographic algorithms are removed in favor of Conscrypt versions. If your app uses a 512-bit key with AES, you’ll need to use one of the standard sizes supported by Conscrypt.More here.

Remember to test the libraries and SDKs in your app for compatibility. If you find any SDK issues, try updating to the latest version of the SDK or reaching out to the developer for help.

Once you’ve published the compatible version of your current app, you can start the process to update your app's targetSdkVersion. Review the behavior changes for Android 12 apps and use the compatibility framework to help detect issues quickly.

Explore the new features and APIs

Android 12 has a ton of new features to help you build great experiences for users. Check out our Android 12 Beta 2 post for a recap and links to Android 12 talks at Google I/O. For complete details on all of the new features and APIs, visit the Android 12 developer site.

Also make sure to try Android Studio Arctic Fox with your Android 12 development and testing. We’ve added lint checks to help you catch where your code might be affected by Android 12 changes, such as for custom declarations of splash screens, coarse location permission for fine location usage, media formats, and high sensor sampling rate permission. You can give these a try by downloading and configuring the latest version of Android Studio.

Get started with Android 12!

Today’s Beta 5 release has everything you need to try the Android 12 features, test your apps, and give us feedback. Just enroll any supported Pixel device to get the update over-the-air. To get started developing, set up the Android 12 SDK.

You can also get Beta 5 on devices from several of our partners like Sharp. For even broader testing, you can try Beta 5 on Android GSI images, and if you don’t have a device, you can test on the Android Emulator. This update is also available for Android TV, so you can check out the latest TV features and test your apps on the all-new Google TV experience.

What’s next?

Stay tuned for the official Android 12 launch coming in the weeks ahead! Until then, feel free to continue sharing your feedback through our hotlists for platform issues, app compatibility issues, and third-party SDK issues.

A huge thank you to our developer community for helping shape the Android 12 release! You’ve given us thousands of bug reports and shared insights that have helped us adjust APIs, improve features, fix significant bugs, and in general make the platform better for users and developers.

We’re looking forward to seeing your apps on Android 12!